Nate or Nathan ?

A few years ago I worked for a little over a week near St. Louis, Mo. I really enjoyed visiting the Gateway Arch, Grant's Farm and the Anheuser Busch Brewery. Most beer geeks will readily tell you that Budweiser beer taste like shit and all sort of other insults. The facts speak for themselves. Bud is the Number One selling beer in the frigging world. The Number Two selling beer is Bud Light. So lets agree that those guys are doing something right. The first stop on the tour is the pristine barns of the official horses of Budweiser. While visiting the St. Louis Brewery (no not the Schafly one), the guide does a great job on the tour. He told us how the Clydesdale was bred in Scotland and was primarily a farming animal and not intended to be hitched to teams to pull ornamented wagons laden with beer. He went on to tell us how the original horses where gifts to one of the early founders of the brewery. But there is a subliminal message that prevails throughout the tour. "Make a good beverage that satisfies "across the line". Give it a German sounding name that can be shortened to an American nickname. Deliver it in a timely fashion to prevent spoilage and be consistent in quality. The name Bud was stolen from someone else. (The original Budweiser Bier or Budweiser Bürgerbräu, had been founded in 1785 in Budweis, Bohemia, Holy Roman Empire and had started exports to the US in 1871. In the U.S., Anheuser-Busch started using the Budweiser brand in 1876 and registered it two years later. In Budweis, a new company (now named Budvar) was established in 1895 by mainly Czech brewers, which also started exporting beer with the adjective Budweiser ("Budějovický" in Czech). This led to the Budweiser trademark dispute. Negotiations between the three companies, the two from the original town and the American Anheuser-Busch, about using "Budweiser" reached an agreement in 1911 that allowed Anheuser-Busch to use the brand "Budweiser" only in North America)




The names of beers fascinates me. Think about it, would you really want to drink moose drool? I have previously written that it is my dream to open my own brewery. Yes, I too have some names for some of the future beers I will brewing.
My youngest nephew, the son of my wife's youngest sister and her husband. (also my current bosses) name is Nathan. When he was born I think he was already about 23 years old. According to his proud parents he is the smartest kid in his class. He is reading books ordinarily read by 5th or 6th graders. I think he is in the 2nd or 3rd grade presently. (My oldest was reading on the level of an 11th grader in the 2nd grade and her mother and I have the test results to prove it.) I tend to call him Nate. Mrs The Third (his aunt) tells me he is not "cool" enough to be called Nate. I have to admit, he ain't exactly "cool". When he goes out to eat with his parents and the waiter or waitress asks him what he want to drink he replies, a root beer in a kids cup. He sounds so grown up. Personally Nate should be allowed to be a kid while he still is a kid. If and when I do have a brewery, I will brew root beer too. The name of the root beer will be Kid's Cup Root Beer. I might put a picture of him on the label (or one of his dad, hell they look like twins) It may help make Nathan more cool and people will begin to call him Nate. Come to think of it I think I call him Nate just to piss him and his parents off, just as people do when they call my oldest, Jenny.

When prohibition caused the cessation of brewing in American, Anheuser-Busch, brewed a beverage name Bevo. Living in Texas you may think that the name came from a local mascot. The picture shown here is of Bevo I. This steer was eventually slaughtered and barbecued and served to the athletes of Texas A & M and the University of Texas.. The hide actually resides today in the safe keeping of Texas A & M University. (Gig em Ags!)

Names of beers have crept into our vocabulary and our culture. People spend millions of dollars on beers simply because of brand identification. I worked with a guy a year ago who had a large tattoo of the Lone Star Beer logo on his right arm. H e used to tell us that Lone Star was the very best beer ever made and that Budwieser was probably the worst. I guess he would be shocked to know that the Lone Star Brewery was originaly started by and owned by none other than Augustus Busch!
There was a survey done a few years ago and the question was What company in America has the largest customer loyalty. Now you may think it is Budwieser or Miller or maybe even Coors . But you are wrong. think about it, if you are willing to permanently mark your body with an image, it must mean something to you, or at least make you look like a bad ass.

Pliny the Elder was a Roman naturalist, scholar, historian, traveler, officer, and writer. Although not considered his most important work, Pliny and his contemporaries created the botanical name for hops, "Lupus salictarius", meaning wolf among scrubs." Hops at that time grew wild among willows, much like a wolf in the forest. Later the current botanical name, Humulus lupulus, was adopted. Pliny died in 79 AD while observing the eruption of Mount Vesuvius. He was immortalized by his nephew, Pliny the Younger, who continued his uncle's legacy by documenting much of what he observed during the eruption of Mount Vesuvius.

So exactly where are you going with this blog number three? Well I am not sure. It is just that names of beers do indeed fascinate me. I recalled drinking a beer called Pliny the Elder once and I thought what a strange name it was. So I suppose ole Pliny should get credit for starting my musings here. If you have kept up with my posts and read one I wrote back in December 2008 (I am Waiting for My Real Life to Begin), you will recall that as I grew up, the top three beers in my circle were Bud, Schlitz and Miller. On New Year's Eve I purchased a twelve pack of Schlitz (in cans) for a total of $ 6.29. I tried to get one (just one) of my co workers to drink one. I offered free beer to over 25 persons and not one of them took me up on the offer. Actually the beer was not all that bad. Now Schlitz has really fallen since 1969 but who knows one day it may be on top again. The comment I got mostly was, "Schiltz gives me the shits". So in summary be careful what you name a beer it could backfire.



With just a kiss of the hops



The Third