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MERRY CHRISTMAS!
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A Fridge That Tosses
Beer Cans
John Cornwell, an Atlanta-based software engineer,
so longed for his Duke University beer drinking
days, that he designed and built himself a
refrigerator that can toss him a can of beer with
the click of a remote control. Cromwell adapted a
standard mini-fridge to be able to launch 10 cans of
beer 20 feet before a reload is necessary. To date,
no TV screens have been destroyed.
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REMOTE CONTROL BEER PAGER
It’s a beer cozy with a built-in beeper.
Can’t remember where your beer is? Use the
included remote to page it, it responds with
a burping noise, so you can locate your can.
With a press of the remote button, this
coozie with removable coaster lights up and
lets loose a satisfying belch. |
Beer Buddies
SAB Miller's offer to buy Grolsch
for $1,2 Billion was accepted by the Dutch Brewer.
Grolsch is one of the world's oldest breweries,
tracing its roots back to 1615. It sells most of its
beer in Britain and the Netherlands. The deal left
Anheuser-Busch behind as America's biggest brewer
markets Grolsch in the United States and was rumored
to be interested in the acquisition themselves.
Cholesterol-lowering
Light Beer
Heart Start Premium Light Beer is new on the market
as a supposedly "heart-healthy cholesterol reducing"
beer. The light beer is brewed in Canada and
contains one gram of barley beta glucan (70 percent
beta-glucan) and one gram of plant sterols per
12-ounce bottle. Nautilus Mineral Waters of America,
the company that developed the new beer, wrote in a
press release that "Beta glucan is a clinically
proven cholesterol reducing ingredient that provides
additional heart health benefits in managing blood
glucose levels and increasing satiety for weight
management."
Nicotine Beer
Nautilus GmbH Laboratoriumsbedarf in Germany has
created NicoShot, dubbed "the world's first
smoking-cessation beer containing a shot of natural
nicotine" equal to the amount in two regular
filtered cigarettes. NicoShot is a 6.5% ABV German
lager containing 3 milligrams of naturally derived
nicotine alkaloids, 63 calories and 4.5
carbohydrates in a 250-ml can. An herbal extract of
natural tobacco leaf is added to the beer after the
brewing process. The makers of NicoShot claim their
beer "is cigarette satisfaction in a beer without
the smoke. For most smokers, three cans of NicoShot
are comparable to an entire pack of conventional
cigarettes ... [with] ... none of the tar or carbon
monoxide that comes from burring tobacco." It's
nicotine replacement therapy in a beer.
Chocolate Inventors
Were Trying for Beer.
Chocolate was first produced by
the ancients as a by-product of beer, suggests a new
archaeological study. Chemical residues found in
pottery vessels from what is now Honduras have
revealed that the ancient peoples of Central America
were drinking chocolate beverages as long ago as
1150BC. The evidence suggests that they were
alcoholic drinks made from fermented pulp of cacao
fruit. It was likely that the distinctive taste of
chocolate was stumbled upon by ancient brewers
fermenting cacao pulp to make a kind of beer known
later to the Spanish as chicha.
In the course of beer brewing, you discover that if
you ferment the seeds of the plant you get this
chocolate taste. The Mesoamericans before Columbus’s
time, developed a taste for the chocolate, but their
cousins down in South America stuck with the beer.
Anheuser-Busch Looks To Go More Upscale
Anheuser-Busch, noting the
growing premium/boutique beer market share, is
taking a new tack in its 2008 marketing. It will
emphasize the quality of ingredients and brewing
techniques in its core brands, Budweiser and
Michelob. The strategy is an attempt to give them
some of the cachet that has pushed sales of imports.
According to the Wall Street Journal (subscription),
the company will drop about $30 million on this
campaign, while also increasing spending on more of
the youth-oriented, humor-infused messages that
promote Bud Light.
BUD is reacting to two challenges: declining/flat
sales of its mainstream suds, and the competition
posed by the recently announced partnership of
SABMiller and Molson Coors (NYSE:TAP) to mutually
market their products in the U.S. Anheuser-Busch
successfully raised prices on its products in 2007,
but I wouldn't expect such a move in 2008, in light
of this competition.
Beer Has Gone to the
Dogs
Hondenbier Kwispelbier, marketed as "a beer for your
best friend," is a beer brewed especially for dogs
by the Schelde brewery in the Netherlands. Brewed
with beef extract and malt, the beer is the
brainchild of pet shop owner Gerrie Berendsen, who
wanted her Weimaraners to share a beer with her
after a day's hunting. The non-alcoholic beer costs
four times as much as a regular Dutch lager. "Kwispel"
is the Dutch word for wagging a tail.
In the U.S., the non-alcoholic and non-carbonated
Happy Tail Ale from Dog Star Brewing (CA) is another
beer brewed especially for dogs. This canine
quencher also features a beefy flavor (from
all-natural beef drippings) and is fortified with
glucosamine and vitamin E.
Courtesy of Maxim Magazine, maxim.com, they have surveyed and determined
America's Best Dive Bars......more
A Barley
that Keeps Beer Fresher Longer
Sapporo Breweries of Japan claims that
it has developed a new line of barley
that will keep beer fresh longer.
Commercial production is set to begin in
Canada in 2008. Sapporo has filed patent
applications for the barley line
throughout the world after spending
eight years developing the new strain,
which lacks lipoxygenase, an
iron-containing enzyme said to cause the
flavor of beer to deteriorate. The new
barley is supposed to reduce the amount
of flavor-deteriorating substances in
beer to one-third conventional levels,
as well cut foam-reducing substances by
half.
Changes
for Michelob
Anheuser-Busch has gone back in time to
re-launch the Michelob line of beers
with the original all-malt recipes
dating to 1896 and old-style bottles.
Michelob Lager and Michelob Light will
be packaged in redesigned "teardrop"
bottles based on the original package
launched in 1961. A-B has also
redesigned the packaging for Michelob
Amber Bock and the other Michelob
brands, using a new embossed bottle with
a raised ridge around the neck. A-B
originally brewed the Michelob line as
"a beer for connoisseurs." Doug Muhleman,
group vice president, Brewing Operations
and Technology for A-B, said of the new
beers: "The taste will reflect the basic
style that Michelob is known for —- but
with an added dimension of taste
intensity. The beer will have rich
toasted maltiness, a balanced hop
profile from the use of noble aroma hop
varieties, a rich color and a smooth
velvety finish."
