Friday, May 28, 2021 www.nabca.org

• PA: State legislature discussing reforms of the Liquor Management Commission • IL: 10 p.m. liquor sales cutoff ‘not written in stone,’ top mayoral aide says TODAY’S • Australia: ABA highlights cultural change in alcohol consumption HIGHLIGHTS • America's Ambivalence About Youth and Alcohol • Heineken deploys mobile ads on Waze to discourage drunken driving • Case After Case — Lager Beer’s Time in Court in the 1850s

CONTROL STATE NEWS NABCA NEWS PA: State legislature discussing reforms of the The Collection: An Alcohol Research Summary Liquor Management Commission (formerly Annotated Bibliography) A comprehensive overview of the latest scientific evidence on Pennsylvania News Today important topics related to alcohol policy. By Chriss Pink May 27, 2021 Sharing Solutions E-Newsletter! A platform for the NABCA community to share successful Harrisburg, Pennsylvania-State Congressman implementationS and lessons learned about your Frank Burns has introduced a bill package to good work. expand membership in the Liquor Management Commission. Reduce the governor’s impact on the ADDITIONAL LINKS appointment of LCBs. Reduce payments for LCB members by 40%. Visit NABCA’s website for information on: The House Democratic National Committee • Control State Agency Information described the package as the “first salvo” of the • Doing Business in Control States reform proposal, suggesting that more would • NABCA News continue. Congressman Burns’ bill will extend LCB membership from three to five, with one each for the Governor, the Democratic Party of the House, the Republican House of Representatives, the Democratic Senate, and the Republican Senate. Currently, the governor has appointed all three directors. The 40% reduction is based on splitting the current budget into five directors. Regular member salaries will drop from $ 78,751 to $ 47,500, and presidential salaries will drop from $ 81,890 to $ 49,500. “I believe that the legislators of both houses should have a say on who oversees the sale and license of alcohol in Pennsylvania,” Burns said. 2

“Institutions of this size will benefit from a wide At an unrelated news conference Thursday, range of board members who provide oversight Lightfoot said she, too, is willing to “work with” and guidance.” liquor and convenience store owners “to see where we can reach an accommodation.” Burns goes on to say: “The Pennsylvania Liquor Management Commission is a vast and powerful But she added: “They’ve got to … be better actors body responsible for running hundreds of and in these communities. Nobody should suffer spirits retail stores, licensing thousands of venues, because of liquor sales that stretch into the early and conducting alcohol education and training. morning hours that then become a real magnet Given that, I believe that the decision-maker should for problems in neighborhoods.” come from a different path than the three board of Downtown Ald. Brendan Reilly (42nd) agrees their directors nominated by the governor and should be some flexibility. confirmed by the state legislature. “ “My preference would be to use our Burns Invoice- HB 1149 And HB 1150 -It works by administrative tools to crack down on bad actors amending the state liquor law and civil service and hopefully, perhaps, negotiate on the closure compensation law. hour,” Reilly said. LICENSE STATE NEWS Rob Karr, president of the Illinois Retail Merchants Association, said he hopes to land at IL: 10 p.m. liquor sales cutoff ‘not written in “something far closer to their original licensure,” stone,’ top mayoral aide says which is a 2 a.m. closing time. The proposal to permanently cut off liquor sales in “We engaged in an agreed rollback [to 9 p.m.] at retail stores at 10 p.m. has emerged as the most their request, allegedly to help with COVID. controversial element of Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s There’s no data that we’ve seen yet to justify why sweeping pandemic relief package, which was we need to move it” permanently to 10 p.m., Karr unveiled Wednesday. said. Chicago Sun Times By Fran Spielman The 10 p.m. cutoff has emerged as the most May 27, 2021 controversial element of the mayor’s sweeping Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s plan to require liquor, pandemic relief package. grocery and convenience stores to cut off liquor Escareno initially told the Sun-Times on Thursday sales at 10 p.m. is “not written in stone,” a top that sales of cocktails-to-go by restaurants and mayoral aide said Thursday, opening the door to bars also would end at 10 p.m. pushing back the deadline or eliminating it entirely. “There’s a Frank Sinatra song about Chicago — “The hours that are in this package — that is an that toddling town Billy Sunday can’t shut down. introduction. … This is a starting point. … This is not That is the character of our city. We are not a closed door. This is not a done deal,” Business Wheaton,” said Pat Doerr, managing director of Affairs and Consumer Protection Commissioner the Hospitality Business Association of Chicago. Rosa Escareno told the Sun-Times. He urged Lightfoot to steer clear of “sweeping, “I’m not gonna predict where we land. But it’s industry-wide measures” that change “the definitely gonna be a dialogue and a conversation. character of our city known world-wide.” Crack … I want to hear the businesses. I embrace what down on “problem individual licensees” instead, they’re telling me. he said. …But we have to make the issues that our residents Within an hour of the interview, however, the are bringing us … central to this conversation.” Sun-Times got a “clarifying email” from Isaac Reichman, spokesman for Escareno’s department: “The 10 p.m. cutoff would not apply to cocktails- 3 to-go, since they are not sold from package good asked to produce the contract. They also run the stores.” risk of being fined. Yet another political flashpoint is the mayor’s plan “We need the domestic workers to feel valued to shave up to two months off the 150-day wait for and to be protected. They are among the most business permits, signs and awnings. No longer vulnerable employees,” Escareno said. would a separate ordinance be required for each “We want to make sure that there is a very simple public way permit. contract where you say you’re getting the That tramples on aldermanic turf. But, Escareno minimum wage and these are the conditions of said, “This is not about aldermanic prerogative. This work.” is about expediting the way we issue permits. It is unreasonable for a small business that wants a sign INTERNATIONAL NEWS or an awning to take 120 days and maybe even longer. … Businesses can’t put up that sign. Can’t Australia: ABA highlights cultural change in tell people that they’re open. Can’t advertise their alcohol consumption business practices because they’re waiting for an Food Processing ordinance to clear.” May 28, 2021 Escareno noted that during the pandemic, Australia’s body has called for the aldermen agreed to expedite the process for government to consider the latest insights on sidewalk café permits. alcohol consumption when it outlines the “They said, ‘We want to review the permit. But National Preventive Health Strategy. once we review it ... go and issue’” the permit, In a submission to the government, Alcohol Escareno said. Beverages Australia (ABA) has highlighted “That’s exactly what we’re asking for in this Australia’s maturing relationship with the use and ordinance. We have a proven pilot we can point to consumption of alcohol, where drinking in where the aldermen know we worked with them. … moderation is the new norm. The process that we just had over the past year has ABA CEO Andrew Wilsmore said it is time the worked.” government gave Australians “a pat on the back” Yet another point of contention is almost certain to for leading such a significant cultural change. emerge: the proposal requiring anyone in Chicago “The job isn’t completed just yet, but the key hiring a “domestic worker” to enter into a written drivers of these improvements must feature in contract to pay them a minimum of $15-an-hour. any forward-looking preventative health That applies even if somebody whether someone strategy,” he said. cleans your house once a week or twice a month. “The vast majority of Australians are now Escareno said she plans to mitigate that potential choosing to drink at low-risk levels, including a bureaucratic nightmare by posting a short-and- 50% increase in the number of underage sweet one-page contract on her department Australians abstaining from alcohol over the past website that homeowners can download. 14 years and an 18% decrease in the number of Australians drinking at lifetime risky levels.” “This is not gonna be a 20-page contract, a 10-page contract, a five-page contract. This is a simple Announced in 2019, the National Preventive document,” she said. Health Strategy aims to improve the health of Australians through early intervention, better City inspectors won’t knock on every door. But if information, and targeting risk factors and the housekeepers complain about a boss who isn’t broader causes of health and wellbeing. Part of paying at least $15-an-hour, their employer will be this strategy is to reduce the harmful 4 consumption of alcohol and its negative impact on India Today society. India Today Web Desk New Delhi The initiative, which is currently being drafted, is May 28, 2021 part of a larger 10-year framework that will tackle obesity, chronic conditions and tobacco use. The domestic liquor industry managed to see a strong sales revival in the second half of FY21, Wilsmore said many people don’t realise that per- helping limit the overall sales decline during the capita consumption of alcohol is at its lowest level last financial year to just 12 per cent, show data in 50 years due to Australian’s adjusting the way compiled by industry body Confederation of they drink — choosing to drink less, but often Indian Alcoholic Beverage Companies (CIABC). choosing to drink better. The liquor industry, like most other businesses, “There have been reductions too in the harms of suffered severely due to the nationwide lockdown alcohol, with the government’s own figures last year. Liquor sales fell by nearly 42 per cent in showing a 32% decrease in alcohol-related physical the first quarter of 2020-21 and another nine per violence and a 20% reduction in verbal abuse since cent in the second. Therefore, liquor sales 2013.” declined by an average of at least 29 per cent in ABA supports the proposed target of a 10% the first six months of the previous year. reduction in harmful consumption by Australians Liquor stales started witnessing a recovery only but recommends it be aligned with the during the festive season last year when the government’s target set in the National Alcohol decline was reduced to just one per cent in the Strategy, where all states agreed to a 10% third quarter. And in the fourth quarter, liquor reduction between 2019 and 2028. sales had registered a six per cent growth. ABA also urges the final National Preventive Health On the contrary, some states like West Bengal, Strategy to present an important time series Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh witnessed large analysis to show the improvements across many declines in sales compared to the previous diseases and risk factors, and to ensure the financial year. government’s preventative health policy and regulatory response are appropriate after clearly CIABC Director General Vinod Giri said many defining the problems solved. states showed a positive trend through the quarters and added that strong performance in “Australians are getting healthier. In the most the third and fourth quarters of FY21 “reflects the recent Burden of Disease Study, we can see fundamental strength” in the market. cardiovascular disease has decreased significantly over 40 years, down 36% (age-standardised rate), “It also confirms that there is no lasting shift along with substantial drops in the age- against alcoholic beverages in consumption standardised burden attributable to high baskets,” Giri said. cholesterol (down 49%), high blood pressure (down Giri gave an indication that the sales could have 41%) and dietary risk (down 34%),” said Wilsmore. been higher if some states had withdrawn high cess/tax they imposed during the first wave of Covid. India: Strong sales in second half of FY21 helps domestic liquor industry limit losses It is worth mentioning that alcohol along with The strict nationwide lockdown in India in FY21 led to a petrol, diesel and power are the few items that 12 per cent decline in sales of Indian made foreign liquor remain outside the purview of GST and are tax by (IMFL) in comparison to the previous financial year, state governments as well. Often, states hike according to the Confederation of Indian Alcoholic prices on sin goods like alcohol and tobacco to Beverage Companies. offset revenue shortfall from other sources.

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However, Giri suggested that the assumption that limits has been on steroids as we grow weary of high taxes on alcohol will yield greater revenues is a being told what to do.” “misplaced assumption”. Citing FY21 figures, he Truth be told, there is another actor in play: suggests that the fall in sales was on account of America’s collective ambivalence about youth and higher taxes, therefore negating the increase in the alcohol. government’s revenues. Kids may tell us, “Everyone, really, everyone does Higher prices on account of higher taxes not only it!” But in high school and college, as in life, things lower case sales, but they also force consumers are not always what they appear to be. Indeed, downtrade to cheaper options. Thus tax collection some studies show a decline in alcohol per bottle also goes down, leading to a consumption by youth. disproportionately higher loss in tax revenues,” he added. Still, a few myths remain entrenched. “Kids will be kids and drinking is normative behavior” PUBLIC HEALTH NEWS (although not healthy or safe). “If we let kids ‘learn’ to drink at home, they’ll be less likely to be America's Ambivalence About Youth and Alcohol drinking elsewhere.” On that argument, it’s Our collective ambivalence about youth and alcohol is a actually the opposite. More than half (57 percent) problem. of high school students who say their parents let Psychology Today them drink at home – even just once in a while By Stephen Wallace, Author | Reviewed by Lybi Ma (such as a special occasion) – report drinking with May 27, 2021 friends, as compared to just 14 percent whose parents don’t let them use alcohol at all. News last week that seven Bowling Green State University students pleaded not guilty to charges According to a study in Lancet Public Health, stemming from the alcohol-related hazing death of which followed 1,900 Australian adolescents for sophomore Stone Foltz at a Pi Kappa Alpha event six years, parents are not protecting their children will hopefully refocus America on the issue of from the dangers of alcohol just by exposing them underage drinking and begs the question, “Why is to alcohol at home. this still happening?” (Wilkinson, 2021). And then there’s the false equivalence: We should There are biological antecedents (adolescent brains do it as Europe does. Much of Europe has worse are not fully developed prior to the start of college) teen drinking problems than does the United and family factors. Cheryl Stumpf, MS, NCC, LPC, an States (Lopez, 2016). EMDR Certified Mental Health Counselor at a At the center of the great debate that Pennsylvania university, says that the majority of characterizes America's ambivalence toward students she sees in her practice are suffering from youth and alcohol lies a profound lack of anxiety, often related to a lack of “distress awareness of the costs of underage drinking and tolerance,” having been coddled too much at home the physical, social, and emotional toll it can take and not allowed to experience failure. Added to on those who engage in this illegal and thus those is public health etiology (the COVID-19 inherently irresponsible behavior.” What are pandemic, which has spawned some degree of they? According to the Centers for Disease social isolation). On that last point, Stumpf told me, Control and Prevention, they include the “I have watched students who would have made following (CDC, 2020). sound decisions around risk make appallingly bad decisions this year that have put themselves and • School problems, such as higher rates of others at risk. As if that weren’t bad enough, they absences or lower grades. turned around and did it again without even • Social problems, such as fighting or lack of thinking about what they learned from the last participation in youth activities. time. It’s as if the rebellious factor of testing the 6

• Legal problems, such as arrest for driving or Various studies show that any amount of alcohol physically hurting someone while drunk. causes damage to the brain. • Physical problems, such as hangovers or In response to the death of Stone Foltz, a local illnesses. official said of underage drinking, “If you’re not a part of the solution, you may be viewed as part of • Unwanted, unplanned, and unprotected sexual the problem.” activity. Indeed. • Disruption of normal growth and sexual development. CDC. (2020). Underage drinking. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. October 23, • Physical and sexual violence. 2020. https://www.cdc.gov/alcohol/fact- • Increased risk of suicide and homicide. sheets/underage-drinking.htm (24 May 2021). • Alcohol-related motor vehicle crashes and IBH. (2021). Youth drug use is not inevitable. other unintentional injuries, such as burns, Institute for Behavior and Health. falling, or drowning. https://www.ibhinc.org (24 May 2021). • Memory problems. Lopez, G. (2016). Europe has lower drinking ages • Misuse of other substances. than the US – and worse teen drinking problems. Vox. January 26, 2016. • Changes in brain development that may have https://www.vox.com/2016/1/26/10833208/euro life-long effects. pe-lower-drinking-age (24 May 2021). • Alcohol poisoning. What’s a solution? INDUSTRY NEWS The Institute for Behavior and Health (IBH) offers Heineken deploys mobile ads on Waze to one approach, stating, “Youth Drug Use is Not discourage drunken driving Inevitable.” IBH has conducted original analyses of Marketing Dive national data sets on youth substance use By Asa Hiken, Associate Editor behaviors with two critical findings (IBH, 2021). May 27, 2021 For teens, all substance use is related. The use of Dive Brief: any one substance increases the likelihood of using others; similarly, not using any one substance Heineken USA is partnering with Waze and its decreases the risk of using others. mobile ad offering to discourage drunken driving, per an announcement emailed to Marketing Dive. More than ever, American youth are choosing to Starting on May 27, Waze users in California will not use any alcohol, cigarettes, marijuana, or other receive Heineken-branded ads when stationary drugs. This number has increased for over three reminding them not to drink and drive. decades. The ads will specifically target drivers heading to IBH has developed a clear youth prevention social venues, such as parks, restaurants and message in One Choice: Do not use any alcohol, sports stadiums. Heineken anticipates a surge in nicotine, marijuana, or other drugs under the age social activity starting Memorial Day weekend and of 21 for reasons of health. Focused on adolescent ahead of California's planned reopening on June health and rooted in the unique vulnerability of the 15, per the announcement. Heineken will also developing brain, the One Choice message supports provide credits redeemable for a free Uber ride all other prevention messages and can be for interested participants. integrated into other prevention programming (One Choice, 2021). Heineken's new campaign sees the brewer leveraging Waze's in-app mobile ad offering to 7 strengthen its standing as a brand that cares about reopening their economies to pre-pandemic responsible drinking. The tie-up also arrives as levels. In California, where the Waze ads will more brands, especially in the alcohol industry, are launch, virtually all COVID-related restrictions will preparing for consumers' return to pre-pandemic end starting June 15, including capacities on mass lifestyles. sporting events and concerts. Dive Insight: Faced with a changing society, Heineken joins a growing number of brands who are reframing Heineken's latest marketing effort resumes its their messaging around a return to normalcy. social good-focused messaging through a highly Earlier this month, Pepsi released a polarizing TV targeted mobile activation. Waze, which was spot called "The Mess We Miss," which portrays a acquired by Google in 2013, uses a destination- future where people take part in germ-spreading based marketing strategy through which the app is activities, and the following week Coke launched able to tailor ads to drivers based on where they its own anticipation of normal society through are going. Heineken's drunken driving-oriented poetic packaging evoking summer. The alcohol message will leverage this mobile tech to target industry in particular has taken to these specifically those consumers who are headed to campaigns, as people return to bars and social destinations that may expose them to alcohol events resume for the warmer months. consumption, such as parks, restaurants and sports stadiums. Moreover, not only will the beer brand send drivers in-app, Heineken-branded DAILY NEWS notifications, but it will also provide credits Are alcohol stocks the secret to a diverse redeemable for a free Uber ride for those who are portfolio? interested, a move that illustrates Heineken is committed to responsible consumption. Value the Markets by: Anna Farley "Enjoy Heineken Responsibly" continues to be a May 28, 2021 pillar of the brand's engagement with consumers, even as fatalities stemming from drunken driving Alongside companies operating in areas like have decreased over the years, according to the weaponry, gambling, marijuana and tobacco, announcement. In 2020, Heineken's parent publicly-traded alcohol firms are commonly company Heineken N.V. invested 10% of its media counted among the so-called ‘sin stocks’ on the spend in responsible consumption campaigns, a market. goal it intends to maintain in the years following. The name sin stocks comes from an association The brand in 2017 introduced its non-alcoholic with supposedly immoral or unethical activities. beverage, Heineken 0.0, which made its way to the However, this is really just a way to categorise and U.S. in 2019 powered by buzzy marketing efforts group disparate industries in an easy way. Plus, featuring movie and TV stars. many of us are happy to use these products – so The tie-up with Waze expands upon two larger, why wouldn’t we invest in them too? company-wide efforts in particular: Heineken N.V.'s One of the most obvious benefits for investors is "When You Drink, Never Drive" campaign, launched the number of popular alcohol brands on the in 2016 as a partnership with Formula One racing, market. This includes everything from Pernod and its 2030 Brew a Better World program, which ’s (EPA: RI) Jameson to Brown-Forman’s was announced last month and sets environmental, (NYSE: BF.B | NYSE:BF.A) Jack Daniel’s. sustainability and responsible consumption goals for its brands. The /whiskey distinction comes down to location—from Scotland and Japan it’s whisky, Heineken's new campaign arrives at an exciting yet while from Ireland or the US then it’s whiskey uncertain time for the U.S. as an increasing number with an ‘e’. But whatever the spelling, pick your of vaccinations are leading to more states 8 favourite tipple and there’s a good chance you can important to look out for are familiar brands, invest in the company that makes it. large distribution networks, and solid dividends. The virtues of sin stocks Distiller for hire Branding lends considerable pricing power to Alongside more typical alcohol stocks are craft alcohol stocks. And the sizeable cash flows and distilleries. Craft breweries have ballooned in global distribution networks this drives can help popularity of late. In the US, for example, Brewers firms to pay out strong dividends. Because of this, Association figures showed an explosion in the dividends are a major factor to consider when it number of sites, from 4,803 in 2015 to 8,764 in comes to investing in alcohol stocks. 2020. Brown-Forman, for example, is among Sure This was accompanied by a rise in craft distilleries Dividend’s ‘Dividend Aristocrats’—a list of 65 S&P making spirits like and rum as well as, of 500 stocks that have raised dividends for 25 or course, whisky. This is where MGP Ingredients more consecutive years. (NASDAQ: MGPI | FRA: M1I) makes its name. MGP functions as a whiskey distiller-for-hire for Not only that, but the company is actually both craft and premium brands. expanding its distillery amid a growing demand for American whiskey. Indeed, it plans to double the MGP has seen major share price gains from the capacity of its facility in Louisville, Kentucky. This craft distillery boom, rising more than 300% since follows an 18% rise in reported net sales of its 2015. At the start of April, MGP completed its premium bourbons in its fiscal first half. acquisition of US whiskey maker Luxco. Luxco owns brands like Rebel Yell, as An alcohol stock with a similarly strong dividend well as traditional brand Quiet Man. history is London-listed Diageo (LON: DGE). Using a craft distillery like MGP lets brands focus The firm, which owns world famous whisky brand their efforts on marketing and branding. Johnnie Walker, paid consistently higher interim Meanwhile, MGP handles the distilling process and final dividends all the way though to 2019. And itself. while it opted to maintain its final financial 2020 dividend amid the pandemic, it has already hiked its In high spirits interim dividend for financial 2021. As Bob Ciura at Sure Dividend put it: “Investors Indeed, despite the Covid-19 crisis, as well as the looking for companies that generate strong profits recent Indian case surge, Diageo shares are up 11% and pay dividends should take a closer look at the year-to-date. major alcohol stocks.” Over in Paris, ’s shares are up 9% so Sure Dividend’s list of top six alcohol stocks far in 2021, having already surpassed their price at includes Constellation Brands (NYSE: STZ), which the start of 2020 despite a pandemic-driven dip. makes High West Whiskey, as well as Brown- Pernod Ricard keeps itself decentralised, with 86 Forman of course. direct affiliates worldwide, as well as 94 production But its number one pick is Diageo, which, aside sites. Its brands are distributed in more than 160 from whisky, also owns Guinness stout as well as countries. Smirnoff and Baileys Irish cream liqueur. Some countries, like South Africa and Greenland, Meanwhile, vino vest’s list of top 2021 alcohol temporarily banned the sale of alcohol. However, stocks also includes Brown-Forman, as well as alcohol’s position as a consumer staple has likely Corby Spirit and Wine (TSE: CSW.A | TSE: CSW.B) helped aid recovery among these stocks. – a Canadian company 46% owned by Pernod It seems like these supposed sin stocks may, in fact, Ricard. Corby Spirit and Wine’s portfolio includes have some very compelling virtues. The most JP Wiser’s Whisky. 9

Anheuser-Busch InBev (NYSE: BUD | EBR: ABI | JSE: A quirky argument in a court case is a novelty. But ANH | FRA: 1NBA) also made both dozens of independent cases, spread out over a recommendation lists. Understandable, given the few years and thousands of miles? That’s a trend company’s portfolio of more than 400 beer brands or, more to the point, a craze. like Budweiser, Stella Artois, and Becks. During the 1850s and beyond, the so-called With so many famous brands in the space, as well “question” of whether Lager beer could intoxicate as adjacent businesses like MGP Ingredients, a person repeatedly went to trial. Brewers and alcohol stocks should be first in line for any investor saloon owners were hauled into courts urban and planning to diversify. This is especially true for rural, eastern and western, big and small as a anyone seeking relatively stable companies with wave of Lager beer crested over the United impressive dividends. States—and as the early prohibition movement tried to stem the tide one block at a time. They shaped one of the first debates on the health Case After Case — Lager Beer’s Time in Court in effects of American Lager beer during the 19th the 1850s century, but hardly the only one. I’ll look at more Goodbeer Hunting of those debates in the future, but right now Words by Brian Alberts there’s a big question to answer: When Keyser May 27, 2021 and others argued in court that Lager beer didn’t intoxicate … did their gambit work? “It may burst a man, but it will not make him drunk.” Yes. And no. These cases, like the other Lager debates of the 1800s, were proxies for larger So said Solomon Keyser’s expert witness. The concerns over a shifting American drinking Petersburg, Virginia saloon owner stood trial in culture, public health, urbanization, immigrant summer 1855 for keeping a disorderly beer hall, a inclusion and, depending on whom you asked, the fancy way of saying he’d sold Lager beer the wrong moral soul of the nation. Americans responded to way and violated local liquor laws. But the public Lager beer in highly subjective ways, but not just wasn’t really interested in what Keyser had or because of the product itself. hadn’t done. The real defendant in his trial—and the actual mystery everyone wanted to solve—was These challenges and conversations also offered Lager beer itself. fresh attempts to answer a much older question—of whether beer is good for us in the Keyser’s defense was straightforward, if a little first place. strange. He claimed that liquor laws didn’t really apply to him because those laws regulated \In other words, everyone prosecuting or intoxicating beverages, and that Lager beer—the defending Lager beer in court during the 1850s only alcoholic beverage he sold—didn’t intoxicate. went in with a lot of baggage. Prevailing ideas about alcohol’s medical and scientific properties; Hence the expert witness, who spent a great deal beer’s broader health implications; and politicized of time explaining to the jury exactly what this new, class, ethnic, and community relationships all mysterious drink was, and how it was made. Then informed public reactions to a new, weird style of he concluded that no matter how much Lager a beer called Lager. person drank, they’d never get truly drunk. His evidence: He knew of “ladies” in New York and That baggage was decades in the making. For one Philadelphia who often drank 17-20 pints of Lager thing, alcohol was everywhere in early America. at once without feeling a thing. That’s up to two- Adults drank more than three times the quantity and-a-half gallons, and it’s also one of the more of alcohol they do today, usually in the form of conservative testimonials that Lager drinkers would distilled liquors and hard cider. According to offer in court that decade. historian Maureen Ogle, they drank every day of the week, at all hours of the day, and that’s why 10 drinking could be seen as such a problem. “And allegedly good and bad alcohol consumption, and frankly, I have a fair amount of sympathy for that,” beer straddled it. she says. “If you were living in, say, New York City This line, and the perceived connection between at the time, which had a population of not quite a alcohol and wider behavioral and societal effects, million ... in the 1840s and 1850s, you were would linger in American minds throughout the exposed to intoxicated people all of the time, 1800s. But a significant evolution in the politics of wherever you went.” alcohol was taking place right around 1840, when All this alcohol made workers less productive; Lager first appeared in the United States. disrupted social order; and encouraged people of OBJECTIONS different races, ethnicities, and genders to get a little too close to each other—at least, that’s how There’s one reference to it as tasting like tobacco the rich and powerful saw it. They were desperate juice and another one that it tastes like a jar of to steer and control alcohol consumption as a way soap suds that a pickle has been put to soak in.” to steer and control society as a whole. And to do According to historian and former journalist Lee that, they needed to explain the effects of alcohol Graves, Lager made a mixed first impression upon in the first place. its arrival to the United States. It was, at first, the But doing that was tricky. As Ogle explains, medical drink of German immigrants, but it was also more knowledge was incomplete and “fuzzier” during the than that. It served as a near ubiquitous 19th century, and so researchers often expanded expression of German-Americans’ ethnocultural their comments into a “huge kind of meta beliefs about work/life balance, social bonds, argument … that alcohol in general is bad for you. leisure, pleasure, and the cultivation of a fully It’s bad for the country. It’s bad for society. It lived life. They didn’t just view Lager as an alcohol makes people behave in degenerate ways. It breaks delivery system. Many German immigrants, up families.” particularly those from Bavaria, saw Lager as literally nutritious. Germans fully understood that Alcohol use was often associated with behaviors Lager was alcoholic, and thus a person could like laziness, fighting, or, in extreme cases, suicide. overdo it, but culturally speaking they generally It was linked with physical maladies ranging from didn’t drink to get drunk. Observers of German gout to insanity. Alcohol’s effects were also picnics, celebrations, beer halls, etc, often aggregated into social issues like crime, hunger, and remarked on how little drunkenness they saw in poverty, among others. And all of these those spaces. From the German immigrant determinations were heavily politicized and prone perspective, intoxication had almost nothing to do to bias. Of course, alcohol use does have real with Lager. physiological and societal effects—those effects continue to be studied, and both politics and bias But the rest of American society, those watching can still come into play. But these historical German immigrant communities from the associations simmered through the 17th, 18th, and outside, didn’t always pick up on that. Ultimately, 19th centuries until bias became prevailing wisdom. German-American drinking culture would take decades to fully reconcile with broader American A particularly important tenet in early America was culture. In the meantime, there would be growing that the stronger the drink, the worse the pains, especially with anti-immigrant partisans consequences. Toddies and punch might just make called nativists and the anti-alcohol temperance a person lazy, but rum and whiskey led to anarchy movement. and murder. Beer and cider, on the other hand, were viewed as moderate and less harmful. If “People are always also asking themselves what consumed sparingly, they were even considered role do immigrants play in American society and nourishing and strengthening by some. In other how willing are we to embrace them into our words, there was an imaginary line between culture,” Ogle points out. Whiteness in American 11 history has always been an arbitrary construct with disgusting bitter swill, tinctured with alcohol.” dire consequences, and in the 1850s neither Facts like those, they also said, “would never be German nor Irish immigrants were considered doubted anywhere, except in a New York Court.” white by Anglo-American society. Their religion, They weren’t wrong about that last part. By 1858, their politics, their public behavior, their food and New York courts already had years of waffling music, everything they did seemed strange, if not over Lager beer under their belt. offensive. And for Germans, beer was so present in all these aspects of their lives that it became a PERIPATETIC BEER VATS ready target. Long before national Prohibition in 1920, the The temperance movement began targeting beer temperance movement temporarily succeeded in like never before during the 1850s. Before that getting some dozen states to pass prohibition time, temperance reformers had often relied on laws called Maine Laws (named for the first state moral suasion to reduce drinking, a tactic which to enact one). New York passed its own in spring worked well on imbibers of traditionally “bad” 1855, and soon snagged its first victim: John liquors like rum and whiskey. But few Americans Berberrich, a Poughkeepsie saloonkeeper charged wanted to give up alcohol completely, and public with selling Lager beer. Like Solomon Keyser, perceptions of beer had always straddled that line Berberrich readily copped to selling the beer, but between good and bad. So reformers moved the he claimed he was innocent all the same because goalposts by demanding total abstention from Lager beer didn’t intoxicate. alcohol, or teetotalism. And if people wouldn’t give It sounds silly, but there was a certain logic to this up alcohol voluntarily, reformers would use the rule defense. As Ogle explains, it helped differentiate of law to force them. beer from the problematic hard liquors of the “There were literally thousands of attempts around period, and did so by playing on commonly held the country using local option laws,” Ogle says, beliefs about gradations between alcohol types. It “which meant that people in a county or even a stoked the exact mindset that the temperance township could vote to limit … how much access movement was trying to change, frustrating their people could have to alcohol.” efforts. Short of outright bans, nativists and temperance Next, as Graves points out, it forced the reformers could seek other limitations that focused prosecution to prove a difficult point. “[T]here mainly on immigrant drinking. “It was really a was no standard of what constitutes intoxication,” practical idea for the legislators to attack [Lager he says. “There was no 0.08 blood alcohol level or beer] in court rather than any other way,” Ogle whatever some of these states [say] about what says. “And so they pass laws, said you can’t sell constitutes … if you’re drunk or not. So it was just intoxicating beverages on Sunday, and they try to a matter of interpretation.” enforce it.” Without hard science or legal standards to fall on, In a vacuum, Lager beer might have slotted into many of these cases hinged on testimony. In that earlier spectrum of good and bad alcohol quite other words, a witness would get on the stand, well. It was lower in alcohol and largely associated, swear to drinking Lager, and say whether or not at least among German immigrants, with moderate they got drunk when they did. Of course, some consumption habits. But the political landscape had local barfly claiming he took a sip and felt fine changed that equation entirely. wouldn’t exactly help the defense, so some of these witnesses ended up saying they could drink Lager “stultifies, stupefies, and brutalizes,” a ridiculous amounts of Lager beer without ever prominent temperance magazine announced in getting drunk. 1858. “The man who drinks half a pint of raw whiskey is not guilty of the same self-degradation In Berberrich’s case, a physician testified not only as the fellow who pours down five gallons of that Lager beer wasn’t intoxicating, but that he 12 could drink 20 glasses in a single sitting without a string of local Germans, each claiming to feeling drunk. One Christian Clause, a reportedly regularly drink 20, 40, 60, even 80 glasses of Lager stout man, swore to the court that he drank 60 a day without problems. One Jacob Haas boasted pints of Lager within 12 hours without feeling a that he could drink 106 glasses of Lager in a single thing. The courtroom audience laughed out loud sitting, and had in fact drunk 22 that very day when he said so, and the press dubbed him a “little before appearing in court … at 11 a.m. walking beer cask” and a “peripatetic beer vat.” Newspapers had a field day. The story was It sounded silly, but it worked. The jury in reprinted around the country until readers in just Berberrich’s case halfheartedly convicted him but about every state knew how much Lager a group sidestepped the question of intoxication. It was of random New York Germans could purportedly enough grounds for an appeal. The case wound up drink. As one paper said, “It is sworn to, but we before the New York Supreme Court, who ruled in don’t swallow it, nor do we believe anybody else Berberrich’s favor and struck down the state’s shiny will.” new prohibition law in the process. Except the jury. Staats was likewise acquitted Of course, not everyone was buying it. A New York when the jury ruled that, as far as New York City Herald reporter covering the story suggested that law was concerned, Lager beer was a non- Berberrich must be cheating his customers with alcoholic beverage. To be clear: that’s since been watered-down beer, and suggested locking a “jury” reversed. of Germans in a room for 12 hours to confirm they Lager beer trials weren’t confined to New York could drink that much, but the media spectacle City. Similar trials took place in upstate New York; didn’t change the verdict. rural Wisconsin and Indiana; Virginia; OVERRULED Washington, D.C.; and Massachusetts, among other areas. And humblebrags about drinking Barred from a statewide solution, New York gallons of Lager didn’t always convince juries. temperance reformers reverted to local option Verdicts shifted with locations as politics did. tactics. In early 1858, they finally convinced the “[I]t’s going to be like pornography,” Ogle points mayor of New York City to enforce a Sunday ban on out. “I’ll know it when I see it. But the people who liquor sales that basically everyone ignored. are seeing it are jurors, and jurors in Iowa would According to Graves’ research, several police have been completely different than jurors in say, officers were sent to patrol Brooklyn on a Sunday New York City or Washington, D.C.” night and began asking Lager beer vendors— including concert halls and beer gardens as well as Lager was declared non-intoxicating in saloons—to close shop for the night. It was such a Washington, D.C., but not in Washington, Indiana. controversial move that about a dozen reporters New York struck down its prohibition law over a followed the patrol to observe what happened. Lager beer trial, but the Massachusetts Supreme Some venues complied but others, like a Brooklyn Court upheld its own. Interestingly, an Ale brewer saloon run by proprietor George Staats, refused. tried to ride the Lager beer hype to get their 8% And Lager beer went back to court. Strong Ale declared non-intoxicating in Burlington, Vermont. It didn’t work. Staats’ case in Brooklyn followed the same basic pattern of Berberrich’s, only magnified. Same All the while, the media fed a nationwide frenzy argument—that he was innocent because Lager with the debate over intoxication. An Ohio paper didn’t intoxicate—just with more witnesses. A quipped “much information has been gained as to professor testified that Lager, at roughly 3% ABV at the capacity of the stomach of lager bier-drinking the time, was therefore far less intoxicating than Dutchmen,” as Germans were derisively called at other forms of alcohol. A physician then took the the time. When a Richmond, Virginia man was stand to say that Lager beer was the “nearest thing arrested for drinking beer and subsequently to nothing a man can drink.” They were followed by passing out in public, the paper winkingly 13 remarked that he “rather upset the theory adopted CNN in New York Courts” about Lager. Though the hype By Tom Page, CNN Business died down as the Civil War loomed, the periodic May 28, 2021 Lager beer trial would dredge up familiar London (CNN Business)A California startup that arguments (and wisecracks) over the next 20 years. taught a computer to "taste" wine is using the Temperance literature tried to make real hay out of technology to help winemakers improve their the controversy, publishing (among other things) products and attract new customers. rambling essays that blamed German culture, Founder Katerina Axelsson says Tastry uses Germans’ bodily health, and even the state of their artificial intelligence (AI) to analyze "tens of government on their affinity for Lager beer. But for thousands of a year," generating vast reams all the bluster, the temperance movement didn’t of data to help winemakers and retailers target win this battle. their products more effectively. CONTINUANCE Axelsson formed her idea as a chemistry student Lager beer wasn’t given a complete legal pass in working at a winery, where she noticed American courtrooms, but these trials kept the "idiosyncrasies" in how wine was evaluated. A game going. Debates over Lager beer’s intoxicating 100,000-gallon tank of wine would be divided in effects went unresolved, and the Prohibitionists’ two and sold to two different brands, where it game of jurisdictional whack-a-mole dragged on would end up in different bottles, sold at different while more and more Americans grew fond of Lager prices and receive different scores from critics, beer. In the near term, Lager beer trials and the she says. wider political debates over alcohol that they She began analyzing wine samples, identifying contributed to provided support for an thousands of compounds. Using AI, she could see industrializing brewing industry. how these compounds interacted with each But, as we also know, political debates over alcohol other, creating the wine's flavor profile. She then would only intensify with time and led, many years took that profile and used machine learning to later, to national Prohibition. Paradoxically, the compare its flavor, aroma, texture and color with Lager beer trials contributed to that process as well other wines in the database. by spilling the question of whether beer is good for The method allowed Axelsson to develop a wine a person into yet another arena of the human recommendation app, which was launched on experience. It helped teetotalers chip away at the screens in the wine aisles of retailers in 2019. old-school spectrum of good vs. bad alcoholic Through a quiz, consumers could input their flavor beverages, and put an enormous spotlight on the preferences, and the software would recommend alleged healthiness of a rapidly proliferating style of a suitable wine with 80-90% accuracy at the first beer. attempt, she says, rising to 95% with additional Around the same time as these trials, temperance input form the user. Tastry's system now reformers ramped up accusations that beer could its BottleBird wine recommendation app. help spread disease, damage a person’s health, or Tastry has also begun working directly with else contain “adulterating” substances ranging from winemakers in the United States. questionable to outright dangerous ingredients. As trials faded into memory, these accusations would Brands pay to have their bottle analyzed "and in only increase later in the 1800s. exchange they would have access to what we call an insights dashboard, where they can identify how their wine is perceived in their market of The tech startup that taught a computer to taste opportunity, on a store, local or regional level," wine says Axelsson.

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One client is O'Neill Vintners and Distillers, one of Editorial — It’s illegal for a reason: Allowing the largest wine producers in California. To produce minors to drink alcohol has serious consequences some blends, it combines wine from "upwards of NNY360 30 different tanks" to create the desired flavor May 28, 2021 profile, according to Marty Spate, vice president of winemaking and winegrowing. Many adults wink at underage drinking. The company is using Tastry's AI to "streamline" the In some cases, they buy alcohol for minors with blending process by suggesting which tanks to use. no thought about how it may hurt them. In other "[Tastry is] not a replacement for the modern cases, they host events where young people will winemaking team," he says, however, "that data consume alcohol “under adult supervision,” can be pretty powerful." falsely believing this will reduce the risks. But in an industry steeped in artisan tradition, there Fortunately, other adults understand the perils of are some critics of its algorithmic approach. such actions. They commit themselves to educating everyone about the hazards of "It's like having a computer analyze a piece of art," underage drinking and the legal consequences to says Ronan Sayburn, master sommelier and head of facilitating it. wine at 67 Pall Mall, a private members club for wine lovers in London. One campaign overseen by members of the Saint Regis Mohawk Tribe has tags placed on alcoholic "I don't know how keen people would be on products sold in Akwesasne stores. Project Sticker following what a computer tells them to drink, Shock advises adults against buying alcohol for based on what they had previously," he says. "I minors. think part of the appeal of wine is forming your own opinions." “Akwesasne stores have stickers attached to a variety of products that contain alcohol. These are Sayburn concedes technology can be useful to the part of Project Sticker Shock, designed to reach amateur, for recommending serving temperature, adults who might purchase alcohol legally but aeration time and food pairings. "But when it may provide it illegally to minors. Much of this comes to something which is a very emotive prevention project involves community members subject, I think there's got to be human contact," joining together to create a safer and healthier he argues. lifestyle for our youth,” according to a news item Axelsson agrees that Tastry is not a substitute for a published May 16 by the Watertown Daily Times. sommelier. But she says the scalability of her “More importantly, this is a youth-driven initiative product makes it possible to analyze more wines geared to help their fellow youth. It is aimed at per year than a human could ever taste. reducing underage drinking and its related problems by reducing youth access to alcohol. Her company will start offering services in Europe Some adults do not perceive youth consumption later this year in collaboration with an online of alcohol as a danger — feeling a sense of relief retailer, and is already thinking beyond wine, that ‘it’s only alcohol’ and not a ‘real’ drug. This is having conducted tests for beers, spirits, coffee and wrong, as alcohol remains the substance most fragrances. abused by youth. According to a 2019 Prevention In the meantime, she's happy to spend time Needs Assessment Survey, youth report having a winning over the naysayers. drink of alcohol as early as 12-years old, which is putting themselves at greater risk for alcohol "It takes time to educate any industry about AI and problems later in life. In a SRMT Alcohol/Chemical its benefits," she says. "But if the use case is there Dependency Program Youth Survey conducted in and the value proposition is there, I think it's just a 2019, teenagers stated they know how to get matter of time before people really embrace it." alcohol. Whether they obtain it from friends, siblings, parents, unlocked liquor cabinets, or 15 licensed alcohol beverage establishments; nearly 79% of middle and high school youth say it is easy This email and any files transmitted with it are to get alcohol.” intended solely for the use of NABCA members, free- The stickers immediately grab people’s attention. of-charge. If you do not wish to receive this daily Hopefully, those who are there to supply alcohol to service, please respond with “UNSUBSCRIBE” in the young people will get the message. Subject line. In addition, if there is another individual within your company who should also be receiving The Alliance for Better Communities in Watertown this service, please forward their name, title, often runs its own campaign designed to dissuade employer, and email address to people from hosting events where youths will drink [email protected]. Thank you for your time alcohol. The “Parents Who Host Lose the Most: and attention as we continue to work to improve Don’t Be a Party to Teenage Drinking” program is upon the services and benefits that we provide to our typically held in the spring to coincide with proms members. Please note that any views or opinions presented in this email are solely those of the and graduations. author(s) and do not necessarily represent those of If teenagers are going to drink alcohol, it’s best if the National Alcohol Beverage Control Association. they are supervised by adults. This is the rationale of many parents who host parties for their children where beer, wine and liquor are served. This way, they can be monitored and transported safely back to their homes if they become inebriated. However, this sends the wrong message. Underage drinking is illegal and should not be condoned — and there are legal consequences for adults who engage in this behavior. Youths are very receptive to the values their parents profess, and setting boundaries about unlawful behavior is vital in guiding young people. If their parents tell them it’s OK to drink alcohol some of the time, why not do it at other times? According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, the period from April through June accounts for a third of all teen fatalities in vehicle crashes involving alcohol. Adults must do everything they can to direct young people away from alcohol. We commend those who make the effort to ensure youths develop a positive attitude toward healthy living.