Monthly Archives: January 2010

Want to go the Beer Summit in Phoenix, Arizona?

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Fizz is a marketing company in Atlanta. They’re having a contest to give away a pass to the conference*, held February 28-March 1 at the Wild Horse Pass Resort & Spa in Phoenix. Normally, the pass costs about $1,100. But you could get in for free.

Come up with the best beer brand name that would never get approved by the Alcohol Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau (TTB). Bonus points for sending a mockup label to go with your beer name or doing anything else that we think is funny. Email your entry by Thursday, February 4, 2010 at 11:59pm Eastern Standard Time (EST). Yep, it’s that simple.Entries will be judged on the following criteria:

  • Humor
  • Cleverness in breaking rules
  • Unapprovability
  • General wit

Go here for the details: Contest: Best Un-Approvable Beer Name

* The Beer Summit gathers 500 professionals from the beer industry to talk about the biggest issues in beer and beer marketing.

More beer etymology

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Some may think that cerebral topics like word origins and “the people’s drink” don’t go together (much the same way I don’t like chocolate in my peanut butter and vice versa) but I think it’s great.

Zythophile: Words for beer (2) – was ‘beer’ originally cider?

To rub in the point that ealu and beór were seen as distinct and separate drinks a thousand years ago, Ælfric, abbot of Cerne Abbas in Dorset, who lived from around AD 955 to AD 1010, wrote of John the Baptist in one of his “Homilies” that “ne dranc he naðor ne win, ne beór, ne ealu, ne nan ðæra wætan ðe menn of druncniað,” that is, “nor drank he neither wine, nor beór, nor ale, nor any other liquor that makes men drunk.” Ælfric, who was a conscientious writer, clearly felt he needed to differentiate beór from ealu, as well as ealu from win. Beór, then, comes through from Anglo-Saxon texts as strong and sweet, and different to, or separate, from ealu.

Fascinating stuff

Beer for your dungeon crawl

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I love when two of my passions intersect. The other, in this case, is Dungeons & Dragons. I played quite a bit in my teens and twenties, but gave up on it when other time-consuming stuff entered my life (marriage, children, home ownership, sucky commute, etc.). In the last year or so I’d been really missing it, so I found a bunch of like-minded fellas in similar straits and we get together every couple of weeks (schedules permitting, naturally).

I recently spotted this:

Geeks are Sexy: Six Geeky Drinks for the Dungeons and Dragons Table

While I don’t recommending getting out-of-your mind drunk while playing (certainly gets in the way of focusing, and unless you’re in the middle of a tavern scene , it can make for some truly less than stellar roleplay… not that I, um, speak from experience…) there are a variety of drinks out there which can certainly lend an extra layer of geekiness to your game. Some are clearly put together for the geek set, while others retain their geek cred through the virtue of their historical appropriateness. Here’s a few of my suggestions:

My recent favorite, and the first in the beer category, is Wychwood Brewery’s Hobgoblin, a delightful ruby beer. The website characterizes it as having a “toffee malt flavour balanced with a rounded moderate bitterness and an overall fruity flavor.” I will admit to buying this beer primarily on its namesake alone at my local wine and beer shop; however, I was absolutely in love with the taste from the first sip.

In addition to some other Wychwood offerings, they also offer up as appropriate for this category Rogue Shakespeare Oatmeal Stout and Trappist ales (offering Chimay as an example).

Now I know there are many more beers that could fit this category. At the risk of pegging my “Geek Meter”, here are some off the top of my head: Most of your fantasy realms hearken to the Medieval period in Europe, so virtually anything from Middle Ages Brewing seems appropriate. Bad Elf Ale and its brethren come to mind, if you go by name alone and ignore the Christmas art on the label. (I’ve certainly encountered my share of “bad elves” in my adventures.) Weyerbacher also has a few, with Old Heathen, Heresy, Merry Monks, or Prophecy. The Clipper City’s Heavy Seas line would be good if you’re fighting pirates (or are one). Magic Hat Hocus Pocus, Monty Python’s Holy Grail Ale, and Great Divide‘s Claymore Scotch Ale (“is that a sword under your cloak or are you happy to see me?”) also would fit the bill. And let’s not forget all those Stone Brewing gargoyles.

What else could fit in a fantastic realm? What were Frodo and his pals drinking at The Prancing Pony?

Beer at Burger King?

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NPR: Burger King Rolls Out The Beer Barrel

Burger King may be number three after McDonalds and Subway in terms of sales in the fast-food restaurant business. But it plans to be the first in at least one area — serving beer and I’m not talking about the root beer.

Reports are that Burger King will be serving beer at a location in Miami Beach which will be the first in the chain to serve alcohol.

According to the Associated Press they’ll be offering Anheuser-Busch InBev and MillerCoors products. That’s a good thing, because I don’t need a temptation to go into a fast food joint.

Beer news sampler

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A small sampling of beer-related news that recently caught our eye.

Anheuser-Busch InBev shipping water to Haiti
ABIB is shipping 600,000 cans of water to aid in Haiti. They’ll also be matching donations to the American Red Cross and have shipped over 5 millions cans of drinking water to victims of natural disasters in the last two years.

Workers’ strike against Anheuser-Busch InBev affecting supplies in Belgium
Inventories of Stella Artois and Leffe are just about depleted.

Another reason to drink beer
Xanthohumol, found in hops, shows promise in fighting cancer.

Beoir
A new beer consumer’s group for Ireland.

Trying to remove the ban on mixed beer drinks in Nebraska
Regulators say they just want to remove an archaic and unnecessary law. Opponents say they’re trying to open the door for alcopops.

Give a pint, get a pint
Cascade Regional Blood Services (based in Tacoma, Washington) says that their promotion of giving a pint of beer when you donate a pint of blood worked so well that they’re going to expand it.

New advice site for homebrewers: BrewAdvice.com

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From the press release:

BrewAdvice.com, a community-driven site focused on answering all questions related to beer, officially launched today [January 16, 2010]. Unlike forums, message boards, Facebook, or Twitter, BrewAdvice.com is specifically set up as a simple question and answer knowledge base. Ask a question, get a number of answers, select the best one, and get on with brewing. The site was quietly opened to the public a little over a week ago, and the response was overwhelmingly successful.

Questions range from basic homebrewing process questions, like “How do you choose a yeast”, to more theoretical brewing questions, such as “What does ‘Imperial’ mean with regards to style?” to the more advanced side of the craft, for example the effects of aging on Alpha and Beta acids in hops. There are also questions that aren’t strictly for the homebrewer, such as a question about pairing beer with mussels, and general beer storage advice.

Users on the site gain reputation through activity. The more active a user, the more power he or she has on the site. One gains reputation by asking good questions and leaving good answers. As users participate more, they gain access to commenting, voting, and moderation tools. “It’s a site run by the community,” says co-founder PJ Hoberman.

The site is built on the StackExchange network, which is itself based on StackOverflow, a web site for programmers that I frequent daily. It’s an interesting and different way of collecting and sharing information. Many newcomers mistake it for yet another forum, but that’s not what it is and after a little while you just “get” it. Since it’s community-driven, the more you put in the more you get out. I know there’s a lot of homebrewing knowledge out there; this will be a good way to tap it.

Pyramid Breweries swag

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One pleasant side effect of my Beer-a-Day project is hearing from the brewers whose beer I included. One such is Pyramid Breweries, who were so happy to see five of their beers in my list they sent me some tchotchkes:

I love the industrial-strength church key as well as the t-shirt for my wife. Very thoughtful. Thanks guys (especially Meech)!

Are big beer mergers good for craft brewers?

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Speaking of Heineken’s purchase of FEMSA, Public Radio’s Marketplace had a story on how consolidation of brewing giants can help craft brewers.

Marketplace: Are beer mergers a good brew for biz?

Uli Bennewitz owns the Weeping Radish Farm Brewery in Jarvisburg, N.C. He also runs a butchery and an organic farm.

Everybody is wary of “where does this stuff come from?” There is clearly a move towards local, local, local. And I think that is an advantage for small breweries.

They also follow up with a bit of analysis on the Marketplace blog:

Maketplace Scratch Pad: One world, one beer company?

Paddy [Hirsch] recently visited Stone Brewing Company near San Diego, and they told him they loved it when the big companies merged. The mergers turn off beer-drinkers, perhaps in principle but also because something bad seems to happen to the flavor of a decent beer when it gets swallowed up by a mega-corporation. People start looking for alternatives.

Beer-a-Day: More attempts

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Could I perhaps have inspired others? I’d like to think so, but not likely.

Anyway, someone else is attempting the “beer-a-day” thing for 2010.

A Year of Beer

His dedicated blog is much prettier than my attempt, and he’s putting in more information for each beer. Please give your support and encouragement. We all know how hard it is to do.

Know anybody else doing this? Let us know in the comments.

Beer news sampler

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A sixer of news items on beer that we spotted recently.

BBC News: Anheuser-Busch InBev to cut 800 European jobs
That’s about 10% of their European workforce and is ” a response to falling beer sales”. Well, if they made any products I’d want to drink…

Idaho Statesman: It’s been a good decade for craft beer
Patrick Orr talks about some of the gains and newsworthy items in craft beer during the aughts.

Heineken to buy FEMSA beer operations for $5.5 billion
Fomento Económico Mexicano, S.A. de C.V. is the Mexican brewer of Sol, Tecate, and Dos Equis. This deal gives the Dutch giant a larger foothold in the Americas. I don’t expect much innovation here. In fact, I just expect the same old fairly bland mass-produced beer, just produced by fewer companies.

Counterfeit beer in China
Apparently, “fancy” beers like Corona and Budweiser are being substituted with cheaper lagers. Fleeced customers apparently don’t notice.

UK beer drinkers should expect beer prices to go up
Brewing giants InBev and Diageo both cite sluggish economy as the need for the increase.

Mid 18th-Century beer mug may auction for upwards of $100K
“A 268-year-old beer mug that was spirited to Canada during the American Revolution by an iconic Loyalist refugee — Rev. John Stuart, the future founder of the Anglican Church in Upper Canada — hits the auction block this month in the U.S. and is expected to sell for close to $100,000 because of its remarkable provenance.”