Need a giant promotional balloon for your business? How about a 15-foot mug of beer? If you’re in Florida, you can rent one from Giant Balloon Rental. They also have a giant Coors beer can, too. That one is 23-feet tall. I’m guessing if one balloon rental company has it, they all probably do. I want one for my next party, much better than a jumpie house.
The humor website Freaking News, whose tagline is “News Photoshop Contests,” apparently has held several contests involving beer, challenging people to create funny pictures using Photoshop. In some cases they offer an image to start with and manipulate and in others they just suggest a theme. Below are some of my favorites from the Cold Draft Beer contest.
Boom!
Beer Lake.
Drunk Bouguereau. The original is La Petite Mendiante (The Little Beggar) painted by William-Adolphe Bouguereau in 1880.
You can see many more beer-altered photos in these contest galleries. Warning: it’s a time suck.
Our 35th Session is hosted by Christina Perozzi & Hallie Beaune, authors of the recently published beer book, The Naked Pint. For now the announcement is currently up on Beer For Chicks, but soon enough, the Session will be on The Beer Chicks, a new website by Perozzi & Beaune. But back to their Session topic — “New Beer’s Resolutions” — which they describe thusly:
So we want to know what was your best and worst of beer for 2009? What beer mistakes did you make? What beer resolutions do you have for 2010? What are your beer regrets and embarrassing moments? What are you hoping to change about your beer experience in 2010?
Hmm, that’s a lot to swallow. Ba-dump-bump. Rimshot!
Best and worst beers of last year? I certainly had plenty of great beer throughout 2009. The new Utopias? Life & Limb? Pliny the Younger? Black Tuesday? Dark Lord? Tasting directly from the barrels at Russian River? I don’t think I could pick just one favorite. A worst beer? I tend to forget the bad as soon as it’s gone. I’d rather focus on the great beer. Beer mistakes? Undoubtedly, at least I hope so. As Joyce said, “a man’s errors are his portals of discovery.” Beer regrets? I’ve had a few. But then again, too few to mention. Embarrassing moments? For a second year in a row, I didn’t make it all the way through the Keene tasting at Brouwers, the day after the Hard Liver Barleywine Festival.
“What are you hoping to change about your beer experience in 2010?” Okay, that’s a question I can sink my teeth into. This is probably going to sound odd, but I think I’d like to drink more beer in 2010. As it is, I drink almost every day. But usually it’s at home, afternoons and usually later in the evening with dinner. With a second grader and a kindergartner that need to get picked up every day and shepherded around to music lessons, etc., it’s not exactly easy to be out drinking every night. But in a sense that’s where the magic happens. Setting is important.
In 2010, I want to do this more. Just be out more, drinking with friends.
So that’s my hope. To share a beer with more people this year, get out of the house more. Spend more time in bars, restaurants and breweries. That’s one of my New Beer’s Resolution, to drink more beer. Join me?
Drinking my first beer on New Year’s Day at Barclay’s in Oakland with Bruce Paton, the Beer Chef. My first beer this year was Moonlight Toast, which I followed with Moonlight’s Christmas beer: Santa’s Tipple.
You can also see some more photos in this slideshow from today’s quick trip to Barclay’s.
Here at the Brookston Beer Bulletin we’re pausing today to wish you and yours a very Happy New Year. 2009 was yet another interesting year and was rarely dull with plenty of drama. Nobody knows with any real certainty what 2010 will be like for the beer industry, but I’ll be here for my fifth straight year of ranting about it, er .. analyzing it, online. I hope you’ll join me on another year’s worth of adventure in the beer world.
Taken last night in front of the Christmas tree; Alice, Porter and a tasty beer. Westvleteren. What better way to start the new year. Sometime today raise a glass of a tasty libation as we toast you a Happy New Year with one of my favorites:
Observe, when Mother Earth is dry,
She drinks the droppings of the sky,
And then the dewey cordial gives
To every thirsty plant that lives.
The vapors which at evening sweep
Are beverage to the swelling deep,
And when the rosy sun appears,
He drinks the misty ocean’s tears.
The moon, too, quaffs her paly stream
Of lustre from the solar beam;
Then hence with all your sober thinking!
Since Nature’s holy law is drinking,
Mine’s the law of Nature here,
And pledge the Universe in beer.
— Tom Moore, The Universal Toast
This is one my favorite out-takes. I have plenty more of the kids mugging for the camera and making funny faces. And here’s one final toast.
Love to one, friendship to many, and good will to all.
— Anonymous
Welcome to 2010.
Here are more of my favorite toasts. Let me know if I’m missing one of your favorites.
Here we go again. It’s year’s end once more and time for reflection on the past and what it might mean for the future, or at least the next year. While these top ten lists are ubiquitous at this time of year, I enjoy them too much all year long to not continue them through the holidays. It helps, I think, to stop and reflect on what happened over the previous year which puts the whole year in perspective and makes it easier to prepare for the coming one. So here are my choices for the top ten beer stories of 2009.
The Explosion of Beer Weeks: Prior to this year there had been beer weeks, but 2009 saw an explosion of new week-long beer celebrations all around the country. Beerapalooza morphed into SF Beer Week, along with new ones in Baltimore, Detroit, Los Angeles, San Diego, Seattle and two in Washington, D.C. And more are planned for 2010, bringing the total number of beer weeks very close to two dozen.
Bill Brand Passed Away: This is probably a bigger story in the Bay Area, but Bill’s influence as a beer writer was broader and wider than just Northern California. Bill had many more stories to tell when the train struck him in February of this year, and his loss continues to be felt throughout the beer world.
ABIB Begins Acting Like We Thought They Would: Despite promises by InBev throughout the negotiating process to buy Anhesuer-Busch, the newly configured ABIB in January began acting exactly like everyone who’s followed the company believed they would. In January they closed their London brewery, V-P Bob Lachky left mysteriously in February, in early March they began dictating new terms to understandably pissed-off suppliers and at the end of that month suspended the “born on date” on many brands. That’s in addition to lay-offs, price hikes and other “changes” to their corporate structure.
White House Ties To Neo-Prohibitionists: This was quite troubling, especially to those of us in the Liberal camp, but in April newly elected President Obama chose the Director of MADD to head the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, all but insuring no sane decisions in the near future. A few months later, in October, it was revealed that the head of neo-prohibitionist groups had visited the White House on numerous occasions, even meeting with the President a few times. During the same time period, no beer or alcohol representatives had similar access. And all this took place while the neo-prohibitionist groups were crying about the beer lobby and its undue influence in government.
Tactical Nuclear Penguin: Love it or hate it, no beer managed to get as much ink this year as the Scottish BrewDog’s record-beating Tactical Nuclear Penguin. At 32% a.b.v., it’s now the strongest beer in the world. The collaboration between Dogfish Head and Sierra Nevada that resulted in Life & Limb was a close second.
The Beer Summit: Though July’s presidential Beer Summit at the White House did no real favors for craft beer, it did put beer front and center in the public consciousness for a few days. Everyone wanted to talk beer and the speculation about what beer each of the three men would choose became fever pitch in the days leading up to the non-event.
Rock Art’s Vermonster vs. A True Monster: This year’s David and Goliath story involved the Hansen Beverage Company and their flagship Monster Energy Drink. It’s probably no coincidence that they recently signed a distribution with the famously litigious Anheuser-Busch, but when they got wind of a seasonal release by the tiny Rock Art Brewery, named Vermonster, a battery of white-lipped attorneys were set loose on the unsuspecting Vermont microbrewery. The arguments that they made were more facetious than even are normally made in these bully fights, and there was a groundswell of outrage, helped along by new social media like Twitter and Facebook. In the end, Hansen backed down and got essentially what Rock Art offered them in the beginning, but with the added bonus that many people — myself included — will never buy another Hansen’s product as long as they live. Bullies should never be rewarded.
Beer Wars: The Movie: While the movie itself sparked its own war of sorts online, the pre-release marketing and filmmaker Anat Baron’s continued engagement of the beer community afterward has kept its message going, debated and analyzed for most of the year. Whether you appreciated what the film was trying to accomplish or not, it did keep things lively throughout 2009.
It’s the Economy, Stupid: When the economy tanked, many states and even the Federal government — urged on by neo-prohibitionists taking advantage of the situation — floated bills and other legislation trying to punish the beer and alcohol industry with higher taxes. The rationale for all of this was that strapped budgets needed to be put right and called on alcohol to pay even more than it already does (which is more than any other goods save tobacco.) While many such misguided attempts were ultimately defeated, many more remain open and worrisome.
Recession-Proof Craft Beer: Though the sales figures for craft beer did dip slightly, they continued to be healthy and far greater then either imports or domestic macrobeer. And growth by dollars continued to rise, in part due to higher prices, but also due in part to consumer’s willingness to pay a little bit more for better beer, seen as an affordable luxury. This essentially confirmed the recession-proof nature of beer, and especially craft beer. I’ve personally spoken to many, many breweries who are continuing to see excellent sales and sales growth in stark contrast to the big guys.
And what will next year bring? See my post later this week with my predictions for the beer industry in 2010.
Before Christmas, I attended the 21st annual holiday tasting at Pacific Coast Brewing in Oakland. It was my first time at the long-running event and I had a terrific time. Owner Steve Wolfe and brewmaster Don Gortemiller were gracious hosts and I spent the afternoon with several friends and colleagues. I also didn’t realize just how much food would be served — which I should add was a welcome development — with the fifteen beers. Having done this for decades, they have the process down. Every fifteen minutes a new beer was poured and in between a new dish was made available for noshing.
Pacific Coast Brewing’s Steve Wolfe with brewmaster Don Gortemiller.
Don and Steve chose all the beers with an eye toward serving the most special beers they could get their hands on, and ones which were appropriate for the holiday season. Nine of the fifteen were holiday seasonals, and three were anniversary ales.
Mario Rubio, from Brewed For Thought, me, Steve Wolfe, Don Gortemiller and Mike Pitsker, from the Celebrator Beer News.
Every attendee was provided with an elaborate scoring sheet along with some guidelines on how to score each beer. Most people in the brewpub seemed to take scoring the beers very seriously. At the end of the tasting, the completed sheets are collected and tabulated. Brewmaster Don Gortemiller released the results of the 2009 tasting a few days before Christmas. This year’s winner was the Double Jack from Firestone Walker Brewing in Paso Robles, California. Deschutes Black Butte XXI came in second and third place went to the collaboration between Dogfish Head Brewery and Sierra Nevada Brewing, Life & Limb. To see the full tally, check out the results on Pacific Coast’s website.
This year’s winner, Firestone Walker Double Jack.
Below is a slideshow of the Pacific Coast Holiday Tasting. This Flickr gallery is best viewed in full screen. To view it that way, after clicking on the arrow in the center to start the slideshow, click on the button on the bottom right with the four arrows pointing outward on it, to see the photos in glorious full screen. Once in full screen slideshow mode, click on “Show Info” to identify each photo.
Here is my second beer quiz. This one uses elements of brewery’s logos and labels. Your job is simply to figure out which brewery they come from. Good luck. Let me know how you did.
If you missed any previous quizzes, they can all be found on the beer quiz page.
On Christmas Day, The Beer Wench — Ashley Routson — posted a recipe for Bacon Peanut Butter Cup Beer Brownies using a brownie mix. I will eat any dessert that’s made with both peanut butter and chocolate. It’s a combination I simply cannot resist, yet another of my many obsessions. But I also love bacon. Since this dessert completes a kind of perverse trifecta, I simply had to give it a try. The fact that it used a mix also made me more likely to make it, since I am ridiculously lazy when it comes to cooking.
Ashley’s original recipe was as follows:
BEER WENCH BACON PEANUT BUTTER CUP BEER BROWNIES
INGREDIENTS:
- 1 box of brownie mix
- 3 eggs
- 1/3 cup chocolate, oatmeal or regular stout
- 1 package of bacon
- 6 whole peanut butter cups — chilled
- 2 tbsp butter
INSTRUCTIONS:
- Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees. Grease pan with butter. Yes, butter. Because butter makes everything better.
- Cook entire package of bacon to desired consistency. I like a combination of crispy bacon and chewy bacon. The both add an interesting texture to the end product. Allow the bacon to cool and then dice it.
- Chop the Peanut Butter Cups into small pieces.
- Melt the butter and mix with the bacon. The recipe on the box technically calls for oil. Unfortunately, the only oil I had on hand was Olive Oil. So I decided that the oils from the bacon combined with melted butter would suffice for the recipe.
- Combine the eggs, stout and bacon butter with the box brownie mix in a large bowl. Do not over mix. After all ingredients are combined, fold in the peanut butter cups.
- Pour the mix into the greased pan and spread it evenly. Bake. For 13X9″ pan, bake 24-26 minutes. For 9×9″ pan, bake for 38-40 minutes. For 8×8″ pan, bake 52-54 minutes.
- Serve with an Imperial Stout.
My daughter woke up feeling sick this morning so we’re not doing much of anything today. That freed me up to do some baking. So using what I had around the house, I decided to try my hand at making them. Being even lazier than most, I decided to use bacon bits instead of frying up my own. That also meant I wouldn’t have the bacon fat to substitute for vegetable oil. Fortunately, I have vegetable oil so I made a mixture of butter and oil to use instead. For the beer, I found a bottle of Moylan’s Ryan O’Sullivan Imperial Stout. My mix called for slightly different ingredients — like two instead of three eggs — but otherwise it was quite similar.
All the ingredients laid out, with the peanut butter cups already sliced and diced.
My daughter Alice helping me mix the brownies.
The brownies mixed with bacon and peanut butter cups.
Ready to go in the oven.
Just out of the oven. That scar in the pan happened when I accidentally grazed it with my silicone pot holder, pulling it out of the oven.
The finished Bacon Peanut Butter Brownies paired with some imperial stout.
I thought they turned out great. And they were very easy my way. But it appears I’ll have them all to myself. Neither my wife nor the kids thought much of them. But they worked for me. I personally think bacon and peanut butter work great together. Add chocolate and it’s divine. Thanks to Ashley for the original idea. Yum, now to eat some more brownies and drink some more beer. Happy Boxing day indeed.
Having been a hardcore Boy Scout when I was a kid, I always took to heart their motto: “Be Prepared.” As a result, I’m never without an opener. I keep it on my keychain. I used to go through two or tree of the cheap ones every year, because they kept wearing out. But around a decade ago someone from Anchor Brewery gave me a titanium opener they put their logo on and it’s still going strong today.
But what if you found yourself in a situation where you had a bottle of beer but were without an opener? Well, if you had a piece of paper, you could still open the bottle pretty easily. Just watch the instructional video below and you’ll never be unable to open a beer bottle, even if you’re lost in the woods without a bottle opener.
Here’s a second video which seem to show the process a little more simply.
In case you don’t have a piece of paper, here’s another video showing many other ways to open a beer bottle.
I found this cheery Christmas verse and art at, of all things, an online craft forum, SallyB’s @ SB Crafts. There are a total eight different Xmas verses with their own graphics, so I’m not exactly sure what they’re supposed to be used for, but I love the idea of Santa and his elves and reindeer throwing a massive party after all the hard work of preparing for and delivering all the Christmas presents last night. That’s what I would do, wouldn’t you?
Santa really knows how to party, when all his work is done
His whole team can then relax and start to have some fun
This is the perfect season to be filled with Christmas cheer
So enjoy the Christmas Spirit…. Christmas wine and Christmas beer!
