Red Stripe Sound Sculpture

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This is kind of fun, and certainly an interesting way to reuse discarded beer cans. Red Stripe is apparently launching a marketing campaign under the banner “Make with a Red Stripe” and this is the first one. Below is the description from YouTube and the video itself is below here. And a hat tip to Adam for the link.

Make Something from Nothing, the first of a series of cultural projects called ‘Make with a Red Stripe’, features a unique sound sculpture created by sound artist Yuri Suzuki, in collaboration with DJ Al Fingers, singer/songwriter Gappy Ranks and designer Matthew Kneebone.

The 2.5 metre high, fully functioning sound sculpture is made using thousands of recycled Red Stripe beer cans partly collected at this year’s Notting Hill carnival. The project celebrates the DIY culture of the brand’s Jamaican roots, with Reggae, Dub and Jamaican music influences as well.

Make Something From Nothing debuts on 16th November with an exclusive launch party at Village Underground. Visit Facebook for more information.

A Biologist’s St. Patrick’s Day Song

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This is one of the coolest, albeit nerdy, songs I’ve heard since Tom Lehrer was doing the Vatican Rag and singing about the Elements. And thanks to Peter H. for sending me the link. It’s a St. Patrick’s Day song by a biologist, known only as Cadamole, who apparently lives in Washington, D.C. He sings about the biology of beer and … well, just listen to it for yourself. Enjoy!

And below are the lyrics so you can sing along:

In the year of our lord eighteen hundred and eleven
On March the seventeenth day
I will raise up a beer and I’ll raise up a cheer
For Saccharomyces cerevisiae
Here’s to brewers yeast, that humblest of all beasts
Producing carbon gas reducing acetaldehyde
But my friends that isn’t all — it makes ethyl alcohol
That is what the yeast excretes and that’s what we imbibe

Anaerobic isolation
Alcoholic fermentation
NADH oxidation
Give me a beer

[CHORUS]

My intestinal wall absorbs that ethanol
And soon it passes through my blood-brain barrier
There’s a girl in the next seat who I didn’t think that sweet
But after a few drinks I want to marry her
I guess it’s not surprising, my dopamine is rising
And my glutamate receptors are all shot
I’d surely be bemoaning all the extra serotonin
But my judgment is impaired and my confidence is not

Allosteric modulation
No Long Term Potentiation
Hastens my inebriation
Give me a beer

[CHORUS]

When ethanol is in me, some shows up in my kidneys
And inhibits vasopressin by degrees
A decrease in aquaporins hinders water re-absorption
And pretty soon I really have to pee
Well my liver breaks it down so my body can rebound
By my store of glycogen is soon depleted
And tomorrow when I’m sober I will also be hungover
Cause I flushed electrolytes that my nerves and muscles needed

Diuretic activation
Urination urination
Urination dehydration
Give me a beer

[CHORUS]

Beer In Ads #539: Heineken Jammin’


Thursday’s ad is a recent one for Heineken, in support of a music festival they sponsored, the Heineken Jammin’ Festival in Venice, Italy. I may not like their beer, but they do put out some great advertising. The photo of a band on state from overhead, with the floodlights lighting the crowd makes it look like a pint of dark beer with a nice head and bubbles. Awesome shot.

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Brew Are You, Strong Beer Month?

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It’s February, and that means it’s time for the 10th annual Strong Beer Month, once again with six new extreme beers each at 21st Amendment and Magnolia throughout the month, which this year has one more day to help you make it to the finish line. Try them all, and you get to keep the commemorative logo glass. Just collect all 12 punches in your Strong Beer Month ticket before the beer’s all gone.

Here’s the beer for this year:

Magnolia:

  1. Old Thunderpussy: barleywine, 11.9% abv
  2. Smokestack Lightning: imperial stout, 10.7% abv
  3. Pride of Branthill: imperial ESB (extra special bitter), 8.9% abv
  4. Tweezer Tripel: abbey tripel, 10.1% abv
  5. Promised Land: imperial IPA, 11.5% abv
  6. Punch You in the Rye: strong rye ale, 8.0% abv

21st Amendment:

  1. Lord & Master: strong English blonde, 8.3% abv
  2. Triple Crisis: imperial IPA, 11.0% abv
  3. Red Giant: imperial red ale, 13.0% abv
  4. Oaked Drunken Monk: dark abbey ale, 9.5%
  5. Two Lane Blacktop: imperial black IPA, 9.8% abv
  6. Hendrick’s: imperial stout, 9.5% abv

This year’s theme is the 1978 Who album “Who Are You” featuring Nico “Roger Daltry” Freccia, Ben “John Entwistle” Spencer, Dave “Keith Moon” McLean and Shaun “Peter Townsend” O’Sullivan. Frankly, I think “Moon McLean” might stick as a nickname. Have all twelve strong beers, and you too might start singing “Brew Are You.” I really want to know.

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Beer Birthday: Bryan Selders

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Today is the 37th birthday of Bryan Selders, who until March of this year was lead brewer of Dogfish Head Craft Brewery and one-half of the hip hop duo The Pain Relievaz. I first met Bryan at Hop School in Yakima, Washington several years ago and he’s a terrifically talented and fun person. These days he’s working as a web designer at Inclind. Join me in wishing Bryan a very happy birthday.

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Bryan with his boss Sam on picture day at the brewery.

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Bryan with some of his “fans.”

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The cover of the latest CD, Awesome = Yes, the Pain Relievaz Greatest Hits, available nowhere as far as I can tell. But below is Bryan and Sam in the video “Pinchin’ Pennies.”

Note: All photos purloined from Facebook.

The Bay Brewed: A Rock & Roll Beer Festival

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This sure sounds like a fun new event. The San Francisco Brewers Guild along with City Beer Store and The Bay Bridged is putting on a beer festival and a music festival called The Bay Brewed, which is scheduled to take place on December 3, from 2-7 p.m. at San Francisco’s Verdi Club, located at 2424 Mariposa Street. Here’s some more info from the press release:

Presented in partnership with the City Beer Store and the SF Brewers Guild, a ticket to The Bay Brewed includes unlimited beer tastings from San Francisco Bay Area breweries including 21st Amendment, Anchor Stream, Beach Chalet, Lagunitas, Magnolia, Social Kitchen & Brewery, and Speakeasy, and musical performances from four excellent San Francisco bands: Weekend, Sleepy Sun, Extra Classic, and Terry Malts. Food will be available for purchase courtesy of Rosamunde Sausage Grill.

Christian Cunningham, General Manager of The Bay Bridged, explained the desire to create an event pairing local bands and local craft beers: “San Francisco’s music and beer scenes are both unbeatable when it comes to the talent and creativity of the people involved. The Bay Brewed is our way of bringing together people who like great music and people who like great beer for a unique event that couldn’t happen anywhere but San Francisco.”

Ticket prices are $45 and can be purchased online, or buy them at the door for $55. According to the ticket page, “[y]our ticket purchase includes performances by four great local rock bands — Weekend, Sleepy Sun, Extra Classic, and Terry Malts — and a commemorative mug that gets you unlimited beer tastings all day long from an array of awesome local breweries. In partnership with the City Beer Store and the SF Brewers Guild, you’ll be sampling beer from and meeting the brewers behind 21st Amendment, Anchor Stream, Beach Chalet, Lagunitas, Magnolia, Social Kitchen & Brewery, and Speakeasy, with more still to come.”

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New Pliny The Elder Video By The Famous

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The San Francisco-based band The Famous regularly plays the beer circuit and can frequently be seen performing at beer festivals and brewpubs around the Bay Area. They’re a terrific band. I’ve seen them several times, most recently at Vinnie Cilurzo’s 40th birthday party at Russian River Brewing. At Vinnie’s party, The Famous did a song created for the occasion, Pliny the Elder or The Pliny Song, an awesome little homage to the beer and the man it was named for. They’ve now recorded a studio version of it, and have created a music video to go along with it. Enjoy.

Muppets Drink Kronenbourg 1664

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Another one of my many obsessions is my unabashed love of the Muppets. I came across a new video today of the Muppets covering the LCD Soundsystem song Dance Yrself Clean. In the Video, apparently shot in Brighton, both Cookie Monster and Animal are seen drinking Kronenburg 1664 — hey, they’re both over 21 — and in fact at the end (spoiler alert) both pass out on Brighton beach surrounded by beer cans. Enjoy.

Beer Bottle Xylophone

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This would make an awesome gift, especially for the person who loves beer and music. Created by designer Sam Gensburg, his Southern Bells six-pack uses an ingenious design that can turn the empty bottles into a makeshift xylophone.

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Says Inhabitat, “Of the things that you could do with beer bottles, this has got to be one of the most glorious. Designer Sam Gensburg has created this special packaging for beer bottles — in this example, the adorably-named “Southern Bells,” — that can be transformed into a tone-accurate xylophone. Once you’ve drunk all the beer, of course. Read on to discover more about this recycled polyphonic percussion set.”

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“On the back of each bottle is a guide for musical key-making. You simply fill the bottle with water to the appropriate line, and it will produce that key when struck. With what, you ask? With special batons that come in the box– you make them with the corks from the bottle tops! The bottles can be arranged in a musical line by unfolding the six-pack. Two six-packs make a full octave.”
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Sadly, there’s no information about where, or even if, this is available commercially for purchase. Searching only reveals it’s been featured a lot on DIY websites.

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