Catching Up On Some News

Some interesting stuff in the news:

One of those interesting things that I'd love to get all up in arms about if I could work myself to get up in arms about it is the airing of beer ads during college athletics. We, the royal "we", bitch about the amount of binge drinking that goes on at college campuses. We bitch about the amount of alcohol advertising that is imposed on the underaged. So, why do we allow beer ads on television for athletic programs where fewer than half of the participants can drink and a large percentage of the viewing audience is also under 21? The Atlanta Journal Constitution seems to be able to muster more rage than I can. Just be aware, here's the bio on the authors: "George A. Hacker is director of the Alcohol Policies Project at the Center for Science in the Public Interest. Tracy T. Downs is manager of CSPI’s Campaign for Alcohol-Free Sports TV."

An obscure law in Arkansas that affects pricing is interesting. The Arkansas Democrat Gazette reports on recent legislation that requires MFN pricing by breweries to distributors. For you non-legal-geeks out there "MFN" means "most favored nation" and it basically says you can't offer anyone better pricing than the best offer you give to someone else. It's a way of evening the playing field and preventing favorites. "Brewers will still be able to offer discounts by volume and other promotions, but they must be offered to all wholesalers. Factoring in differing freight costs also will be allowed." Basically, it prevents big breweries from offering steep discounts to distributors that are willing to "play ball" on their terms. So, it seems, probably good for small breweries, bad for big breweries.

Jeff Alworth's Honest Pint Project is going legal. The Seattle Times and the Associated Press reports that Oregon is introducing a law to require that pint glasses contain 16oz of liquid. [ed note: it's note a law that would require a 16oz pour, rather it is a certification program that bars/pubs could enroll in to certify that their pints contain at least 16oz of liquid; they would then be given a badge/sticker/certificate to display to customers] Think about your average pint glass - it hold 16 oz, one pint. But that includes, maybe, a half-inch of foam. This means you're really only getting 14 oz or so liquid. Yet, it's billed as a pint of beer. You are getting less than one pint of beer. I can see the point of getting up in arms over this. Alworth's solution: use the British pint glass that holds 20oz and only fill it up to a line on the side that marks the 16oz point. Simple enough. As a side note: a state legislator picked this up and ran with it without Jeff even knowing it was going to made law, but he's following its progress on his awesome beer blog Beervana.

And, finally, a bit of weird. I'll admit I am really bad at the science gobbledy gook. I wish I understood it, I really do. But I think it's the weird language that gets me. Like "Phase separation" what does that even mean? In any event, scientists discover that bird feathers are not colored by pigment, like skin is, but rather by protein nanostructures that self-assemble when undergoing phase separation. I have no idea what that means. But apparently it's also how we get head on beer.