With summer approaching and with craft cans being more plentiful, a way to cool-y transport your beer may be needed and Coleman Coolers may have the product for you.
Their 72 Can Collapsible Chest Cooler can hold Bell’s, Indie, Anchor and others and then when your camping or tailgating is done collapses flat when you’re ready to put it away. Plus it has a reach-in hatch to quickly grab a can plus side mesh pockets. The kicker is that it goes from 15 inches tall to 3 when fully collapsed in on itself.
No need to make any tough buying choices at the store.
Blind tastings are fun (and for me, humbling) and to tie into next month’s March Madness, you can do a beer version with Brew Bracket. Not with 64 beers though. That would be way too much.
Up to 8 people can participate and the beers are hidden from view. Each person sips a pair of beers and votes for their favorite until they work through all the beers and declare a winner. You get to choose the style, the breweries and can add in ringers or bad beers or whatever.
Use a plastic cup! B Cups has an IPA glass that won’t shatter and can go where glass is not allowed and still be beer geeky enough for even the hardcore beer geeks. And they are now in stock and re-usable.
No black IPA and Kylo Ren allusions. But with the re-emergence of Star Wars from a three crap movie coma, it is cool again to be a Star Wars fan and what better way to pledge allegiance to the rebel alliance than by popping the cap off a craft beer in Maz Katana’s cantina and enjoying a beer with your force awakened.
Now you can take your beer from bottle to glass and keep your tabletop clean too.
With one month until Christmas, it is time to start pondering gift ideas. No need to jump the Christmas gun but jot down this item from Thinkgeek.
Now, these may not be the best for aroma and they won’t help you judge the clarity and color but they will satisfy the astronomy nerd who also loves beer.
Yes, a tulip glass or even a wine glass are better than the shaker pint or other forms of glassware but sometimes the logo on the outside is more fun and beer style be damned.
These cool glasses from Powell’s Bookstore are just cool. I wish my glass collection wasn’t so large so that I could buy a couple.
Coasters are marketing tools. But they can also be used for art. And now they can also be used to light your way. Reflector Protectors takes the form of the coaster but once you peel the top layer off and affix it to your clothing it becomes reflective.
Conceived by the Edward Snell and Co. in South Africa it was created to help slow a nearly inconceivable and grim statistic that an estimated five pedestrians are killed per night walking home from a bar. Hopefully the reflectors will hop the pond and become available here for our bicycle culture.
So, you freeze dry Carlsberg lager into a powder and then add it into a skin care line? Or as it is marketed in many more words, The Beer Beauty by Carlsberg limited edition men’s skincare line. This new line-up is a collaboration of sorts between Carlsberg Laboratories (the R&D division of the brewery) and cosmetics producer Urtegaarden.
There is a shampoo, conditioner and body lotion with the “beautifying properties of lager” to choose from.
I have to admit that I was skeptical about the Sonic Foamer. I am wary of beer gear that promises an improved beer tasting experience. My radical enjoyment plan is to enjoy the beer.
And getting the Sonic Foamer up and running did not help matters. First, it requires six AA batteries. My Apple mouse and keyboard need four between them. Anything over two should be given an electrical cord. End of story. The battery cover requires a screwdriver as well. The next design flaw is the on/off switch being on the bottom. Put it on the side people. Especially considering you have to put two teaspoons of water on the top. Which leads to the next issue. Now your glass is wet.
I know this sounds petty and trivial but design is important. A light at the bottom does not eradicate other design flaws no matter how many colors it can become. After all of this mini-hassle, I put the shaker pint on the conducting plate with the water. I had two different beers for the experiment. A session IPA and a Festbier. Hoppy and malty. I smelled and tasted each before and after the hot foaming action.
To my pleasant surprise, the Sonic Foamer worked. Each beer was noticeably more aromatic after a few button pushes. Watching the bubbles flow upward and new foam being created was quite cool. I would use it at the halfway mark of drinking to freshen up the beer in the glass.
Since aroma is so important this tool helps to teach that lesson. Take one sip midway through your beer, foam it, then taste again. How did the beer change? Did it change for the better? I could see this helping with 22oz bottles that might have lost a little luster.
Foam Test 1
If you, as a beer drinker, are fond of beer educational items. This might just be one to showcase the power of aroma on beer.
Aside from the horrible name of ManCan that conjures up either sexism or the toilet in my mind, if you are one of the beer lovers out there who want the tap experience at home but have yet to find exactly the right equipment to do so, then this in ‘fridge tap that is currently in funding phase on Kickstarter might be worth checking out.
Personally, I go for bottles and cans first then growlers but others have a go-to beer that they want on tap and fresh that isn’t packaged, so I get the allure.
