[Insert lager joke here]
Tsingtao beer is seeing a sales slump after a video was released that appeared to show a worker pissing into a brewing vat.
Alcohol
The bitter taste of climate change.
As if things couldn’t get worse- climate change is set to reduce the quantity and quality of beer. Warming and changing seasons and precipitation patterns mean a reduction in the hops harvest, with flowers containing less of the alpha acids that give the flavour.
We Experimented With Powdered Alcohol So You Don’t Have To | WIRED
Do safety concerns around powdered alcohol have any base in reality?
Powdered alcohol is a thing. Don’t know if it will ever be available in the UK. In the US, where it’s not on sale yet, there’s already a huge moral panic over it. Wired had one mad person mix up a home made version to see if there was any basis to the fears.
Result? Of course there wasn’t.
Source: We Experimented With Powdered Alcohol So You Don’t Have To | WIRED
The White House brew house
Barack Obama has started brewing beer in The White House kitchens. There have been so many requests that they’ve now published the recipes, which utilise honey from the first beehives on the White House’s lawns.
Mitt Romney would just buy a brewery, and then have them change their recipe to the blandest, most insipid bilge possible.
via BoingBoing
Pubs of Manchester
Pubs of Manchester is about exactly what it says. Public houses, old, new, dead or surviving, in Greater Manchester.
Moonshine!
One of the most watched items on eBay at the moment is this guide to building stills and the art of distilling. I already know one person who brews beer and makes mead. Maybe I should buy him this so he can step it up a level and build a still in his shed.
The Gnome
The Gnome, originally uploaded by spinneyhead.
Scottish gnome, in fact.
Bierwelt
I am, eventually, going to Interrail around Europe. I’ve been promising myself this for the last few years. It’s already looking like this isn’t the year I’ll do it, though it should be the one where I start putting aside the money to fund it.
In the mean time, I’ll keep adding places to the list of locations to visit. Such as Bierwelt, profiled today on BoingBoing, a Bavarian beer-centric theme park. The park is 90 kilometres from Munich and can be reached by train. The fact that it involves beer automatically puts it near the top of the (as yet unstarted if I’m honest) list.
Smithfield Tavern, I think
Smithfield Tavern, I think, originally uploaded by spinneyhead.
Far better than the Burton Arms, which was so bad I didn’t take picture.
The Castle Hotel
The Castle Hotel, originally uploaded by spinneyhead.
Just a bit full.
Mother Mac’s
Mother Mac’s, originally uploaded by spinneyhead.
Third pub.
Pub two- The Shakespeare
Pub two- The Shakespeare, originally uploaded by spinneyhead.
All dark wood. Okay beer.
The birthday pub crawl has begun at Microbar in the Arndale
The birthday pub crawl has begun at Microbar in the Arndale, originally uploaded by spinneyhead.
It’s grown since I last walked past it.
Horseradish vodka 1
It has become a tradition of the Manchester Rag Beerfest to have flavoured vodkas, with such delights as smokey bacon flavour (allegedly vegan). English Russia have a recipe for horseradish vodka they might like to try next year.
It’s always Cask Ale Week at Casa Spinneyhead
Well, it would be if I could get myself a cask of beer, but you get the idea.
It’s Cask Ale week. Go and drinks some proper beer.
Break out the oxygenated booze
Oxygenated alcohol can help drinkers sober up faster and reduce their hangover in the morning. Korean scientists tested the effects of booze given a fizz with oxygen rather than carbon dioxide and found these rather happy facts. As the report says, there’s no information on how oxygenation affects the flavour of the booze. If it ended up tasting like Thunderbird then you’re just swapping pain after the drink for pain during it.
Tactical Nuclear Penguin 2
Tactical Nuclear Penguin from BrewDog on Vimeo.
This is a beer that should be tried at least once. Providing they’re not banned from selling it.
Dick Turpin’
I feel I should be embarrassed by this one, but everyone I’ve shown it to thinks it’s funny.
Canine testicles, as requested
Dog’s Bollocks is selling well, but I was told I should do a sign for it anyway.
It’s the Von Trapp zombies
Eidelweiss, eidelweiss all the fucking time.