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Bud and Miller Are Trying to Hijack Craft Beer—and It’s Totally Backfiring | Mother Jones

by Romy＠snowyla.com

http://m.motherjones.com/tom-philpott/2014/07/craft-beer-revival Bud and Miller Are Trying to Hijack Craft Beer—and It’s Totally Backfiring Thomas Hawk/Flickr InBev and MillerCoors loom over the US beer landscape like…well, like one of those monstrous inflatable Bud Light bottles that spring up at certain football tailgate parties and outdoor concerts. Together, the two global giants own nearly 80 percent of the US beer market. InBev alone, corporate owner of Budweiser, spends a staggering $449 million on US advertising. But also like those vast blow-up beer bottles, their presence is not-so-faintly ridiculous and always teetering. The industry's signature light beers are suffering a "slow, watery death," BusinessWeek recently reported, their sales declining steadily. Meanwhile, independent breweries cranking out distinctive product—known as craft breweries—are undergoing an accelerating renaissance. "Sales of craft beers grew 16 percent in volume over the past year versus a 1.7 percent decline for the biggest U.S. beer brands," Bloomberg reported in January. And new craft breweries are budding like hop flowers in spring. Here are the latest numbers, just out from the Brewer's Association. Note that that the number of US craft brewers has nearly doubled since 2010, and grew 20 percent in the past year alone. Chart: The Brewers Association Now, here's an historical look at the situation, a chart that I also included the last time I looked at the craft-beer revival, back in 2011. Note that the number of breweries plunged with the coming of Prohibition, surged with the onset of legalization in the 1930s, and then began a long, slow decline as the beer industry consolidated into the hands of giants like Budweiser, Coors, and Miller. By the end of the 1970s, the entire US beer market was being satisfied, if that's thw word, by fewer than 100 large brewing facilities. And then, starting in the early '80s—with the gradual demise of Prohibition-era restrictions like the one that kept breweries from selling beer directly to the public, as well as people's growing distaste for watered-down swill—the craft-brew revival, the one reaching full flower today, emerged. Chart: Biodesic For its part, Big Beer has responded to the declining popularity of its goods in two ways. The first is relentless cost cutting. When Belgian mega-brewer InBev bought US corporate beer giant Bud in 2008, it very quickly slashed 1,400 jobs, about 6 percent of its US workforce. And the laser-like focus on slashing costs has continued, as this aptly titled 2012 BusineseWeek piece "The Plot to Destroy America's Beer" shows. The second is to roll out phony craft beers—brands like ShockTop and Blue Moon—and buy up legit craft brewers like Chicago's Goose Island, which inBev did in 2011. Other ersatz "craft" beers include Leinenkugel, Killian's, Batch 19, and Third Shift. The strategy has been successful, to a point. Bloomberg reports that InBev has seen its Goose Island and Shock Top sales surge. But there's a catch: These stealth Big Beer brands aren't "putting the microbrewers who started the movement out of business," Bloomberg reports. Rather, "the new labels are taking sales from already-troubled mass-market brands owned by the industry giants peddling these crafty brews." In other words, consumers aren't dropping Sierra Nevada or Dogfish Head and reaching for the Shocktop. Rather, ShockTop sales are being propped up by refugees from Bud Light and the like. Meanwhile, the beer world is buzzing about what would be the granddaddy of all mergers: rumors are swirling that InBev is preparing a bid to takeover SABMiller, a move that would give the combined company 30 percent of the globe's beer market. The motivation, reports the St. Louis Post Dispatch: "A-B InBev could reap $2 billion in cost-savings through an acquisition of their largest rival, through global procurement and shared services, and eliminating job redundancies." While Big Beer attempts to solve its problems with crafty marketing and yet more giantism, US craft brewers are trying out innovative business models. Big-name craft brewers Full Sail (Oregon), New Belgium (Colorado), and Harpoon (Boston) are all fully employee-owned. Here in Austin, Black Star Brewery and Pub is cooperatively owned by 3,000 community members and managed by a "workers assembly" as a "democratic self-managed workplace." It may sound like it should be a cluster, but the place is always packed, the service is brisk, the food is good, and the beer is excellent. And the employees proudly refuse tips, citing their living wage as the reason. Meanwhile, a forthcoming worker-owned project, 4thTap Brewing Co-op, is creating excitement among Austin beer nerds with its promise to "bring radical brewing to the forefront of the Texas craft beer scene." For me, all of this ferment underlines an important point about the US food scene: It may be dominated by a few massive, heavily marketed companies at the top, but that doesn't stop viable alternatives from bubbling from below. Sent from my iPhone

11 years, 4 months

Lost wax casting [was Re: robot arm]

by Patrik D'haeseleer

On the topic of lost wax casting... If someone knows a jeweler who has the equipment to 3D print in wax and then cast in metal, let me know! This is the process Shapeways uses for their precious metal 3D prints, but they charge an arm and a leg for them. I would love to be able to produce 3D printed jewelry at the same rates as these guys have figured out: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/fireandbone/fire-and-bone-tiny-digital… Also - you can totally do lost "wax" casting using 3D printed PLA instead of wax! Lost PLA Casting from 3D Prints <http://3dtopo.com/lostPLA/> Or you can even use low-melt alloys to cast directly into 3D printed ABS molds: Metal Casting with Your 3D Printer <http://makezine.com/projects/guide-to-3d-printing-2014/metal-casting-with-y…> Patrik PS: The "Field's metal" mentioned in the last link is a non-toxic alloy that melts at 144°F, and is named after its inventor, local South Bay mad scientist Simon Quellen Field. On Tue, Jul 29, 2014 at 4:29 PM, <hol(a)gaskill.com> wrote: > or we could do it ourselves :) > > > > http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lost-wax_casting > > > > > On 2014-07-29 15:06, Vicky Knox wrote: > > Wax into bronze?!?!?!!?!?!?! :D I love chose your own adventure email > threads. I just clicked on the "..." on the sentence: "Also the people who > sold us the robot can turn wax into bronze..." > > _______________________________________________ > sudo-discuss mailing listsudo-discuss@lists.sudoroom.orghttps://lists.sudoroom.org/listinfo/sudo-discuss > > > _______________________________________________ > sudo-discuss mailing list > sudo-discuss(a)lists.sudoroom.org > https://lists.sudoroom.org/listinfo/sudo-discuss > >

11 years, 4 months

What We Are Fighting For: A Radical Collective Manifesto

by Julio Rios

Anyone checked out this book? Recommend it? http://www.akpress.org/whatwearefightingfor.html Also, let me know if anyone feels this is inappropriate for this list.

11 years, 4 months

New members during transition

by Paige Peterson

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: SHA512 Hey all- I visited the old location a few times about a year ago and have been out of the picture ever since for a plethora of reasons. Having just moved to the East bay (Richmond), I'm interested in picking up involvement with the Sudo community again but on a more committed basis (becoming a member, helping with projects when I can, being in the space in general, etc). That said, I know you all are still in a transition phase and Omni isn't officially open, yet. Reading notes from last week's Sudo meeting, it seems like a lot of processes are still being smoothed out and membership is being re-thought. If this is a bad time to try and get my feet back in the door, I have no problem waiting but I'm also available to help, too! I know new folks have always been encouraged to stop by - just wondering if that still holds in this transition period. Hope to reconnect soon! Cheers- Paige Peterson -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: GnuPG/MacGPG2 v2.0.19 (Darwin) Comment: GPGTools - http://gpgtools.org Comment: Using GnuPG with Thunderbird - http://www.enigmail.net/ iQEcBAEBCgAGBQJT1/D1AAoJEBfwQOvcZQ/pBIEH/0fhYACec6he6fhtLjDPSPWl nd4ulCjelljSfJcgl9An8tvXxBOtO498N32Ca4bfVeEL2+M2xrYKk+9u+cE9IscR ahLIX6k7F/KRXFVGt7VPEt5FGOjwT4MLKL+oR81nqMNtA8UM0B3w0zxQh9iuKFUF n7okKQ9ju8TiUaPyEAkuK61X0TVjNGdmNM07C6p2aqHGhVXAE0K+MMrenawRwsRW FtSlPOaOhW83cJIeps6D/AusKak4fXVyPCMhAYMdKwhHMKGB3RQUJ6+YHQ5k/arO wCsggT2qyJ8FqjpojMLV4DhfKJzNny47O2ulsom/PaGFpzj6KBDooH3gYA4fHwc= =Rhe6 -----END PGP SIGNATURE-----

11 years, 4 months

need better door policy

by Jake

Last night someone came to the omni and rang the doorbell. Someone inside Omni answered the door for this person, let them in, and then asked them questions like "which group are you with" and "who do you know here" and I guess the interaction didn't go ideally well. At this point I became aware of the interaction and went over, introduced myself to both people, and was reminded by the new person that we had met before at old sudoroom. I said that the problem was solved and asked each person if they needed anything else before going about their business, and they didn't. The person who opened the door apologized to the person who had been let in, and they went their seperate ways. The person who was let in may have felt that they were being questioned partially because of their race and that of the person who opened the door. They may have been right. Only a scientific study could tell us whether people are more likely to question someone of a different race in situations of power and responsibility like letting someone "in". Rather than continue such experiments, formally or informally, i suggest we accelerate toward a flat system for situations where a person rings the doorbell and the person who answers doesn't know them already. We can be very specific about the instructions and attach them to a laminated card tied near the door, so that the person being questioned knows that their treatment is 100% standard regardless of their race or appearance. The card should say something like this: If you answer the door and you don't know the person, ask them their name or nickname and which group's list they are on. You can check by typing their name / nickname into the computer near the front door, and it will tell you if they are on a list or not. (it may provide a picture or description depending on that persons' preference) If they are not on a groups' list, ask them if they are looking for someone who is present at the Omni right now. If they say yes, offer to help them find that person. (If you don't have time for this, don't answer the door) If they are not on a groups' list, and you can't find (with their help) the person whom they are looking for, you need to decide whether to host them as your guest or not. If a group you represent values community involvement, treat this as an opportunity to introduce a new person to your group by hosting them in the space while you're there. Offer them a tour of your groups' space, and tell them about the weekly meetings and how to get more involved, and how to become a member with door access (and getting their name on the list). Don't turn people away unnecessarily. If it seems appropriate, ask if they have a specific task they are trying to accomplish, such as retreiving or dropping off an item. If they want to take something, you will have to use your judgement as to whether it's OK to do so without consulting someone specific about it. Perhaps they can help you contact someone you trust over the telephone, or perhaps you believe them because their story sounds good. Just do what you think is best, and keep the person's feelings in mind when proposing an alternative, such as trying again another time. Keep in mind that when opening the door to someone without a key of their own, you are in a position of power over them. With this power comes great responsibility, and you are representing your group and the Omni collective in general to whoever is at the door. Your actions have the power to do great damage to years of community outreach, or to welcome wonderful new people who will bring more great people along with them. And remember that whatever responsibility you feel about protecting our spaces from theft of some replaceable piece of equipment is not nearly as important as your responsibility to treat each person with great respect and care as you represent your community at the Omni. Thank you, the door

11 years, 4 months

Gittip spinoff seeks advice on democratic governance & bylaws for web applications

by Rabbit

Hey all! Recently there was a controversy at Gittip which resulted in a project to fork or rebuilding it with better governance structures and more focus on the needs and safety of marginalized users. They are figuring out how to run a web application in a cooperative democratic way that focuses on the needs of the users, as opposed to a TaskRabbit like model where a central corporation controls or extracts value from their users and makes unilateral decisions. They're working on bylaws and legal structures for this, and would appreciate advice or connections to people with advice. Talk to them in IRC at #atunit, particularly @adrienneleigh, or send me resources to pass along. This is an exciting frontier for the cooperative movement. What if TaskRabbit was owned by the rabbits? Websites have very concentrated power structures compared to the number of users; what are effective ways to get input from so many people who might not all be very invested in the project? What other models can we draw from -- credit unions? What lessons can be learned from Wikipedia? Etc. This especially matters for this particular use case, recurring donations, because some people will be making their living off of proceeds from the site and it's important that their voice is heard. Sudoroom may be one of the largest users of this site when it launches, like we are now with Gittip. -Rabbit

11 years, 4 months

Re: [sudo-discuss] Tech Boom Spurs Changes in West Oakland | KQED News Fix

by yar

On Tue, Jul 29, 2014 at 11:39 AM, Sonja Trauss <sonja.trauss(a)gmail.com> wrote: > whoever runs this list is free to ban me. I am not going to leave because you're too insecure in your position to be nuanced or thoughtful. I could ban you right now, but if I do, I want it to be VERY clear that it's not targeting a person or even a person's politics, but an ongoing pattern of racist behavior. I would much rather you REALIZE ON YOUR OWN that this is not the community for you. On Tue, Jul 29, 2014 at 11:46 AM, Sonja Trauss <sonja.trauss(a)gmail.com> wrote: > that is what the whole gentrification convo is about! white > people writing about how bad gentrification is for black people! This is a white supremist perspective that, among other things, erases the many people of color who write about gentrification. > whatever you guys - i'm at work. the list can ban me, you can talk shit as > much as you want, if you have nothing better to do all day. trolling 101

11 years, 4 months

robot arm

by Jake

so, sudoroom has a robot arm now. It took a lot of people and creativity to get it in! I have started sorting out the control box and I am removing the "spare" box that housed motor controllers for the assembly line, which are seperate from the robot itself. The robot's last job was building parts for bridges! The robot and its control box (and the 48 foot long cables that connect them!) are dirty! If you want a good start with this thing, consider grabbing a towel and some soapy water and cleaning it off. Nobody likes a dirty dog that marks you when you play with it. At present, the robot arm itself is in the CENTER of sudoroom. I know this is not necessarily a good place for it once it's working, but since the pile of doors is still where it is (because we still don't have a shop-vac to clean out the place where the doors are going?) and I didn't want to put it by the wall (because then the cords wouldn't reach) and I have to return the pallet jack today (the only way to move it) it will have to stay there until we decide on wednesday where to put it. And then we will need to borrow a pallet jack from somewhere... I propose that we keep it in the middle of the room until we get it to work at all, because until then (and i don't know how long it will be) it is totally immobile and thus not dangerous. But we will have to talk about it at the meeting, of course. But my personal opinion is that we should keep it in the middle where it is, after tuning its control systems to make it impossible for it to move rapidly enough to hurt anyone. But I realize some people will object to that suggestion and I respect that. If you are interested in doing things with the robot arm, such as learning how it works and how to operate it, let's talk about it. Also, we can start thinking about what to use it for! I think we should find a material (such as wax) that we can allow it to extrude like a 3d printer (but with a large bead) so that we can practice making big things. Also the people who sold us the robot can turn wax into bronze... -jake

11 years, 4 months

Re: [sudo-discuss] Tech Boom Spurs Changes in West Oakland | KQED News Fix

by yar

On Mon, Jul 28, 2014 at 8:12 AM, Sonja Trauss <sonja.trauss(a)gmail.com> wrote: >>>> Also, no mention of the black retirees and heirs thrilled about their new wealth. On Tue, Jul 29, 2014 at 11:27 AM, Praveen Sinha <dmhomee(a)gmail.com> wrote: >>> Please take your racist behavior and messages to some other space. It's not welcome at sudoroom. On Tue, Jul 29, 2014 at 11:29 AM, Sonja Trauss <sonja.trauss(a)gmail.com> wrote: >> be more specific - do you think there are zero black homeowners in west oakland? >> that is a fact you can look up. On Tue, Jul 29, 2014 at 11:33 AM, Praveen Sinha <dmhomee(a)gmail.com> wrote: > I'm not getting into it Sonja. Please leave and unsubscribe. Please feel free to reply and back me up if you feel similarly. Agreed. Thank you Praveen for saying something. I think it's disgusting to hear a white person use other peoples' experience of racism as a rhetorical pawn in her petty off-topic arguments about housing policy. I do not want that to be the tone we set for Sudoroom.

11 years, 4 months

Tech Boom Spurs Changes in West Oakland | KQED News Fix

by Romy＠snowyla.com

http://blogs.kqed.org/newsfix/2014/07/15/tech-boom-west-oakland Tech Boom Spurs Changes in West Oakland A new condo complex several blocks from the West Oakland BART station. (Sam Harnett/KQED) Once, you may have gone to West Oakland to hear James Brown or Aretha Franklin play the clubs on Seventh Street. The street was the center of a neighborhood rich in African-American history. NBA legend Bill Russell lived in West Oakland, and the Black Panthers had an office on Peralta Street. But the clubs closed decades ago and Bill Russell is long gone. In their wake, a new wave of residents are sweeping into the neighborhood — many of them white, and many of them coming from San Francisco because of the tech boom. According to the 2010 census, Oakland has more white inhabitants than black residents for the first time since the 1970s. Neighborhoods have been changing for decades, but the expanding tech industry is speeding up the process. Meanwhile, sky-high rents are pushing people out of San Francisco, with many ending up in West Oakland, the first BART stop on the east side of the bay. Over the last few decades, West Oakland has seen an increase of abandoned factories and shuttered businesses. Danita Robinson, a member of the Center Street Baptist Church on Tenth Street, says for a long time nobody would invest in West Oakland. But she says there is now more development in the neighborhood. The now-defunct Esther’s Orbit Room on Seventh Street in West Oakland. The unassuming club played host to many greats of jazz, blues and R&B, including Etta James, Al Green, B.B. King and Tina Turner. (Photo: RadioNicole/Flickr) For instance, developers recently built a high-end condo complex in West Oakland called Zephyr Gate. It’s a couple of blocks long and within walking distance from the West Oakland BART stop. “That was so abandoned for such a long time,” Robinson says. “Now it is all nice over there and Mr. Google and Mr. Doctor are living there.” Referring to to an old nickname for one section of the neighborhood, she asks, “What could we have put back there outside of these condos that would have been beneficial to the West Oakland area, especially what we call the lower bottoms down here?” Kenna Stormwell-Gougis lives in a Victorian across from the Center Street Baptist Church. She bought the house a decade ago. “I was the only white person on this block 10 years ago,” she says, “and now, I would say the block is 40 percent white.” She says lots of new people are riding by on bikes and popping in and out of old Victorian houses. Danita Robinson doesn’t think of the newcomers as West Oaklanders. “I call them San Franciscans,” she says. “Why else would you be moving to this area and not another area of Oakland? Because it’s three blocks from the BART station.” Dawn Phillips is the program co-director at Causa Justa::Just Cause. His organization published a report that shows some market-rate rents in West Oakland to be higher than in Rockridge and the Oakland Hills — two of the most affluent areas in the city. “When we looked at that data it blew us away,” Phillips says. “We did not know that.” Rent is rising throughout Oakland. The real estate company Trulia says rents increased 10.8 percent in May from the year before. That is the third highest rent hike in the country behind San Diego and San Francisco. The median price for a two-bedroom is now $2,450 a month. “This is a regional pressure that is being created,” Phillips says. “It is rippling out from San Francisco.” Soon he says, it will hit neighborhoods farther out in the Bay Area. In gathering data for their report, Causa Justa::Just Cause found an increase in the eviction and displacement of Africans-Americans from Oakland. Phillips says the current demographic change is just the final stage after decades of disinvestment in the area: “We understand gentrification to be pretty long-term, long-evolving historic process that is actually very systematic in nature.” 10th and Wood, a new sandwich shop near the Zephyr Gate condo complex. (Photo: Sam Harnett/KQED) Ron Lindsey can tell you first-hand how the long-term process played out in West Oakland, where he grew up. His father and uncle worked at the Navy shipyard. He saw that get shut down and the factory jobs shipped overseas. Then the businesses on Seventh Street started closing. He can still point out where they all were — a clothing store, a shoe shine parlor, barber shops, candy shops and night clubs. “All of these were black businesses,” Lindsey says. After companies outsourced the neighborhood’s factory jobs, the tax base eroded and social services were cut. Unemployment and violence spiked. Lindsey watched as highways and train lines carved up the neighborhood. The elevated BART rails got built right over Seventh Street. Now where there was once music, there is the screech of trains, drowning out everything below. People left. Eventually, so did Lindsey. Phillips says gentrification is this whole progression, from job loss to neighborhood decay to redevelopment. Danita Robinson says even though things are changing, there is no way for her to move up. “I don’t want to be low-rent,” Robinson says. “I don’t want to be low-income. I would like to move up. I can’t afford that condo. It looks nice. I want to be in that condo. But you killed all my jobs, so how am I gonna get in that condo?” Robinson cleans houses for a living, and her husband works two jobs. The couple is expecting a baby, so she hopes they can find better employment soon. Note: The caption for the top photo in this post has been updated. The original caption identified the condo displayed as part of Zephyr Gate, which KQED has not been able to confirm. Explore: Oakland, Priced Out, West Oakland Category: Housing Sent from my iPhone

11 years, 4 months

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