Entries from January 2006 ↓

Mark Fisher writes a nice wine blog for the Dayton Daily News called Uncorked. He sent me an email pointing to his latest post about a British study that looked at the food people bought with their wine purchases compared to beer purchases. The results showed the wine purchases had more healthy food than the beer purchases. Mark invited comment, so I added mine:

I’d like to see the beer purchases separated into “swill” and “real beer” categories. From what I see at the store here in the US, the person buying the case of Bud is more likely to be buying the pork rinds than the person buying the La Fin du Monde. The latter seems to be more on par with your typical wine buyer.

What this really all means is that I spend too much time: a) looking at what people put in their cart; b) trying to draw conclusions based on the quality of someone’s beer purchase.

It looks like this isn't the first time he's tried to rile up his fellow beer columnist. Take a read of Top Ten Reasons Wine is Better than Beer which also contains the beer columnist's Top Ten Reasons Beer is Better than Wine.

Give it a read and post your comments. Note that there is a known problem with the comments there and you may get a message saying something to the effect of 'Invalid input file'. Don't worry though, your comment was accepted and will be in the moderation queue.

That's what Asahi's latest contest will win you–if you're in Japan. According to A Robot's Dreams:

They've designed a robot beer refrigerator and will be giving away a total of 5,000 of the robots, fully stocked with beer, to applicants selected by a lottery drawing.

Applicants have to collect 36 seals from special Asahi beer cans. We're assuming that applicants will drink the beer, but we have run across fans that would buy the beer just to get the seals and through away the beer. What a waste. The contest period runs from February 20th through May 22nd.

Push the robots start button and it opens the can, tilts the glass, and pours the beer with a perfect head every time. The refrigerator section of the robot can cool six 350 ml cans and two beer mugs.

Link via Engadget

While this one has been around since August of last year and doesn't really qualify for making January the beer map month, it is still a nice map if you live in the New Hampshire area and wish to find a good place for a beer. Just the thought of my trip to Vermont makes me long for Magic Hat…

Thanks to emailer Michael for the link!

From the press release:

PORTLAND, Ore. - Jan. 23, 2006 - The long-running Oregon Brewers Festival is celebrating its 19th year by adding an auxiliary event to the schedule. The inaugural Oregon Brewers Festival Blind Tasting & Test, a benefit for the Oregon Blind Commission, will take place on July 26 from 5 to 9 p.m. on the festival grounds at Tom McCall Waterfront Park. Tickets cost $40, which includes the 2006 souvenir festival mug, and are limited to 5,000. The event is for ages 21 and older. The Blind Tasting & Test is a prelude to the famed Oregon Brewers Festival, which will run July 27 through 30.

Sounds pretty cool. Hopefully some of my fellow beer bloggers in that area will be attending and reporting on the festival.

Well, I'm calling it that anyway. Three new entrants into using Google Maps for finding beer:

BeerMapping.com's Brewery Map lets you find (go figure) breweries and brewpubs. Here's what my slice of the world looks like:

Crooked Beat Beer & Music Map gives you a way to search NY/NJ area for live music and beer selection. I like the “at least 1 good beer” criteria.

Finally, pintsearch.com lets you search pubs in London by location, tube, or postcode.

Thanks to Google Maps Mania for the links.