When beer lovers think of craft beers, certain names come to mind: Redhook, Magic Hat, Smuttynose, Samuel Adams. A name not on the list? Bud Light. But that’s something the beer’s company could be trying to change.

This January, Anheuser-Busch InBev is set to release a new brew, Bud Light Platinum, the company said Wednesday in a statement. The new beer “appeals to a key group of beer drinkers and expands consumer occasions,” the company says, leading some to wonder if this is the company’s attempt to “tap in” to a popular craft beer market. US beer sales were down 1 percent by volume in 2010, but craft beer sales, in dollars, rose 15 percent in the first half of 2011, according to the Brewers Association.

But what makes a “craft” beer? The Brewers Association defines a craft brewer as “small, independent and traditional”–all things Anheuser-Busch InBev, the largest brewer in the world, arguably is not. So is “craft” beer set to be the next ambiguous but trendy label, a la “green” or “natural”?  We’ll have to wait and see.

After graduating from college in … oh never mind, I moved immediately to Boston. Over the last several years, I’ve come to know the area quite well and have been on my fair share of urban adventures, one of which had me dancing with people who smelled really bad. Given my many experiences gallivanting around the city, I could probably rattle off a bunch of great date spots, but I thought it would be way more fun to ask a man who has made a job out of scouring every inch of Beantown and beyond; a man who, like George Costanza, probably knows the location of every public bathroom in the city (the city of Boston, that is). That man is Tom O’Keefe, also known as the Boston Tweet Guy.

A serial entrepreneur, O’Keefe started Boston Tweet in November 2008 as “a way to create awareness for local business when the economy was descending into a recession.” He tweets daily about news, events, food and drinks that he believes are of interest to 20- and 30-somethings living in the city. (Read more about his life as a perma-tweeter in this interview). O’Keefe now has over 41,000 followers; currently, I have 149, and I’m extremely jealous. But I reached out to him, anyway (because jealousy is a an evil emotion that can make us do really mean things, like when you’re 12 and you tell your friend’s boyfriend that she said he was a bad kisser because, well, she did but mostly because you’re jealous he’s into her and not you and you’re tired of making out with the mirror and your pillow), to ask for his expert opinion on great date spots around the Hub.

In no particular order, here are the Top 10 Best Date Spots, according to Tom O’Keefe:

The Boston Public Garden

The Public Garden is the first public botanical garden in the United States and it continues to be the most beautiful place in Boston. The Public Garden is the perfect date spot – it’s romantic, beautiful, and free. You’ll score bonus points if you can rattle off the names of more than three types of flowers currently in bloom – I never get past tulips. After you impress your date with your floricultural knowledge, take a stroll over to the Frosty Ice Cream Truck (Arlington and Boylston) for a cone or a stop at the Parish Cafe for a bite.

• Neely’s  note: I’ll pay you $100 (in Monopoly money, which, as it happens, is the official currency of Occupy Boston) if you can tell me the name of the sculptor who is both related to me and has a statue in the Garden. Hint: the sculptor is a woman and her name rhymes with Lashka Taeff. Leave your guesses in the comments section below.
• Another note from Yours Truly: You might want to save this date spot for a day when flowers are actually in bloom. But the Parish Café is delicious no matter what time of year. Try the Zuni Roll – delectable!

Tour Fenway Park

Everybody loves Fenway Park and now that the Sox won’t be back until 2012 you can take a tour of the park every day, on the hour, from 9 a.m. until 4 p.m.

Tasty Burger

If you build up an appetite on your Fenway Park tour then lucky for you: Tasty Burger is behind the park serving delicious and extremely affordable burgers in an old converted garage – which means it’s just as casual as Fenway Park.

SoWa Sundays

If you’re never been to a SoWa Sunday then you’re missing out on a great afternoon of food trucks, vintage items, food markets, music and tons of locally made crafts that you never knew you needed. A SoWa Sunday is a great casual date for those who want to enjoy being outside while looking at melted beer bottles and eating the occasional grilled cheese sandwich from Roxy’s.

Picco

Beer, pizza and ice cream. What else could you ask for on a date? Picco is one of my favorite spots in the South End because it’s casual, affordable, the pizza is great, the craft beer is plentiful, and they also specialize in ice cream.

Craft Beer

If you want to impress your date with your knowledge of craft beer then a visit to the Publick House (Washington Square), Meadhall (Kendall Square) and/or Lord Hobo in Inman Square are perfect spots for “beer geeks on a date.” Combined, the three bars have hundreds of taps, even more bottles, and enough ABVs to relax your nerves.

Go For a Walk

One of the things I love most about Boston is that it’s a walkable city. You can walk from the Back Bay to Beacon Hill to the North End, and even Cambridge, within a few hours. Go for a walk, enjoy the conversation, and along the way you’ll discover some new neighborhoods, restaurants, and cafes.

MFA

The MFA is hands down my favorite museum in Boston and the perfect place to spend the day admiring works of art almost as beautiful as your date. If you’re a student, then you’re date is free! The MFA’s University Membership Program offers free admission to college students who attend college in the Boston area.

The Abbey – Washington Square, Brookline

The Abbey is that perfect date restaurant. The food is amazing, the atmosphere is dimly lit by candlelight, the service is impeccable and Emack & Bolio’s is next door for that required “first date ice cream cone.”

The North End

I personally don’t think you can go wrong with any restaurant in the North End but a few of my favorites are Bricco, Cantina Italiana and Lucca. After dinner take a walk over to Caffe Vittoria on Hanover Street to enjoy an after dinner drink and an amazing chocolate mousse cake.

• Neely’s note: I’ll pay you $250 in Monopoly money and give you my title deed for Marvin Gardens if you can find a very skinny house in the North End that was built out of spite. Yes, that’s right: spite.

Are you an expert on a topic related to dating/sex/love/relationships? Want to submit an “According To … ” list and see it published in Blast Magazine? Email me at: neelysteinberg@gmail.com.

(Media Credit/46137 via Flickr)

Hurra fur bier! It’s Oktoberfest season, and Blast has gathered information about the up-and-coming New England beer festivals that will have you dancing to Oompah music, yodeling to your heart’s content, chugging German beer from your stein, noshing on pumpkin-themed food, playing keg bowling, and…chicken dancing?

Connecticut

October 14: Brewfest at the Beach, The Pavilion at Ocean Beach Park, New London

The rain-or-shine event will feature live music, food, over 150 different types of beer, and ahh, that fresh sea air!

6 p.m. to 9 p.m., tickets $25 in advance/$30 at door.

October 15: The Connecticut Tigers Octoberfest and Chili Cook-Off, Dodd Stadium, Norwich

There is a three month period, between when the air is too thick to breathe and the apocalyptic snow fall, that New England becomes arguably the most beautiful places in the world. The fall season of September through November, a time when 70-degree weather reigns and the foliage paints a natural landscape, is the reward for living for in the area and a true call for celebration.

And as every true New Englander knows, no celebration is complete without the correct beer.

The Northeast is privy to some of the better brewers in the country and has its share of standards. But as you belly up to your favorite bars and shop through your regular package stores, why not take advantage of fall 2011 and give a new beer a try.

Here’s Blast Magazines list of the top 5 best unknown beers, locally brewed and just waiting to become your new favorites.

5. Wachusett Octoberfest

The Wachusett Brewing Company, the Westmister-based brewer which is mainly known for its economically priced blueberry flavored beer, also releases an Octoberfest seasonal. A thicker brew that comes off slightly bitter, the beer has a slightly less warm temperament than most of the autumn releases. But any fan of the Blueberry brew will enjoy this seasonal offering.

4. Hex

Magic Hat, South Burlington VT’s own pride and joy for strange brews, has come out with the Halloween theme seasoned Hex Octoberfest. Holding up Magic Hat’s reputation for strong taste and thick constancy, Hex is not something that can be sipped in a relaxed manner. Fans of hops will not be disappointed.

3. Pumpkin Works

Locally brewed in Boston Beer Works, this pumpkin beer is a fine example of something original in the way of autumn beer. An odd combination of smooth taste and strong spice, the beer goes down quicker than some of the more bitter seasonals, but let it be said it will get on top of you quick. (Only available at Boston Beer Works)

2. The Great Pumpkin Ale

Straight from the best kept secret in The People’s Republic comes The Great Pumpkin Ale. A specialty brew from the Cambridge Brewing Company, this fantastic offering marks the first time the company has actually bottled its beer. The Great Pumpkin has a great taste and good consistency, with its only real flaw being that it’s a rare find in most stores.

It is an unfiltered ale, and the company is promising better availability this year “cuz we’re making a LOT of it.”

1. Smashed Pumpkin Ale

Those who have been around the area may have noticed Shipyard Pumpkin beer making its mark on several large chains and bars around the area. But what you may not know is that the Portland Maine company makes another brew known as Smashed Pumpkin. It is only available at a limited amount of liquor stores (and only in pint sized bottles) but this beer is worth the looking. Amazing flavor, good consistency, and 9 percent by volume make this the best $10 you spend all fall.

So there you have it. Blast Magazine’s top five under the radar New England brewed beers for the fall seasons. Go out and enjoy the weather and ale while you can, because we’ll be walking through six to twelve inches of snow before you know it.

There is nothing better that seasonal ale just before the fall hits and what better way to top it off than by being shocked. “Shock Top”  was introduced in 2011 as a seasonal belgian-style wheat ale and has been working with well known “Earthwork” artist Stan Herd to develop three unique piece.

One of these pieces was showcased on August 25 at Legal Haborside. It was a great night with fellow artist Stan Herd  greeting spectators as his piece arrived by boat on the water.

For more information on “Shock Top” Beer please visit shocktopbeer.com and visit them on Facebook at facebook.com/shocktop

Photo: Arkangel/Flickr CC

DEDHAM — Pouring a good Guinness is a science and an art. Any buff of the brew knows that a good Guinness pour is as beautiful as tasty; a clean glass is key to display the decisive line that separates black and white and showcase the slight boast of sturdy foam over the top of the rim. Just like any pretty lady, looking good takes time; if you order your Guinness and it comes right up, you know it’s no good.

“It’s incomparable to any other beer,” says Joe Gillespie, bartender at the Penguin in Brigham Circle.

A Guinness enthusiast, Gillespie agreed to accompany me on a recent search the best Guinness pour on the South Shore

Our trip was a short one. The pints at our first stop — a high-end, crafty brew joint — were sad indeed.

But our second stop — a local watering hole, worn around the edges -– was so good, we stopped crawling.

The YardHouse in Dedham is home to a row of taps that stretches past the eye, serving up a myriad of imports and domestics.

Alongside the original expansion on Guinness, the “Black and Tan,” the YardHouse offers six cleverly named Guinness blends. The tastiest is the “Black Velvet,” a pint glass half filled with Wyder’s pear cider whose puckery taste pierces the half pint of Guinness atop, followed by “Black and Blue,” a blueberry concoction of Guinness & Sea Dog Bluepaw Wheat with real blueberries bobbing in a sea of foam. The flavors created are intricate and fun.

But the tasty Guinness mixes are no mask for a poor pour. After a taste of the creative concoctions we hailed the bartender for a pint of Guinness, the star of the show. Our drinks arrive not ten seconds later, barely time enough for the bartender to travel down the Goliath bar to the right tap.

We exchange disappointed shifts of the brow and examine the pour; settling before our eyes, sloppily dripping down the side of the pint glass and topped with brown tinged foam. After a hesitant first sip, our fears are confirmed.

A taste reminiscent of sour coffee sends us out the door and down the street to a small, cozy bar called Lewis’s.

Unfortunately, the man with the mean pour was on the other side of the bar enjoying a Bud Light, but our hopes were satisfied. Despite a slightly quick pour and no shamrock decor, the taste was impeccable. It was pretty, creamy, refreshing, clean and good for a second round.

As black and white as the beer itself, there are good and bad pours.

“It’s incredible” says Gillespie “like drinking a whole different beer”.

Dear EarthTalk: I see more and more organic wines on store shelves these days, but what options are out there today for organic beer? — Ken Strong, Wichita, Kan.

Some 80 million Americans drink beer, yet organic beer represents still only a sliver of the $7 billion U.S. craft beer market. But this sliver is quickly turning into a slice: Between 2003 and 2009, according to the Organic Trade Association, U.S. organic beer sales more than quadrupled from $9 million to $41 million.

According to Seven Bridges Cooperative, which has been selling organic brewing ingredients for a decade already, organic beers tend to feature exceptional clarity and a clean, flavorful taste. “On a more technical side, organic malts on average have a lower protein content which produces a clear mash and less haze problems in the finished beer,” reports Seven Bridges. “Organic malts and hops have no chemical residues to interfere with fermentation to give the organic brewer a clean, unadulterated beer.”

Seven Bridges mail you all the ingredients you need to brew your own organic beer at home, but most of us would rather just enjoy the finished product. Depending on where you live, you might have dozens of organic beer brands available in bottles and even on tap at your favorite watering hole.

One of the most visible is Fortuna, California-based Eel River Brewing Company, founded in 1996. Eel River has the distinction of being America’s first certified organic brewery. Their IPA, Pale Ale, Porter, Amber Ale, Blonde Ale, Old Ale and Imperial Stout are all crafted from organic hops from New Zealand and organic grains from the Pacific Northwest and Canada.

Butte Creek Brewery, established in 1998 in Chico, California, brews organic Pilsner, Porter, Pale Ale and India Pale Ale. Their award-winning beers are distributed internationally. Olympia, Washington-based Fish Tale Organic Ales has been brewing ales, porters and stouts to rave reviews since 1993, and introduced its first certified organic beer in 2000. And Otter Creek Brewery in Middlebury, Vermont produces a line of organic ales called Wolaver’s, which includes an Oatmeal Stout and a Pumpkin Ale.

The UK’s Samuel Smith Brewery turns out a full line of acclaimed organic ale, lager and fruit beers. Other popular choices include Pinkus Organic Munster Alt, Peak Organic, New Belgium’s Mothership Wit Wheat Beer, and Lakefront Organic ESB, among others. And Whole Foods Markets now produces its own private label organic beer called Lamar Street, which is known for its rich flavor and low cost.

Not surprisingly, even the big boys are beginning to jump in. Anheuser-Busch is pushing its Stone Mill, Wild Hops and Green Valley organic beers. And Miller’s Henry Weinhard’s Organic Amber, on store shelves since 2007, is brewed with local ingredients by the Full Sail Brewery in Hood River, Oregon.

One way to sample dozens of organic beers at once is to attend the North American Organic Brewers Festival (NAOBF), held every June in Portland, Oregon. Whether you clue into organic beers at this event or just at your local pub you can’t go wrong by spreading your eco-consciousness to your beer drinking.

CONTACTS: Organic Trade Association, www.ota.com; Seven Bridges Cooperative, www.breworganic.com; Eel River Brewing, www.eelriverbrewing.com; Butte Creek Brewing,www.buttecreek.com; Fish Brewing, www.fishbrewing.com; NAOBF, www.naobf.org.

Environmentalists want to put a monetary value on the negative impacts of industrial activities, such as polluting, and to force offending companies and utilities to compensate society for the harm they do (Thinkstock Image)

Dear EarthTalk: In my business courses in college, we were taught that ecological degradation was an “externality”—something outside the purview of economic analyses. Now that the environment is of such concern, are economists beginning to rethink this? -- Josh Dawson, Flagstaff, Ariz.

By definition, economic externalities are the indirect negative (or positive) side effects, considered un-quantifiable in dollar terms, of other economic acts. For example, a negative externality of a power plant that is otherwise producing a useful good (electricity) is the air pollution it generates. In traditional economics, the harmful effect of the pollution (smog, acid rain, global warming) on human health and the environment is not factored in as a cost in the overall economic equation. And as the economists go, so go the governments that rely on them. The result is that most nations do not consider environmental and other externalities in their calculations of gross domestic product (GDP) and other key economic indicators (which by extension are supposed to be indicators of public health and well-being).

For decades environmentalists have argued that economics should take into account the costs borne by such externalities in order to discern the true overall value to society of any given action or activity. The company or utility that operates the polluting factory, for instance, should be required to compensate the larger society by paying for the pollution it produces so as to offset the harm it does.

So-called “cap-and-trade” schemes are one real-world way of monetizing a negative externality: Big polluters must buy the right to generate limited amounts of carbon dioxide (and they can trade such rights with other companies that have found ways to lower their carbon footprints, thus creating an incentive for polluters to clean up their acts). While cap-and-trade was invented in the U.S. to clean up acid rain pollution, it is a model used in Europe but not yet in America, which has yet to pass legislation mandating it. Until Congress acts to regulate the output of carbon dioxide in the U.S.—via cap-and-trade means or others—such emissions will remain “external” to the economics of carrying on business.

Recent news that has many greens excited is that the World Bank, the leading financier of development projects around poorer parts of the globe, is starting to think outside the traditional economic box. This past October, World Bank president Robert Zoellick told participants at a conference for the Convention on Biological Diversity (an international treaty signed by 193 countries—not including the U.S.—that went into effect in 1993 to sustain biodiversity) that “the natural wealth of nations should be a capital asset valued in combination with its financial capital, manufactured capital and human capital.” Zoellick’s comments are the first sign from the World Bank of its recognition of the need to consider externalities in any overall economic assessment. “[We] need to reflect the vital carbon storage services that forests provide and the coastal protection values that come from coral reefs and mangroves,” he added.

Critics are still waiting to see if the World Bank will walk its talk. “It’s a fine rhetorical start,” says the New York Times’ Andrew Revkin in his blog. “But the  announcement by the bank of a $10 million ‘Save Our Species’ fund, with the United Nations Global Environmental Facility and International Union for Conservation of Nature, seems quite piddling in a world where money flows in the trillions,” he adds. Indeed, we may still be a ways off from including our environmental impacts into our measures of social wealth and health, but at least the World Bank has gone on record as to the need to do so, and you can be sure that environmental advocates will be working to hold its feet to the fire.

CONTACTS: World Bank, www.worldbank.org; Convention on Biological Diversity, www.cbd.int.

Bostonians and beer enthusiasts alike already know that Samuel Adams beer is delicious, but it doesn’t hurt that the beer masters at the world’s oldest brewery think so, too. In early December, Infinium ale, the product of a two-year partnership between Germany’s Weihenstephan Brewery and the makers of Samuel Adams, Boston Beer Co., will be available for sale in the United States.

Jim Koch, the founder of Boston Beer Co., told the “Boston Globe” that Infinium’s taste is “sort of in between a champagne, a dessert wine, and maybe a Sam Adams Noble Pils.” He added, “You get some of the body and mouthfeel of a beer, some of the hop character of a beer, but it’s very dry and acidic without being thin.”

The ale is golden and bubbly and has notes of pear, apple, peach, and apricot, but don’t be fooled by the fruit or the fancy bottle — Infinium contains 10.3 percent alcohol, which is more than twice as much as the typical American beer.

So you can forget Miller High Life, as Infinium just might take its place as the “champagne of beers,” and it could just as easily take the place of your glass of bubbly on New Year’s Eve. But you’d better start hoarding cases the moment it hits shelves this December, because Jim Koch told the “Boston Globe” that he expects liquor stores to be sold out of Infinium by New Year’s Day. Cheers!

The 750-milliliter bottles of Infinium will be sold for $19.99.

When it comes to Thanksgiving dinner, it seems that everyone’s focus is on the turkey, the stuffing and the pumpkin pie. But what about what you drink with the meal? Put away that six pack of Bud and that sugary wine cooler and give your palate some respect. WineNation, a family-owned superstore in Massachusetts with more than 7,000 wines and 1,000 beers from around the world, has put together a list of their top five unique wines and beers to pair with turkey. The best part? They’re super affordable!

White Wines

Oyster Bay Sauvignon Blanc (New Zealand): Aromatic and crisp with acidity.

Trimbach Riesling (France): Versatile and refreshing with fruit and spice.

Chateau Ste Michelle Gewurztraminer (Washington): Light-bodied and aromatic with spicy notes.

Red Wines

The Last Syrah Syrah (California): Ripe, dark fruit flavors framed with vanilla oak.

Canterwood Pinot Noir (California): Light-bodied and elegant with crushed red fruit.

Beers

Saison Dupont: Rich, complex ale full of spice and late season fruit.

Duvel, Belgian Golden Ale: Light in color but complex in flavor.

Avery Brown Dog: Deep russet brew with sweet and nutty character.

Anderson Valley Amber Ale: Pale ale with robust head and caramel malt flavor.

Ommegang Rare Vos: Creamy head, aroma of spicy orange blossoms, and a dry, hops finish.

Guys, you can breathe a sigh of relief: your manhood can officially be recovered after your girlfriends and wives drag you to the mall for some serious wallet-denting, crowd-pushing, sale-chasing Black Friday shopping.

Thanks to Kings, a retro-inspired bowling alley, pool hall and bar, you can relax with a beer, watch the game, play some pool, eat some grub and forget the retail-induced trauma of the day. And ladies, you can avoid traumatizing your boyfriends and husbands in the first place by dropping them off at the “sitter” while you get started on that Christmas list.

Details

Friday, Nov. 26, 2010

Kings Back Bay location from 11:30 a.m. to 2 a.m.

Kings Dedham location from 11:00 a.m. to 1:00 a.m.

No cover; must be 21+

On the next “Hannah Montana:” Hannah cracks open an ice-cold Corona.

Miley Cyrus was photographed, beer in hand, at a club in Madrid Friday night.

In Spain, the legal drinking age is 18. Miley is 17.

The story was first reported by TMZ.

She is currently in Madrid for MTV’s European Music Awards tomorrow night.

The pop princess is presently dealing with a lot of stress since she has broken up with Liam Hemsworth, 20, and is also dealing with the split of her parents Billy Ray and Tish, as we previously reported.

Her behavior might be risky in every way but at least we hope she had a good time last night?

In a bit of good news for hardcore beer drinkers across the United States, Guinness Foreign Extra Stout is now available for sale across the country. Originally known as the West India Porter, The Foreign Extra Stout was first brewed in 1801 at St. James’s Gate Brewery in Dublin. After debuting in the U.S. market in 1817, the export of the brew to the country was halted during prohibition.

Deep brown in appearance, Guinness Foreign Extra Stout is carbonated unlike the nitrogenated Guinness Draught with which most of us are familiar. The specialty beer is 7.5 percent alcohol by volume and possesses strong, roasted aromas followed by a unique bittersweet taste that beer aficionados can enjoy. Produced using four basic ingredients (grain, water, hops, and yeast), the Foreign Extra Stout is brewed at a higher hop rate than Guinness Draught and is known for its initial effervescent impact, which leads to a dry finish and a full bodied palate of roast character.

“Guinness Foreign Extra Stout appeals to beer drinkers who love to explore beer and are looking for a serious stout,” said Patrick Hughes, Brand Director, Guinness. “It is a unique beer with a distinctive taste, aroma and color and offers Guinness fans another way to enjoy the high quality, rich, satisfying Guinness experience that is the core of our brand.”

Foreign Extra Stout is recommended to be served in a Guinness goblet, but can also be enjoyed chilled straight from the bottle. Guinness recommends drinkers use a one-part-pour at a 45-degree angle and follow a five step ritual: Chill, Release, Pour, Toast, and Enjoy Responsibly.

Surprisingly, Guinness Foreign Extra Stout makes up 45 percent of Guinness sales globally and is regarded as a more sophisticated option for those who enjoy an occasional Guinness. It is now available at your local package store and is sold in packs of four.

It’s officially fall in New England, and it’s time to celebrate.

That’s right, it’s Oktoberfest season, and we’ve gathered information about the up-and-coming New England festivals that will have you dancing to Oompah music, chugging German beer from your stein, playing keg bowling, and…chicken dancing?

Connecticut

October 1: Oktoberfest at the Beach, Ocean Beach Park, New London

The event will feature live music, a chowder competition, over 100 types of domestic and imported beer from 30 microbrew companies, and ahh, that fresh sea air!

6 p.m. to 9 p.m., tickets $30 in advance/$35 at door.

October 1: Tapping Into Twain Oktoberfest, Mark Twain House & Museum, Hartford

Twain said it himself: “Never refuse to take a drink — under any circumstances.” The event will feature live music, food, and samples from more than 20 microbreweries for beer-loving history buffs.

5:30 p.m. to 9:30 p.m., tickets $40 in advance/$45 at door. Discounted prices for members and designated drivers.

Maine

October 9: Acadia Brewfest, Smuggler’s Den Campground, Southwest Harbor

Celebrate the season surrounded by foliage on Mount Desert Island, sampling dozens of brands of beer from 20 Maine breweries while listening to live music, eating food, and perusing 30 craft booths to satisfy your need for homemade trinkets. It’s the way a weekend should be, eh?

11:30 a.m. to 6:00 p.m., $25 full admission/$10.00 admission for an alcohol-free day (but who would want that?).

Massachusetts

October 1-2: Harpoon Octoberfest, Harpoon Brewery, Boston

There will be chicken dancing, a keg bowling game, live German Oompah bands, German food, and plenty of Harpoon and UFO beer for everyone! So grab your stein, your lederhosen or your cute beer maid outfit and say, “Prost!”

5:30 p.m. to 11:00 p.m. on October 1 (doors close at 9:30 pm), and 2:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m. on Saturday (doors close at 7:30 pm). $20 cover and cash bar.

October 15: Boston Cares Oktoberfest, Samuel Adams Brewery, Jamaica Plain

Support the non-profit agency Boston Cares by drinking complementary Sam Adams brews (including rare and unreleased beers!), enjoying food, competing in games for prizes, and listening to Oompah music. Unfortunately, we’ll never know how long Sam could hoist a beer stein, but he was probably better at it than you.

6:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m., tickets $40 in advance/$50 at door. VIP tickets are $100 and include a special beer tasting in the Beer Barrel room from 6:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m.

October 16: Wormtown Oktoberfest, Union Station, Worcester

Brought to you by the Wormtown Brewery, this Oktoberfest will feature live music from local bands, German grub, and lots and lots of beer. Hurra f¼r bier!

6:00 p.m. to 11:00 p.m., $10 cover.

October 30: CBC Great Pumpkin Festival, Cambridge Brewing Company, Kendall Square

They don’t call it a pumpkin festival for nothing! This event — kind of like a haunted house for adults — will offer pumpkin-inspired food, over 22 different pumpkin ales, a giant beer-filled pumpkin, and a whole lot of costumed party-goers.

4 p.m. to 1 a.m., tickets $10.

New Hampshire

October 2: New Hampshire Brew Fest, Redhook Ale Brewery, Portsmouth

Get in the Granite State spirit in the backyard of the Redhook Ale Brewery, where you can listen to live bands and sample over 90 New England beers from over 30 breweries. Get a complimentary tasting glass and pour to your heart’s content.

1:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m. matinee session, tickets $25 in advance/$35 at door; 6:00 to 9:00 p.m. evening session, tickets $30 in advance/$40 at door. VIP tickets available.

October 9-10:Oktoberfest, Attitash Resort, Bartlett

Even die kinder can enjoy this Oktoberfest, with face painting, games, a bouncy house, and more! For die erwachsenen, there will be a stein holding competition, a keg toss, a best brew competition, and bier galore. For everyone, there will be German food and live Bavarian music from the world renowned King Ludwig Band.

12:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m. October 1, 12:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m. October 2, tickets $10 ages 21+/$5 ages 6-20/under age 6 free

October 9-10: Oktoberfest, Loon Mountain, Lincoln

Ah, Loon Mountain: gondola skyrides, mountain biking, a climbing wall, a bungee trampoline, horseback riding…and an Oompah band? That’s right; it’s Oktoberfest at the mountain. Enjoy German beer, lots of German food, and a stein-holding contest. The best part? The event is FREE to enter!

Festivities begin at 11:00 a.m. on both days.

Rhode Island

October 9-11 Oktoberfest, Newport Yachting Center, Newport

Beer lovers unite! This Oktoberfest prides itself on its great variety of beers — and its two biergartens. Also brag-worthy is its 65-foot-long Big Taste Grill, making this event a gigantic tailgate party at 2,500 bratwursts per hour! Also expect yodeling, folk dance performances, live music, and a kid-friendly area.

12 p.m. to 9 p.m. October 9, tickets $20; 12 p.m. to 8 p.m. October 10, tickets $20; 12 p.m. to 6 p.m. October 11, tickets $10 in advance/$12 at door. Weekend pass $40 in advance.

Vermont

October 2: Killington Brewfest, Killington Resort, Killington

With advanced tickets already sold out, over 60 beers to sample, live music, and plenty of food, this mountain brewfest should be one to remember!

1:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m., tickets $25/$5 for designated drivers

October 9-10: Harpoon Octoberfest, Harpoon Brewery, Windsor

Like its Boston counterpart, this Octoberfest will feature Harpoon and UFO beer, Oompah music, German food, chicken dancing, and a keg bowling game. There will also be a road race and free tours of the brewery offered all weekend long!

12:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m., tickets $15.

I just got a Facebook invite to a St. Patty’s Day party, and I had to check two different calendars to make sure it wasn’t a mistake. Oh hello St. Patty’s Day, when did you sneak up on me?

Granted, it’s been a cyclone of a semester, but I’m still having trouble wrapping my head around the fact that it’s almost the middle of March. Don’t get me wrong, it’s a delightful fact. Warmer weather? Yes, please. In copious amounts if possible. I mean, no — I love dirty gross snow all the way into April — and sopping wet socks as they squish around in my UGGs — and accidentally ending all my phone calls because my bulky gloves make me push two buttons at once — that’s totally why I go to grad school in the Northeast

… yeah.

But seriously, I love this holiday. Irish boys, Irish beer, and an excuse to drink on a weekday…yes, waitress, you can place that glorious order right here.

So how to save money on a holiday in which your sole purpose is to drink as much as you can without needing to be taken to the hospital and paying for an expensive ambulance ride? Damned if I know.

Well, you could always find a party. Parties have kegs and the price to get into the party (possibly just bringing a back-up supply) is likely less than what you’d rack up at a bar. But you also don’t get variety with a keg. Oh whatever, if you want variety, go buy a bag of Skittles. You can pop a couple when you need to get the taste of keg beer out of your mouth.

It’s a holiday so you’re going to need to dress up for the occasion, which for this day means wearing green (possibly the most unnecessary sentence I’ve ever written?). It’s just too bad none of the Boston sports teams use green as one of their colors. Right. So yeah, borrow a Celtics shirt and you’re set. Besides, it’s really the green plastic necklaces and sparkly green hat that make the outfit. How can anyone have a bad time in a sparkly green hat? Um, they can’t.

All right, time to decorate your apartment to help get you in the spirit of the day. No problem there, just haul out that box of decorations you stowed away from last year. What? You’re telling me you didn’t save anything? Oh I’m sooooo surprised. Go run out and buy some (cheap) stuff and green-up the place. Just save everything this time. We’ll call it an investment and leave it at that.

It’s always nice to kick off the festivities with a little Bailey’s in the morning coffee. But that stuff isn’t exactly the price of Banker’s Club gin, ya know? So go halvies (or quartersies) with your roomies. You’re just looking to start off the day, that’s all. Don’t want to jump into the heavy stuff too early. I mean, remember last year? Hah, no, I guess you don’t. The pictures are classic though…

But maybe leave the camera at home this year? It’s nice to document these things, but if you’re going to be out in the city, the chances that you make it back to your spot with your camera- and in working condition- eh, I give it an “unlikely.” So don’t bother with it. Besides, it frees up a hand for double fisting.

Hah, I like that last one.

Happy St. Patty’s Day, Boston!

“Guinness: It’s good for you!” was the advertising motto of the world’s most popular stout for a good part of the 20th century. As a 13-year old drinking my first pint of it in a Dublin pub, I came up with my own slogans. “Drink this stuff from the River Liffey, and you’ll be sick, in a jiffy” was one. “It’s foaming head kills bugs dead” was another. But soon I learned not only to love this stuff (an event that occurred before the very pint I was mocking was half-gone) but I came to favor this style of beer in general.

Once you go black you can’t go back, and for me there was no returning to the canned piss water that is most of the beer sold in the United States. Lagers, even really good ones, remain my least favorite beers. There are lots of ales that are delicious, but my heart belongs to porter specifically. Stout, porter, beer, ale — what does it all mean? Pour me a pint and I’ll tell you.

Ah, good. Well, first I’m obligated to say that like most systems of nomenclature, there are some inconsistencies and vagaries. But I still feel confident — and more confident with every sip — that I can give you the suss on these basic terms.

Beer

It’s all beer, so don’t let anyone convince you that a certain brand “is an ale (or whatever) and not a beer.” You don’t have to take a swing at them, just don’t believe it. According to Michael Jackson (an Englishman who is as famous in the beer world as the identically-named King of Pop was in the music world), six centuries ago there was a distinction, briefly, but it’s long gone.

Dark beers get their color from malt, germinated grains that resemble bean sprouts one finds in a salad. The malt is cooked before it’s added to the brewing process. For lighter beers, care is taken to avoid carbonization that will add pigment to the finished product. For darker beers, the idea is to toast the malt so that a dark color — and more importantly a deep, dark flavor — is the final result.

There are three principle types of beers — lager, lambic, and ale — and one can’t always tell which is which by looking at it. One can’t always tell by taste either, although maybe the English Michael Jackson and other experts at that level are able to.

Lager

With few exceptions, when a beer is brewed so that all the gross vomity-looking yeast that gets thrown away sinks to the bottom, that’s a lager. Of the three principle types of beer, lager is the youngest. Developed in Austria and Bavaria in the mid 1800s, it soon became the lifeblood of the whole German beer culture of gigantic steins and the Reinheitsgebot laws that had already been laid down centuries before.

Pilsner is one of the first distinct types of lagers developed; Heineken is an example of it, as is the Chinese beer Tsingtao. Bock, a sometimes-dark lager that has managed to grow testes, is still another. So are the “American-style lagers” I previously compared to diluted urine. In fact, lager is the most popular beer in the world.

To my own pallet, Asian lagers such as Singha (Thailand), Kirin, Suntory (both from Japan) and Tsingtao taste better (i.e. less bad) than other non-Bock lagers. I have no explanation for that nor expectation that your own taste buds will agree; try them yourself.

Lambic

Another type of beer is lambic. Except for a very few adventurous microbrewers elsewhere, lambic is a peculiar creation that only comes from certain regions in Belgium.

Rather than relying upon added yeast, lambic is a result of the untamed yeast molds and bacteria that are already found on the barley and wheat used to make it. It has a fruity taste reminiscent of wine or hard cider, and many lambics are so loaded with raspberries or other fruits that they fall into the category of “Belgian fruit beers.”

When I first staggered out of a drinkery in Brussels full of this tasty sweet but un-beer-like stuff, I thought all Belgian fruit beers were lambics. Only recently I learned plenty of Belgian fruit beers are actually ales, the type of beer most germane to discussion of Guinness and its swarthy kin.

Ale

Remember that putridness that sinks to the bottom when lager is brewed? When brewing ale, that yucky gunk floats at the top. Premium beers associated with Trappist monks in Belgium, such as the Chimay brands, are ales. So are barley wines, potent potables that substitute grains for grapes. Bitters are a pale ale overloaded with hops, while other ales, such as the various brands of “India Pale Ale” very popular with hobby brewers, aren’t hella different from certain lagers.

Ales, compared to lagers, more often have a dark color and flavor. Bass Ale is a darn good beer, and Smithwick’s (a similar beverage from Ireland) is even better. Newcastle Brown Ale is tasty, but none of these dark ales compares to Samuel Smith’s Nut Brown Ale — divine nectar I tend to think is overpriced until it hits my tongue and reminds me otherwise.

Porter

Even though I’m beer savvy, I can’t taste the line where dark ales end and porters begin, and I suspect any division imposed between them is arbitrary. What is definitely true is that many or most of the darkest, malty-est, most flava-ful ales are classified as porters, the story of which will bring us back to Dublin via London.

Supposedly, the term “porter” takes its name from the people who drank it the most, the porters (i.e. dockworkers, teamsters) who lifted cargo off ships and carried to it locations around London like two-legged mules. Maybe, but always be suspicious of this type of etymology; even when these explanations appear in writing around the same time as the coinage, as they’re often what scholars politely call “fanciful” (and what most folks just call “fake”).

So never mind where the term “porter” came from, just know it’s a particular dark beer that seems to have appeared in London around 1700, give or take a generation. It was almost immediately popular not just because it’s delicious, but because it had a better shelf life. Other beers around at the time were shipped to pubs while they were only half-brewed. This meant that as soon as they finished becoming beer, they could be consumed before they spoiled.

Not so porter. It could finish brewing at the brewery and then be bottled up for consumption whenever. It was easy to make in large quantities, and booze-wise it was strong stuff too. Soon people where getting rich from brewing it and even more were getting rich in spirit from drinking it.

Some distinct types of porters have been identified. “Baltic porter” is a high-proof porter from the neighborhood of Russia, Poland, and Scandinavia. This stuff is a great example of why beer nomenclature is so slippery. Not only do some folks consider the traditional Baltic porter to be a stout, most Baltic porter nowadays is brewed with the sludge at the bottom. That actually makes it a lager if one accepts the technical definition.

Porter was also brewed in the American Colonies before the Revolutionary War, and “Pennsylvania porter” is a representative of this New World beer. But it’s an extra-hefty style of porter, discussed next, that’s the best known example.

Stout

There’s wide (but not universal) agreement that all stouts are porters, but not all porters are stouts. The debate about this is neither lively nor interesting, so let’s just skip it and look at the history instead.

The 18th century popularity of porter spawned variants. Some beer drinkers who favored the dark and yummy porters weren’t afraid of too much of a good thing, and increasingly darker and yummier porters grew in popularity. These roasty-good beers were dubbed with names like “double porter” or “stout porter.” That second term, when shorted, gives us “stout.”

In “Finnegan’s Wake,” the cheerily macabre 19th century Irish tune that inspired James Joyce’s eponymous Dublin epic, we’re told that Tim Finnegan is laid in his casket with a bottle of porter at his feet. “Guinness Extra Stout” was known as “Guinness Extra Superior Porter” until about the same time as this song was composed. Accordingly, there’s little reason not to think it was this same quintessentially Dublin drink that lay at the foot of poor Tim’s coffin.

The idea that “Guinness is good for you” (fearr de thº Guinness for those who “have Irish” ) wasn’t just a successful ad slogan. The company based it on some pretty shady “market research” in the 1920s in which people were asked how they felt after drinking it. Big surprise: they said they felt good. People took the idea literally and it was consumed in great quantities by nursing mothers and those with failing health. Eventually more modern sensibilities (and governmental regulations on advertising) took hold.

Guinness is the most famous Irish stout, but it’s not the only one. Its two traditional rivals, Murphy’s and Beamish, are both from Cork (Ireland’s “second city”). When I lived there doors away from the Murphy’s brewery, the smell of it and other beers brewed on-site assailed my nose as soon as I’d step out my door. The gaseous byproducts of the brewing process have an unmistakably distinct sweet scent. The odor can be nauseating, especially full on, but it’s also something I came to enjoy and, eventually, miss. In Cork City, the drinking of Guinness rather than one of the native stouts is a slightly traitorous act even though many locals themselves have actually switched to foreign-born lagers — such as Heineken and Budweiser — that are made in the same local breweries.

Some think these two Corkonian stouts are less bitter than Guinness, and Murphy’s based an ad campaign around this idea, but I’m not so sure. All three are a complex symphony of smoky tastes both bitter and sweet infused by the malting process. In describing what the non-visual senses perceive, people often fall back on comparisons. When discussing stouts, Irish and otherwise, “coffee” and “chocolate” are often mentioned, but this is more metaphor than similarity. Again, taste for yourself.

Besides these brown beers from the Emerald Island, there are stouts from elsewhere in the world. As said, the previously-mentioned “Baltic porter” is considered a stout by some and it’s similar in style to the “Imperial stouts” associated with Russia. Both share a high alcohol content that helps them survive the winters of Northern Europe without freezing.

“Milk stout” or “cream stout” is made with lactose, a sugar extracted from milk, and is sometimes called “sweet stout” for the resultant effect. “Oatmeal stout” is made from… can you guess? “Oyster stouts” hail from a bygone era when shellfish were a popular pub grub. Sometimes the name just implies it’s to be enjoyed with oysters, but in many cases those same mollusks are part of the brewing process. What does that taste like? I don’t know and I don’t want to know.

“Chocolate stout” and “coffee stout” are typically just terms referring to particularly dark and aromatic stouts. Less often, it means a tiny amount of that ingredient is part of the brew process. That, and especially the bit about the oysters, makes me see the sense of the German beer laws.

Drinking it

The proper pouring of certain beers, especially Guinness, is considered essential by many. In its most dramatic expressing, the act of drawing a good point takes on the ritual of a Japanese tea ceremony. I wouldn’t say you can completely ruin a beer by pouring it wrong. I do think the texture of the beer can suffer, especially during the initial sips, and you only get one chance to make a first impression.

But it’s beyond debate that a decent beer deserves a glass. Beer from a bottle is acceptable if you’re trying to play beach volleyball at the same time as you drink, or if you’re underage and drinking on the roof of someone’s garage, but there aren’t many other situations that justify it.

Beers, especially good beers like some of those I mentioned, have multiple layers of flavor that kick in at different times. A taste of a well-crafted beer is like a firework that rises to the air in a trail of green, explodes red, explodes blue, dances around, explodes gold, and then surprises you with a shower of orange after you thought the show was over.

This party in your mouth can take place because your taste buds aren’t evenly distributed. The guys who taste sweet cluster in one place while the guys who taste sour hang out in another, and so on. Drinking beer from a bottle is like listening to music with the bass turned all the way off or having sex with a condom. Why do it if there’s no good reason?

Summary

Beer is beer. What different styles are called is sometimes a matter of debate. When gunk sinks to the bottom during brewing it’s lager, and if it floats to the top it’s ale. Certain dark ales are known as porters, and the darkest and creamiest porters are called stouts. Don’t drink from a bottle. Guinness is good for you.

All ad space is officially sold out for the Super Bowl as of Monday, said CBS spokeswoman Shannon Jacobs. CBS, the broadcaster for this year’s NFL championship, had some difficulty selling the last few of more than 62 spots, according to CNN. t.

CNN reports that a 30-second spot sold for up to $3 million, and Anheuser-Busch is the top advertiser this year having purchased five minutes worth of ad time.

Several first-time advertisers are in the lineup, according to the LA Times, including Kia Motors America, Qualcomm’s Flo TV and KGB texting information service. In addition, the Christian group "Focus on the Family," will be displaying a controversial anti-abortion commercial featuring college football star Tim Tebow. In addition, CBS rejected a gay dating website advertisement for ManCrunch.com, reported the LA Times.

“This year we are going to call it the Controversy Bowl,” said Mike Sheldon, chief executive of the Los Angeles advertising firm Deutsch LA. “It used to be a championship football game, then it became an advertising showcase, and now the Super Bowl has turned into a microphone for special interests."

Last month, CBS said it was selling 62 spots, but spokesman Dana McClintock said that the number has grown and is now very close to last year’s 69 spots.

“We’re happy campers over here,” said Jo Ann Ross, the president of network sales at CBS. Ross also said that there are some spots still available during the pre-game broadcast.

Last year’s Super Bowl had a record 98.7 million viewers, according to Nielsen, and Kantar Media says ads during the 2009 game brought in $213 million.

This is a tricky topic, mostly because no one actually keeps New Year’s Resolutions. So really, what’s the point of dispensing my well-thought-out advice on the matter? Not sure I have a good answer to that question, but I’m going to give it my best shot anyway.

So the first thing to remember is to not even bother with making a resolution if you don’t think you will keep it. Because if you end up breaking your word, you’re just going to get all upset and your roommates will have to hear about it and blah blah blah. So only make a resolution if you sincerely want to and if you think there is a chance on earth you’re actually going to stick to it.

Here’s a nice one to start off with: relieve stress every day by "sharing" with your roommates. I say sharing, but really I just mean complaining. This will create a great bonding moment while also allowing your roommates to work on their problem solving skills. Good deal.

Turn off the lights in a room when you leave it. You probably already do this but you may not be aware of it. So all you have to do is realize that you are doing it and you are automatically keeping your resolution.

An old staple is about to come back to haunt you: stop smoking. I don’t want to make a judgment call here … but yeah, I’m going to anyway. Smoking is expensive and unhealthy. Oh yeah, sounds like a great habit to pick up. Don’t tell me it’s relaxing. You know what’s relaxing? A hot shower. A grimey, toxic, rolled up stick of pollutants is only one thing: a bad idea. So grab the gum, the patch, or go cold turkey. Doesn’t matter to me. If you are a nonsmoker, you will instantly smell better, taste better, have more money in your wallet, and have better lung capacity.

Stop being so addicted to Facebook. Yeah never mind, that’s not going to happen.

Be a better student. So this one might be a little personal, but I figure other students out there can certainly relate. Stop using Facebook as a procrastination tool, stop using meals as procrastination tools, stop using the gym as a procrastination tool, stop using … yeah you get it. Getting a paper done with more than 20 minutes to go before it’s due is a great feeling. I’d like to enjoy that feeling more often. Feel free to enjoy it with me.

Be more sophisticated. After all, we have to do something to set ourselves apart from the masses of undergrads in this city. So go for the fancy drink with the classier vodka. Leave the crappy cheap stuff for the annoying undergrads with the fake ID’s. You might not be able to tell the difference once it’s in the glass, but you’ll feel superior and really that’s all that matters. I say it’s worth the investment.

Be nicer to your parents. I mean, they let you bring your laundry home. And eat their food. And they buy you groceries. And let you complain to them when you have too much homework, real work or problems with your apartment. So yeah, be nicer to your parents.

Smile more. I’ve decided people in Boston don’t smile enough. It makes me sad and I don’t want to be sad. So let’s just all smile, k? Sure, you might think everyone is stoned for a bit. But just make Sober Sally stand next to Stoner Steve for a quick second and the difference will be fairly obvious.

Tip better. Yeah, that includes even the damn unpleasant waitresses. I mean, maybe she’s just pissy because her last customer stiffed her. So make her day and round up. And yes, that’s after tax.

Pick one bad habit to break. I figure I’m being generous by only suggesting one. Stop picking your nose, your ears, your whatever. Help out my gag reflex and just stop.

Stop texting in class. Wow, I honestly couldn’t even type that with a straight face…

Stop buying useless things. Beer mugs from each of the Boston sports teams: fine. Beer mug from the Star Wars concert you secretly went to … not so much.

So I realize this is kind of a short list, but everyone is busy at this time of year so I figured I’d better keep this short and sweet. I wish everyone a great New Year’s and go come up with your own ideas for a change. Love ya.

REYKJAVIK — Iceland is quickly turning into Europe’s hottest spot for wonderment and geothermal activity. Not only is the country equipped with an emotional landscape full of volcanoes, hot springs, geysers, and caves, it also boasts a nightlife on the weekends fit enough for the most modern-day Viking party monsters.

Reykjavik, the capital, is where all the action takes place and it’s only a five hour flight on Icelandair from Boston. There are an array of lively bars and cafes located in the main shopping area on Laugavegur Street and on the roads off of it.

I stayed at the Hotel Fron on Laugavegur and I was less than a block from a handful of bars like Sirkus, Pravda, Oliver’s and Nelly’s Caf©, which is known for having the cheapest beer in Iceland. And believe me I took full advantage of the chance to save. Although the city has a great variety of tourist activities, the price you pay for food and alcohol is sinful.

Viking, a premium golden lager with a hint of malt, maize and hops, is the best selling beer in Iceland, with the draft version being the most popular in the pubs and restaurants. Its lightness and sweet taste caused me to drink so much I think I saw the ghost of Leif Ericson — and that was at 600 kronas ($8) a pint with 5.6 percent alcohol content.

Most locals counter the expensive beer prices by consuming a lot of alcohol at home before they go out. The bars and clubs are open until 5 a.m., so nobody heads out until midnight. Their pre-game drink of choice is Brennivn, a type of schnapps made from potatoes that is referred to as "Black Death." I took a shot of it and I found it to have a bitter taste of Drano with a hint of cardboard.

Going out to eat in Iceland, although expensive, is well worth it. The country has the freshest, untainted fish in the world. The swordfish I sampled at Vegamot was the best I have ever had and the mountain lamb at Caf© Victor was as tender as the hearts of the beautiful blonde-haired, blue-eyed women I had to break upon my departure back to Beantown.

Between my partying antics and affluent dining habits, I was able to take a few quick day trips with local touring company Reykjavik Excursions. The must-see destinations in Iceland are Blue Lagoon, a luxurious spa with geothermal seawater known for its positive effects on the skin, and The Golden Circle, a collection of historical sites that include The Kerith Volcano Crater, The Gullfoss Waterfall, the geysers of Geysir, and Thingvellir National Park.

With a population just under 300,000, Iceland is one of the least crowded countries in the world. It also has the longest life expectancy, no pollution, and the cleanest drinking water, which you can get right from the tap or even a stream.

For a truly unforgettable vacation you may add Greenland to your Iceland visit. After all, Greenland’s East Coast is only a two hour flight away.

And if all that doesn’t stir your fancy there’s always Bjork. You can pound liters of Viking beer and enjoy the clean air and eternal sunshine while you search for the little musical dwarf and beg her to let you wear her swan dress back to South Boston.

For more information check out the Iceland Tourist Board at www.whatson.is.

On October 29, the Stella Artois World Draught Master competition crowned a new winner in New York to epitomize the company’s never ending dedication and passion for superior beer.

Avril Maxwell of New Zealand won the competition, now in its 13th year, and will now embark on a journey to more than 20 different countries as a Stella Artois ambassador, guaranteeing that every chalice of Stella Artois is poured properly and served just right.

The competition included a jury panel to select individuals who could display true dedication and perfection in the “Passion Test”, and saw contestants from 26 countries, converging in New York to compete for the nine step pouring ritual.

Global Marketing Manager of Stella Artois, Alexander Lambrecht, said: “The World Draught Master competition is integral to our ongoing quest to deliver superior beer experiences the world over, ensuring that Stella Artois is served with the same care, consideration and craftsmanship as has gone into more than 600 years of brewing…we (also) wanted to create a global conversation about the Stella Artois World Draught Master competition by inviting people into the event via live streaming and providing an opportunity for them to decide on what competitor embodied perfection.”

Maxwell’s trophy was designed by New York fashion designer Tim Hamilton as part of a unique collaboration with Stella Artois. Hamilton also created a limited edition chalice glass in honor of the World Draught Master 2009 competition.

Runners up included Joe Oppedisano of Canada (2nd), who also won Online Fans’ Choice award, and Alexey Shtukarev of Russia (3rd).

ANDOVER — Stouts are usually associated with cold weather, sitting by a fire and drinking something that comforts you. It’s a turkey sandwich in a bottle, essentially — it’s got some weight to it. Andover resident, David Rosenbaum, won Samuel Adams’ second annual Patriot Homebrew Contest this year with his recipe.

Rosenbaum’s winning stout is being brewed by The Boston Beer Company and served at Gillette Stadium for Patriots season this year. The next contest is going on now, and the deadline is December 18. The winner also gets a little chunk of change: $2,000.

"The first two pre-season games were hot summer nights, and they sold out the first night. And the first home game, which was also a warm day, it sold out as well. So that’s very gratifying," said Rosenbaum, who holds Patriots season tickets. His stout is lighter than other stouts, but still holds all the depth of flavor that’s looked for. Sometimes when you drink a a beer, you’re tasting it for the next hour or so. Not the case with Rosenbaum’s, which adds to its popularity at the stadium.

Rosenbaum first became interested not so much in brewing, but in beers, when he studied in the UK during his time in college. He found he liked beers quite unlike the ones he could find in the United States, which were usually light and thin. He enjoyed a beer with a lot of flavor — multiple components coming together to form a more harmonious brew. "This was some time ago, but when I came back to the States, there weren’t a lot of imports so I just drank what I could find and was always looking for other interesting beers," he said.

A few years ago Rosenbaum received a homebrewing kit as a gift, and brewed his first batch. "My first batch wasn’t horrible," he says, "but it certainly wasn’t great either."

Looking for guidance, he joined Brew Free or Die, New Hampshire’s oldest homebrew club, and slowly learned what he had been doing wrong with his first attempts at brewing. A few parts of the process had been left out in the brewing kit directions he’d received. There’s a whole list of things of what to do, or not do, so that off-flavors aren’t introduced to a batch of beer. "For example, you have to boil a batch and then cool it. And if you stir your beer really vigorously to cool it down and break the surface tension then you introduce cardboard flavors into your beer," Rosenbaum explained. There are many rules like this in homebrewing, and each recipe has its own quirks.

It took him a few years of practice and four tries to get the batch right. Rosenbaum entered the third batch of his Oatmeal Stout into last year’s Patriot Homebrew Contest (which didn’t place), though he knew going into it that it wasn’t the beer he wanted it to be. "It tasted good but it was a little thin in the mouth," he said. "I had decided to add a kind of bourbon flavor to it by adding whiskey that had been soaked in oak chips. So the flavor was good but it was a little… " he makes a hand gesture to show ‘lacking,’ his palms turned upward to the ceiling.

It was his fourth batch that won. Rosenbaum’s winning brew is full-flavored and full-bodied. It’s rich without being indulgent, flavorful without being bitter. It’s malty and sugary at the same time, the deep black color of the brew paired nicely with a creamy head.

Currently, Rosenbaum is back in his kitchen, settling back into his brewing. His kitchen is more of a mad scientist’s laboratory. Cabinets open to expose large metal bins with grates in the bottom for percolation. Tubes are hooked up to faucets to let fermented brews flow out. He has two refrigerators, one for food, and one that holds three kegs of whatever brew he’s working on at the current moment. To challenge himself, he’s taking award-winning recipes as a base and tweaking them a bit here and there to create something totally new. "Even the smallest change can make quite a bit of difference," he says.

A few weeks ago, Rosenbaum had an English Best Bitter in a plastic bin cooling on his front steps, the keg sitting in a vat of ice water. Since it’s still the fall season and temperatures still vary daily, a mechanized thermometer maintains the temperature by activating a fan if the vat gets too warm. The Bitter is intended to be a beer to drink several glasses of over the course of an evening, while not having to worry about getting drunk.

Winning the Patriot Homebrew Contest added quite a lot of excitement to his life, but Rosenbaum’s ready to try out new recipes. "I think it’s a great thing (Samuel Adams) does for others. They show a lot of support for the homebrewing community," he said. "Their president, Jim Koch, started off as a homebrewer and created a whole company out of it. I don’t think he’s forgotten his roots, and it’s a great thing to see."

The Boston Beer Company, brewers of Samuel Adams, announced this week that it would put out a limited release of a new Samuel Adams Barrel Room Collection beers.

The collection includes three oak-aged beers that were brewed and aged here in Boston. These join the Samuel Adams Triple Bock and very limited Utopia collection of aged beers. The collection is available at the brewery on Germania Street in Boston as well as select retail locations in Massachusetts, Hew Hampshire, Maine and Denver at $9.99 for a 750ml bottle.

The new beers are called New World Tripel, a cherry flavored American Kriek and Stony Brook Red,

“(The beers) are a result of years of experimentation by the brewers at the Samuel Adams Boston Brewery,” the company said in a statement. “The trio of brews have been aged in Eastern European oak barrels, originally used to age brandy in Italy, imparting a subtle sweet, toasty note to each beer. The barrels also allow a small amount of oxygen to slowly seep in to the brew, smoothing out the flavors in the beer.”

“For years, we’ve been playing with barrels at the brewery, aging small batches of beer in our Barrel Room. Before now, these beers have only been available at beer festivals or to a few lucky visitors to our Boston Brewery,” said Jim Koch, Brewer and Founder. “Our Boston Brewery is where every Samuel Adams style of beer is dreamed up and nurtured. It has been our hub of innovation since I started brewing here in 1988; I like to think of it as the ultimate brewer’s workshop.”

For an optimum drinking experience, the brewers at Samuel Adams recommend serving each brew in a traditional Tulip-style beer glass.

Samuel Adams New World Tripel: Pale gold in color, this ale is big, flavorful and complex. A special Belgian yeast strain adds tropical fruit and spice notes to the crisp dry ale, while Saaz hops add a subtle herbal note. (~10% ABV)

Samuel Adams American Kriek: The intense black cherry character in this beer comes from Balaton cherries, which were discovered in Hungary and are now grown in Michigan. These special cherries are prized for their depth of flavor. The tartness from the cherries is balanced by a rich, malty character with toasted oak notes added from the barrel aging. (~7% ABV)

Samuel Adams Stony Brook Red: This unique brew defies traditional beer style definition. The rich, malty brew combines notes of tart fruit from the yeast with a toasty oak character from the barrel aging. The long dry finish is almost wine-like. This is a beer that is satisfying on its own and also pairs well with many foods such as braised or roasted meats, beef stews and strong salty cheeses. (~9% ABV)

There are the obvious things that will give you swine flu”"like getting sneezed on, for instance”"and then there are the painfully obvious things that will give you swine flu”"like playing beer pong.

We could probably file this under “Obvious Science” but officals at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in upstate Troy, NY have warned students that the sharing of cups during games of beer pong lead to the spread of disease, and especially of the spread of H1N1 this flu season. The same officials sent out a campus-wide email detailed a group of students who had all come down the virus after a weekend game.

Area schools are reporting many cases of the swine flu; RPI, a school of about 7,000 total students has reported 21 cases this semester so far.

(photo via)

Crown Imports, which brings us La Cerveza mas Fina, announced that Corona Extra and Corona Light will start shipping in 24-ounce can packages.

The move comes as single-serve beer sales reached $3.2 billion in the industry.

“Our consumer research indicates these consumers see Corona as a reward. Our 24-ounce cans offer a new trade-up option for drinkers looking for a premium beer experience,” said Jim Sabia, executive vice president of marketing for Crown.

The company is already rolling out the Corona Extra 24-oz can in 26 markets, including Massachusetts. Corona Light will follow in a few weeks.

Certainly riding the coattails of the massive success of Bud Light Lime, and the popularity of Coors’ Blue Moon, Anheuser-Busch is rolling out Bud Light Golden Wheat, an unfiltered wheat beer brewed with citrus and coriander.

Bud Light Golden Wheat hits store shelves nationwide today. We’ve tried it, we like it, and there will be more on that later.

“Bud Light has the unique ability to introduce wheat beers to a broader audience of beer drinkers” said Mike Sundet, senior director of Bud Light brands. “With the personality of Bud Light, Bud Light Golden Wheat appeals to light beer drinkers who seek a variety of flavor options from their beer.”

Busch recommends garnishing it with an orange or straight from the bottle.

“Bud Light Golden Wheat is not a craft beer, but captures the refreshment of the wheat beer style while remaining consistent with Bud Light’s product attributes that beer drinkers enjoy” Sundet said. “Our Innovations and brewing teams have worked for almost two years developing Bud Light Golden Wheat from consumer insight and perfecting it to Bud Light standards.”

So let us know. Have you tried it? Seen the commercials? What do you think of Bud Light Golden What?

The American beer industry posted its third consecutive year of increased sales, managing a 0.5 percent increase from the prior year.

According to the Beverage Information Group, light and low-carbohydrate beer helped boost sales, particularly the launch of Bud Light Lime last year.

“The growth of the distilled spirits and wine industries continues to take market share away from beer industry, albeit at a slower rate in 2008 than previously,” the group said Monday in a statement.

Bud Light Lime, first thought of as a seasonal beer, helped the light beer segment grow more than 2 percent

“Ice” beer also saw an increase, gaining 4 percent.

Imported beer sales have been down since the recession began, the group said.

Boston.com, citing an Associated Press story, is reporting that a Bridgeport, Pa. party turned deadly after one man shot and killed another man over an argument about a game of beer pong.

Authorities say Joseph Jimenez, 24, killed Scott Riley, 25, after they argued over the beer pong game Friday at a party in a suburb 15 miles outside Philadelphia.

The men took the argument outside, where authorities say Riley mocked Jimenez and taunted him into shooting him. Jimenez allegedly responded by pulling a .40-caliber and shooting Riley in the neck.

Let’s take a minute to discuss the ground rules of beer pong folks:

Number 1: A bounce counts as two cups. If you are an idiot and knock over your own cups defending the bounce, those cups are lost.

Second: Bitches blow. Nuff said.

3: No overthrow rule. That’s dumb.

Four: Re-rack at six, four, three, and two.

Fifth: If you and your partner sink the same cup at the same time, game over.

Now play nice, kids.

To this day, one of Blast’s most-read and commented on stories was our snap coverage of the news that Miller would release a 64 calorie beer.

Sunday, we learned that MGD 64 has exploded onto the bar scene nationwide, and it’s 64 calories are available in draft everywhere.

Of course, that’s taking MillerCoors at their word. Please leave us some comments if you see it — or don’t see it — at your local house of refreshment.

The drafting begins this week. MGD launched nationally in bottles and cans in August.

MGD 64 has only 2.4 grams of carbohydrates per serving.

It’s also 2.8 percent alcohol by volume.

Sam Adams is currently the most popular beer with a name based on a historical figure. With “Brew-rack Obama,” Duncan Remage-Healey and Brian Gravel are looking to change that.

There are plenty of people who brew their own beer, but far fewer of these industrious individuals attempt to use people’s love for the beverage to try to make a difference in their community. That is just what Remage-Healey and Gravel, the people behind Thunder Boomer, are attempting to do with their operation, though.

Remage-Healey and Gravel both work for Habitat for Humanity, and both are lovers of beer. They have combined these two elements into one idea, where the brewing and distribution of beer can be used to earn money for more socially oriented and charitable purposes. The brewery-which has no official base outside of the member’s homes-has not quite reached that stage yet, but they are working towards the goal.

Gravel is well aware of the hurdles in front of them, in trying to combine the sale of beer with charity, and they also would need to try to focus on creating a beer to establish themselves with rather than spending their time experimenting on creating new products. That has not stopped the flow of ideas on how to use their brewing skills to the advantage of the community. Gravel mentioned that they could use profits from beer sales to fund small-scale community projects, such as revamping a plot of land and turning it into a park to play in, or a dog park for your canine companions.

The money does not necessarily have to come from sales either; as Gravel mentioned, donations would suffice in lieu of paying for what is essentially a beer tab if Thunder Boomer ale was used to cater a party or gathering. As the operation has been done entirely out of the pockets of Gravel and Remage-Healey, this does not seem like too much to ask when there is a greater good involved.

This socially conscious line of thinking has taken strong hold of the northeastern United States as of late, with the influence of a market ready to accept those trends seen everywhere you look, from grocery choices such as Trader Joe’s to what Gravel and Remage-Healey hope their as of now small enterprise can develop into. With this region and the rest of the country more and more aware of how their actions influence the environment around them, and how even doing the little things can make a significant difference, the time is right for Thunder Boomer to try its hand at a market that clearly exists-beer drinkers who also double as socially conscious individuals.

If you have purchased alcohol lately, or even if you have just walked by the windows or your local distributor, you know what kind of money is involved in the business. Now, if that money could somehow be injected into the community, not only would you improve your surroundings, but you would be doing your part to help simply by cracking open a cold one, and that’s a good feeling to have-one Thunder Boomer hopes to capitalize on in the future.

The pair has developed a beer in time for election season as well, and they have named it for their candidate of choice, Barack Obama. The double IPA was dubbed “Brew-Rack Obama”, a nod to the Democratic Convention’s nominee-he was anointed thus the night Thunder Boomer brewed and bottled the brew. Whether the bottles will be opened in celebration or in mourning will be seen this coming Tuesday evening, when the winner of the general election is announced and the next President known.

Keeping the name Brew-Rack Obama could pose a problem eventually with licensing, but for now, it’s a tribute put together by a pair who hold both their love of beer and charity dear to them-the hope is that there are enough people out there with the same mindset that can help these Habitat employees make a difference in a community they care about.

Beer has long been a part of American politics, and today is no different, from “who would you rather have a beer with”, to brewers crafting recipes named after candidates.

From the early days of George Washington’s home-brewed ales and James Madison’s attempts at creating a national brewery, patriots and early American leaders relied on beer for nutrition and inspiration.

In more recent history, Jimmy Carter’s brother, Billy, promoted his own brand of brew, Billy Beer, shortly after the Georgian peanut farmer was elected. During the last presidential election in 2004, polls found that Americans would rather have had a beer with George W. Bush than John Kerry.

Throughout the country’s existence, the humble hopped beverage has lubricated the wheels of democracy by sparking debate or resolving conflicts. And the beverage has come up in some pretty interesting ways this year on the campaign trail.

Senator John McCain faced criticism after the Associated Press highlighted the candidate’s extensive fundraising connections to Anheuser-Busch through his wife’s fortune and high-powered position in Hensley and Co., the nation’s third-largest A-B distributor. Although McCain’s financial connections to the brewing giant may be close, don’t expect the White House to replace the stemware with Pilsner glasses. McCain’s campaign manager Jill Hazelbaker told the Associated Press that he “very rarely, if ever, drinks alcohol.”

But who could forget Governor Sarah Palin’s now infamous appeals to “Joe Six-Pack”?

In August, Democratic candidate Barack Obama’s taste for beer was challenged during an interview on CBS’ 60 Minutes. During a discussion of his campaign’s attempts to court blue-collar voters, Steve Kroft, the interviewer, remarked to Obama, “You tried really hard to reach these people. You went and sipped beer, which I know you don’t particularly like.” Obama promptly told the reporter that he had a beer the previous night and then said, “Where does the story come from that…I don’t like beer? …C’mon, man.”

Though politicians may use beer as an image to appeal to the common person, some breweries and drinking establishments have long abided by the folk ethos of not combining politics and alcohol, while others embrace the mix. With the heightened energy of the upcoming election, many brewers and barkeeps around the country are getting into the spirit of the election season.

“What better way is there to celebrate the diversity of ideas and thoughts that come out every four years during our election process with something that goes way back to our founding fathers, that’s beer and ale,” said Wayne Mayer, director of marketing for the Half Moon Bay Brewing Company.

The northern California based brewery’s ALECTION lets customers “vote” for a candidate by buying either the “Obama Ale,” or the “McCain 2008,” re-labeled versions of their English-style light ale. Each week the results are tallied on the brewery’s website.

While encouraging their drinkers to show their preference for the candidates, the style of the beers themselves is the same.

“We did that for political reasons so no one could say that we were trying to favor one over the other,” explained Mayer.

Currently the Democratic candidate is in the lead “by quite a bit,” according to the brewery. When Blast contacted Half Moon Bay in mid-October, Obama had 4,991 bottles over McCain’s 1,274.

“We’ve seen a huge jump in our incremental beer sales” said Meyer.

Unlike the real upcoming vote this November, Mayer jested, “This is the only election where you can vote early, often, and legally.”

Magic Hat Brewing Company, based in South Burlington, Vt., released a politically themed Participation variety 12 pack, containing a few of their normal offerings and a special pre-prohibition style “Participation Lager.”

“Beyond the political packaging and beyond the beer itself, which is also politically themed, we actually as a sales team go into our bar promotions and register voters,” said Krissy Leonard, spokeswoman for Magic Hat.

Magic Hat partnered with HeadCount, a non-partisan, not-for-profit organization to register people to vote. On the night before the election, the brewery is sponsoring a concert at the Highline Ballroom in New York City to benefit HeadCount featuring Robert Randolph, Joss Stone, and other artists.

Winter variety packs are now being shipped but there should be more of the politically-themed 12-packs in stores until Election Day, Leonard said.

Below the Mason Dixon line, the Flying Saucer Draught Emporium, a chain of beer bars, is conducting another presidential poll. Patrons at the bars can buy a pint glass for $5 bearing either Obama or McCain’s face drawn as a cartoon, which is counted as one vote.

With 13 locations in Texas, Arkansas, North Carolina, and other traditionally red states, some might find the current standings a bit surprising. Obama’s 11,420 bottles leads McCain’s 9,220 as of Oct. 28, according to the company’s website.

Fort Worth, Texas and Cordova, Tenn. are the Flying Saucer’s only locations where McCain is holding a lead.

In New York, one of the strongest Democratic support bases, Sixpoint Craft Ales located in Brooklyn created the “Hop Obama” in honor of the democratic candidate’s grassroots campaigning style.

“We were tossing it around as far back as late September last fall,” said Jeff Gorlechen, one of founding members of Sixpoint. “Then his campaign started steam rolling. At the time it was all word of mouth, and we identified with that.”

After Obama won the first few primaries, Gorlechen and the other four workers at the brewery decided to brew the ale.

While the brewers may admire the candidate, Sixpoint stopped short of fully endorsing him, as their label points out: “Although we do not intend this beer to be a direct Sixpoint endorsement of Obama, we do believe the delicious and refreshing quality it represents reminds us of the Senator’s successful grassroots campaign.”

There are “many parallels” between the rise of craft and micro brews and Obama’s style of campaigning, he said.

“There was no marketing, no advertising dollars behind it. It’s hard not to admire him,” explained Gorlechen. “In the last five years the craft market segments exploded. It kind of caught the major breweries off guard. I think [Obama] did the same thing when he won Iowa.”

Available on draft in N.Y. and Mass., Gorlechen described the Hop Obama as a hybrid ale “sort of like a British session ale, sort of like an amber, sort of an ESB [Extra Special Bitter]” that uses Scottish, English, and German malts and three different hops from the Pacific Northwest. Also, a part of the profits go to Get Out The Vote, an organization that registers voters.

Of the seven ales produced by Sixpoint, it is currently their second best seller and the brewery sold its stock of the beer faster than any other single batch released for the first time.

Although one of Sixpoint’s best selling products, some bar managers have refused to serve their beer because it is mixing beer and politics, he said.

The “Ale to the Chief” by Colorado’s Avery Brewing Co. has hit shelves in the 32 states. “Instead of an Imperial Pale Ale we’re calling it a “ËœPresidential Pale Ale’ because it’s a democracy here, it’s not an imperialistic nation,” mused Matt Throll, beer manager for Avery.

This past spring, Adam Avery, the owner of the brewery, returned from a road trip with the idea of creating a politically themed beer.

Overall, the reaction to the “Ale to the Chief” has been positive, the Brewery said.

“We’ve only had one person call up and complain to say “Ëœleave politics out of beer,’” Throll said. “We had to tell them that beer has been a part of politics a long time, that’s just the way it is. We weren’t setting out to offend anybody, but of course that’s going to happen.”

“It was not necessarily pro any of the candidates but pro change,” said Throll

Avery’s brewmasters have another batch of “Ale to the Chief” underway for Inauguration Day.

In the Midwest, the St. Louis Brewery Inc., producer of the microbrew Schlafly, is selling posters and T-shirts with altered versions of their labels featuring the candidate’s images.

“I changed our Hefeweisen to‚  “ËœHefe-Biden,’ our Oktoberfest became “ËœBaracktoberfest,’ and our actual flagship pale ale became “ËœPalin Ale,’” explained Troika Brodsky. graphic designer for Schlafly Beer.

Two days before the Vice Presidential debate at Washington University in St. Louis, Brodsky learned that a church group would be screening the debate at Schlafly’s downtown brewery and restaurant.‚  To celebrate the debate, Brodsky made four custom tap handles and posters featuring altered “Ëœpolitical versions’ of the brewery’s labels.

Although the other candidates’ names were easy to juxtapose with the labels, Brodsky said creating one for McCain was difficult. He settled on “ËœMcCain’s Maverick’ American Pale Ale.

“Its basically just parody,” he said. “They were a big hit, actually.”

Even though the church group holding the screening was “more conservative-leaning,” Brodsky said, “Still, the Baracktoberfest and the Hefe-Biden taps sold far more.”

Schlafly is now selling a limited number of Baracktoberfest and Palin Ale T-shirts on its website.

Beyond the tension and mudslinging of the election, it’s all in good fun, he said.

“The point of this is that everyone’s really exited about the election around here. We want to encourage that energy, encourage people to vote,” said Brodsky.

This is a new one for us, but season beer is all the rage, and we’re giving it a try.

Plus we just love saying the name!

Leinenkugel’s Oktoberfest Lager is a distinct fall brand, brewed with three malts: Munich, caramel and a blend of two-row Pale malts.

We found the beer to be a great fall BBQ drink. It doesn’t remind you too much of the cold weather by filling and warming your stomach like some other season beers, but it’s definitely not the fruit-infused summer beers we’ve come to know and love. It’s Indian summer, early autumn, New England foliage (though they’re a Wisconsin company) beer.

Pair it with an everything hot dog and some cheese-flavored chips and pretzels.

Leinenkugel’s Oktoberfest is available in 6-pack bottles at supermarkets and liquor stores nationally and on draft at some bars and restaurant (we didn’t see any in Boston).

Six-packs retail at $7.99. Leinenkugel’s is currently available in 48 states. Oktoberfest is 5.1 percent alcohol by volume.

Here’s a little treat that definitely will fill your stomach:

Leinenkugel’s Oktoberfest-Infused Brew Brats

1 dozen brats
1 dozen brat buns
Leinenkugel’s Oktoberfest, to cover
1 medium large sweet onion, sliced
1 green pepper, sliced
1 yellow pepper, sliced
1 red pepper, sliced
2 ounces butter

Place brats in a Dutch oven with sliced onions, peppers and butter, cover the brats with Leinenkugel’s Oktoberfest. Bring to a boil and reduce to simmer until brats are cooked. Remove brats and set aside remaining beer mixture. Grill brats until golden brown and return to beer mixture until ready to serve. Serve brats on fresh brat buns with your favorite toppings (sauerkraut, onions, peppers, ketchup, mustard).

Well … that’s … different.

The Ball Corporation is supplying their new 16-oz. Alumi-Tek aluminum bottles to Miller Brewing Company for Miller Lite.‚ 

It looks odd, but the resealable bottles have a wide-mouth opening, the company says they are quick to chill and are 100 percent recyclable.

“The great taste of Miller Lite gets even better when it’s enjoyed from our new aluminum pint,” said Grant Leech, vice president of marketing for Miller Lite. ‚ ”This package drinks like a bottle and cools like a can to deliver an invigorating taste experience.”

The Miller Lite aluminum pint will be tested throughout much of the Midwest and South through the end of the year. ‚ Test markets for the Miller Lite aluminum pint are Alabama, Arkansas, Dallas, Florida, Houston, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Louisiana, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Virginia and Wisconsin.

The Miller Lite aluminum pint is intended for off-premise retailers, with a focus on convenience stores. ‚ The package will be sold as part of a nine-pack.

This is all in an effort to show off these new bottles, which the company hopes will have applications with soda, juice, energy drinks (definitely a good bet) and other alcoholic beverages.

You probably do not need much motivation to … read … this article

St. Pauli Girl beer teamed with Maxim (we still say we’re better) to profile four finalists in their spokesmodel competition.

“This marks the first time in the 31-year history of the St. Pauli Girl spokesmodel that the beer has opened the selection process to the public and will let fans actually select the St. Pauli Girl,” the brewer said in a statement this week. “Voting will run through November 10, 2008 and the new St. Pauli Girl spokesmodel will be announced in January 2009.”

What are the qualifications? This year’s girl, Irina Voronina is 5’10″, super blonde, blue eyes and measures 35-25-36.

Tara Rice of Valencia, CA. Rice, a former Miss Teen California All American, is an actress and model who has appeared in magazines such as Maxim and films including “Austin Powers in Goldmember.”

Brooke Long of Chino Hills, CA. A model on the hit show “Deal or No Deal,” Long has appeared in films including “The Comebacks,” “Orange County,” “Gigli” and “Little Nikki,” on TV on “Entourage” and “Jimmy Kimmel Live” and in, FHM, Muscle and Fitness, Teen and ESPN Magazine.

Katrina Van Derham of Slovakia. An actress and model with an international flair, Van Derham has an extensive portfolio that includes appearances in Vogue, Marie Claire, Muscle and Fitness and FHM as well as on TV in “CSI” and “Monk.”

Jessica Hall of Quartz Hill, CA. An actress and model, fans might recognize Hall as a model on NBC’s “Deal or No Deal.” She has also appeared on TV on “Two and a Half Men,” “Fear Factor” and as a host on MTV, Playboy TV, Fox Sports Net and the TV Guide Channel as well as in the Adam Sandler movie “Click.”

You can see more photos and videos of the girls here.

Since St. Pauli Girl is a European import brew (and because of the sexy accent) I was partial to Katarina. Who do you like?

A couple of beer buddies in Belgium have created (we presume) the first video game played by urinating.

Reuters reports that Werner Dupont, a software developer, and Bart Geraets, an engineer, were inspired to create a video game  while drinking Belgian trappist beers and (we presume) getting the urge to break the seal afterward.

The game, called “Place to Pee,” lets “players” “slalom” down “ski slopes” or “kill aliens” by hitting specific “targets” on urinals.

It’s meant to be played competitively on two urinals. Sensors placed on either side of the urinals catch the pee, and score you accordingly.

“This thing had to be invented by Belgian people and that’s what we are,” they said.

A special paper cone allows women to play too. We don’t know how that works. We don’t want to.

For beer companies that make their money through mass distribution and high volume sales, history shows us that whenever one brewer introduces something new, the others follow.

Right now, it’s lime.

The Miller Brewing Company introduced Miller Chill in June 2007. The beer has done incredibly well — sales are about to surpass first-year expectations. According to Bloomberg Media, more than 325,000 barrels were sold in the first three months, allowing it to capture one percent of the US beer market-tremendous growth for an introductory product.

Anheuser-Busch just released Bud Light Lime. They intend to drive purchases amidst a struggling economy and stagnant beer sales. Just in time for summer barbecues, Anheuser-Busch is backing Bud Light Lime with a $35 million advertising campaign, MSNBC reports.

So how should beer companies react? Here are my recommendations for several well-known brands.

Bud Light Lime: You hopefully did the research and found that people like lime. Use your leverage as a mass-distributor to get your product to where people buy beer. Then advertise your lime beverage like crazy to get people to try it. A $35 million budget is a nice start. Drive sales up to make the investment worth it and then get out before sales tank.

Miller Chill: With another mass-market competitor entering, your brand will feel the pressure. So you have to make a decision. Do you pull out of the market, take your profit, and let Bud take the share? Or do you increase advertising and take on this new summer refreshment head to head? Not an easy call. I feel that you cannot just let Bud Light have the percent share of the market you worked hard to earn. You have done well this past year and with a little creative advertising, you should go challenge your largest competitor.

Coors Light: Stay out of the “lime craze.” You cannot win. First, you are too late to enter. You cannot compete after both Miller Lite and Bud Light have entered the arena. Second, you pride yourselves on “Rocky Mountain ice cold refreshment.” When people think about limes and beer, the most common association is Corona, which is a Mexican beer. The Rocky Mountain cold does not equate well with warm, Gulf coast beaches. A Coors Lime dilutes your unique positioning proposition.

Corona: Keep doing what you are doing, maybe step up advertising a little bit, but you are the import that owns limes. Lime plus beer equals Corona. What started as a seasonal beer is now the largest import beer in the United States. These other beers will fade and you will remain on top. Keep up the good work.

Guinness: Have no fear Guinness drinkers-your beer will not be changed. If there is one thing that will unite the Protestants and Catholics of Northern Ireland, it is a mutual agreement that fruit does not belong in thick, Irish beer. Your brew will remain unchanged.

Anheuser Busch squeezes Bud Light Lime onto package store shelves nationwide on Tuesday.

We got our hands on some.

Skepticism reigned when I passed the twist-off bottles around the table at the weekly poker game, with looks of “what’s this stuff?”

Surprise followed.

“This is pretty good!” “Wow … not what I was expecting.” “Not bad.”

Even MadeHandPoker.com‘s Mark Scalia took a break from his usual steady stream of Twisted Tea.

Bud Light Lime is a crisp, summery brew. It’s light and easy to drink like traditional Bud Light but subtly fruity and very tasty, unlike traditional light American beers.

It’s a corny notion, but the beer makes me feel like flipping a burger on the grill or roasting some corn on the cob the way a bucket of Corona’s or a tall glass of Sam Summer does. Bud Light Lime could turn itself into a successful picnic beer during the coming warm weather months.

The beer is a pleasant surprise and looks like it represents a growing trend among national brands to capture the kitsch of craft beer and popular micro-breweries. With the amazing popularity of Samuel Adams’ seasonal brew, Busch recently introduced its own collection of winter, spring, summer, and fall flavors.

If there’s one thing that’s almost as good as drinking beer, it’s eating food cooked with it. Here are my favorites.

Beer Chicken

Ingredients:

• One whole frying chicken
• 12 oz. can of beer
• Garlic powder, chili powder, pepper, white pepper

Mix the peppers and garlic and chili powders in a bowl. Rub seasoning mixture into the entire outside of the chicken.

Now the third best part: crack open a can of beer, any kind really, although I do encourage you to try all different types. Do something with half of the beer in the can. If using a pan, you can pour it in bottom-or just drink it.

Now the second best part: stick the half-full can (we’re optimistic because this is a proven good recipe) up the chicken. There are two possible orifices in the chicken-stick the can where you think it belongs.

Oven: stand the chicken upright on the can in a pan (possibly with leftover beer in it) and place in an oven. Roast at 425 for 45 minutes to an hour (depending on the size of the chicken). Lower the temperature to 350 to cook the rest of the way (again, depending on the size of the chicken). When the juices run clear, it is finished. Consult the package of your chicken for proper cooking times.

Finally the best part: carve and eat the chicken and remove the can if you wish. The evaporated beer will make the chicken extra-moist and delicious. Salt and pepper to taste.

Beer Hot Dogs

Already a match, the powers of these two favorites can be combined into this super dish.

Ingredients:

• 12 oz. can or bottle of beer (again, feel free to experiment)
• 1/2 bottle of ketchup
• 3-6 tablespoons of brown sugar
• White onion
• One (12-16 oz.) package of hot dogs
• Worcestershire sauce

Pour beer into a pot (don’t drink any this time) and bring to a boil. Cut hot dogs into small, bite-size pieces. Cut up the onion. Add three tablespoons brown sugar and onion to beer-dogs. Pour in a cup of ketchup and mix. Reduce heat to low and cover. Periodically stir. After 20 minutes, assess the beer-dog situation. The sauce should be thick and pasty; adjust ketchup and brown sugar content accordingly and also for taste. Simmer for 20 more minutes. Take off the heat and let sit, covered, for 10 more minutes. Serve in grinder rolls or any other way.

UPDATE: In response to reader questions, Miller 64 is 2.8 percent alcohol by volume, according to a spokesman for Miller Brewing Company.

Miller Brewing Company is rolling out its 64-calorie Miller Genuine Draft, “MGD 64,” which is a reformulation of the original MGD Light, and they are touting it as the lowest calorie beer on the market.

“MGD 64 is a sensible choice for consumers working hard to keep up with the pace of their life,” said Grant Leech, marketing director for the Miller Genuine Draft brand. “Whether they are out with a group of friends or taking a break at the end of the day, MGD 64 provides all of the great beer aroma and flavor consumers want but with about 35 percent fewer calories than the typical light beer.”The beer is being launched in a limited roll-out in the Midwest and some West Coast areas. Miller is saying they will also market MGD 64 to active places like health clubs and spas — pushing MGD 64 on the healthy beer drinker.

MGD 64 has 2.4 grams of carbohydrates per 12 ounce serving, which is just a bit less than Michelob Ultra’s 2.6 grams.

Miller offers the following comparisons:

• A 6 ounce glass of red wine contains 128 calories — twice the amount in MGD 64
• A 6 ounce gin and tonic contains 172 calories — almost three times as many calories as MGD 64
• A 6.5 ounce margarita contains 246 calories — nearly four times the calories of one MGD 64

“The math is pretty simple,” Leech said. “Differences such as those between MGD 64 and competitive light beers and other alcohol beverages add up pretty quickly. For consumers who want great beer refreshment that doesn’t slow you down, MGD 64 is the clear choice.”

According to Miller, MGD 64 was initially launched last summer in Madison, Wis. People liked it there, and they’re expanding it. But we’re not seeing it on the East Coast just yet

It’s Friday afternoon. It’s been a long week. Here’s one of those email forwards that was too hilarious to ignore.

After going through a virus attack,

losing a hard drive,

fighting off hackers,

upgrading all my software,

installing fire-walls,

being threatened with being cut-off by my email provider,

and a host of other problems…

I have fixed my computer…

and NOW it works exactly the way I want it to!

Dutch-American Heritage Day is fast approaching (Nov. 16), so whether you’re Dutch or American, pop open an ice cold Grolsch and toast to the year 1776 when the Netherlands became the first country to officially salute the newly-independent United States.

In that year on Nov. 16, the governor of St. Eustatius — a Dutch island in the West Indies — ordered his fort’s cannons to pay tribute to an arriving American warship, the Andrew Doria. This risky and courageous act solidified the two countries’ friendship in history. Only months before, the United States had declared independence from Great Britain.

The Dutch salute was the first friendly act upon the new American nation from a foreign power. The British, angry at the Dutch for trading with the colonies, seized the island a few years later. The Dutch recaptured St. Eustatius in 1784.

So join the 8 million Dutch-Americans and celebrate the contributions you and your ancestors have made to the United States — beginning with the “first salute” in 1776 and continuing each day as the United States and the Netherlands work together to bring peace and freedom to the world.

If you need another excuse to drink, April 19th is Dutch-American Friendship Day. That’s when President John Adams, establishsied the first American Embassay at Fluwelen Burgwal 18 in The Hague.

I had a chance to sample Jack’s Pumpkin Space Ale this week. It’s a mainstream fall ale put out by Anheuser-Busch, and before you say “ew, I bet it tastes like Busch Light,” keep in mind that even Blue Moon is brewed by Coors.

“For adults who’ve never tried a pumpkin beer before, we’d encourage them to experiment with Jack’s,” said Florian Kuplent, brewmaster, Anheuser-Busch, in a statement. “Because the pumpkin and spice flavors are so well-balanced and subtle, Jack’s doesn’t overpower foods and makes for an ideal culinary experience.”

There are two fall beers I tend to order once the summer brews run dry. First and foremost, there’s Samuel Adams Octoberfest, the fall seasonal brew from the Boston Beer Company. It’s amazing, second among their seasonal beer only to Summer Ale, which takes the cake. Next, there’s Blue Moon Pumpkin Ale, which tastes a lot like Jack’s Pumpkin Spice. I’m ordinarily a steady Blue Moon drinker, but I’m not sold on their seasonal varieties. They’re fun to drink for a change, and I’ll buy a case out of drinking habit, but Blue Moon Pumpkin Ale tastes a little strong, and it’s just not as good as regular old Blue Moon.

That brings us to Jack’s. It’s very similar to Blue Moon Pumpkin Spice, but the flavor isn’t as overpowering. It’s very clean tasting for an ale, but goes down with a bit of a bite to remind you that you are drinking a beer after all.

Pumpkin beer is just something you have to try. It fits the season very well. It’s a beer that’s meant to accompany food, and Jack’s 5.5 percent alcohol by volume isn’t nearly as much alcohol as a white or wheat ale, some of which can potentially double that.

“Year after year this is one of our favorite beers to brew,” said Kuplent. “We hope beer drinkers who enjoy trying new flavors will sample this seasonal ale.”

Jack’s Pumpkin Spice Ale is available on drought and bottle. Other Busch seasonal beers include Winter’s Bourbon Cask Ale, Spring Heat Spiced Wheat and Beach Bum Blonde Ale.

Jack’s is brewed with two-row, caramel and carapils barley malts, a blend of imported and domestic Hallertau hops and domestic Saaz hops, according to a Busch statement. It is meant to be poured in a tall, fluted glass for full taste, “allowing its rich aromas to funnel straight to the nose” — if you’re into that sorta thing.