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A more perfect pint

Guinness will spend more than $4 million to promote a new “perfect pint” gadget being called the biggest revolution to hit the beer can since the invention of the widget.

The plug-in “Guinness Surger” sends an ultrasound signal through a glass to separate the black body from the creamy head, just as a pint settles when poured in a pub.

When customers buy the new kit they get two cans of special widget-free Guinness, a pint glass and the Surger itself – a base unit on which the glass stands as the ultrasound passes through.

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Guinness, the blogger

Guinness is blogging. Well, sort of, and just in the UK.

Basically the marketing team will offer a behind-the-scenes look at what it does at Guinness. Here’s the premise:

Everyday we get loads of letters, photos, emails and phone calls – not just from our mums, but from other people who drink GUINNESS® too! Some of these are about specific issues – these are dealt with by our dedicated consumer helpline (the phone number is 0845 7882277 & the email address is consumerinfo@diageogb-info.com in case you ever need it).

But lots of people also send us things like suggestions, questions about what we might be doing in the future, photos of them enjoying a GUINNESS® and other stuff that we love to hear and see. The problem is that we get so much correspondence that we just don’t have time to read it all and respond. Well, to be more honest, we don’t have time to do that AND do our day jobs. (Indeed some of letters are people asking us what our ‘day jobs’ actually involve!).

The result is a blog that isn’t like most. For one thing, you’ve got to verify your age to enter. For another, they plan to moderate all comments before they are posted – and they don’t work weekends, or after 5 p.m. weekdays.

(Quick note: given the amount of spam comments we get here each day this seems like a really good idea. The spammers seem to have decided about 4 a.m. is a good time to strike – not realizing we’re just going to bed.)

It will be interesting to see where this goes. If it works for the marketing team, maybe Guinness will branch out.

Just a few breweries have embraced blogs so far. Some start and then run out of things to tell us. Let’s see where Flossmoor Station, blogging less than a week, goes.

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Corona for St. Patty’s Day – What!?

Does this strike you as a little strange?

Iconic Mexican beer Corona, famous for being served with a wedge of lime jammed in the top, will launch a 15-second TV spot and a 60-second radio ad in March to boost sales of the brew in the run-up to St. Patrick’s Day, the beverage importer Gambrinus said.

The images on TV and in retail outlets show a wedge of lime carved into the shape of a shamrock. The TV spot will air nationally, and the radio ad in 40 markets.

[Via Brandweek]

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What your drink says about you

Waiter Rant “reveals” what your drink says about you and takes no prisoners.

Of course we have to point to the beer entry: “Blue collar, simple, and an old standby. (I think a girl wearing a t-shirt and jeans while drinking a good ‘ol Bud is very sexy.)”

A few more:

Chardonnay – You know what you like. Boring. Predictable. The Missionary Position of White Wine.

Sour Apple Martini – You have a sense of fun but overindulgence might cause dancing on tables and bad karaoke singing. (Beth?)

Campari and Soda – You’re a gourmand. A good aperitif. A bitter drink for bitter people.

Champagne
– You’re reserved, classy, or a stripper.

And then there is one of the comments: “Not subidviding “Beer” is somewhat like not distinguishing between wines. Someone drinking Budlight isn’t THAT similar to someone drinking microbrews.”

Amen.

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St. Pauli Girl 2006

St. Pauli GirlWe learned long ago that the best time to buy beer at our local Oktoberfest is when the St. Pauli Girl shows up to sign posters – because that’s where the line will be.

So as a public service announcement we offer this: To mark the annual selection of a new St. Pauli Girl the brewing company will give away 400 free posters each day on the brand’s website. Additionally, from March through May, another 40 free posters will be given away each day to consumers on a first-come, first-served basis. And, a downloadable version will be available on the St. Pauli Girl Beer website as a screensaver.

By the way, Brittany Evans is model chosen to adorn the 2006 poster and represent the brand throught the year.

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Blind Tasting Test

Oregon Craft Beer Week gets more packed with events every year.

News comes from Portland that the Oregon Brewers Festival has added a fundraiser the evening before the festival officially starts. The inaugural OBFl Blind Tasting & Test, a benefit for the Oregon Blind Commission, will take place from 5-9 p.m. July 26 on the festival grounds at Tom McCall Waterfront Park.

The Blind Tasting & Test begins with the tasting portion, in which a total of 24 different beers will be served: 12 IPAs brewed in Oregon, and 12 Pale Ales brewed in Oregon. Beers will be served on a tasting tray in two-ounce samples. Patrons will be encouraged to vote for the “People’s Choice,” one vote for each of the two styles. Following the tabulation, the winning brewery from each beer category will be announced, with the two winners receiving a trip to a European beer festival for the brewer and a guest.

For the Blind Test, patrons will be asked to identify each of the 24 beers served. Votes will be tabulated, and a winner from each category will be selected. The two winners of the identification test will also receive a trip each to a European beer festival for themselves and a guest.

At the conclusion of the blind test, all 24 of the beer taps will be opened and the attendees will be invited to sample beer in their souvenir mugs until the taps close at 9 p.m.

The festival itself runs July 27-29.

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Beer not included

Once again, Saint Arnold Brewing Co. in Houston is actioning off the rights to name a fermenter. Racing to keep up with rapid growth, Saint Arnold has installed its first 120 barrel fermenter and as it did in 2004 the brewery us auctioning the naming rights on eBay.

This is actually the third time Saint Arnold has offered customers the opportunity to become a part of the brewery. Previously:

– In 2004, the brewery held a similar auction for one of its tanks, which led to the christening of the “St. Gonzo” tank.

– In 2003, the brewery’s supporters gladly handed over close to $7,500 to help the brewery pay for a reverse osmosis system to purify its water. Those who donated to the cause have their names displayed on the water tank.

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Beer for the turkey

The Publican in Britain asked a variety of beer types what beer they’d serve with a Christmas turkey. We particularly like the reply from Ben McFarland (beer writer of the year):

At Christmas, you need a beer that copes with every potentially disastrous gastronomic eventuality. If the turkey ends up drier than a pensioner’s elbow, if the sprouts resemble charcoal and if you set fire to the pub using too much cheap brandy on the Christmas pudding, then a refreshing, thirst-quenching lager is the first thing your parched palate will be wanting in its Christmas stocking.

I suggest a dainty lager called Lapin Kulta. Brewed by female brewers in the upper reaches of Lapland, Lapin Kulta is Santa’s local beer and is perfect for drinking after a hard day harrying elves, gift-wrapping and putting up with spoilt little eight-year-olds. It’s also a festive alternative to the chewy charms of the full-bodied Christmas ales so often sipped at this time of the year.

What beer do you suppose he’d suggest drinking along with the movie Bad Santa?

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Malt liquor on the wine menu

Each Friday the Wall Street Journal helps its readers prepare for the weekend with a bit of advice about liquid refreshments.

Dorothy Gaiter and John Brecher are among the nation’s finest wine writers, and this week they look into Sauternes class of 2001, which is just being released. Sauternes, from the Bordeaux region of France, is the world’s greatest sweet wine, with good bottles starting at $40 at retail and prices rocketing higher. That’s a 750ml bottle, about 25 ounces.

This Friday the WSJ offers an alternative: malt liquors, served in 40-ounce bottles. The headline calls this Malt Liquor’s Moment and the story reports:

But in a few places across the country, malt liquor is having something of a cultural moment. It’s showing up on the menu of popular restaurants like Emmy’s Spaghetti Shack in San Francisco, where Mickey’s is served in an ice-filled champagne bucket. Some microbrewers, who pride themselves on their “craft beer” made with fancy ingredients, have launched their own lines of malt liquor: Pizza Port in Solana Beach, Calif., periodically makes its Brown Bag Malt Liquor, and Piece, a restaurant and brewery in Chicago, offers Dolemite, named after a 1975 blaxploitation film. There’s even a cadre of collectors who pay as much as $300 on eBay for rare specimens of the 40-ounce bottles — even empty.

There’s even a picture of Dogfish Head Brewery’s Liquor de Malt, including the paper bag it comes in.

Tomme Arthur, who brews the Pizza Port Brown Bag Malt Liquor, previously has pointed out that he asks to judge this category at the World Beer Cup and Great American Beer Festival each year.

“Some like to shun their past. Me, I embrace it,” he said.

[Note: The WSJ is a subscription site.]