All About Beer Magazine

The Abita Brewing Company is pleased to announce it plans to offer three of its flagship brews in cans:
Amber, Purple Haze and Jockamo I.P.A.

Abita Brewing Company President David Blossman said, “We feel confident that today’s cans are a quality solution that will preserve and protect the flavor of Abita.  For many years people associated craft beer with glass bottles, but the perception and the technology of the aluminum beverage can has changed.”

The new Abita cans will be coated with a special water-based lining to protect and preserve the great taste of the beer.  This lining insulates the beer from the can’s interior surface.  Canning also limits exposure to UV light and oxygen, two elements that can damage the taste of beer.

“You can take cans to places where glass might not be convenient or allowed… parades, fishing, tubing, golfing or the beach,” said Blossman.  ”We’ve made it even easier to bring Abita to the party, wherever it’s happening.”

Cans are easy to recycle, weigh less to ship and the average new beer can is made of 40% recycled aluminum.  ”Abita is committed to a greener environment.  We conserve energy and water, create our own bio-gas and drive greener vehicles.  We use recycled content in our bottles and packaging.  Aluminum cans are one more way Abita is working to keep our part of the world green and clean.”

Abita will offer the canned product in six and 12 packs and expect it to reach store shelves early in 2012.  The canning will be based at the brewery in Abita Springs.  Abita will continue packaging in glass just as they have since they began brewing in 1986.

The Abita Brewing Company was founded in Abita Springs, Louisiana and is the oldest and largest craft brewer in the southeast. Abita is the 30th largest commercial brewer by production volume in the nation and the 17th largest craft brewer in the United States.  Sales for the company should exceed 130,000 barrels this year.

Abita Brewing Company produces seven flagship brews:  Abita Amber, Golden, Light, Turbodog, Purple Haze, Jockamo I.P.A. and Restoration Pale Ale.  Abita also offers five seasonal beers, three Harvest brews, three Big Beers and a draft-only series of Select beers.

Judging has been completed in the 2011 Los Angeles International Commercial Beer Competition, and Ska Brewing didn’t win a single medal, or even an honorable mention. Despite winning gold and silver medals in the 2010 competition, Ska came up empty-handed this year.

“Our friends at Odell Brewing and Lagunitas Brewing won medals,” said Dave Thibodeau, Ska Brewing President and Co-Founder. “Last year we won two medals in L.A… Samuel Adams Light won a medal. How am I supposed to tell our shareholder about this?”

Despite recently winning two medals at the Australian International Beer Awards—a silver for Modus Hoperandi, and a bronze for ESB, out of 1195 total entries—Thibodeau remained strangely focused on the loss. The medals in Australia weren’t the only recent wins, either, with Ska winning a silver medal at the Denver International Beer Competition for Buster Nut Brown Ale, and a two medals at the North American Beer Awards—a gold for Pinstripe and a bronze for Steel Toe Stout.

“We’ve actually been winning a lot of medals this season, but this loss at L.A. is all I can think about,” said Bill Graham, Ska Co-Founder and Overlord of Brewing Operations. “I know [Ballast Point Brewing’s] Sculpin IPA is a nearly perfect IPA, but I thought Modus would bring home some hardware. Nebraska Brewing didn’t even name their IPA. I don’t know where the justice is in this crazy mixed-up world.”

According to well-placed sources, Ska has actually won as many competition medals this season as they ever have, including a previously unmentioned bronze for Modus Hoperandi IPA and a silver for ESB at the AmeriCAN Craft Beer Festival. That fact notwithstanding, Thibodeau insisted on putting out a press release about Ska’s “loss” in L.A. According to a Ska PR manager who requested anonymity in order to speak candidly, Thibodeau didn’t even want to make the release funny, or poke fun at beer competitions in general. “Press releases are supposed to show your company in the best possible light,” said the source. “No one here listens to me. We’ve been winning things left and right, and all these guys can think about is not winning at one event. I don’t know if I can keep doing this.”

From the Associated Press: Louisiana’s flagship university is collaborating with a microbrewery to launch its own beer, with sales planned to start during the fall football season.

The LSU-licensed blonde ale, produced by Baton Rouge-based Tin Roof Brewing Co., will be offered on draught and in cans and will be tied into a food science training program to teach students about fermentation.

“Wineries and breweries are popping up everywhere. It’s a really valuable thing that people can learn. For us, it’s just a great opportunity to partner up with LSU and teach students something that’s really cool,” said William McGehee, an LSU alumnus and one of the two owners of Tin Roof.

Tin Roof, located about a quarter-mile from the university campus, rolled out its first beers in November 2010. It started through assistance from LSU’s small business incubator, so the partnership was easy to continue with an LSU-branded beer.

University food science professors worked with Tin Roof on the recipe for the new beer, the professors will help with brewing and quality control measures, and students will be taught classes in fermentation science at the brewery starting this fall, McGehee said Wednesday.

Business students already have worked on branding, imaging and marketing for the new beer, said Charles D’Agostino, executive director of the LSU Louisiana Business and Technology Center, the incubator that helped Tin Roof start its business.

“This is a very good project, and it’s got all the necessary ingredients for success,” D’Agostino said. “We are very optimistic that this will be a good partnership for us.”

The arrangement will give royalty revenue to the university, but also helps expand the Tin Roof business, introducing its products to a wider audience. McGehee said LSU sports fans and tailgaters are the target audience for the new blonde ale, which will be distributed by Mockler Beverage.

A spokesman for the university, Ernie Ballard said the logo and design are being finalized with an eye toward putting the beer on store shelves and in bars by September or October. The final licensing paperwork still must be completed.

The beer’s name has yet to be announced.

“It’s not going to be called `LSU Beer,’” D’Agostino said. “They came up with a name that is related to LSU. We had some serious review to what we could use and what we couldn’t use. They wanted to use the eye of the tiger, for example, but the eye of the tiger is for use by LSU and by LSU only, so we had to go through what tiger images are acceptable.”

The beer will bear a logo noting it is an officially-licensed university product.

McGehee acknowledged beer sales tied to a university could be a touchy subject, but he focused on the educational aspect.

LSU won’t be the first school to venture into alcohol territory.

The University of California, Davis has a winery, brewery and food-processing research and teaching complex. D’Agostino said colleges in Oregon and Washington also both have relationships with wine-making and beer-making operations.

D’Agostino didn’t have estimates on how much money LSU might get through the beer royalties.

“I do really believe that they’re going to have capacity problems in not being able to make enough. I just think it’s going to be something really novel and unique, and they will have quality,” he said.

Tin Roof’s beers – including a pale ale and an amber – are currently sold around southeast Louisiana only in draught form. However, the company is adding a canning line in time for the LSU beer rollout.

Thornbridge Brewery is celebrating after winning a range of prestigious 2011 Great Taste Awards.

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