posted by admin on Jan 27
The 2008 MotoGP season just finished its first testing session and it’s going to be a great year! Monster has been big with the AMA Supercross series but it looks like they want to get in big leagues and get some MotoGP exposure! Redbull sponsors the Lagu Seca race and Indianapolis so it’s nice to see Monster get in on some of the action!
posted by admin on Jan 27
Salt Lake City television station ABC 4 is reporting that a group of Utah Republican state legislators is talking about proposing a bill that would make warm beer the law of the land.
The bill would make it illegal for grocery and convenience stores to sell cold beer. The lawmakers believe that selling beer warm would reduce consumption in the state and cut drinking and driving.
Lawmakers are apparently still studying the potential law. While they are at it, perhaps the Utah Legislature should outlaw the sale of frozen water. If people had to wait to make ice, chances are that there would be fewer coolers full of beer and a there might even be a reduction in the number of cocktails made in the state.
This proposal comes from the same state that confiscated a vanity license plate from one driver. The offending word on the plate? Merlot. Perhaps they can change the state moto on the plates to “Utah: The Warm Beer State.”
posted by admin on Jan 25
This time, every year, I get a bit of seasonal depression. It’s not your standard sunless, cold, winter depression… in fact, I love winter. No, this depression is best described as football-seasonal. We are now a week and a half away from the final face off, and I can’t help but get a bit teary-eyed, knowing that I’ll have to wait at least until July before succumbing again to the excitement that is my favorite professional sport.
posted by admin on Jan 25
Witness the blessed union of video games and beer: the Gamerator. As you can see, it looks like the result of an old Pac-Man arcade cabinet canoodling with a kegerator. Who knew they could make such beautiful music together?
News of this nifty contraption has been making the internet rounds for a little while. Although the eBay auction is closed, I felt compelled to 
posted by admin on Jan 25
New Hampshire is considering a 1 cent tax on beverage containers that would hit beer, soda, juice and water containers made of glass, plastic and metal.
The bill excludes milk, wine and spirits. Groceries are fighting the bill because they say it will hurt sales from out of state customers. Some stores count on visitors for up to 40 percent of their business.
The tax would hit brewers operating in the state. Smuttynose Brewing Co. and Portsmouth Brewery say the 1 cent tax would cost them $17,000, while Anheuser-Busch, which operates a brewery in Merrimack, says the tax will result in a $8 million hit for the brewery.
posted by admin on Jan 24
New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer has put forward a proposal to increase the tax rate on malt liquor from 16 cents a gallon to $2.54 a gallon. The problem is the bill could unintentionally impact other high gravity beers.
The proposal is part of an attempt to close a budget gap in New York and it is estimated it will raise $15 million, while targeting 40-ounce sales of malt liquor that take place primarily in urban neighborhoods. The bill says it targets “flavored malt beverages” with an alcohol content of 0.5 to 24 percent. Products like Colt 45, Olde English 800 and King Cobra typical have alcohol contents in the high 5 to low 7 percent level. State officials say these brews deserve a special tax because they are hybrids of beer and spirits. The reality is that you can find much more powerful brews in bars and retail shops across New York. Somehow the Spitzer administration has convinced itself that because the word liquor is in the name malt liquor that it deserves to be taxed more like liquor, never mind that there is no distilling in the manufacturing process.
The bill excludes, beer, lager beer, ale, porter, stout and other malt based beverages, carving out flavored malt beverages for special attention. It is unclear how the state would enforce the tax and if brewers could avoid the tax by simply changing the name of their brands. Anyone up for a King Cobra Barleywine? How about a Colt 45 Imperial Pilsner?
posted by admin on Jan 23
One show in BBC Six Music (a digital only station that I listen to all the time) has a fun little text message section where you describe what you did last night in 7 words. Amazing how inventive some people are and how much you can imply and impart in just seven words.
Can you see where this is heading?
posted by admin on Jan 22
If you’re traveling and looking for a good place to get a good beer or want to plan a pub crawl in a major city, “The Beer Mapping Project” can help you out. The website uses the google maps api to map out:
Brewery Maps
City Guides
International Beer Maps
Map Your Own Pub/Brewery Crawls
And if you don’t see your favorite brewery or beer bar, help out the project by submitting its location and a review.
There’s also a mobile version of the site. Just point your phone’s web browser to http://beermapping.com/m
View from above:
posted by admin on Jan 22
Restaurateurs, retailers and food and drink journalists in England got the chance to drink wine from about three dozen wineries from the Pacific Northwest earlier today and the tab was picked up by U.S. taxpayers.
Thanks to a federal grant of $200,000 made to the wine promotional agencies from Oregon and Washington, the vineyards set up a day of tastings and presentations in London. The goal was to open up new markets for pinot noirs from Oregon and rieslings from Washington.
The United Kingdom is a huge $20 billion wine market that few American vintners, mostly from California, have managed to crack. While most smaller domestic wineries sell much of their wine through tour centers and to retailers in limited geographies, a growing number of vineyards are looking to markets in both Europe and Asia as a way to build a strong demand for their brands. The quality of American wines, coupled with the weakness of the American dollar, makes many of these wines a bargain on the international market.
By joining forces and getting the government to underwrite the event, the Pacific Northwest wineries are better able to get the attention of the London wine community. It will be interesting to see if exports from the two states increase during the next few years.
