The Friday Mash (Feathered Friends Edition)
On this day in 1785, John James Audubon was born. His major work is a color-plate book entitled The Birds of America. You might want to toast the great naturalist–or birds in general–with a Duck Duck Goose by Lost Abbey, one of the world’s top-rated beers.
And now…The Mash!
We begin in Minneapolis, where the city’s last “3.2 bars” cling to life. Craft beer, changes to liquor laws, and Minnesota’s indoor smoking ban are killing off these venerable establishments.
Yuck! Student researchers at Clemson University examined balls used in beer pong games, and found them riddled with nasty germs including e.coli, salmonella, staph, and listeria.
This week’s craft beer fun fact: India pale ale accounts for 25.2 percent of all beer sold in Oregon. That’s all beer, not all craft beer.
Shane Battier of the defending NBA champion Miami Heat said that he has a pre-game ritual: downing a Bud Light. The brewery has rewarded his loyalty by presenting him with a truckload of the beer.
In Sweden, the label for “Lust” beer ran afoul of regulators because it featured an anime image of a naked woman in a pool. It’s part of a “Seven Deadly Sins” beer series.
BeerHunt will reward you for drinking beer. The app, described as “a kind of Foursquare for beer,” will give you points, and ultimately prizes, for drinking craft, rare, and exotic beers.
Finally, an item from the Department of Acquired Tastes. A Japanese beer called Black Ivory Coffee is brewed from beans chewed up and pooped out by elephants. It’s style? A stout.
The Great Wall of Bottlecaps
It took two months and 60,000 bottlecaps to build this work of wall art. See it get built in two minutes:
The Friday Mash (Tom McCall Edition)
Today would have been the 100th birthday of former Oregon governorTom McCall. He’s best known for environmental initiatives, including the nation’s first returnable bottle bill. The Oregon Brewers Fest takes place every July at Tom McCall Waterfront Park in Portland.
And now…The Mash!
We begin in York Haven, Pennsylvania, where Jeff Lebo has built a house for his collection of 83,000 vintage beer cans. His Brewhouse Mountain Eco-Inn offers overnight accommodations.
Serving miners? Krogh’s Brew Pub of Sparta, New Jersey, is storing casks of Imperial Stout in an old iron and zinc mine. They’ll be tapped at next year’s celebration of Krogh’s 15th anniversary party as a brewpub.
Iron Maiden, the heavy metal band, has teamed up with the Robinsons brewery to brew its own beer: Trooper, named after one of the band’s most popular songs.
Victory Brewing Company and Dogfish Head Craft Brewery are hosting “Amber Waves,” an exhibition of beer and the art promoting it at this year’s Craft Brewers Conference.
After Thomas Knight of Key West got caught stealing from an airport bar at 5:40 am, security handed him a trespass warning. At least he isn’t on the no-fly list.
Homebrewer Robert Scott has invented the Tapit Cap, which keeps growlers of beer fresh and carbonated. He’s trying to raise $80,000 on Kickstarter to bring his device to market.
Finally, a toast to Mark and Mandie Murphy, who have opened a baseball-themed brewery in Ontario. The Left Field Brewery’s lineup includes the wonderfully-named 6-4-3 Double IPA.
The Friday Mash (QWERTY Edition)
One hundred and forty years ago today, E. Remington and Sons in Ilion, New York, began production of the first practical typewriter. Even though few of us use typewriters anymore, the familiar “QWERTY” keyboard design, invented in 1874, is still with us.
ASDF…The Mash!
We begin in Massachusetts where Todd Ruggere, a Waltham resident, is drinking a Sam Adams in each of the Commonwealth’s 351 cities and towns. He’s raising money for cancer research.
We all know that higher-gravity beers are able to conceal hop bitterness. With that in mind, Jay Brooks recently posted an original gravity to hops ratio graph on his Brookston Beer Bulletin.
In 1953, an Aussie named Bob Hawke set a world record by downing a yard of ale–more than two pints–in 11 seconds. He was later elected that country’s Prime Minister. Coincidence?
Good news for beer lovers in Manhattan. The Hudson River Park Trust will open a 6,000-square-foot beer garden overlooking the river at Pier 62. It will serve craft beers and specialty food.
Kegasus, the beer-guzzling centaur that advertises the Preakness InfieldFest, will likely be scratched from this year’s race. But there will be live entertainment, and plenty of beer.
Pro tip: it’s not a good idea to drink to excess before designing beer labels, because you might come up with something like this disturbing Belgian ale label.
Finally, congratulations to Warren Monteiro, a writer, beer traveler, and homebrewer from New York City, who was named Beerdrinker of the Year at the Wynkoop Brewing Company.
The Friday Mash (Trinidad and Tobago Edition)
Fifty years ago today, Trinidad and Tobago gained its independence from Great Britain. This Caribbean island republic is the birthplace of calypso, steelpan, and soca music, chutney, and the limbo. A cold beer would go well with any or all of these.
And now…The Mash!
We begin in Hyde Park, New York, where the Culinary Institute of America’s American Bounty Restaurant celebrates its 30th anniversary with a special black ale brewed by Tommy Keegan of Keegan Ales.
Craft beer in Kyrgyzstan? Writer Chris Rickleton, who lives in the Kyrgyz capital, Bishkek, reports that the local beers aren’t bad at all, and that a couple of micros are open for business.
Three Portland, Oregon, women are planning to write a book titled Hop in the Saddle, a bicyclist’s guide to beer touring their city.
Now that Goose Island is part of the Anheuser-Busch family of beers, they will be available in all 50 states. The high-end Goose Island beers will continue to be made in Chicago.
The Yeastie Boys, a brewery in New Zealand, is a pioneer in open-source brewing. Bottles of its Digital IPA contain metallic blue QR codes which enable customers to brew their own versions of the ale.
Joshua Justice of the Houston Press lists the ten ugliest labels on beers sold in Texas. Some of the labels Justice can’t stand appear on bottles of very good beer.
Finally, iPhone users can play a new game that features bottlecaps from Michigan breweries. When you touch a bottlecap, the game gives you information about that brewery, including its location and a social media contact.
The Friday Mash (Viking Invasion Edition)
On this day in 793 A.D., Vikings kicked off their invasion of England by raiding the abbey at Lindisfarne. Most people think that the Vikings were bloodthirsty savages who drank ale out of the skulls of defeated enemies. Historians say that isn’t true. Their drinking cups were called “skals” (the origin of the Scandinavian toast, “Skol!”), a word terrified Englishmen thought was “skulls.”
And now….The Mash!
We begin in Hudsonville, Michigan, which until recently was one of the state’s few dry towns. It now has two breweries, White Flame Brewing Company and Pike 51 Brewing Company.
Juxtapoz.com has put together a slide show featuring the 25 best classic beer labels of all time. Also from that site: the 25 best modern beer labels.
The Journal, an Irish publication, staged a Euro 2012 competition–for beers, not football teams. The winner of the 16-country single-elimination tournament was Poland’s Zywiec, which defeated Russia’s Baltika in the final.
It sounds counterintuitive, but scientists have discovered a molecule in beer that may prevent obesity. That’s the good news. The bad news is that the molecule is extremely small and difficult to reproduce.
Check out this classy commercial for a Lithuanian brewery. It uses the interior of an animated watch to depict the steps involved in making beer. (Hat tip: “Dabitch” at AdLand.com.)
Nowadays we take growlers for granted, but in 1905, regulators in Washington, D.C., considered banning them. Temperance groups argued that cheap beer in large quantities was a recipe for disaster.
Finally, a second chance for candidates who lost in Tuesday’s California primary. The Four Points by Sheraton at LAX is looking to fill three positions on its Beer Advisory Board. Any California resident, 21 or older, is eligible to apply.
The Friday Mash (Triskaidekaphobia Edition)
Today is Friday the 13th, which is bad news for the 20 million Americans who suffer from triskaidekaphobia. Some are so terrified of today that they won’t even get out of bed. But the truly intrepid will celebrate by attending Friday the Firkenteenth, a cask ale festival that takes place at Philadelphia’s Grey Lodge Pub every Friday the 13th.
And now…The Mash!
We begin in Toledo, where Tony Packo’s, the hot dog joint made famous by M*A*S*H’s Corporal Klinger, is celebrating its 80th anniversary with a special, locally-brewed ale.
Two economists theorize that beer was the key to The Netherlands’ independence. Seventeenth-century Dutchmen drank lots beer, and the government gradually hiked taxes on it to finance their decades-long revolt against Spanish rule.
Budweiser has run afoul of British regulators, who turned thumbs-down on an ad in which a football coach promised success with women to men who drank Bud.
Add Lagunitas Brewery to the list of western craft breweries planning to open a second plant. It will be located in Chicago, where founder and owner Tony Magee is from.
San Francisco’s iconic Hamms Brewery sign was demolished long ago, but local artist Dan McHale has brought it back to life with a series of paintings, “36 Views of the Hamm’s Brewery.”
Could beer be “brain food”? Scientists at the University of Illinois at Chicago found that after drinking two pints, men performed better on brain-teasers than those had nothing to drink.
Finally, Governor Phil Bryant has signed a bill raising Mississippi’s ABV cap to approximately 10.1% ABV. Mississippians can now enjoy 70 percent of the world’s top 100 beers.
Art Appreciation
A discussion of beer labels on BeerAdvocate.com inspired Maryse Chevriere, the editor of TheDailyMeal.com, to put together a slideshow of her favorites. The beers come from all parts of the country, (plus a few from beyond America’s borders); and they’re as pleasing to the palate as the labels are to the eyes. Paul’s favorite is Ara Bier from Belgium. That’s because he was a student at Notre Dame during the Era of Ara, as in Parseghian.
The Friday Mash (Town and Gown Edition)
Think today’s college towns are crazy? On this day in 1355, a dispute over the quality of ale in an Oxford, England, tavern touched off the St. Scholastica’s Day Riot, an armed clash between University of Oxford students and townspeople that resulted in more than 90 deaths.
And now…The Mash!
We begin in Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island, where a hockey and beer exhibition has opened at Confederation Centre of the Arts. This weekend, all of PEI is celebrating “Hockey Day in Canada.”
Alan Newman, the founder of Magic Hat Brewing Company, told a local paper that he’s not amused by beer geeks who focus too much on how big a brewery is and who owns it.
The Belgian Post Office has issued a series of stamps honoring the country’s six Trappist breweries. The stamps feature bottles, caps, and glasses filled with these famous beers.
The Brewers Association has released its 2012 Beer Style Guildelines. New to the list this year is Indigenous Beer, which takes in the likes of Finnish-style sahti, South American chicha, and African sorghum-based beers.
Dogfish Head Artisan Ales didn’t run any ads during this year’s Super Bowl, but it got some unexpected–and enviable–publicity during the big game: Academy Award-winning actress Charlize Theron showed up at a party with a case of 60 Minute IPA.
TheFiftyBest.com, which calls itself “an unbiased guide to fine living,” is out with its list of the world’s 50 best beers. Let the debate begin.
Finally (and you knew we’d find a college-related story), researchers at University College Cork in Ireland have developed a taste-retaining low-alcohol beer. Ludwig wants to know whether it’s less filling as well.
Flying Dog Mural Debuts
This evening, Flying Dog Ales will unveil a mural titled “The Flying Dog Story in 100 Feet.” This evening event, which is open to the public, will feature the unveiling itself, the three muralists’ work, and live music.