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Abuse the Barman, Get Free Beer

June 19, 2009 at 12:53 PM | 0 Comments

Economic crisis time has brought us plenty, really: cheap airline tickets or staycations, just to name a couple. A surprising bonus out of the global recession is the fact that you can now abuse bar staff in a pub in Spain and get a free beer out of it.

The Casa Pocho bar in Cullera, near Valencia, offers free drinks for "original or hilarious abuse". The owner Bernard Mariusz figured that in these difficult times, people need an outlet for their frustrations and his bar was as good a place as any for it.

Mariusz also says that the Spanish language is full of fantastic abusive phrases, so the challenge to come up with drink-worthy slander shouldn't be too hard. Our limited Spanish doesn't yet extend to too much abuse, but for a free drink, we'll learn anything.

Related Stories:
· Gimme A Beer, Imbecile [Reuters]
· Beer Travel Guide [Jaunted]

[Photo: IanKershaw]

Amsterdam Beer Bikes: Possibly Dangerous, Definitely Dorky

June 13, 2009 at 3:41 PM | 1 Comment

The tolerance of Amsterdam residents is legendary, but the beer bike may have stretched it to the breaking point. For those who don't know, the beer bike is a self-propelled, ten- to twenty-person contraption that pedals around town while all but its driver quaff beers. Popular with stag and hen parties (what we Yanks call bachelor and bachelorette parties), the bikes are a fixture in the city center, with revelers howling and singing as they enjoy the booze-soaked ride. But according to Reuters, two accidents involving the bikes since April have caused the city councilor responsible for transport to reconsider how many beer bikes ought to be allowed in the city at any one time, and what measures can be taken to ensure their safety. Could this spell the end of the beer bike?

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Seattle's Beer Festival Welcomes Drinkers and Their Dogs

June 10, 2009 at 12:22 PM | 1 Comment

Seattle is famous for their weather and their coffee, but they've slowly been making their way onto the beer scene as well. After all, they aren't too far away from Portland, a city that has more breweries than anywhere else in the country. To celebrate this new beer fame, they’re welcoming one and all to the Seattle International Beer Festival.

On July 3-5, hop heads and beer bellies from around the country will gather at the Seattle Center Mural Amphitheatre to test out the latest and greatest from the world of beer. There will be over 150 varieties on tap and in bottles just waiting for you to sample them. We just hope there aren’t too many coffee-flavored porters hanging around, because those are less than tasty.

Tickets are $20, a price that includes admission, tasting glass, live music and ten beer tickets. Unfortunately unlimited samples aren’t available here, so you’ll need to buy more tickets for $1 each if you’re still thirsty. Also, depending on the “swank factor”—their words not ours—your sample can cost between one and four tickets. For those early risers, there’s a Happy Hour between noon and 1:00 pm where you’ll get five extra beer tickets.

Once you’ve paid for your ticket, you are welcome to visit all three days of the festival; there’s no re-entry fees. So feel free to bring your dog the next day—they’re welcome inside— so you have someone to gripe to about your hangover.

Related Stories:
· Seattle International Beerfest [Official Site]
· Trips We Love: The Year in Beer [Jaunted]
· Beer coverage [Jaunted]

[Photo: Official Site]

Trips We Love: The Year in Beer

June 3, 2009 at 5:11 PM | 0 Comments

Now this is our kind of gap year! A California couple spent the entirety of 2008 traveling the globe with their itinerary fully dictated by one thing: Beer.

Chris Nelson and Merideth Canham-Nelson, the sudsy minds behind thebeergeek.com, declared 2008 "The Year in Beer," and spent $30,000 exploring beer festivals and local craft brewers from Anchorage to Erlangen. Their entire trip is documented with photos and videos on their website, now a comprehensive resource for where to find the best brews in just about every beer-centric locale throughout North America and Europe.

The duo also shared their best bets with the Silicon Valley Mercury News. For a domestic trip, they recommend the Oregon Brewers Festival in Portland (coming up July 23-26). Abroad, they were taken with Cologne's Kölsch bars, where guests are served in 7-ounce glasses that are constantly refilled until you signal you're done by placing a beer mat over the glass. Sounds like a dangerous system to us, but we'd certainly be willing to try.

Well we're thirsty now! And most definitely ready for a Year in Beer of our own, if we only had an extra $30,000 lying around (hint, hint to any potential sponsors).

Related Stories:
· The beer tourists [Mercury News ]
· Best bets for beer travel [Mercury News]
· Brits Complete 24-Year Pub Crawl [Jaunted]

[Photo: balajijegan]

No Busch Light At The St. Louis Brewers Heritage Fest

May 27, 2009 at 12:02 PM | 0 Comments

It’s pretty clear that the folks in St. Louis take their beer pretty seriously. After all, this is the proud home of Budweiser, as long as you just forget about that whole InBev buyout thing. That’s why it’s a pretty safe bet to predict that the 2009 St. Louis Brewers Heritage Festival is one of the must-do drinking fests of the year.

There’s three different schedules over the weekend of June 5 and 6 that all take place within Forest Park, but unless you’re hardcore we’d only recommend throwing down for one of them. Tickets start at $30 and cost $35 on the day of the event. It’s a pretty good deal as it grants you access to unlimited sampling of over 60 different beer styles, live music, and a commemorative glass.

Brewmasters will be on hand from some of the nation’s most well known breweries, as well as some smaller ones. We’d head straight to the Trailhead Brewing Company booth, in hopes of downing a few samples of a hoppy ale. Just remember to bring a couple bucks in case you get the beer munchies, as there’ll be quite an assortment of food vendors as well.

Related Stories:
·St. Louis Brewery Heritage Festival [Official Site]
·Beer coverage [Jaunted]

[Photo: Official Site]

Get Toasty This Weekend At The Los Angeles Beer Festival

April 2, 2009 at 8:56 AM | 1 Comment

America is in the throes of the worst recession that any of us have ever seen. Times are tough. We're all giving up luxuries and cutting back on expenses.

Enter this weekend's Los Angeles Beer Festival, offering you the opportunity to replace your yuppie oenophilia and with an afternoon of grain-based bliss. The weather will be a crisp 65 degrees, the sky will be a cloudless blue, and people will be stumbling from booth to booth in a state of blurry delirium.

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Shanghai Can Drink Green Beer Today Too

March 17, 2009 at 9:52 AM | 1 Comment

Happy St. Patrick's Day! That is, if you can still manage to read the computer screen straight. Although sadly most of us will have to work a full day before setting out on an equally fully night, St. Patrick's Day at least guarantees a riotous (sometimes literally) good time will be had by all.

This goes not only for Chicago with its green river, New York with its sober parade, or Dublin where it's almost like any other day, but the Irish spirit can even be found healthy and happy in Shanghai, China.

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On St. Patrick's Day, Chicago is the Greenest City of All

March 4, 2009 at 8:56 AM | 6 Comments

Where's the best place to celebrate St. Patrick's Day? Many would argue New York, with its two-million-person parade, and seemingly a pub with Guinness on tap for every one of them. Boston's got its share of stout-fueled rowdiness as well, but both of these cities are so Irish-fied already that St. Patrick's Day never really feels like that much of a change—just the same pubs with longer lines. Of course you can always go to Dublin for the genuine option, but that's always dimmed by the realization that the streets are filled almost exclusively with drunk Americans--not so genuine after all.

So for the city that puts on the greenest face for St. Patrick's Day, we nominate Chicago.

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Happy Repeal Day

December 5, 2008 at 10:30 AM | 1 Comment

A few weeks back, we told you that the beer industry was pushing December 5, the 75th anniversary of the repeal of prohibition, as a natioal day of celebration, but we wondered why few people were partying.

Well now it seems a good few of you have gotten your acts together, and folks coast-to-coast are getting ready to celebrate like it's 1933. Here's our guide to the best Repeal Day parties going down this Friday:

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Britain Considering Yet Another Booze Ban

November 23, 2008 at 3:04 PM | 0 Comments

And to think we just declared The Hat and Tun London's newest must-visit pub: Officials at the UK Department of Health may recommend a ban on happy hours and drinking games at pubs to reduce excessive and underage boozing. The British Liver Trust, an advocacy group, says liver disease has killed 40 percent more people aged 25-29 this year than last, with more than 4,000 fatalities linked to alcohol-induced liver problems.

The Liver Trust suspects that making drinks more expensive--that is, by banning happy hour discounts--would cause the number of young drinkers to drop. But government health authorities are waiting for a University of Sheffield report on whether prices have a measurable effect on binge drinking before making any final decisions.

If and when the government cracks down on happy hours, don't expect gloomy nights leading up to a ban: When London outlawed drinks on public transport, booze hounds celebrated by hosting raucous parties that ended in 17 arrests and six Tube station closings.

Related Stories:
· Liver Disease Killing 40 Percent More Young People [British Liver Trust]
· Britain May Ban "Happy Hour" as Deaths Rise [AP, via Google]

[Photo: gia_s]

Beer-O-Days: Who’s Celebrating Cinco De Diciembre?

November 18, 2008 at 12:03 PM | 0 Comments

The beer industry already makes plenty of bank from ale-soaked holidays like St. Patrick's Day and Cinco de Mayo, but now they’d like us to add one more.

The neighborly folks at the National Beer Wholesalers Association are encouraging Americans to celebrate the anniversary of the repeal of prohibition, which is just around the corner on December 5. (Cinco de Diciembre, anyone?)

This year marks the 75th anniversary of the day FDR and Co. said it was legally OK to booze again, and the wholesaler’s group wants you to know:

This anniversary is a great time to recognize the success of the past 75 years of effective, state-based alcohol regulation since the ratification of the 21st Amendment.

In other words... drink up!

Unfortunately, a quick search of the web turns up only one event marking this momentous day, and it’s a policy forum at DC libertarian think tank the Cato Institute. Come on now, people, we can celebrate the rebirth of the nation in a little more style than that! Know of some parties we don't?

Related Stories:
· Celebrate the Repeal of Prohibition on December 5, 2008 [Marketwire]
· Free to Booze: The 75th Anniversary of the Repeal of Prohibition [Cato Institute]
· Beer coverage [Jaunted]

[Photo: coopgas1]

International Train Travel for Beginners: Ride the Rails Between San Diego and Tecate

November 15, 2008 at 1:36 PM | 0 Comments

San Diego is a pretty cool city, but once you're done with the zoo, the beaches, and the Gaslamp Quarter, you might crave a glimpse of what's beyond the border in Mexico. Sure, you could drive or take a bus to Tijuana, but the wait at the border can be a drag, and TJ has seen its fortunes decline in recent years due to violence among drug traffickers. Fortunately, the LA Times has an attractive alternative: a day trip by train to nearby Tecate. Once or twice a month, the Pacific Southwest Railway Museum runs trips from Campo in eastern San Diego to Tecate, about thirty miles east of Tijuana, where visitors tour the eponymous brewery and dine at restaurants around Parque Manuel Hidalgo square. The journey isn't about getting anywhere fast - the train chugs along at a smooth 15 miles per hour for much of the one-hour journey - but serves as a link to the halcyon days of the early 1900's, when the railroad was built to connect San Diego with the fertile Imperial Valley. The trains themselves are a relic from a bygone era. Several impeccably-restored 1930's-era passenger cars that once ferried New Jersey commuters into New York City are now filled with railfans, lager louts, and day-trippers who love the idea of a popping across the border for a nip and a nosh. As for the beer, well, it's nothing to write home about (even at the brewery it's served in cans). But on a hot day in Mexico, when you don't have to worry about driving home, it certainly does the job.

[Photo: LA Times]

Related Stories
· Visit Tecate By Train For Dose of Border Goodwill [LA Times]
· Pacific Southwest Railway Museum [Official Site]
· Cerveza Tecate [Official Site]
· Beer Travel Coverage [Jaunted]