Charlie Papazian, world-famous beer lover, recently wrapped up his 2012 BeerCity USA poll.  What he ended up with was BeerCities USA, a statistical tie between Asheville, NC and Grand Rapids, MI.

From Papazian:

Voting for the annual BeerCity USA poll is over. From the start it was clear that communities from several areas of the United States intended to make a run for winning the honor of becoming 2012 BeerCity USA. Facebook, Twitter, other community networks and local media were active throughout the 13-day polling period.  With 55,926  votes cast for 31 different American cities the results clearly indicated that both Asheville, North Carolina and Grand Rapids topped the poll with a statistical tie.

We’ll be a slight voice of dissent and say 1) who cares?  Craft beer is inherently regional/local, and comparing two cities seems fairly useless.  It’s like being named the city with the most popular meteorologists — unless you live there, it doesn’t matter.  But 2) assuming you’re really trying to rank-order cities, it doesn’t seem very logical that Grand Rapids would end up tied with Asheville, which is quickly becoming the place where western breweries open their second locations.

But either way, congrats to both, and to Cleveland, Chicago, Denver, Portland, and any other city that is working to develop their beer culture.

One good thing macrobrewers have done with their monstrous marketing budgets is create some very memorable and enjoyable advertising.  But over the years, the ads haven’t been quite as slick.  We pulled together 15 retro beer advertisements into this gallery to take a look back on what used to be.

As much as we like drinking beer, we like cooking with it too.  If you’re looking for a unique mustard to go with your beer brats this spring, try this beer mustard recipe.

Beer Mustard Recipe

• 1/3 cup yellow mustard seeds
• 1/4 cup brown mustard seeds
• 1/2 cup cider vinegar
• 1 cup dark beer, divided
• 3 tablespoons dark brown sugar
• 2 tablespoons honey
• 1 teaspoon Kosher salt
• 1/2 teaspoon turmeric
• 1/8 teaspoon ground allspice

Shooting a movie but can’t land that lucrative product placement deal?  We’ve got your covered.  Over at The Earl Hayes Press, you can find a wide assortment of fake beer bottles, cans, and packaging until one macrobrewer drops a few thousand in your lap.

They bottles all look a little dated and clearly came from a time before craft beer packaging came alive — there’s a noticeable lack of color and creativity.

Hilarious take on innovations in can design.

You can learn a lot from old hombrewers.  But sometimes old myths don’t die.  We pulled six myths from the homebrewing either and put them to rest.

1.  Don’t use aluminum brewing pots. This myth just costs you money.  Aluminum brew kettles work just fine — despite what you may read on message boards.  They also tend to be cheaper than stainless steel brew kettles, saving you money.

2.  You need secondary fermentation. In most cases, you don’t.  It can help clarify some beers, but it’s almost never necessary.  Plus, you introduce a lot of infection risk by transferring your beer, to say nothing about the additional oxygen you expose your beer to.

3.  Homebrewing will save you money. If you’ve brewed, you know this isn’t true.  Like all hobbies, brewing is going to cost you money.  And unlike professional breweries, you’re not making enough beer to benefit from economies of scale.

4.  Don’t squeeze your grain bag. This myth comes because people think squeezing will release the tannins in the grain.  But tannins are only released by chemical reaction, not the pressure of your hand.  Feel free to sqeeze your grain bag to get as much wort out of it as you can — it will increase your original gravity and won’t add any additional tannins.

5.  Plastic fermenters let too much oxygen in. Considering investing in a glass carboy?  Don’t worry about it.  Unless you’re fermenting beer for a very long time (three or more months, at least), a plastic bucket isn’t going to let in enough oxygen to impact your beer.

6.  Don’t prime with table sugar. Table sugar in your wort will impact your beer, probably negatively.  But priming with table sugar is just fine — there’s so little of it compared to the sugar that has been fermented in the wort that you’ll be fine.  Don’t beleive us?  Prime a few bottles with a tablespoon of sugar and compare.

From flickr user whiskeychicken1

Having a calm Monday?  You won’t be after you read about how a Budweiser distributor in Tennessee is bullying a small-time brewer.

The war for tap space has been going for a long time, but Calfkiller Breweing Company is being attacked on a whole new level.  From the brewery:

Grab your Kool aid kids and take a seat. Here’s the story of Calfkiller Brewing Company, and Budweiser of TN.
Once upon a time there was this little guy (Calfkiller Brewing Company). A very honest hard working little guy with a dream to make great beer that folks could enjoy. After many years of hard work this dream became reality. Slowly but surely the little guy was rubbing shoulders with the big guys in the market place. All was well…….or so they thought.

So what happened that was so outrageous?  Well:

Over the years the little guy has purchased used kegs from all across the country. A few examples would be unclaimed freight auctions, breweries that have closed, or keg companies that sell new, used, and refurbished kegs. Anyone can purchase these, and Calfkiller has done it as well. Everything from website sales to store fronts in public with huge signs by the road for everyone to see. LEGIT businesses! So Calfkiller has been using kegs like these from day one.
Smooth sailing and all has seemed well…..until about a month ago! That’s when the “Budweiser keg police” began trying to strong arm the little guy. Now no one is sure really why. Maybe they simply want the entire market. Maybe they simply don’t like the little guys. Maybe they got their first quarter reports for 2012, and noticed the little guy had taken a piece of their pie. The only thing the little guy knows for sure is the truth isn’t in them so it does no good to ask questions at Budweiser in TN.
So the big monopoly Budweiser has started walking in to accounts, and simply taking the little guys kegs! FLIRTING WITH SLANDER they have told business owners that Calfkiller had stole the kegs.

There’s not much Calfkiller can do, and even less that we can do.  But we can share it, spread the word, and turn this into a PR disaster for Budweiser.  A major multi-national corporation is bullying a locally-owned small business because they make better beer.