Well, maybe not exactly primetime, but the award ceremony is on YouTube, at least. So without further ado, here are the award announcements for the 2007 Great Alaska Beer & Barley Wine Fest Awards from YouTube:
Drinking Liberally
If you like your news leaning to the left, you could do no better than the AlterNet, a portal that brings in news that appeals to liberals from a variety of sources. They had a lengthy article posted today by author Nick Pinto called “Drinking Liberally: A New Strategy for Progressive Politics,” about the progressive organization that was founded in May of 2003. Drinking Liberally is pretty much what it sounds like, a group of politically like-minded progressives who get together on a regular basis to enjoy a beer and talk politics. Their motto is “Promoting democracy one pint at a time.” There are currently 175 chapters in 42 states (plus D.C.), including four here in the Bay Area: in Oakland, Palo Alto, San Francisco and San Jose.
|
The website provides a forum, information on each chapter (like when and where they meet) and how to start your own chapter, but the AlterNet article is a great overview of the organization’s origins, structure and goals. Founders Justin Krebs and Matt O’Neill met working together on a PBS-funded non-partisan project aimed at getting young voters involved in politics. Though they found modest success, both remained frustrated with the state of political discourse and decided to do something about it. From the article:
|
On a Thursday night in May of 2003, after e-mailing an invitation to some friends, Krebs and O’Neill held the first session of Drinking Liberally at Rudy’s, a popular Hell’s Kitchen bar known for its hot dogs and cheap pitchers.
The group grew slowly over the summer, with some Thursday nights finding only Krebs and O’Neill holding down the Drinking Liberally fort. A west-coast chapter opened when a regular attendee at Rudy’s moved to San Francisco, and the group’s profile rose somewhat when it hosted some events during the 2004 Republican National Convention. But what really catapulted the group into the national awareness was a photograph in a Newsweek article about young people’s political engagement that showed someone wearing one of the group’s buttons, which read, “I only drink liberally.”
“Over the course of that week so many people started Googling ‘I only drink liberally,’ finding our Yahoo group, and writing us to say, ‘Hey, how can I start my own chapter?'” O’Neill recalls.
After the website went up, things began to snowball and the movement grew quickly, taking only a few short years to extend its reach into over 80% of the states and almost 200 metropolitan and not-so-metropolitan areas. Today the average age of a member is 36, a little older than the founders originally envisioned, but as the author notes, the growth of Drinking Liberally mirrors the growth of liberal blogs, too. An interesting concept to be sure.
The idea has also spawned other similar liberal organizations such as Laughing Liberally and Screening Liberally, all hosted by Cosmopolity, whose mission is “political action through social interaction.”
Bulgarian Boza for Bigger Breasts
There are probably as many early forms of beer as there are people who made them. Every nomadic tribe and early civilization had their own at one point or another. A few of them are even still around today, having changed little, making up an important tradition in pockets of the world. Most use varied and locally available ingredients, rarely hops and are an important part of their heritage.
One of these malt beverages is “Boza,” originally brewed in Babylonia and Egypt 5-6,000-years ago and in Mesopotamia as long ago as 8-9,000-years ago. There is also speculation that our word “booze” comes from this drink. Traditionally, Boza is made with millet but local variations also use maize (Turkey), wheat (Ethiopia), rice meal (Turkmenistan) or flour (Albania). In Bulgaria they use millet, one of the earliest used cereal grains and the one used in the original Bozas. Today, it is wildly popular throughout Eastern Europe and the Ottoman areas. It’s also quite low in alcohol, around 1% abv.
It appears to be fairly easy to make at home, too. There are several links on preparing homemade Boza, such as at Yogurtland, My Bulgaria, and Bulgarian Food.
But a story in Ananova, a news service for mobile phone delivery, is decidely more titillating. Apparently Bulgaria’s recent membership in the EU brings welcome tax relief on customs duties on Boza. Hundreds and thousands of establishments all over Europe are now starting to stock Boza, at least in part because Boza is believed to make women’s breasts grow. I couldn’t make this up if I wanted to. According to Ananova, “European men are flocking to Bulgaria to buy ‘breast-boosting beer’ after EU accession led to customs duties on the drink being abolished.”
The article continues:
They are said to be keen for their wives and girlfriends to benefit from its reported ability to make women’s breasts grow.
Constantin Barbu crossed the Danube from Romania to buy Boza in the Bulgarian border town of Ruse.
He said: “I’ve bought a case for my wife to try out. I really hope I see an improvement.”
Given our nation’s obsession with large breasts, I’m surprised it’s not available here. It’s got to be cheaper than silicon implants.
Portland’s New Name
Portland has had many nicknames. While the “City of Roses” is perhaps the most well-known, it’s also been called Beervana, Bridgetown, PDX, Puddletown, Rip City, River City and Stumptown. And apparently President George I used to refer to Portland as “Little Beirut” because protesters dogged his visits there, but so far that one hasn’t really stuck.
But now add one more to the list. Yesterday, Mayor Tom Potter officially declared Portland “Beertown.” He kicked off the naming ceremony by pouring the first pint of BridgePort Brewing’s new seasonal, Beertown Brown. Whether the whole event was one elaborate publicity stunt certainly seems possible, even probable, but even so what a great coup for them. Unlike Seattle, Portland’s official tourism website features quite a lot of positive information about beer and Portland’s beer scene.
Also, no word as to how the Brewers Association feels about Portland appropriating their domain name. Their website address is beertown.org.
2007 Bloggies
E-mails have been floating around this morning with the news that nominations for the 2007 Bloggies awards end tonight at 10 p.m. eastern time (that’s 7 p.m. for us left coasters). If you like the Brookston Beer Bulletin, please consider nominating it for “Best New Weblog” and/or “Weblog of the Year” (hey, I can dream, too, can’t I?). But you have to nominate at least three so I recommend also voting for Lucy Saunders’ wonderful Beer Cook and Grilling with Beer blogs, especially since she nominated mine. Apparently, final nominations are determined by the number of votes potential nominees receive, so I’ll need all the help I can get, dear loyal readers (note pleading suck up tone). Just click the link to the 2007 Bloggies below and start nominating whoever you want in at least three categories and then follow the instructions at the bottom of the page. That’s it. Thanks.
Rube Goldberg Pours a Beer
You probably know what a Rube Goldberg contraption is, even if you don’t know who Rube Goldberg was. He was a cartoonist rightly famous for coming up with the most outlandish, elaborate contraptions that went through numerous steps to do just one simple task. Your first encounter with one was probably as a kid playing the board game “Mouse Trap,” which was inspired by his work. The YouTube video below, while perhaps overly lengthy, shows just such a contraption rigged up to pour a bottle of beer into a glass. They did a nice job of setting it up and showing it at work — and it’s pretty funny, too.
Newcastle Soup
Thanks to my friend Pete Slosberg, who sent this item in. Today’s San Jose Mercury News has it’s food section devoted to soup and includes a yummy looking recipe using Newcastle Brown Ale. The recipe, called Newcastle Brown Ale cheddar soup, is reprinted below. I know what I’m making for dinner tonight.
Newcastle Brown Ale cheddar soup
Serves 4
2 cups cauliflower or broccoli florets
1 tablespoon butter
1/2 cup chopped onion
1 garlic clove, minced
1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
1 (12-ounce) bottle Newcastle Brown Ale
1 (14.5-ounce) can chicken broth
3 tablespoons cornstarch
2 cups half-and-half
2 cups aged cheddar cheese, shredded
Croutons, to tasteIn small saucepan over medium heat, cook cauliflower in water to cover until tender, 5 to 10 minutes. Drain and set aside. In a large pot over medium heat, melt butter. Stir in onion, garlic and Worcestershire sauce; cook until onion is translucent. Pour in Newcastle Brown Ale and bring to a boil. Pour in chicken broth, then return to boil.
After contents boil, reduce heat and stir in cauliflower. In a small bowl, combine cornstarch with 3 tablespoons of water; stir until dissolved. Set aside. Stir half-and-half and cheddar into the soup until the cheese melts. Stir in cornstarch mixture. Continue to cook and stir until soup thickens. Serve immediately with croutons.
CBO Job Update
About six weeks ago, Four Points Sheraton posted a job listing for CBO, Chief Beer Officer. I speculated at the time that it appeared to be more of a promotion than a legitimate job opening, but a fun one all the same. Travel Weekly (free subscription required) is reporting that to date over 5,000 CBO hopefuls from 31 countries on all of the inhabited continents have applied for the position. And people from all 50 states along with D.C. and Puerto Rico have filled out the application.
One curious statistic is that although only about 10% of the applicants have been female, a higher percentage of women got a perfect score on the beer knowledge quiz. What’s odd to me about that is that the quiz was so easy you’d have to be a block of wood not to ace it. I don’t mean to suggest only beer geeks would know the answers, I mean that absolutely anyone with a pulse and just a few synapses of thought should have no trouble getting every one right. The quiz answers are so telescoped that I’m mouth-droppingly amazed to learn that some people actually didn’t get a perfect score on it. But that aside, it still seems like a fun promotion. Who wouldn’t want that for a job title?
If you want to apply and see how easy the quiz is for yourself, there’s still time to apply online before the deadline ends on January 12, 2007.
Creative Solutions
In an effort to discourage driving after a bit too much holiday celebrating, the Police Department of Burlington, Vermont came up with a creative solution. They printed up logo pint glasses with one of four designs — “a police patch, a special response team patch, a K-9 logo or a Bennington Police Department 150th anniversary badge logo” — and then distributed them to area bars and restaurants. The idea, according to an AP Wire story, was that if patrons see one of the police logos on the beer they’re drinking then they might think twice about trying to drive drunk. Of course, I can’t resist asking why they didn’t also put logos on cocktail and wine glasses, too, especially since spirits and wine contain higher concentrations of alcohol and thus would represent a greater danger, at least from the police department’s point of view. But it’s still a pretty clever idea and far better than random checkpoints or other draconican measures. If more police departments took up this idea think of the extra money they could make to support education programs — because you just know they’d be people who would collect the pint glasses.
Picture me on a pint glass.
Beer Gift Packs
The Dayton Daily News has an interesting gallery of beer gift packs available this year. They may not all be available where you live, but it might give you some ideas if you’re looking for a gift for the beer lover on your secret Santa list.