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Win a (beer) vacation in Brooklyn

Posted in Breweries, Just for fun on   

Brooklyn Brewery has expanded its Brooklyn Vacation Sweepstakes to include residents from New York, Connecticut and New Jersey.

There will be 15 winners of the Aug. 26 VIP day in Brooklyn. Each winner can bring 5 friends. A limousine will pick up the winners and their friends at any location in New York City and bring them to the Brooklyn Brewery for a VIP tour with brewery founder Steve Hindy and brewmaster Garrett Oliver.

From the brewery, the group will travel to Coney Island for VIP tours of the New York Aquarium and Coney Island USA and rides of the world famous Cyclone Roller Coaster and Deno’s Wonder Wheel. They then will attend a Brooklyn Cyclones’ baseball game.

Upstate New York winners will be flown to New York by JetBlue Airlines.

At the ballpark, a winner will be drawn from among the 15 winners. The Grand Prize winner will get a Caribbean Vacation on Princess Cruise Lines.

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Dogfish offers ‘Off-centered Films’

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Dogfish Head in Delaware has announced a film competition. Like everything else from Dogfish it will be a little different.

We heartily believe in the DIY-grassroots-david- beats-goliath approach. And now we want to give independent-minded, aspiring filmmakers the chance to let their own freak-flags fly by making their own films that celebrate the perseverance of the underdog!

We want to incorporate as many different, individual, vignettes of the ‘little engines that could’ into the world of Dogfish Head and we want to celebrate filmmakers whose visions jibe with our own. In addition to the copious booty we will lay on first-through-third place annual winners, we will show many of the competition submissions online and in our pubs and breweries as well. Our goal is to build a short film competition that is as far from the mainstream as our 90 Minute I.P.A. is from Bud Light. So what are you waiting for? Crack open a cold on, pour it into a nice snifter, and let it come up to cellar temperature while you storyboard. Sip. Brainstorm. Sip again. Write dialogue. Sip again. Cast. Sip. Make that film. Good luck. Cheers.

Dogfish already has “Off-centered Films for Off-centered People,” properly described “as anti-ads lampooning the macho, misogynistic posturing of the big breweries and their commitment to drinking everything ICE COLD!”

The brewery can’t afford to show them anywhere but its brewpubs and the Internet, but the downloads are easy and it’s equally handy to e-mail the spots to your friends.

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Stone’s Bastard Oxide

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Catching up on this one, since we were away on April Fool’s Day. Even though Stone Brewing can be counted on for something outlandish on April 1 every year the brewery apparently still fooled a few folks with an announcement it is entering the energy drink market with a drink called Bastard Oxide.

According to the press release it contains a special compound called X-Metal Complex. There are many more ingredients on the mock label the brewery created.

And then there is the warning not to drink Bastard Oxide “in an open space during an electric storm.”

Great fun.

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Weekend link-o-rama

Posted in Beer culture, Just for fun on   

Oops, wrong glass – not the best idea when you are promoting your beer sophistication.

Grain Belt brew bouse receives National Preservation Award – wonderful pictures.

Results from Great American “Premium” Beer Challenge

Decanting Rober Parker – (ree registration required) a balanced profile of wine’s lightning rod.

Let Us Praise the ‘Wine Snob’ – hear him out.

Cute wine labels – es, beer is guilty too.

Fun fast food facts – and scary.

Arctic temperatures near a prehistoric level when seas were 16 to 20 feet higher – no, not beer and not light-hearted.

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Weekly Therapy: Five beer myths

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Every once in a while it is good to revisit these beer myths and set the facts straight.

– The best beer is sold in green or clear bottles rather than “plain brown” ones.

In the years following World War II, in part because there was a shortage of brown glass, European brewers shipped beers in green bottles. It became a status symbol for imports. The color of the bottle no longer says anything about the quality of beer inside, and as we’ve written before green glass gives less protection against beer becoming light struck and developing a “skunky” taste. More on that.

– Ales are served at room temperature in the United Kingdom.

This story also goes back to World War II, when American GIs spent considerable time in England. Cask-conditioned (or “real”) ale is served at cellar temperature, which is in the low- to mid-50s.

– Wheat beers always should be served with a slice of lemon.

This is a matter of personal taste. The tartest of wheat beers, such as Berliner Weisse, are usually served with lemon, woodruff or syrups to cut the acidity. However, wheat beers, from weissbiers to Bavarian weizens to English and American wheat beers, cover a broad range. If you like lemon with your wheat beer, by all means enjoy it that way. But don’t feel obligated.

– Imported beers are stronger than American beers.

This is a function of the alcohol by volume (abv) versus alcohol by weight (abw) issue we’ve discussed here before. Many U.S. citizens think the rest of the world measures alcohol like they do (by weight) and don’t realize that 5% by volume is no stronger than 4% by weight. More on that.

– Light beers are much less likely to give you a beer belly.

A bottle of Miller Lite has 96 calories, while a bottle of Samuel Adams Boston Lager has 160. A brisk 20-minute walk is all that separates those two. So unless you drink your beer a case at a time …

Although beer is partially to blame for beer bellies – it contains no fat, but those calories and carbohydrates add up – the chips, pretzels, pizza, etc. that many people enjoy with beer deserve as much of the credit. A full-flavored beer with a light snack has far fewer calories than a light beer with a pile of nachos.

Want more? Beer Hunter Michael Jackson offers a dozen more.

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Weekend link-o-rama

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Eat: NPR cooks with beer.

Drink: How to pour the perfect Guinness. St. Patrick’s Day has passed, but the stout remains.

Drink wine: Wines with critters on labels sell like crazy.

Eat more: Pub grub gets a lift. Gastropubs head across the Atlantic.

Drink from the tap: Hot and cold running beer. Surely the most linked to beer story of the week.

Drink wine – and pay the price : Wine domain names shoot up in value. Can beer domain names be far behind?

Drink something else: Sake from space.

Steal: Beer kegs as valuable as the beer inside them. Not really.

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Turn any beer into low-alcohol beer

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Andrew Gordon begins this story in the Olympian with the proper disclaimer: “It might sound like blasphemy, but it’s time to talk about nonalcoholic beer. Now, now, hear me out.”

He’s talking low alchol and flavor.

All you need is an oven, a large pot (brewers already will have this), and an oven thermometer (unless you have a newer oven with precise temperature controls — it’s not unusual for an oven to vary 20 degrees to either side of the temperature setting.)

Preheat the oven to its lowest temperature setting — the boiling point of ethyl alcohol is 173.3 degrees, so you’re aiming for about 180 degrees. Verify that you’re in the ballpark using the thermometer. To the pot, add beer you’ve either brewed or bought, and put the pot into the oven uncovered.

You’re using the oven instead of the stovetop to provide more even, controlled heat, providing fewer changes to the overall character of your beer. In 30 minutes, the alcohol will have boiled away and the brew can be cooled.

The yeasts will have been killed off in the evaporation process, so you’ll need to go to your friendly neighborhood homebrew store to buy some yeast and priming sugar. Boil between 1/2 cup and 3/4 cup of the sugar with a pint of water and add to the brew, then add yeast and mix well, using a sanitized metal spoon. (To sanitize, either put the spoon in the brewpot at the beginning of the evaporation process, or soak it in a mild bleach water solution for five minutes.)

You can then siphon the brew into sanitized bottles or a keg.

There are some other moving parts, so read the whole thing.

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A different sort of St. Pauli girl

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StoutThe St. Pauli girl has a different look in a new advertising campaign for the German beer.

Instead of featuring the traditional St. Pauli girl in German attire the advertisements in March issues of magazines including Backpacker, Esquire, FHM, Giant, Maxim, Men’s Health, Playboy, Rolling Stone and Sports Illustrated show images that are part girl/part beer.

From the press release:

St. Pauli Girl’s new national print advertising campaign features sophisticated, sexy, yet recognizable female forms that morph into appetizing beer images. Each image in the campaign brings the brand “to life” with maximum stopping power in the magazines that the ads are scheduled to appear. Furthermore, the campaign’s visual treatment reflects one of the Brand’s core equities by extending the appeal of the St. Pauli Girl posters into print advertising in a new and collectible way.

“The experience consumers have with the St. Pauli Girl brand is personal,” said Bill Eisner, partner at Nonbox, the agency that developed the ads. “We wanted to create a visually and emotionally appealing page where they were allowed to fill in the blanks with their own experiences.”

The tagline for the campaign is “You Never Forget Your First Girl.”

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Weekly Therapy: The Black & Tan

Posted in Beer culture, Beers, Just for fun, Weekly Therapy on   

Beer cocktails – concoctions that mix two different beers or even beer with a variety of spirits – have recently been touted as a good marketing tool in U.S. bars that otherwise pay little attention to beer as a beverage with taste.

We generally leave it to others to discuss the “joy” of mixing vodka, gin, tequila, cranberry juice and beer (yes, there’s a bar that puts all those in the same glass). After all, brewers worked hard to produce a drink that can be appreciated on its own. But the fact is that blending two beers together to produce something different – and this may take place in the brewery itself or wherever you are enjoying beer – is hardly new.

StoutThe best known mix is a Black and Tan or Half-and-Half, and whether these are the same or different depends on where you order them. With since everybody is thinking about St. Patrick’s Day on Friday, it seems like a good time to review the basics:

– You may use any brand stout or lighter colored ale or lager to make a Black and Tan (many brewpubs do this with house beers), but most patrons of Irish theme pubs in the United States think in terms of Guinness Stout and either Bass ale or Harp lager.

– The layering of a Black and Tan – that is the dark stout floating above the lighter beer – is said to be common only in American bars. When you begin drinking the beers will mix anyway, so some places choose to let them mix as they are poured.

– It is easier to produce a layered Black and Tan if the stout is dispensed from the special spouts use by Guinness, Murphy’s and Beamish as well as those used in some American brewpubs for their own stouts. Also if the stout is pushed with nitrogen. You begin by filling half the glass with the ale or lager. Next, slow the control on the spout tap and pour the stout slowly over the back of a spoon (Guinness even makes a decorative spoon just for this purpose). The stout will remain on top.

The name itself does not come from the use of a black beer and something lighter. It is derived from a political reference to the black and khaki military uniforms worn by the special auxiliary force – “The Black and Tans” – who were brought in to Ireland fight the Irish nationalists in 1920.

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Weekend link-o-rama

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Some noteworthy blog posts and other beer discussions of the last week:

Beer: “Official Drink of Knuckleheads” – Can you guess the beer?

News Flash! – A particularly good one from the dependable Beer Haiku Daily.

Celebrating the arrival of Schlenkerla Helles Lagerbier.

Dating Old Rasputin – OK, the title just struck as as funny.

Are we winning? The Realbeer.com community discusses sales trends.

Saying cheers, from afar – Drinking glasses that communicate with each other via wireless.

Brewing and journalism – A curious analogy in The Economist.

Wit before and after – Nice pictures from a Flossmoor Station brewing session.

Mars Attracts! This place in Manhattan once planned to be a brewpub – and still has a brewing kettle on display.

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Deschutes showcases outdoors in free DVD

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Deschutes Brewery is giving away a DVD for outdoor enthusiasts.

Rage Films showcases extreme athletes in extreme setting in “Fresh Flicks,” which Deschutes is handing out at on-premise accounts and also online. The breathtaking action includes kayaking the steep drop on Benham Falls on the Deschutes River and rock crawling the Moon Rocks in Nevada. More action features locales such as the White Salmon River, High Sierra, Rubicon Trail and Whistler, B.C.

“Rage incredibly captures many of the thrilling and adventurous pursuits available in the Northwest,” said Deschutes president Gary Fish. “Their films definitely appeal to our audience.”

The preview.

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Pro-am competition at GABF

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The Brewers Association and the American Homebrewers Association have announced a 2006 GABF Pro-Am Competition in honor of the 25th Anniversary of the Great American Beer Festival. From the BA website:

Here’s how it works. Craft breweries can select award winning homebrew recipes from existing homebrew competitions (competitions held after January 1, 2005 qualify) or through their own competition. The winning homebrewers must be American Homebrew Association members at the time of the judging. The professional brewers then scale up the winning homebrew recipes to be brewed in their brewery and entered in this special competition (GABF registration opens in mid-May).

The brewery will then submit that beer into the GABF competition to be judged against all the other GABF Pro-Am entries. Both the winning breweries and homebrewers will be awarded gold, silver and bronze GABF Pro-Am medals to be presented during the GABF awards ceremony held September 30, 2006 in Denver.

This looks like fun, since one of the rules is that beers that are entered must be served at the GABF.

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Bottle cap art

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Once again it’s time for “The art of drinking Tröegs” contest. The rules are simple:

1. Collect Tröegs bottle caps
2. Use the caps to make art. (Don’t limit your thinking. It can be flat, it can be 3-dimensional, it can be anything (as long as you use the Tröegs caps).
3. Submit a photo of your work to Tröegs.

Information at the website.

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