The Times of London is reported that new road signs have been out up warning drivers that intoxicated people may be in the road in an effort to reduce the number of accidents.

"Go Slow?" "Pedestrians Ahead?"

Nope. The signs read "Attention — Drunks" and show a inebriated lad crawling along with a bottle in his hand.

The story quotes Petru Antal, the Mayor of Pecica: "We are a border town and have lots of cars thundering through here all the time. But we also have a very vibrant nightlife and the two don't mix. We have to target the drivers because by the time they get to this state the pedestrians are beyond caring."

Now that's good old common sense.--JACK CURTIN

Details are sketchy, but it appears the fire was in the basement where a hot water tank caught fire. Part of the structure was burned out and there was also damage to a new roof.

Bottling and brewing are okay, as well as the tank room. The brewery's bar suffered smoke damage and has been relocated to the former brewhouse.

The fire will delay bottling of Oerbier and Arabier. De Dolle Bos Keun and Oerbier Reserva are already bottled.--JACK CURTIN

Overall, U.S. beer sales were down approximately 5 million barrels (31 gallons per U.S. barrel) in 2009.

In 2009, craft brewers represented 4.3 percent of volume and 6.9 percent of retail dollars for the total U.S. beer category. With the total U.S. beer industry representing an estimated retail dollar value of $101 billion, the Brewers Association estimates the actual dollar sales figure from craft brewers in 2009 was $7 billion, up from $6.3 billion in 2008.

The total number of U.S. craft brewers grew from 1,485 to 1,542 in 2009, and they produced 9,115,635 barrels, up from 8,501,713 barrels in 2008. Overall U.S. beer sales fell from approximately 210.4 million barrels to 205.8 million barrels.--JACK CURTIN

Maida has released a statement to the local beer blogging community offering up the owners' side the story. It can be read in full here.--JACK CURTIN

Because the three breweries do not share common distribution around the county, the special beer is being brewed three times, once at each brewery. The first brew was done yesterday (March 3) at Stone's brewery in Escondido by Victory's Bill Covaleski, DFH's Sam Calagione and Stone's Greg Koch. It will be released in late April. The Victory and Dogfish Head brews will take place during Philly Beer Week in June and be released in July and August respectively.

Saison du BUFF is the sixth beer in a tri-brewery collaboration program begun at Stone in 2008.--JACK CURTIN

At the same time, the brewery announced that it has ceased production if its Rugged Trail Ale. The final batch, brewed in February, has been shipped to market. "We looked at numerous options to try to keep Rugged Trail in the picture," said Chris Trogner in a news release, "but we just couldn’t make it work with the other beers we are producing."

Another change from Tröegs is a new variety case called Anthology which replaces case. It will come in two versions, roughly summer and winter releases. Anthology Series No. 1 will feature Hopback Amber Ale, Tröegs Pale Ale, Dreamweaver Wheat and Sunshine Pils from April until Septemver. Anthology Series No. 2 will replace Sunshine Pils with Javahead Stout and be available from September until March.--JACK CURTIN

"The beer will now be called Verboten," Weyerbacher's Dan Weirback told the Beer Yard. "It is the German word for 'forbidden' and also exists in Flemish as 'Verboden,' with the same meaning."

Weirback said that, while the word's meaning might be seen by some as a comment on the brief legal confrontation, it also appeared in the original Weyerbacher press release about Zotten, noting that the name rhymed with the German word.

"The thing to remember in this story is that we first brewed this beer two years ago to launch our Brewer's Select Series of one-offs," He added, "and called it Alpha. We had no intention whatsoever to infringe on De Halve Mann's U.S. copyright and prior use of the name."--JACK CURTIN