I don’t know about you guys, but I would love to try some Romulan Ale, although the maple bacon porter also sounds pretty tasty.

Link

Love pizza and beer? Well then, why not combine them with Mamma Mia! Pizza Beer? It’s brewed with basil, oregano, tomato and garlic flavors…yummy?

Link Via Laughing Squid

That's not a tiny can of beer. That's actually a normal sized 12 oz. can of Molson. The huge hand belongs to André the Giant: Link

And you know what goes great with beer? Peanuts. Anybody want a peanut?

The 2014 World Cup in Brazil is in serious trouble, folks. You see, Brazil has banned alcoholic drinks at all Brazilian stadiums, and that's just not cool with soccer's world governing body, FIFA.

So, in an effort to stand up for the rights beer lovers, FIFA said that beer "must be sold" in the World Cup:

In remarks to journalists in Rio de Janeiro, Mr Valcke sounded frustrated with Brazilian officials:

"Alcoholic drinks are part of the Fifa World Cup, so we're going to have them. Excuse me if I sound a bit arrogant but that's something we won't negotiate," he said.

"The fact that we have the right to sell beer has to be a part of the law."

Budweiser is a big sponsor of the World Cup, but I'm absolutely, positively sure that has nothing to do with Fifa's position on this: Link

Previously on Neatorama: Neatolicous Fun Facts: Beer

The Nome Volunteer Fire Department was alerted and Vial’s co-workers and volunteer rescuers drove surrounding roads in search of the Toyota.

One searcher drove 41 miles along Kougarok Road — just a few miles from where Vial sat shivering and stranded in his pickup — but saw no tracks. The searcher turned back as daylight disappeared and the road conditions worsened, Handeland said.

Troopers joined the search. Rescuers looked for Vial on the ground and from the air, in planes and from a helicopter.

“When we get called on situations like this, it’s a needle in a haystack,” said Jim West Jr., a Nome fire department captain and search and rescue coordinator.

For Vial, the cold was worse than the hunger, he said. Still he scoured the pickup in vain for food.

His only provisions: Snow, and a few cans of Coors Light that had frozen solid in the cab.

Vial ate the beers like cans of beans. “I cut the lids off and dug it out with a knife,” he said.

Vial lost 16 pounds, but showed no signs of frostbite. Link -via Breakfast Links

They were told that they needed to arrange a date and time for the free alcohol to be dropped off at an agreed address.

But instead of being handed free ale the wanted men found themselves confronted by police, handcuffed and under arrest.

But did they get the beer that they were promised?

Link | Photo (unrelated) by Flickr user ZapTheDingbat

Continuing the tradition of making every food product ever taste like bacon, Rogue has released a beer that’s sure to be Homer Simpson approved. Called the Voodoo Doughnut, this ale is bacon maple flavored, and comes in a horrifyingly pink bottle. Getting drunk first thing in the morning never tasted so good!

Link

Don’t think for a second that Google’s business is limited to internet services. Indeed, they have their hands in a variety of industries, most recently, they’ve been testing out the beer-making business. That’s right, Google has paired with Dogfish Head beer to make their own Belgian Dubbel beer called Urkontinent.

The final brew included some impressive ingredients sourced around the world: Wattleseed from Australia, toasted amaranth from South America, green rooibos from Africa, myrica gale from Europe, and Hive Plex Honey from Google’s own California beehives. Taken all together, the beer is described by Dogfish as being hearty, with notes of coffee and chocolate covered cherries. Also, it packs more than double the average alcohol content of average beer.

To be fair, Google’s not making any money from the venture, they just want to see how the process works and to use the beer’s creation as a marketing tool. If you saw some Google beer, would you try it?

Link Via Geekosystem

Redditor reyvehn told the story of the day he worked a beer stand at an air show, and someone from the military contingent sent a TALON Naval EOD bot up to the stand with a $5 bill in its claw. So he replaced the money with a Bud Lite and snapped a picture. And of course, someone had to say it:

…and then the bartender says, “We don’t get many robots in here,” and the robot says, “at five bucks a beer, I’m not surprised!”

Link

Cubies are German 8-bit characters: a cow, a chicken, a sheep, and a robot “toy.” In this silly but catchy video, they sing about going to Oktoberfest. -via Daily Picks and Flicks

Mystery solved! Scientists have discovered the "missing link" in beer brewing. Ladies and gents, take a good look at the orange-colored galls on the beech tree to your left: they were found to harbor the specific strain of yeast that makes lager beer possible.

How did lager beer come to be? After pondering the question for decades, scientists have found that an elusive species of yeast isolated in the forests of Argentina was key to the invention of the crisp-tasting German beer 600 years ago.

It took a five-year search around the world before a scientific team discovered, identified and named the organism, a species of wild yeast called Saccharomyces eubayanus that lives on beech trees.

"We knew it had to be out there somewhere," said Chris Todd Hittinger, an evolutionary geneticist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and a coauthor of the report published Monday in the Proceedings of the National Academies of Sciences.

I assume the scientists appropriately celebrated their discovery with a few pints: Link (Photo: Diego Libkind)

Previously on Neatorama: Neatolicious Fun Facts: Beer

Would you pay $100 for a Sam Adams? (You might have to if you go to one of those fancy downtown hipster bars.) This high priced Sam Adams “Utopia” and several other beers will run you over $100 a bottle including the $800 Antarctic Nail Ale. How much would you pay for a high end beer?

Link

Link -via PopSci

Now here’s a place Homer Simpson could really worship, the Wat Pa Maha Chedi Kaew Temple in Thailand. It’s made from over 1.5 million green Heineken and brown Chang beer bottles.

Link

This homemade “Beer-O-Bot” uses an iPhone App to launch a selection of beers across the room to the user. While fun it seems like a lot of work to get a beer. Check out the full demonstration video at the link. What types of beer would you load in your Beer-O-Bot?

Link

I always have trouble pouring a beer without getting a large foamy head. So for you beer lovers out there who have this problem there is a new high tech beverage dispenser that will help you pour a clean glass every time.

At first, the core idea of this unique beverage dispenser might seem crazy: You use cups that have a hole in the bottom. But around the hole is a metallic ring on the cup. A round, bendable magnet – exactly like a refrigerator magnet and about the size of a silver dollar (which they claim is too big to accidentally swallow) – covers the hole. You place the cup over one of the valves, which pushes the magnet up. That causes beer to shoot up into cup until it’s filled, and the valve automatically shuts off. When you pull the cup off, the magnet seals the hole with no leakage.

Link

Sagres Preta Chocolate from diografic on Vimeo.

We’ve featured a lot of things made of chocolate here on Neatorama – boats, infographics, iPads. An entire website, though – that’s a first. To promote a chocolate stout made by Portuguese brewer Sagres, famous chocolatier Victor Nunes was hired to painstakingly create every little piece of the website in rich, cocoa-y goodness. Pictures were taken of each component and used on the real website. Sagres even let people eat the website pieces after they were photographed.

Link via AdFreak

The idea behind this beer ad is that when you expose something to awesome during the manufacturing process, it will become awesome. Even if it is just the ad that is awesome. Produced by Publicis Mojo of Sydney. -via The Daily What

For a while I’ve thought that one of the most useful of all possible Transformers would be one that turns into a double stroller (once you have two or more kids, you’ll understand), but Ron Tajima has topped that concept. His prototype is built into a beer can. Now, that does seem to eliminate the possibility of carrying beer inside, but keep in mind: this is just a prototype. Presumably he’s trying to solve that problem.

Once he resolves that issue, he might want to take some inspiration from the Transformers that could combine into a single giant entity, like the Constructicons, and make a series of alcohol-delivering Transformers that can…well, I don’t know, serve as a portable bar. I’m not sure what purpose it would serve, but it would automatically be awesome.

Link via Geekologie

Fox has never licensed the beverage in the United States. According to several reports, Simpsons’ creator Matt Groening fears that bringing Duff into the real world would be tantamount to pushing alcohol on minors.

The Duff dearth north of the border has only made fans more desperate. Online message boards buzz about where to find Duff. On eBay, an empty bottle of Duff beer from Argentina sells for $14.99; a decal off the Colombian product is being offered for $8.99.

At Rock Garden, a bar in Bogotá, Duff commands import prices — about $5.50 a bottle — even though it’s brewed in the nearby city of Medellin.

Duff Sudamerica, the Chilean producer, expects to sell $750,000 worth of Duff beer this year, but personally I think they’ll surpass that once Simpsons superfans get in on it.

Link | Image: Jim Wyss / Miami Herald Staff

Artist Cyprien Gaillard made a pyramid for an art installation at the KW Institute for Contemporary Art. The pyramid had a total of 72,000 bottles of beer, each inside their blue case boxes. According to the artist, the project was to illustrate the theme “Preserving a monument goes hand in hand with destroying it.” The destroying part of this pyramid included letting the people viewing the work climb on it and drink the beer. link

It’s Cinco De Mayo!  Celebrate in style with the Corona Beer Tumbler from the NeatoShop. This fabulous little glass was created by a California artisan and is made from an upcycled beer bottle.

Be sure to check out the NeatoShop for more fabulous Glassware & Drinkware!

]]> http://www.neatorama.com/2011/05/05/corona-beer-tumbler/feed/ 0 http://www.neatorama.com/2011/04/20/pok-beer-i-choose-you/ http://www.neatorama.com/2011/04/20/pok-beer-i-choose-you/#comments Wed, 20 Apr 2011 18:59:04 +0000 Alex http://www.neatorama.com/2011/04/20/pok-beer-i-choose-you/
Photo:David Schwen [Flickr]

David Schwen created this nifty can of Poké Beer. Gotta drink ‘em all! See the rest of his Poké stuff here: Link (Don’t miss the Poké Banana!)

According to the specially commissioned label, the Royal Virility Performance contains Viagra, chocolate, Horny Goat Weed and ‘a healthy dose of sarcasm’. The beer is a 7.5% ABV India Pale Ale and has been brewed at BrewDog’s brewery in Fraserburgh.

With this beer we want to take the wheels off the royal wedding bandwagon being jumped on by dozens of breweries; The Royal Virility Performance is the perfect antidote to all the hype. A beer should be brewed with a purpose, not just because some toffs are getting married, so we created something at our brewery that will undermine those special edition beers and other assorted seaside tat, whilst at the same time actually give the happy couple something extra on their big day.

One bottle will cost you £10 plus delivery charges; may not be available in your area. Link -via Boing Boing

Moa co-owner Geoff Ross said his company wasn’t targeting alcoholics, nor was it trying to create irresponsible behaviour.

"Look at cultures like Germany where a lager in the right circumstances is part of the culture, or Italy where the grappa is used as a morning pick-me-up. Cultures around the world consume alcohol in the right way, and that includes breakfast."

Link

Previously on Neatorama: Neatolicious Fun Facts: Beer

The old and busted way of scientific research: Long hours hunching over the lab bench. The new hotness: sex with wife, and then a round of beer with fellow scientist. (Bonus: wife is also a co-author on the paper)

Here’s the intriguing story of how a recent science paper came to be:

A U.S. vector biologist appears to have accidentally written virological history simply by having sex with his wife after returning from a field trip to Senegal. A study just released in Emerging Infectious Diseases suggests that the researcher, Brian Foy of Colorado State University in Fort Collins, passed to his wife the Zika virus, an obscure pathogen that causes joint pains and extreme fatigue. If so, it would be the first documented case of sexual transmission of an insect-borne disease.

Foy is the first author of the paper, which describes three anonymous patients. But in an interview with Science, he confirmed that he is the anonymous "patient 1"; his Ph.D. student Kevin Kobylinski, who accompanied him on the trip to Senegal and also got sick, is "patient 2." Foy’s wife, Joy Chilson Foy, a nurse at the Poudre Valley Hospital in Fort Collins, is "patient 3"; she is also a co-author of the paper.

Link

“I had pretty much kissed him goodbye,” he said.

“I had spent 23 hours straight with him but nothing worked and then I remembered an old bush tale that said you could feed them beer.

“I don’t know whether I really believed it or not but it was worth a shot and as soon as he had that beer, he burped and perked right up. So I gave him another couple.”

Over the following days, Steve repeated the dose using Queensland’s own XXXX lager until his prized endurance horse rediscovered his mojo.

That’s the right approach: whiskey for my men and beer for my horses.

Link via Jammie Wearing Fool | Photo: Adam Head/Courier-Mail

“The idea came to me a couple years ago, and it didn’t really make sense then, my wife quickly pointed out,” said Wilson, 38, adding that he worked 13 hours a day in a restaurant back then. “I did not live the life of a monk at that time.”

But with preparations that began in August, including bulking up from his normal 140 pounds to 160 since Thanksgiving, Wilson says he was ready to give it a go. He says he already was down to 157 pounds by Thursday.

Wilson is limiting himself to four 12-ounce beers a day, and says he will consult with a doctor. Link

Nitrogen-infused stouts are known for their long-lasting and creamy heads, a feature that carbonated beers can’t emulate. But nitrogen doesn’t froth up on its own, so to get foam on a canned stout, brewers insert a widget — a small plastic ball with a hole in it. When a can is opened, the widget releases pressurized nitrogen into the beer, which then triggers more dissolved nitrogen in the beer to bubble out.

But a graduate student supervised by applied mathematician William Lee at the University of Limerick in Ireland discovered that microscopic plant fibers made of cellulose, such as cotton, can also froth up a stout.

“What happens around these fibers is really complex, so it’s a ripe area for research,” said Lee, who posted his team’s research March 2 on arXiv.org. “This is also a matter of national pride. Stout beers are as culturally important to Ireland as champagne is to France.”

The equivalent of a postage-stamp piece of a coffee filter attached to the inside of the can would do the trick, making canned stout both cheaper and more environmentally-friendly. Link -via Discoblog

“Normalising the beer production market and classifying it as alcohol is totally the right thing to do and will boost the health of our population,” Yevgeny Bryun, the ministry of health’s chief specialist on alcohol and drug abuse, said.

“We have been talking about and have wanted such a measure for ages. I take my hat off to the parliament.”

The new law would restrict beer sales at night, ban its sale in or close to many public places such as schools, and limit cans and bottles to a maximum size of 0.33 litres.

Many Russians consider beer to be a soft drink. Link -via Arbroath

Last month, I linked to the above video and wondered how this beer dispenser could work. My guess was that the dispenser pushed open a perforated hole in the bottom. Now we have a confirmed explanation:

The cup features a small hole at the bottom, covered up by a circular magnet. Pressurized beer lifts the magnet up, filling the cup until the weight of the beer on top of the magnet pushes it back down, sealing the bottom. This system is not only faster (serving 56 draft beers in a minute), but minimizes spilling, to the joy of sticky-footed concert-goers everywhere.

Josh Springer, head of GrinOn, was originally developing a pitcher with a latch on the bottom, but when it turned out that would cost $30,000 to develop, he switched his focus. The GrinOn cups cost only 30 cents more than normal disposable cups, and the magnets also serve as an advertising device for drunken buffoons, who steal them to put on their refrigerators. Selling that space to advertisers generates extra revenue.

Link

A company called Bottoms Up Beer designed a beer dispenser that fills up cups from the bottom. Presumably the dispenser opens and then closes a perforated hole in the bottom of the cup. Or it’s magic.

via reddit | Company Website (warning: self-starting sound)

Bia Hoi, most commonly found in Hanoi, is the most budget-friendly brew on the planet. Commonly described as having the appearance and flavor of Bud Light (go figure), Bia Hoi can be found for 3,000 VND per 12 oz. glass, which is the equivalent of about 16 US cents.

Gullible tourists and Vietnamese hobos seeking the beverage, need look no further than the ‘Bai Hoi’ or ‘Fresh Beer’ signs scattered throughout the city. Fresh beer is actually Bai Hoi’s English translation, and it is indeed brewed fresh daily — presumably in someone’s bathtub.

There’s no definitive word yet on whether it is worth the price. Link -via the Presurfer

Update 12/18/10 by Alex: Roger Wade wrote the original blog post on Bia Hanoi being the world’s cheapest beer. Thanks Roger!

The Swingtop Philharmonic Orchestra, an all-star combo assembled especially for this project, plays “Oh, Christmas Tree” on instruments made from beer bottles in this ad from Belgian Dutch brewer Grolsch. -via the Presurfer

Don’t drink beer out of a boring ol’ beer stein – show ‘em your deadly serious about your love for your favorite brew with this Skull Stein from the NeatoShop!

Link | More fun and unusual Glassware and Drinkware

Brewing beer is, as you can see, an incredibly complex process. The brewery Trumer International put together this video showing how it’s done.

Link via Make | Company Website

Bad aftertaste, rancid mouth. Not fit for students, bums or the desperate for a drink. Nothing but horrible taste and booze. I am less of a person for having consumed this.

At the link, you can see a list of the fifty worst beers as determined by these reviewers.

What’s the worst commercially available beer that you’ve tasted?

Link via Ace of Spades HQ | Photo: rockthedub.com

The tools you need are simple: an electric drip coffee maker with hot plate, a coffee filter, 2 1-liter glass sample jars with air-tight lids, 2 handkerchiefs, 2 rubber bands, and a source of clean (preferably R/O) water.

You’ll have to be more creative with your ingredients. Your need grains, malt, hops, and something for flavor. Simple grains such as those found in common cereals – Raisin Bran, Cracked Wheat, Kashi, whatever you can find – are decent sources of starches and usually contain enough enzymes to break the most complex proteins down. Fruit and nuts will add flavor, but are not important. The grains should be ground as fine as possible, rolled under a rolling pin or crushed in a mortar and pestle. The smaller the grains the greater the reactive surface area.

Link via Say Uncle | Photo (unrelated) via Flickr user Matt Seppings used under Creative Commons license

“We made several tests and noticed that the fermentation was more vigorous, more active,” explained Roger Caulier, the owner of Brewery Caulier, which began in the 1930s when his grandfather started selling homemade beer from a handcart.

“The end product was completely different, stronger, with a taste lasting longer in the mouth,” he said.

The full moon speeds up the fermentation process, shortening it to five days from seven, which adds extra punch to the beer without making it harsh, according to connoisseurs.

The resulting beer is 10% alcohol, which is not unusual in Belgium. Link

(Image credit: Reuters/Thierry Roge)

Nelson found large amounts of tetracycline in the bones tested from the ancient population, which lived in the Nubian kingdom (present day Sudan) between 250 A.D. and 550 A.D. and left no written record.

“The bones of these ancient people were saturated with tetracycline, showing that they had been taking it for a long time,” Nelson said in a press release August 30. “I’m convinced that they had the science of fermentation under control and were purposely producing the drug.”[...]

This study was co-authored by George Armelagos, who asked graduate students to try to brew this type of beer:

To make sure that making the antibiotic beer was possible, Armelagos had his graduate students give it a try.

“What they were making wasn’t like a Bud Light but a cereal gruel,” Armelagos said. “My students said that it was ‘not bad,’ but it is like a sour porridge substance. The ancient people would have drained the liquid off and also eaten the gruel.”

Link | Photo by Flickr user maccun934 used under Creative Commons license

Mesopotamia: Beer dates back to at least 4,000 BC. The earliest Sumerian writings mention it. The earliest recorded recipe for brewing beer found so far is from the ancient Babylonians. It is thought that the drink arose independently in several locations during the switch from hunting and gathering to agricultural communities, as stored crops fermented naturally and produced alcohol.

New Zealand: Beer was unknown in New Zealand until introduced by Europeans in the 1800s. The first beer brewed on the island was made from an indigenous evergreen tree and was intended as a cure for scurvy. Captain Cook brewed it himself in 1770, and it worked.

Mongolia: In the 2010 World Beverage Competition, the top beer prize went to the United States. However, Mongolia won both a gold medal and a silver medal for Fusion Beer and Borgio, both brewed by the Mongolian beverage company APU.

Peru: When drinking beer with a group in Peru, one person buys a bottle, pours a glass, passes the bottle on to the next person, drinks it, pours the dregs on the floor, then passes the glass to the next person, who repeats the process. The last person to get a drink from the bottle usually buys the next bottle. Sometimes shenanigans result as some try their best to avoid taking the last drink!

Ireland: In 1756, Arthur Guinness signed a 9,000 year lease on a building in Dublin that has been producing beer ever since. Guinness, still run by Arthur’s descendants, is now produced in more than forty countries.

South Africa: Umqombothi is an ancient South African beer made from corn and sorghum. It is also the title of a song about beer sung by South African singer Yvonne Chaka Chaka, that was featured in the 2004 movie Hotel Rwanda.

Czech Republic: According to global statistics for 2004 (the most recent year available), the Czech Republic leads the world in per capita beer consumption. Over 156 liters per year are consumed per person in that country. That’s 41.5 gallons for every man, woman, and child!

Australia: All the large breweries in Australia are owned by only three companies. The one most familiar to Americans is Foster’s, which is brewed mainly for export and isn’t all that popular in its home country!

China: The biggest beer market in the world is China, which consumes more beer than any other nation. However, that doesn’t mean the Chinese are big beer drinkers; only that there are more people in China than anywhere else. Beer companies are trying to take advantage of that market by making beer a popular social drink instead of “something you only drink to get drunk.”

Denmark: In April of 2010, workers at the Carlsberg brewery in Copenhagen went on strike to protest new rules limiting their workday beer consumption to lunchtime only. The strike ended a few days later when management promised to meet with the union.

USA: The US state with the highest per capita beer consumption is Nevada, at 44 gallons a year per person. However, you can imagine a lot of that is consumed by tourists. The next highest state is New Hampshire at 43 gallons per person per year.

Germany: The beer brewed in German homes for thousands of years was ale, until about 500 years ago when lager became popular. There is no written evidence of the earliest beer, but a Bavarian grave dating to about 800 BC contained beer made from bread. When the Roman Empire invaded Europe, soldiers found the residents of what would become Germany were already mass-producing beer.

(Image credit: Flickr user Eli Duke)

Antarctica: The McMurdo Research Station in Antarctica has three bars, although only one, Gallagher’s Pub, serves beer year-round. In December, as new supplies come in, old or spoiled beer is destroyed by driving nails into the cans. There are competitions to see who is the best nail-driver!

Tuned Pale Ale is a product by designer Matt Braun. There’s a musical scale down the side of each bottle. You can drink down to a particular level, blow on rim, and the bottle will play a note. If you get a few people together with these bottles, you’ll be able to perform a melody. Braun writes:

This product aims to promote more of this type of social interaction. This product aims to inform users about the musical qualities of existing bottles and to make the bottle a better instrument.

Link via Gizmodo | Photo: Tuned Pale Ale

Now, the thing about the hopsicle is that it looks like your standard can of Tecate: Red. Cylindrical. Icy cold. Except the barman-witchdoctors at Diablo have taken the “icy” bit quite literally, injecting the beer with simple syrup and lime juice, jamming a wooden stick into the hole of the can and then putting it in the freezer. For four days.

The result is a genuine beer popsicle, which the bartender must saw in half with a serrated steak knife (or samurai sword) to open. Then it’s up to you to push the wooden stick upward to dispense the hopsicle in true Push Pop style, and decide if you want your savory sweet frozen joyride bathed in tequila as well (note: you want this).

Could you recreate this at home? Be sure whoever is wielding the sword is completely sober! Link -via Rue the Day

“Someone needs to figure out a way to fry beer,” he thought.

Zable started experimenting. But the beer-and-dough concoction kept exploding once it hit the fryer. He kept getting burned.

So he consulted with a food scientist – still, no luck.

Then, earlier this year, he finally found the recipe for success. Now Zable keeps the process shrouded in secrecy and has applied for a Fried Beer patent and trademark.

Link via Geekologie | Photo: ABC News

The four men have just visited their 14,000th pub across the United Kingdom and Republic of Ireland.

They have spent 24 years travelling to every corner of the country and have downed and estimated 84,000 pints of real ale, working out at 21,000 pints each.[...]

They started out determined to conquer the 250 pubs in Worcestershire and Herefordshire, but quickly revised their plans to a grander scale.

This week they called in at the Stags Leap, Rugeley, Staffs, their 14,000th pub. It also means they have now drunk in every pub across 11 English counties.

They entered the Guinness Book of Records for drinking in every English county, but remain determined to have a pint in every pub in every pub in the UK and Ireland.

Link via The Corner | Photo (unrelated) via Flickr user ell brown used under Creative Commons license

This summer, don’t be caught short without a glass at a BYOB OMGBBQFTW party! Always bring your own portable beer glass – it sure beats drinking from those disposable cups any day. The Port-A-Pint Beer Glass from the NeatoShop opens with just a flick of your wrist: Link | More fun Glassware and Drinkware

British brewery BrewDog, noted for its quest to make the world’s strongest beer, is now selling bottles of beer in the prepared bodies of dead squirrels and stoats. Because, you know, that’s what people want. The product is called “The End of History”, and is 55% alcohol:

The name derives from the famous work of philosopher Francis Fukuyama, this is to beer what democracy is to history. Fukuyama defined history as the evolution of the political system and traced this through the ages until we got the Western Democratic paradigm. For Fukuyama this was the end point of man’s political evolution and consequently the end of history. The beer is the last high abv beer we are going to brew, the end point of our research into how far the can push the boundaries of extreme brewing, the end of beer.

Link via CrunchGear | Photo: BrewDog

It all started with biomolecular archaeology:

McGovern is a biomolecular archaeologist at the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archeology and Anthropology. He studies fermented beverages — otherwise known as booze — by analyzing the ancient pots that once held them.

"We use techniques like infrared spectrometry, gas chromatography and so forth," he explains. McGovern helps Dogfish Head revive long-dead brews by figuring out what used to be inside the ancient pottery he comes across.

About 10 years ago, he set out to find some of this primordial crockery on a trip to China. In one town, he found pottery from an early Neolithic burial site. The pieces were about 9,000 years old — as were the skeletons they were found with.

The Neolithic period, which began about 12,000 years ago, is thought to be about the time when humans started settling down, raising crops — and apparently getting a little tipsy. McGovern suspects that once humans stayed put, it didn’t take them long to discover the fermentation process that led to the world’s first alcohol.

The molecular evidence told McGovern the vessels from China once contained an alcoholic beverage made of rice, grapes, hawthorn berries, honey and chrysanthemum flowers.

"What we found is something that was turning up all over the world from these early periods," he says. "We don’t have just a wine or a beer or a mead, but we have like a combination of all three."

Link (Photo: Brad Horn / NPR) | Dogfish Head Brewery

Dead Guy Ale - $14.95

I quite like the design on NeatoShop's latest BottleHood beer bottle tumbler. It's made from the Dead Guy Ale made by Rogue Ales Brewery in Oregon. Though it's not specifically made for Grateful Dead fans, it's still an excellent gift for them: Link

More BottleHood beer bottle tumblers: Link

Arrogant Bastard Tumbler

Rolling Rock Tumbler

Big Daddy Tumbler

The user experience begins with the Beer Me web application. In this web app, the user is presented with a menu of ice cold beers and ciders, and a pull-down menu specifying the office for delivery. Once the user hits the enticing Beer Me button, it’s the robot’s job to make the magic happen. The robot navigates to the fridge, identifies the door, and performs a handle detection to determine a precise grasping location to use for opening. The robot then grasps and pulls open the handle, and positions itself between the door and the fridge to make sure the door doesn’t close.

The robot uses object recognition to determine which beers are in the rack, and will report back to the app if the user’s selection is not available. Otherwise, it stocks the ordered beers into the foam holder, closes the door, and navigates to the indicated office.

Link – via The Internet Today