beer

Reporter David Wroe of The Age, reports from Berlin.

YOU CAN get it eating bratwurst. You can get it wearing lederhosen. But German beer lovers, it seems, didn’t quite get it at all.

What was this curious brew in a funny little bottle, overchilled and underdressed in a rudimentary green label, presuming to stand alongside the big boys from Germany and the Czech Republic at Berlin’s International Beer Festival?

“It’s too cold,” said a Bavarian bus driver, Hans Horst. “If it’s too cold it has no aroma. Beer should be 10 to 12 degrees Celsius, the same as sausage.”

The humble VB was one of the beers featured for the first time this weekend along the Berlin festival’s famous “beer mile”, on Karl Marx Avenue. Despite some misgivings, the world’s most discerning beer drinkers gave Victor Bravo a modest, if not effusive, thumbs up.

The bad news at the end of the first day, was that VB was being comprehensively outsold by New Zealand’s Steinlager at the international beer stalls.

The good news was, at least VB was outselling Castlemaine XXXX, which was struggling to get off the mark.

[From theage.com.au]

If you have had a rough day at the office, sometimes it’s nice to kick back at home and have yourself a cold brew. But what if you are stuck pulling an all-nighter at that very same office and can’t break away to get to your favorite adult beverage? We’ll, you could pretend to pound down a few with the iPhone app known as iBeer 2.0.

This clever little iPhone app takes advantage of the tilt sensor in the mobile phone and lets you perform amazing beer tricks like brewing, drinking, shaking, and what brew wouldn’t be complete without the belch.

A sign of the times. Any viewers have a clue as to the reason for this very well supported march?

‘Wanted: Person to accompany elderly gentleman to the pub’ — and the lucky winner will even get paid for sharing a friendly pint of beer.

Mike Hammond put the advertisement in his village post office so his widowed 88-year-old father Jack could have someone to chat to on twice-weekly visits to a southern England pub from a local nursing home.

‘It’s got to be the best job in the world,’ Mike Hammond said as he sifted through a list of likely candidates who will be paid 7 pounds an hour plus expenses.

The successful applicant must not be a woman, a teenager or ‘somebody who is just going to get wrecked. Dad is not a heavy drinker,’ Mike Hammond told the Times.

His father likes women, he said, but it would be a little bit awkward going out to the pub with a lady he didn’t know.

Robotic Beer Launching Refrigerator – video powered by Metacafe

Not all chemicals are bad. Without chemicals such as hydrogen and oxygen, for example, there would be no way to make water, a vital ingredient in beer. — Dave Barry

Sometimes when I reflect back on all the beer I drink I feel ashamed. Then I look into the glass and think about the workers in the brewery and all of their hopes and dreams. If I didn’t drink this beer, they might be out of work and their dreams would be shattered. Then I say to myself, ‘It is better that I drink this beer and let their dreams come true than be selfish.’ — Jack Handy

Beer is proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy. — Benjamin Franklin

It was as natural as eating and, to me, as necessary. I would not have thought of eating a meal without drinking a beer.
— Ernest Hemingway

A guy walks into a bar and orders a drink. After a few more he needs to go to the toilet.

He doesn’t want anyone to steal his drink so he puts a sign on it saying, “I spat in this beer, do not drink!”.

After a few minutes he returns and there is another sign next to his beer saying, “So did I!”

Part 1 of an occasional series about the historic importance of beer

It was the accepted practice 4000 years ago in ancient Babylonia (modern Iraq) that for a month after the wedding, the bride’s father would supply his son-in-law with all the mead he could drink.

Mead is a honey-based beer, and because the Babylonian calendar followed the moon, this period was called the honey month, which eventually became our word honeymoon.

All prospective fathers-in-law please take note — Shippies is standing by to keep your new son-in-law supplied.

Good beer is the most important tradition at Shippies’ — but we’re anything but tradtional when it comes to serving top-quality beer in peak condition. We use the latest technology to deliver your favorite beer at exactly the right temperature from ice-cased fonts chilled by pressurised super-cooled water.

We pride ourselves on the quality of our Guinness; Carlton Draught is popular with locals and mainland visitors alike; and diet-conscious drinkers go for the low-carbohydrate Pure Blonde lager.

We have the full range of Tasmania’s renowned Cascade beers, brewed only a few kilometres from the pub at the historic Cascade Brewery, established in 1820 by John Degraves.

And we offer Carlton Black as a lighter alternative to Guinness.

Every New Year’s day locals and crews from the Sydney-Hobart and Melbourne-Hobart races meet for a quiet little drink at Shippies’ to tell tall tales of adventure at sea, catch up with old friends and rinse away the effects of New Year’s Eve celebrations.

There’s a barbeque and spit roast — and entertainment by Hobart’s legendary good-time band, the mighty Kravats. They’ve been rocking this usually sedate town for more than half a century and this year they’re joined by another legend, veteran bluesman Jimmy Roussos.

Join us the early afternoon on January 1 and round off your New Year celebrations with a Quiet Little Drink.