Ramblings from an amateur booze geek.
Echt Liquor Lab in Pittsburgh received TTB label approval in June for two rums they’re labeling as “agricole”. Let’s look at the labels and see what might be confusing.
This probably won’t be my best written article as it’s been re-written and re-structured several times, so please bear with me.
Here’s a new list of upcoming rum releases for the US market compiled from TTB label certifications approved in August. These are only label approvals recorded at the US TTB, so none of these are likely to be available yet and it’s anyone’s guess when they might appear in stores.
This doesn’t include every rum label approval, I’ve tried to triage the approvals to the brands that people would recognize, while also including other labels that might be interesting. Last month I included several cachacas, but this month I’m excluding them because there were quite a few. The list also doesn’t include flavored/spiced rums.
This month’s highlights include more Mexican rums from Alambique Serrano, rhum agricoles from Damoiseau, a new Providence release from Haiti, Raising Glasses and Rolling Fork have a partnership bottling, Worthy Park is either rebranding Rum-Bar or adding line extensions, and Samaroli’s next batch of rums have approved labels.
Interesting things: A new rum from Uganda as well as one distilled at Missouri State University. And a rum for real, actual spies.
Continue reading “Upcoming US Rum Releases of Interest — September 2023”This morning I added dates for The Malt Affair Singapore to the calendar, and with that almost all of the expected 2023 events are now scheduled.
The calendar is here. If you see anything missing, please let me know! I haven’t heard any updates about Whisky Live Thailand, as of now that’s the only expected 2023 event that hasn’t announced a date/location. I wish I could attend these this year, but sadly won’t be able to.
Earlier this year, many of us wondered what the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank would have on their wine division. The most externally-visible product of that department is their annual Wine Survey. Each year, the bank surveys wineries and related businesses to get the pulse of the industry over the past year. The result of this survey is released to the public for free, and it’s eagerly anticipated by the beverage alcohol industry. In March, even Rob McMillan (who ran/runs the division) was more than a little worried about the future of the report and the division under a new owner.
We now have our answer – the survey and report continues (at least for another year). But there are still some concerns..
Continue reading “Good (and bad) signs from the first post-collapse SVB Wine Survey”Here are some upcoming rum releases for the US market approved in July 2023. These are only label approvals recorded at the US TTB, there’s no news on when these will actually hit stores (though a few are already available for pre-sale online). Anything else filed in July that’s approved in August will be included in next month’s report.
This post covers rum label approvals from July 2023. I don’t include flavored/spiced rums. This month we have releases from Rolling Fork, Barbancourt, Hampden Estate, Dillon, Goslings, Monymusk, Privateer, Raising Glasses, Bayou, Grander, Virago, and Royal Cane as well as several new brands from Mauritius and Indonesia and a new rum and clairin from Haiti as well as new Panama rum releases from Kirkland (Costco).
You can find last month’s edition of this report here.
Continue reading “Upcoming US Rum Releases of Interest — August 2023”Jamaica’s Hampden Estate distillery is preparing to follow up on last year’s set of eight unaged rums across representing their eight main styles of rum with a new set that shows us what those rums are like after a year of tropical aging in ex-bourbon casks.
Continue reading “Hampden Estate prepares to release a new aged Eight Marks set.”Here are some upcoming rum releases for the US market. These are only label approvals recorded at the US TTB, there’s no news on when these will actually hit stores.
Going forward I’ll post this the first week of each month covering the previous month. Since this is the first month I’ve done this, I’m including labels approved before June that haven’t hit markets yet.
In this batch we have releases from Beenleigh, Foursquare, Hampden Estate, Holmes Cay, Dead Reckoning, Privateer, El Dorado, Grander, ImpEx, Paranubes, Transcontinental Rum Line, Clairin Casimir, Montebello, Dillon, Kaniche, Chicago Cane Collective, Vieux Labbe, Kuleana, Alambique Serrano, and Casa Mendez.
Privateer re-filed several of their labels last month, I assume it was due to an error on the earlier filing. I’ve included both versions here for reference.
There are a lot of images here, so be patient loading the page. I hope you find this useful!
Continue reading “Upcoming US Rum Releases of Interest — Through June 2023”I sat down this morning to write an article about food safety and handling issues with NA beer, but then I found Good Beer Hunting’s article, which does a great job of outlining the issues. So here’s a quick high level summary about the issues involved, but you should really go read their article for more detail.
TLDR: Not all beer is pasteurized. Many (most?) craft breweries skip this step because pasteurization equipment is expensive. The alcohol and hops in regular beer help protect drinkers from most hazards (an infection might lead to sour off-flavors but things like listeria are less likely).
NA brands have struggled with hit-or-miss quality controls (unintended funky, sour flavors, burst packages from accidental secondary fermentation) and safety issues (Guinness’ recall of NA beer due to unsafe biological contamination). Some brewers insist on tunnel pasteurization (this takes filled bottles and cans through a small tunnel where they’re sprayed with hot water and is a good way to pasteurize everything (from the liquid to the container itself) in one go), but this is expensive equipment that small brewers can’t afford. Other brewers see this as a gatekeeping exercise that supports larger breweries, and they insist they have their own, often proprietary methods of keeping their product stable and safe. The GBH article doesn’t go into this, but there’s also some controversy over whether NA beer can be properly and safely served in a draft system or not.
“Everybody’s Got One — Opinions Clash as Non-Alc Makers Debate Quality Control Methods” written by Kate Bernot for Good Beer Hunting‘s Sightlines.
Donald B. Humphrey managed several nightclubs and bars in Atlanta in the late 1960s and 1970s. I’m flipping through his self-published 2021 memoir “A Life of Blessings And Then Some”. As with most self published memoirs, this one could have used an editor, but there are some interesting bits in the latter third of the book that cover the Atlanta drinking scene at the time. Humphrey died in early 2022, so there’s not an opportunity to ask for clarification on the details that aren’t so clear in the text.
Don got his start in Atlanta’s bar and nightlife scene running a topless bar behind the Loew’s Grand theater after retiring from law enforcement. He and his wife both managed operations there until the owner began taking money from their paychecks to fund his lifestyle, and they opened their first bar, Bottoms Up in the Georgian Terrace Hotel across the street from the Fox Theater. It was another go-go lounge, showing that Atlanta’s reputation for these sorts of bars isn’t a new thing (he also took over Kitten’s Korner at Peachtree and 6th, and you won’t be shocked to hear it was intended as competition for Atlanta’s new Playboy Club).
I’m including these details here just to share a glimpse into how far things have come in Atlanta and Georgia. I may write a larger, better researched piece later because this is all very interesting history to me.
Continue reading “Anecdotes on Atlanta’s alcoholic beverage laws”Tickets are now on sale for the 18th Annual Atlanta Cask Ale Tasting at Bold Monk Brewing. It’s on 20 January 2024 from 230-6pm, and it’s indoors so you don’t have to worry about getting wet or freezing if the weather doesn’t cooperate.
This is something I’ve always wanted to attend but never managed to make it (that was ten or so years ago before moving abroad), but I’ve got tickets so it’s finally happening!
If you’re not sure what a cask ale is or why you should care read on!
Continue reading “Atlanta Event: Tickets on sale for Atlanta Cask Ale Tasting”