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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.
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
If you’re in Mexico, Argentina, Colombia or Chile anytime soon, you can pick up a bottle of Duff, Homer Simpson’s lager of choice. Though the product is probably in violation of licensing agreements–or more specifically, being produced without one–it’s a hot seller in South American markets.
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
Corona Beer Tumbler – $6.95
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!
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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!)
To commemorate the royal wedding next week, UK outlet Brewdog is selling a limited edition run of 1,000 bottles of Royal Virility Performance, a specially brewed beer that contains Viagra!
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
Martini may be the Breakfast of Champions, but most of us don’t associate breakfast with alcoholic drinks. Well, New Zealand’s Moa Brewery is set to change all that by launching the world’s first "breakfast beer" called Moa Breakfast:
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."
Previously on Neatorama: Neatolicious Fun Facts: Beer
Patients 1 and 2. Kobylinski (left), Foy (right), collecting mosquitoes in Senegal with medical entomologist Massamba Sylla. Photo: Brian Foy
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.
Australian Steve Clibborn had just about given up any hope that his champion horse Diamond Mojo would survive a bout of colic. As a last, desperate move, he resorted to old bush wisdom about feeding horses beer. It worked:
“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
J. Wilson is a beer blogger who is observing Lent the old-fashioned way -on beer. Wilson read about German monks who fasted and sustained themselves with “liquid bread,” or the beer they brewed themselves in the 1600s.
“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
Did you know that the foam on a can of Guinness comes from a widget? It’s a ball of nitrogen that is released into the stout when the can is opened. Now that you know, widgets may be on the way out.
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
For the first time in history, beer, currently classified as food, is set to be reclassified as an alcoholic drink in Russia. The move is a part of the Kremlin’s war on alcoholism, as beer consumption is rising in the country.
“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.
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)
Food and beverage websites argue about the best beers in the world, and we sometimes see a brew hailed as the most expensive in the world. Have you ever wondered which is the cheapest beer in the world?
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
Skull Stein – $9.95
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
According to the connoisseurs at ratebeer.com, Old English 800 is the worst beer in the world. Here’s one review:
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
Southern Fried Scientist, a graduate student studying population genetics in hydrothermal vent communities, was onboard a research vessel longer than he normally likes to go without beer. So he decided to brew his own, and now offers detailed instructions on how you can do likewise:
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
It won’t turn you into a werewolf (we don’t think), but you might find a real difference in beer brewed by the light of a full moon. A Belgian brewery is producing a beer called Paix-Dieu in just that way.
“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)
A chemical analysis of Nubian mummies dating back 1,600 years indicates that the ancient Nubians brewed beer with tetracycline, an antibiotic. Chemist Mark Nelson recently published an article arguing that this activity was intentional:
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
Yes, there are some countries in which the consumption of beer, along with other alcoholic beverages, is prohibited. Meanwhile, the rest of the world is brewing, selling, and imbibing the ancient drink.
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
New York restaurant Diablo Royale Este serves a dessert called The Hopsicle Experience. It’s a frozen can of beer on a stick!
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
Mark Zable figured out a way to deep fry beer in batter pockets and will debut the results at the next Texas State Fair:
“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
Four men from West Bromwich, UK got bored with their local pub and decided to check out the competition. 24 years later, they’re still going:
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
Port-A-Pint Beer Glass – $7.95
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
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