Today’s infographic is from, of all places, Betty Crocker’s Brew House, with their chart entitled “Beer Me — Choose Your Own Adventure.” Walk through the choices to help you decide what beer to drink, then follow the suggestions on what food to pair it with.
Click here to see the chart full size.
Tuesday’s ad is for Rheingold Beer, from 1951, and features Miss Rheingold from that year, Elise Gammon. She’s riding up front on a boat, along with a dog, and waving to an unseen audience. I do love the tagline though; “It’s beer as beer should taste.”
Today’s infographic is another of those “Beers of the World” posters that were popular once upon a time. This one’s from the UK, and I found it at an online shop website, ekm powershop, though the individual shop, ogw posters, selling the poster appears to have been suspended. It looks older, but I’m not sure from when. Of the 66 bottles, only Samuel Adams, Rolling Rock, Budweiser, Miller Genuine Draft and Brooklyn Lager are American brands. Of those, Brooklyn Brewery is the newest, having started in 1988. So it’s at least older than that.
Click here to see the poster full size.
Here’s another cool video of the opening celebration from this year’s SF Beer Week. It was created by Jick Pictures and features some pretty cool animation, too. Enjoy.
Monday’s ad is for Pabst Blue Ribbon, from 1954. With the title “When It’s ‘Your Turn’ To Entertain…” and part of their long-running “What’ll You Have” series, they suggest that just what you need to to “dazzle your friends” is a Virginia ham with a special glaze made with beer. The ad helpfully includes the recipe to make the “Blue Ribbon Ham Glaze” to make your party a bit hit.
I figure I should get this posted while it’s still Sunday, the Christian Sabbath. My friend Pete, he of the Wicked renown, sent me the link to an article in the Wall Street Journal about Valley Church in Allendale, Michigan, which is bringing a slightly different message to its flock than the average church. In Some Church Folk Ask: ‘What Would Jesus Brew?’, they host a “semi-regular meeting of beer enthusiasts and home brewers who go by the moniker ‘What Would Jesus Brew?'”
But the story details other similar efforts at bridging beer and religion at churches around the country, such as Saint Paul’s Episcopal in Wilmington, North Carolina, where they asked “congregants to brew beer and challenge other churches in the area to a friendly competition to raise money for charity.” The contest was called the “What Would Jesus Brew? competition.” And although it initially met with laughter and some derision, “[a] handful of nearby churches took up the mantle, and the groups met at Wilmington’s Front Street Brewery to learn basic brewing techniques and the history of beer in the church.” More impressively, the St. Paul’s team was called “Brew Unto Others” and also came up with a great team slogan: “God’s peace. Happy yeast.”
They “built a ‘gigantic, four-foot trophy with a giant stein on it,’ which went to the ‘Hopostles’ from St. Mary Catholic Parish for their tasty double India Pale Ale.” It goes on to point out, not surprisingly, that not everyone in the Christian church is thrilled with this recent beery focus, but Pastor Matt Bistayi from Michigan’s Valley church has an answer for them. “‘Drunkenness is a sin,’ he said, ‘but beer or alcohol in moderation can be a gift from God’s creation.'” Amen to that.
Today’s infographic is a chart of original gravity and final gravity of beer styles listed by the BJCP. The Beer Styles – Original Gravity and Final Gravity Chart was created by Brewer’s Friend, a homebrewing website.
Today’s infographic is from my friends at Weyermann Specialty Malt, which is located in Bamberg, Germany. This poster shows the production steps for malting.
Click here to see the poster full size.
I stumbled onto yet another list of old words, this group on the Matador Network. 20 obsolete English words that should make a comeback includes some pretty cool words, like Scriptitation, which I think I engage in every single day. Scriptitation is “[a] 17th-century word meaning ‘continual writing'” But two in particular caught my eye as beer-related.
Brannigan
Noun – “A drinking bout; a spree or ‘binge’” – Brannigan was originally a North American slang word, but it is now rarely used. “Shall we go for a brannigan on Friday?” can be a more sophisticated way to discuss such activities.
I can’t imagine the root of that, unless of course there was some gut named Brannigan who was well-known for binge drinking.
Bibesy
Noun – “A too earnest desire after drink.” – “Bibesy” may have been completely made up in the 18th century and it’s unclear whether it ever made it into common use, but it could easily be used today: “Wedding guests waited anxiously for the bar to open; bibesy should be expected after such a long, dull service.”
Not sure about that one either, but there were a few other gems, too. “Twitter-light,” for example, once meant “a romantic way to refer to the hours as the sun goes down,” but I suspect would have a completely different meaning. Then there’s something I’m often accused of: Perissology. “Perissology” means the “Use of more words than are necessary; redundancy or superfluity of expression.” I completely disagree and will write a short, 10,000-word rebuttal on why it’s not true.
I’m not sure I’d vote for either of these beer words to make a comeback, but it’s always fun to find them.
