Category: Beer Gear

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Needed or Not – Macro Edition

When you have marketing dollars and then some, it can be tempting to get cute or to brand extend whether or not the idea is good or not or even in your wheelhouse. Two cases-in-point….

SABInBev is logo selling to the meat department of your grocery store but as opposed to say when Jack Daniels does it or New Belgium with Fat Tire brats, what does the yellow (not corn) fizzy water add to any of these four items? If you can taste Budweiser over jalapeno and cheddar then you should sign up for the super taster Olympics.

The first photo is a Coors Light tap handle. Cool, glow in the dark. But this tap is plugged into SiriAlexa and when Bud Light tweets or instahoots mean things about the Rocky Mountain yellow water, well it lights up and at a certain point the bar gets free beer! And yes, Americans will not screw with this at all. Oh no, not us non-cheating Americans led by the Orange Cheeto Cheater himself. This will be cool for a day and then a mess. Might not even be running by the time this post sees the light of day.

Verdict? – Back to the drawing board for both.

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Beer Logo’d Trainers

I recently saw these shoes fly by on Social Media….

…and I thought, that in this day and age where every NBA player has different shoes for each game they play, why can’t breweries have logo’s sneakers as well. A pair of blue Converse with the L.A. Brewers Guild logo would be on point.

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Do We Need This – Canny Pack

from Stone’s Facebook page

It has been awhile since the internet has provided a “Do We Need This” topic but thanks to Stone Brewing, we have one.

This Wookie Can sling (bandalero?) seems more fit for a beer geek walking into a wild west town of industrial water lager drinkers to teach them the true meaning of beer.  Maybe with Yul Brynner or young Clint Eastwood plus John Wayne.

But why not use the eminently re-usable plastic can seals that come when you buy a four or six pack.  Snap them onto the beers you want and you are ready to go.  Myself, I have a bag with little pockets for my beers that I use.  Either way, you will be able to carry more than this canny pack.

Needed? Not really, let’s use what we already have. 

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Old Taps Never Die

I saw this photo (well, it was actually a short video) on Facebook and was immediately taken by the cleverness of re-purposing tap handles into a fountain and then taking that next step to have that fountain collect change for charity. Brilliant.

The next time that I go into a beer establishment that has placed the tap handles along the ceiling or something less imaginative will get me to thinking of how it can be fit with more flair into a space.

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Bert’s Beer Basters – Test 1

Part of my Christmas gift was a gift card and a gift carding, I went and found two of the four single hops oils from Bert’s Beer Basters.

For the first test, I used MacLeod Ale Brewing Van Ice light Lager. No dry hopped Lager, no industrial corn pop beer.

Here are my notes:

Unspiked notes – crisp, pear notes, grain, wheat taste dominant, carbonated, light

Chinook – weird hard candy smell, a bit more bitter with three drops. Not very three dimensional.

Azacca – little over three drops. Still candy aroma but closer to real to me. Hits the back of the palate. Not as bitter as Chinook.

As I was doing my “science”, my wife chuckled at me trying yet another drop based beer addition. My explanation that this was a higher end, non party product did not halt the head shaking. It does reaffirm my thought that hops are shifty and their flavors can be difficult to pin down into an essential oil.

Next up, another beer and a test of blending the two.

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Beer Peloton


Generally, I would say adding more bike riders to Los Angeles would probably just increase the car on bike hatred, I do really like the app that the City of Bologna in Italy has rolled out. Bella Mossa (“Good Move”) app gives points to those who use the app and then bike, walk, or use public transport to get to and from work instead of by car. For Good Move you can redeem your points in gelato or movie tickets or even, you guessed it, beer.

The app will tracks what they call “green journeys” as well as telling you how much CO2 you saved. The key are the businesses who have signed up to offer freebies for it.

Maybe this is an idea that could spread to the greener parts of the US and then you could “hop” on your bike and haul your free beer home.

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Start Spiking


It might be too early to be thinking of Christmas but when I saw this Hop Exploration Set, I figured that it was OK to feature it.

33 Books does a lot of great gift sets but this kit will further the hop education of the Hop Head on your gift list.

Works pretty simply…
“Insert Beer. Fill each tasting glass with 4 ounces of neutral beer (industrial lagers work well).
Drop Hops. Add 2-3 drops of Bert’s Beer Baster,™ a different variety in each glass. Four different varieties are included in the set.
Taste. Compare and contrast. Use the included hop-focused beer journals to help guide your tasting.”

You have all you need to learn and then test yourself and your friends on your bitter knowledge.

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from the Untappd Podcast – Part 2


Part two of the Untappd podcast news comes from Carlsberg with some new packaging, the Snap Pack.

Instead of using plastic rings, or the bio-degradable rings or the plastic snap-on lids, the Danish mega-brewery is using dots, with glue that will bind the cans together enough to be moved about but still easy enough to pull apart.

It is in only the UK market to start but maybe this is something that can catch on here, if the price is right.

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All the Packaging

Wine Enthusiast recently posted this…

…a handy size chart of ALL of the bottles.

Now if I had any design skills at all, I would have created TWO beer versions. Thankfully Vinepair did all the heavy lifting…

To be honest, I have never/ever seen a Nip-Pony-Grenade or a Caguama-Ballena so maybe that is the internet making things up.

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Now This is a Beer Shirt

Even though the missus and I are now without cat for the first time in our married lives, cat related items hold a bittersweet allure. But this…

…actually brought a smile. Maybe I will run across a brewery cat soon and be able to utter this phrase.