Black Dog promotes Adopt-a-Dog month

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Adopt-A-DogBlack Dog Ale is working with humane shelters across the nation to support Adopt-A-Dog Month this October. Black Dog has set up space at its website to help prospective pet owners to find new dogs and puppies, including searchable listings of local humane society locations.

The Black Dog label prominently features “Chug,” a black lab retriever, on its packaging. Chug was the brewery founder’s pet and the inspiration for the brand’s name and logo, assisting on sales calls and attending special events.

The program continues until the end of October in New York, Indiana, Florida, Louisiana, Nebraska, Kansas, Michigan, Montana, Wyoming, Idaho and Washington.

Hoparama: Hops everywhere we look

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HopsFresh hop beers are fermenting away from the East Coast to the West Coast, and we can look for them on tap soon. Most will be available only close to where they are brewed, although Sierra Nevada is bottling its Harvest Ale this year and Deschutes Hop Trip can be found in several states.

The number of fresh hop/wet hop festivals keeps growing as well. Too many to list, so check our festival calendar.

With that in mind, a few hoppy links for your puckering pleasure (and a bonus bit of news about Samuel Adams Imperial Pilsner at the end):

– Hunt’s Hop Tea. Recipe included (it’s easier with fresh hops).

– Pernicious myths and a ban on hops. What really happened in Shrewsbury at the start of the 16th century and were hops not only banned but labeled a wicked and pernicious weed?

– Mom grows a bumper crop of hops. A hop shortage ahead? Perhaps mothers across the nation will come to the rescue.

– Samuel Adams creates an ode to noble hops. That hop would be Hallertau Mittelfrueh to the tune of 110 IBU.

The Imperial Pislner is on tap at a few East Coast locations:

Boston area
Cambridge Common, Harvard Square, Cambridge
Redbones, Davis Square, Cambridge
McCormick & Schmicks, various

New York City
House of Brews, 302 W51st Street, Manhattan
House of Brews, 363 W46th Street, Manhattan
Dive Bar, 732 Amsterdam Ave, Manhattan
Dive 75, 75th and Amsterdam Ave, Manhattan
Hop Devil, 129 St. Marks Place, Manhattan
200 5th, 200 5th Ave, Brooklyn

Silver Bullet, NASCAR united

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Molson Coors Brewing Co., the third-largest U.S. brewer, has outbid Anheuser-Busch for the rights of official beer sponsor of NASCAR auto racing. This means Coors Light – aka The Silver Bullet – replaces Budweiser.

Budweiser had been the official beer of NASCAR since 1998. It also had sponsored Dale Earnhardt Jr.’s No. 8 since he entered the Cup series in 1999. The beer will remain in the top series next year as the sponsor of Kasey Kahne’s No. 9 Dodge.

Winning your weight in beer

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A man named Stephen Wood recently was the winner of a Greene King “Win Your Weight In Beer” drawing.

The story doesn’t measure how much he weighted, or won, but in case you wondered how much beer that might be . . .

There are several variables – different beers will vary slightly in weight. But beer is slightly heavier than water (8.3 pounds per gallon), so a man 175 pounds (a guess looking at Wood’s picture) would win about 20 gallons. That’s the contents of almost 9 cases (24 12-ounce bottles) of beer.

Doesn’t “win your weight” sounds like more?

One nose, one beer: Fill in the blank

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A Wisconsin man who can drink an entire beer through his nose is headed to New York to try out for the David Letterman show.

Producers from the CBS late-night talk show called Chris Hansen after seeing a YouTube video of him draining a plastic cup of beer at a busy sports bar near Wrigley Field in Chicago.

Hansen, who co-owns The Sardine Can at 128 S. Broadway in Green Bay with his cousin, Boyd Konowalski, has been drinking beer through his nose for more than 30 years.

“Hey, that’s my secret. I can’t have everyone doing it,” he said. “It’s just one of those stupid college pranks that stays with you. I don’t do it every day. To be honest, I hadn’t done it in over a year. But when you’re having fun you just add a little goofiness. I’m just goofy. Everyone will tell you that.”

Deschutes rolls out a traveling beer barrel

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Deschutes Beer Wagon

Oregon’s Deschutes Brewery has built a a portable pub in the shape of a giant beer barrel. It will roll through several Seattle neighborhoods over the next few weeks.

The enormous barrel, fabricated by Hollywood designer Eddie Paul, makes its first appearance at the Fremont Oktoberfest September 21-23, then stops at the Red Bull Soapbox Race September 29. During October, the rolling barrel, accompanied by food and music from local bands, opens its taps in Capitol Hill, Wallingford and South Lake Union before returning to the Queen Anne-Fremont neighborhood.

Each Neighborhood Hops event will feature a selection of Deschutes beers, including Mirror Pond Pale Ale, Black Butte Porter and Inversion IPA. A rotation of pre-release beers will also be available, including the new Green Lakes Organic Ale.

Admission to the Neighborhood Hops events is free. Pints of Deschutes Brewery beers and food from local partners will be available for purchase. Proceeds from the events will be donated to a variety of local non-profits including the Puget Soundkeeper Alliance , protecting and preserving Puget Sound for more than 20 years, and Gilda’s Club Seattle.

Thieves drive off with city’s supply of Moosehead

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Using two stolen trucks, thieves made off with two trailers full of Moosehead beer yesterday, stealing a total of 114,000 bottles and cans from a Toronto-area loading yard.

Moosehead drinkers in Ontario would be wise to stock up today,” spokesman Joel Levesque said. “We expect it may take until early next week to replenish the stolen beer.”

Levesque said the brewery was scrambling to arrange replacement beer to stock bars and retail stores.

“Our biggest fear is there will be a shortage in the Toronto area. That’s a lot of beer,” he said, before adding a partisan marketing comment. “It strikes us the thieves obviously know what the consumers want.”

Pizza beer finds its way into bottles

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Pizza beer, first a homebrew, then a novelty that sparked a joke on the Tonight Show, soon will be sold in the Chicago area in bottles.

St. Charles homebrewer Tom Seefurth told the Chicago Tribune that the beer made with tomatoes, garlic, basil and oregano will begin production at Sand Creek Brewing Company in Black River Falls, Wis., within weeks and should be available by early November.

Formally known as Mamma Mia Pizza Beer, it will likely retail between $7.99 and $8.99 per 6-pack at stores including BinnyÂ’s Beverage Depot.

UK authorities ban Stella, Miller advertisements

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UK authorities have banned a pair of beer ads – including one for Miller Genuine Draft they said appealed to children.

The Advertising Standards Authority also told InBev, the brewer of Stella Artois, it can no longer boast that its lager is produced by a family that has been dedicated to brewing for six centuries.

Stella Artois movieThe ruling comes at just as InBev launched a spectacular new Stella Artois website that leans heavily on the 1366 connection using the rich cinematic techniques Stella has long been associated with.

Stella Artois has been brewed in Leuven (Belgium) since 1366, and was bought Artois family in nly since 1717. The ASA said the Artois brand was no longer family-owned and it was untrue to claim that “one family of common ancestry had been involved in the brewing of Stella Artois for six centuries”.

The ruling is related only to advertising in the UK and won’t affect the new website.

To create interest in the site before it went public yesterday representatives of Stella reached out to the blogosphere, shipping bloggers a promotional package with a poster and coasters and offering a sneak preview of the site – which might take several hours to explore. The company’s blog links back to some of the reviews and also has additional information, such as interviews with the creators.

In the Miller advertisement in question a man performs a daring series of stunts on rollerskates to impress a woman, who rewards him with a bottle of Miller Genuine Draft. “We considered that the action of rollerskating, particularly when combined with the effortless cool of the execution of a series of tricks, was likely to appeal strongly to under 18s,” the advertising board stated.

Miller countered that the advertisement was designed to appeal to those over, and script changes had been made to ensure that it was not aimed at the youth market.

OBF donates $10,301 to foundation for blind

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The Oregon Brewers Festival made a donation of $10,301 to the Oregon Commission for the Blind Foundation (OCBF) with money raised at the 20th annual Oregon Brewers Festival that took place at Tom McCall Waterfront Park July 27-30.

From the press release:

The $10,000 was a direct contribution from the festival; the additional $301 was raised at the Crater Lake Soda Co. Root Beer Garden through donations from attendees.

OBF Director Art Larrance presented a check on Sept. 11 to Charlene Cook, a teacher and former Commissioner for the Oregon Commission for the Blind (OCB). According to Cook, the money will support the goals set by the OCB, including providing access to technology and education, and emotional and physical support to blind and visually impaired Oregonians.

Larrance selected the organization in honor of his college friend, Steve Hanamura, who is legally blind. This is the second year the OBF has made a donation to the OCBF.

The legend of Miller Chill grows

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Brew Blog, sponsored by Miller Brewing, reports “Anheuser-Busch appears set on creating a brand to fight Miller Chill, according to Beer Business Daily.”

BBD reports that A-B appears to be conducting Internet market research surveys to gauge consumer interest in brands with Latin influences. These bear more than passing resemblances to Miller Chill.

There’s no disputing Chill’s success:

Miller hopes to sell 400,000 barrels of Chill in its first year. That would put Chill on roughly the same sales level as Foster’s Lager, Miller’s biggest import.

In supermarkets, Chill is outselling such established brands as Dos Equis, Michelob Light, Heineken Light, Beck’s, Blue Moon White, Samuel Adams Boston Lager and Rolling Rock, according to data from AC Nielsen. Supermarkets account for around 20% of U.S. beer sales.

Meanwhile, A-B already has Bud and Bud Light Chelada in the marketplace.

Smallest brewery back in business

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A brewery in Wales – just five square feet – that claims to be the smallest in the world has reopened, the BBC reports.

Bragdy Gwynant brews ale for just one customer – the Tynllidiart Arms next door.

Margaret and Mark Phillips, who own the Tynllidiart Arms and the brewery, said the beer had a secret recipe.

“The previous owner of the pub moved out two years ago and up until two weeks ago the pub was closed and the brewery was too,” said Mr Phillips, who moved in just two weeks ago.

“We thought it would be nice to brew our own local beer and luckily we had a brewer living a few doors down who was able to help.”

The brewery used to be an outdoor men’s toilet.

A reprieve for the British pint

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The British pint and mile are safe forever after the European Commission announced a policy change.

The European Union executive said British and Irish pubs may go on serving beer in pints after 2009, when such measures were due to be phased out.

A spokesman said the proposal, which must be rubber-stamped by member nations, would also help trade with the United States by extending indefinitely the right to use dual measurement in labeling in the metric and imperial systems.

Great American Beer Festival larger still

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GABF logoJust in case 1,600-plus beers to choose from at the Great American Beer Festival in 2006 wasn’t enough for you, here are the numbers for this year:

– The GABF’s beer list has grown to 1,884 beers, a boost of 230 beers beyond last year.
– 34 breweries have also been added to the GABF beer list, upping the brewery tally to 408.
– In the GABF beer judging, the number of beers risen by 380 to a total of 2,806.

“The GABF’s expanded beer list is a reflection of America’s love of craft beer,” says festival director Nancy Johnson. “At this year’s registration deadline, we realized the beer totals were huge, bigger than our anticipated growth. And we kept getting requests from breweries wanting to serve more beers, and new breweries wanting to pour beer at the festival. So we raised the cap on beers and bought more draft gear.”

You can have all kinds of fun with these numbers. For instance, if you drank two bottles a day it would take you three days and 10 months to work your way through 2,806 beers.