Brookston Beer Bulletin

Jay R. Brooks on Beer

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Yule Shoot Your Eye Out

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christmas-beer
This is just priceless. Eric Warner’s new brewery in Texas, Karbach Brewing, has named their new seasonal beer for one of the greatest holiday movies ever made, A Christmas Story. The 8% a.b.v. seasonal was made with ginger, cocoa nibs, orange peel, cardamom, allspice, nutmeg and cinnamon, and has one of the best beer names I’ve heard in quite some time: Yule Shoot Your Eye Out.

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There’s also a promotional video for the beer.

But wait, there’s more. There’s also a second Christmas beer that was inspired by A Christmas Story, this one slightly more subtle. It’s calle Fra Gee Lay — must be Italian! — an ale brewed with spices and aged in Bourbon barrels. It’s essentially the Yule Shoot Your Eye Out barrel-aged, and there’s another video.

Hilarious. Now if I can only figure out how to get the beer. Maybe if I hold up the brewery with my Red Ryder BB Gun.

Beer Can Advent Calendar

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This looks like a fun project for the DIY-minded beer lover, with a tip of the hat to KegWorks. The Do-It-Yourself website Instructables has step-by-step instructions on how to make your own Beer Advent Calendar with cans of beer instead of those little chocolates that most of them have behind each daily door. We also get a Lego Advent Calendar every year for the kids, but a beer Advent Calendar sounds even better. Check it out. Be sure to read the comments, too, where suggestions on how to do the same thing with beer bottles can be found.

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Beer In Ads #729: J-Day 2012

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Friday’s ad is specifically for today, 2012. It’s for Tuborg’s Christmas beer, Julebryg, which is released each year at 8:59 p.m. on the first Friday of November. It’s become a big holiday in Denmark, known as J-Dag (or J-Day). It’s hard not to love a beer holiday called “J-Day,” or that just me? NPR has the full story.

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Back in 1980, they debuted an animated television commercial which was such a huge hit that it sparked the tradition for the seasonal beer’s release each year, and the same ad has now run every year since then.

Beer Tree: The Ultimate Christmas Project

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Here’s yet another beer bottle Christmas tree, this one from 2007. It was “built from 1050 stubbies (250ml bottles), equivalent to 462 pints. Tied together with 300 meters of wire and decorated with 200 lights, with a bubble lamp in the centre, the tree stands 2 meters high and 1 meter wide at the base.” Hoppy Christmas.

Guinness Ad #99: When You’re Tired Enjoy A Guinness

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Our 99th Guinness ad is a black and white print advertisement that ran in Life magazine in December of 1940. Showing a tuckered out store Santa Claus being torn apart by the little kiddies hoping to tell him what they want for Christmas. I’m not sure how that behavior squares with needing to be good, for goodness sale. But the ad suggests, “When you’re Tired enjoy a Guinness.” And I love their description: “Guinness looks, tastes and is different from every other malt beverage. It is dry, racy — hearty and nourishing!”

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Beer In Ads #505: Holiday Greetings From Narragansett

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Friday’s holiday ad is for Rhode Island’s Narragansett Beer, which has made a come back in recent years. It originally “appeared in the December 23, 1945 issue of The Boston Herald.” Offering “Holiday Greetings from Narragansett,” and also featured a wonderful painting of an idyllic winter scene.

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According to Narragansett’s blog, the “painting is titled, ‘On The Post Road,’ and was created by artist, Harold Breut.”

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Carol of the Beers

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This is pretty cool, despite the Corona bottles. According to the musician who made the video, BoTLpLayA, “[he] play[s] Carol of the Bells on perfectly tuned corona bottles (they make the best sound), by “plucking” them with [his] finger.” Hmm, not sure that makes sense, but who am I to argue with the results. Enjoy!

Beer In Ads #504: Stag’s Treasured Traditions

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Thursday’s holiday ad is for Stag Beer, from 1958. Maybe it’s just me, but a treasured stag traditions doesn’t sound too wholesome to me, especially when the ad shows a comely lass standing under the mistletoe holding a beer in her hand. So if I understand this scene correctly, a beautiful woman is offering me a beer, and by taking it I’ll be under the mistletoe, so I’ll also have to kiss her, as well. Okay, I take it all back; now that is a treasured tradition.

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