Brews, Etc.

Boxed wine rebrands itself

Filed under: Brews, Etc.

Ten years ago, you may have been mortified to see your family members toting their own boxes of Franzia blush to wedding receptions so they wouldn't have to buy drinks at the cash bar. These days, they can probably get away with it by telling people they're being conscientious of their carbon footprint.

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Posted by Rachel Hutton at August 18, 2008 10:04 AM | Comments (1)

 

So much handcrafted local vodka...

Filed under: Brews, Etc.

Few American vodka producers actually do their own distilling, instead buying neutral grain spirits from large agricultural processors. But one of the few DIY-distillers is a newcomer, 45th Parallel Spirits, located just east of the Twin CIties in New Richmond, Wisconsin.

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Posted by Rachel Hutton at August 12, 2008 4:00 PM | Comments (4)

 

Summit Beer Movie Contest Winners Hit the Web

Filed under: Brews, Etc.

The winners (and a number of runners up and honorable mentions) from the first annual Summit Beer Movie content are now up and available on the Web at The Social Element. (After claiming to be 21 years old, click the Movies hexagon.)

User-generated content has a tendency to be schlocky at best, but there's clearly something about beer that brings out the legitimately creative side of people. The first place winner, No Guts, No Glory, was well-paced, beautifully shot, well acted, nicely costumed — it felt like a real film, with a few moments that wouldn't be out of place in a Wes Anderson short from a visual and comic timing perspective.

The second- and third-place winners also merit viewing (The Bachelor Chef, in particular), but my personal favorite is "Beer Fight," a bloody melee that puts bad special effects to hilarious use.

Posted by James Norton at July 14, 2008 1:19 AM | Comments (0)

 

Free Beer Friday: MGD Light and Samuel Adams

Filed under: Brews, Etc. , Brews, Etc.

After surviving the trauma that was last week's Thunderbird tasting (the bottle is still in my office, half full), we decided to take a break from the candy–colored flasks that are found in what I like to refer to as "the aisle of shame" section of the liquor store. We decided to sample three beers that had been recently sent to my office: Miller Genuine Draft, Sam Adams Blackberry Witbier, and Sam Adams Coffee Stout.

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Posted by Jessica Armbruster at July 4, 2008 4:06 PM | Comments (1)

 

Taste of Summer: Sprecher Root Beer

Filed under: Brews, Etc.

Kudos to Sprecher Brewing, of Glendale WI (just north of Milwaukee), whose root beer took top honors in a tasting panel conducted by several New York Times food writers.

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Posted by Rachel Hutton at June 25, 2008 11:46 PM | Comments (0)

 

The (Overlooked) Beers of Summer: Mothership Wit and St. Bernardus Witbier

Filed under: Brews, Etc.

Despite growing up in Wisconsin, one of the nation's undisputed brewing epicenters, I didn't learn to love beer until a visit to Boston near the end of my undergraduate years. Through a series of trivial circumstances, I wound up at an MIT house party designed as a tour of some of New England's best craft brews.

My palate softened up by the previous week's worth of drinking Point that I'd consumed for lack of any better pizza-aiding beverage, I was perfectly poised to jump from "beer tolerator" to "beer lover." The beer in question was Allagash White, a Maine interpretation of a Belgian wheat ale. Cloudy and spicy, the stuff blew my mind grapes. It was as though a switch had been flipped. "I like beer now," I remember telling someone. It just happened.

It's a major point in favor of Mothership Wit, the organic wheat beer manufactured by Colorado's New Belgium Brewing, that it takes me right back to that house party. The corriander and orange peel flavors practically bust out of the bottle.

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Posted by James Norton at June 19, 2008 1:46 AM | Comments (0)

 

The (Overlooked) Beers of Summer: Czechvar

Filed under: Brews, Etc.

A productive interview with Jason Alvey (proprietor of The Four Firkins in St. Louis Park) has led to the creation of a running feature here on the TC Eater: Profiles of lesser-known but extremely crisp and delicious summer beers.

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Posted by James Norton at June 12, 2008 12:08 AM | Comments (1)

 

Attention All Beer Loving Film Folk

Filed under: Brews, Etc.

The deadline for the first ever Summit Beer Movie Contest has been extended to June 3rd. The relevant bits of data?

1. The contest is clearly being under-entered, and is therefore ripe for the winnin'.

2. That, in turn, is good news because prizes are as follows:

First place: $1000 cash, 12 cases of beer, and a private party at the
brewery

Second place: $500 cash, 6 cases of beer, and $50 in Summit merchandise

Third place: $250 cash, 3 cases of beer, and $25 in Summit merchandise

3. Even the losing entrants get invited to the screening party.

All that Summit asks is a short film, five minutes or less, that features a Summit beer product placement. More details can be found right here.

Posted by James Norton at May 26, 2008 11:39 PM | Comments (1)