For much of the last three decades, anthropologist George Armelagos has been trying to explain how mummies that date from an ancient kingdom in Nubia—the area south of Egypt that’s located in present-day Sudan—got so much of the antibiotic tetracycline in their bones. Since scientists didn’t synthesize antibiotics like that one until the 20th century (and these bones date back to between 350 to 550 A.D.), finding a buildup in ancient bones screams out “contamination.”

Armelagos and his colleagues longed to prove that it wasn’t, and in a study out in American Journal of Physical Anthropology, the team argues that the find is no fluke. Nubians got antibiotics into their systems by drinking beer, and lots of it, and from an early age.

How? Thanks to the help of a kind of bacteria called Streptomyces.

Common in soil, Strep bacteria produce tetracycline antibiotics to kill off other, competing bacteria. Grains that are stored underground can easily become moldy with Streptomyces contamination, though these bacteria would only produce small amounts of tetracycline on their own when left to sit or baked into bread. Only when people fermented the grain would tetracycline production explode. Nubians both ate the fermented grains as gruel and used it to make beer. [Discovery News]

By dissolving bone samples in acid, team member Mark Nelson verified that the tetracycline was present in the ancient samples and not the result of modern contamination. And to prove that antibiotic beer is possible, the scientists made some.

More info:

http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/80beats/2010/09/03/accidental-awesomeness-ancient-nubians-made-antibiotic-beer/

@microbrewing

Though the effort to lift the reserve of champagne had just ended, researchers uncovered a small collection of bottled beer on Wednesday from the same shipwreck south of the autonomous Aland Islands in the Baltic Sea.

"At the moment, we believe that these are by far the world's oldest bottles of beer," Rainer Juslin, permanent secretary of the island's ministry of education, science and culture, told CNN on Friday via telephone from Mariehamn, the capital of the Aland Islands.

More info:

http://edition.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/europe/09/03/baltic.sea.beer/?hpt=T2#fbid=2_GCDteAb0Y&wom=false

A British tippler who opts to drink beer at home spends as little as 79 pence—$1.22—for a pint. At a British nightclub, a pint usually goes for £6.

That simple math appeals to young British consumers (18- to 24-year-olds) suffering from 20 percent unemployment among their age group. A growing club scene in Britain once thrived on affluent young consumers. Now many of those clubgoers are on the dole.

Luminar Group Holdings, the U.K.'s largest club owner, has shut at least 11 venues since February. Its shares have dropped 74 percent this year. Brook Leisure Holdings, which operates in northern England, has had to close two clubs and a bar in the past four months. "This year has been particularly tough," says Cameron Leslie, co-founder and managing director of two London clubs, one of which he closed in June. "Undergraduates are not finding jobs, creating a huge strain on our core target market."

More info:

http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/10_37/b4194012951801.htm

Victoria Bitter will premiere the first television commercial from its latest marketing campaign entitled ‘Real’ on Sunday night (Sep 5).

Developed with agency Droga5 Sydney, the campaign will feature a number of executions including two television commercials.

‘Cry’ is the first TVC to hit television screens, airing nationally on Sunday evening and this will be accompanied by outdoor, print and digital advertising across the country.

More info:

http://www.theshout.com.au/2010/09/03/article/VB-Campaign-takes-Aim-at-Superficial-Society/DHJKCOWJIB.html

It is hard not to enjoy beer marketing. Even if you are not a marketer, this industry always offers creative advertising (particularly on TV) that is fun to watch and spends lots of money doing it. Every year at the Super Bowl, a good number of the Top 10 ads come from beer companies. In other venues beyond sports, beer advertising often promises good times, great parties and generally being able to escape from your daily life into a world of fun, travel and festivities.

When it comes to marketing strategy, however, it often seems like beer companies focus on being entertaining at the expense of being strategic. With campaigns that seem to change almost monthly and taglines that rarely last for more than a football season, it is easy to dismiss beer marketing as irresponsible spending to promote a high margin product. Is there more to beer advertising than 30 second eye candy and girls in bikinis? Here are a few popular marketing campaigns for beer - along with their corresponding marketing strategy that may yield some surprising lessons ...

1. Be Unique (Red Stripe Beer)

If you have ever had a Red Stripe beer from Jamaica, you know that it has a very unique bottle shape, shorter and stubbier than most others. The bottle sets the beer apart more than anything else, and this fact is brilliantly parodied in this ad featuring their central spokesperson - the Jamaican guy who loves nothing more than celebrating what beer can do with his trademark expression of Jamaican joy: "Hooray Beer!"

More info and videos:

http://www.webpronews.com/blogtalk/2010/09/01/what-we-can-learn-internation-beer-advertising

When men cry to a Neil Diamond track in a beer ad you know there's been a seismic shift in society.That is exactly what happens in VB's latest ads, which go to air this weekend. For a brand that has mined the stereotypical image of masculine mateship for decades, it is a significant step.

VB's journey away from different iterations of its famous line ''A hard-earned thirst'' began last year with ''The Regulars'' ad which showed men (and women) of all shapes, sizes and sexual orientation, marching under different banners that demonstrated VB's credentials as the everyman's beer - a mantle that until 15 years ago it could legitimately claim, as roughly one in every three beers drunk in Australia was a VB; today it is about one in five.

Regardless of the decline, VB remains one of the country's best known and loved brands, about which just about everyone has an opinion. If ''The Regulars'' told us who drinks VB, this set of ads - titled ''Real'' - attempts to tell us why.

More info and video:

http://www.smh.com.au/business/media-and-marketing/good-lord-vbs-new-ad-makes-a-man-weep-20100902-14rst.html

Foster's Group, the Australian drinks company, has been hit by the resignation of its finance director in the midst of the demerger of its wine and beer businesses.

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Media Release  

Scheduled to open late 2010 in the beautiful village of Bruthen will be East Gippsland’s first boutique micro brewery. Aiming to produce and sell fine Ales, Porters, and Pilsners they also intend to brew and offer for sale the occasional seasonal beer.

Visitors will be able to sample the selection of beers produced at the brewery onsite in the tasting room or relax and enjoy gourmet snacks within the complex or outside in the shady alfresco, taking in the views over the Tambo Valley.

Showcasing local wines, cheeses and farm produce will reinforce the commitment that the owners have to promoting regional products, through the gourmet snacks offered daily and later included on the restaurant menu.

Tours of the brewery and viewings of the brew-house and associated fermentation and maturation vessels will also be on offer. Cyclists on the East Gippsland Rail Trail will be able to quench their thirst and satisfy their appetite before continuing on the trail. With Bruthen being the lunch stop for many travellers this new venture will offer a choice not seen before in East Gippsland.

This boutique micro brewery will be a great addition for employment opportunities, tourism and general pleasure in the region.

MEDIA RELEASE

We here at Steam Brewing Company are super-stoked to announce that our Cock & Bull Monk’s Habit won the Gold Medal* at the recent BrewNZ Beer Awards last week.

Not only that, but it also won the Best in Class Trophy!

Not only that, but our Cock & Bull Fuggles won the Gold Medal** AND it’s Best in Class Trophy!!

*NZ, US and International Ale. **European Ale.

Not only that, but our Cock & Bull Dirty Blonde Belgian Witbier won Bronze!

Not only that, but our Prototype Festive Brew “Cock & Bull Kumarakawapeto” won Bronze!

Not only that, but 2 of our contract clients won Major awards for work done HERE!!

Steam Brewing Company is a contract brewing and beverage manufacturer specialising in quality beverages. We operate out of an industrial estate in Otahuhu, Auckland NZ. We are owned by the world famous Cock & Bull NZ chain of restaurants (4 in Auckland and one in Hamilton) where the 7 C&B tap beers are poured (Blue Goose Lager, Buxom Blonde Wheat, Classic Draught, Dark Star, Fuggles Best Bitter, Monk's Habit and the Brewer's Choice (seasonal tap running the Dirty Blonde over Summer)).

www.steambrewing.co.nz

www.cockandbull.co.nz

Expecting to receive entries from more than 100 Australian brewed beers for judging, with gold, silver and bronze medals up for grabs; the offering will be a comprehensive snapshot of the quality of Australian brewing for the industry and a trustworthy purchasing guide for consumers.

Show Judge Brennan Fielding of Burleigh Brewing Co, who has been involved in judging competitions around the world said he was pleased Queensland now has its own competition

More info:

http://www.brewsnews.com.au/2010/08/new-awards-for-the-nations-best-brews/

For example, twenty years ago [the field of olfaction] made the most important discovery in the modern era of olfaction, which “was the identification and cloning of a large family of receptors in our noses that mediate the sense of smell that act like a lock. If you think of it, odor is a key, and when they fit together, the brain is clued in to the fact that this odor is out there somehow. And this identification of this large, large family of genes, a thousand of them in many animals, as many as 450 in us, mediates this smell.

This turns out to be “the largest gene family in the mammalian genome. The mammalian genome, typically, we think consists of about 25,000 genes. So in a mouse, it’s about 5 percent of the genes and even in us, it’s almost 2 percent. About one out of every 50 genes in your genome was devoted to your nose.”

More info:

http://www.realbeer.com/blog/?p=1641

DB Breweries is the New Zealand Champion Brewery of the 2010 BrewNZ Beer Awards. Announced last night at an awards dinner held in Wellington, a record total of 446 entries were received, up from 348 entries last year.

In its ninth year, the Awards are run by the Brewers Guild of New Zealand, which represents the majority of New Zealand brewers.

Chief Judge, David Logsdon from the USA, says that the 2010 BrewNZ Beer Awards hosted the largest field of entries ever, surpassing last year’s competitions by a great margin.

“Brewers from around the world competed with the best of New Zealand beers in a world class challenge,” Logsdon said.

“The results show that New Zealand stands tall amongst the best beers in the world.”

Australian winners included:

More info:

http://www.brewsnews.com.au/2010/08/2010-new-zealand-champion-brewery-winner-announced/