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Editorial Dept.'s picture

Industry News (Issue 18)

 

Domain Names Up For Grabs

If you’ve ever dreamt of owning a beer domain, your dreams can be become reality. Virtual reality.
Earlier this year, the Ireland-based internet domain name registrar Minds + Machines began selling the rights to variations of the top-level domain name “.beer,” prompting an Internet land grab of beer industry-related entities hoping to claim a slice of online momentum by having addresses with “.beer” as the suffix.

Sale of the top-level domain names began in late 2014 and by the end of the year, over 1,250 breweries had applied for aproximately 5,000 varying domains. Among the first to sign up was New Belgium Brewing Company, which purchased a total of 29 “.beer” domain names. Its choice of “sour.beer” leads to a page featuring the company’s sour beers and “find.beer” leads to New Belgium’s finder page for all its brews.

There have been some unique choices. The “old.beer” address leads to the Once Upon A Time site operated by Pretty Things Beer & Ale Project under the name oldbeers.com. The site promotes the Massachusetts brewery’s alter ego projects of historic beers revived from bygone recipes.

“Ondemand.beer” belongs to the site of a start-up, New York City-based Swill, which intends to promote the purchase of beer, wine and spirits online with delivery an option. The Indiana Brewers Guild cleverly took “drinkin.com” to highlight a play on the state name’s abbreviation. More than a few breweries are tying names to their labels such as the “brawler.beer” address that leads to the site of Yards Brewing Company, home of Brawler ale.

Minds + Machines won the right to the “.beer” top-line domain name in the bidding process conducted by the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN).   

President, Chef Earn AHA Honor

President Barack Obama and White House chef Sam Kass have received honorary invitations to become lifetime members of the American Homebrewers Association.

Mr. Obama is the first president in history to brew beer in the White House, serving the first batch of White House Honey Brown Ale to guests during the 2011 Super Bowl.

Guests were impressed by the beer’s subtle taste profile and drinkability. The local honey, harvested from the South Lawn on the White House grounds and added to the recipe during the malting step, was a major part of the beer’s appeal.

Gary Glass, the director of the American Homebrewers Association, said the universal nature of homebrewing sparked his invitation to the president, calling it a “model example of a bipartisan, pro-community and pro-business activity that all kinds of people can be passionate about and enjoy.”

Before stepping down from his positions at the White House at the end of December, Kass posted recipes for the White House Honey Porter and White House Honey Blonde on The White House website after a petition signed by 12,000 homebrewers came through the We The People site hosted by The White House. 

Photo Courtesy of White House Blog

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