Democrats Fueled by Waste Beer!
Politics is a lot like bad beer, insofar as I don’t have a taste for either. Still, I find this Denver Business Journal report on the beer that’s fueling the 2008 Democratic National Convention to be easy drinking.
The Molson Coors Brewing Co. has been named the official ethanol provider for the 2008 Democratic National Convention, to be held in Denver Aug. 25-28.
[...]
While most ethanol comes from corn, Molson Coors’ ethanol is produced from waste beer. The ethanol used in DNC vehicles will come from Coors Brewing’s brewery in Golden.
Molson Coors also is Presidential-level sponsor of the convention, and will provide beer for Denver 2008 Convention Host Committee convention and pre-convention events, meetings, media briefings and VIP events.
[...]
Waste beer is the beer that’s lost during packaging, or which is considered substandard. Coors is the country’s first major brewer to convert waste beer to ethanol, according to the company, and started that business in 1996.
So “waste beer” isn’t just another name for Coors Light?
I could go on about the environmental angle here, but instead I’ll just note that the 21+ implications of serving beer at the convention will probably help keep Rob Lowe away. Or not.
More here. Details about the undoubtedly funtastic Modern Drunkard convention–it starts the day after the DNC convention and is also in Colorado–here.
Remembering When Booze Was Back
I’m not 100 years old, so I don’t actually remember when FDR–convinced he should at least do one thing right during his seven or eight presidential terms–put the final nail in Prohibition on this date in 1933.
At Pabst Brewing Co. in Milwaukee, thousands of onlookers cheered as company employees hoisted barrels and crates onto trucks. About 800 people stood in the rain outside the White House, watching as a man hopped out of his vehicle and unloaded two cases of beer. Secret Service agents accepted the goods, a gift for the chief executive from one of the nation’s brewers. “President Roosevelt,” read a sign on the side of the truck, “the first real beer is yours.”
None of that highbrow PBR for me. I’ll be celebrating tonight the same way I did last night: with some damn fine Mickey’s Malt Liquor widemouths.
More on the end of Prohibition here and here.
My friend Sean Higgins interviewed the head of the U.S. Prohibition Party–yep, that’s a political party fighting to ban booze–last year for the unabashedly awesome Modern Drunkard.
Update: For accuracy’s sake, instead of “booze,” I should have stated “low-alcohol beer was back,” as Jacob rightly notes in comments.
