2012 Blog Stats

This is a thing WordPress does automatically. Thought I’d share since I didn’t actually have to provide content!

Have a safe and Happy New Year!

The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2012 annual report for this blog.

Here’s an excerpt:

600 people reached the top of Mt. Everest in 2012. This blog got about 5,600 views in 2012. If every person who reached the top of Mt. Everest viewed this blog, it would have taken 9 years to get that many views.

Click here to see the complete report.

Vintage Holiday Beer Ads

We’re still getting a lot of hits off of last year’s Vintage Santa Beer Ads, so to continue the tradition, we found some more Vintage Ads to poke fun at.

Schlitz 1959

V1rgil

The power of suggestion at it’s finest. Drink Schlitz and that’s all you need to live the good life. Love the Winterscape in the background, but I’m wondering why the beer’s just for him?

Fiddler

Nothing like double fisting beer for the holidays, but why bother with a glass?

Miller High Life 1947

V1rgil:

Great rendering of Winter, complete with an open sleigh and…two horses?

Fiddler:

Boy oh boy,  do I ever wish I lived on a beer farm.

Carling Black Label Date Unknown

V1rgil:

This guy is just way too happy to be getting tanked for the holidays. He’s like your creepy uncle Fred who passes out just before the Turkey’s ready.

Fiddler:

Agreed this guy is extremely happy even though he is carrying Black Label.

Budweiser c1950

V1rgil:

Really Budweiser? Nothing like it? At least in this one the wife’s allowed to have a beer too.  AFTER she made sandwiches of course.

Guinness Date Unknown

V1rgil:

Little known fact, George RR Martin looks to vintage beer ads for his slogans. This is like a wartime ad. Except when did Australia go to war? I mean aside from the great kangaroo war of 1910 of course.

Guinness Date Unknown

V1rgil:

Yes! This poster is fantastic. It’s beer advertising for the Disney crowd. Nothing says Christmas like psychedelic voyages and under-age drinking. Also I want that pelican as a pet.

Molson 1926

V1rgil:

Simple, boring and in French. Banking on name brand recognition and an almost complete lack of competiion. Your move Labatt Bleu.

Happy holidays! Thanks for reading!

FastRack!

Recently we were contacted by makers of the FastRack bottle system, asking if we would help spread the word of their product..

So here we go:

We think this product looks amazing and would be useful for any restaurant or bar owner, home brewer, or avid entertainer. It’s definitely on our Christmas Wishlist! Check out the video below.

8-Bit Beerblog Guide to Reviewing Beer

At 8-Bit Beerblog, we recognize that brewing good beer does not happen by accident. Craft beer is born from the marriage of technical process and flavour art. We want to support the craft beer industry and its efforts, not tear it down or criticize. As such, when we review a beer we don’t use an arbitrary rating system based on a personal preference scale that is always changing.

Instead we give an open and honest appraisal of our experience at the time of drinking the brew. When we review a beer, we look at the following:

1. Packaging: It’s the first thing that we see in the store and it influences our purchasing decisions and perception of the brew.
   For reviewing, we look at originality and attractiveness.
2. Appearance: How does the brew look when poured? For reviewing, we look at colour, clarity, carbonation and head retention.
3. Aroma: Taste begins with the first scent.
   For reviewing, we smell for these attributes:
   • Malts: Descriptive terms—Caramel, bread, hay, cereal, chocolate, coffee, nuts, toast, roasty
   • Hops: Descriptive terms—Resin, floral, grass, spruce, citrus, herbs
   • Yeast/Bacteria: Descriptive terms—Doughy, barnyard, cheese, basement aromas, leather, earthy, leaves
   • Other: Descriptive terms—Alcohol, banana, bubble-gum, butterscotch, clove, cooked vegetables, cough drop, ginger, licorice, raisin, rotten eggs, soy sauce, skunky, smoke, vanilla, woody
4. Taste: What’s the first sip like?  Is it sweet, bitter or sour? Any flavour sensations across the tongue? What is the mouth-feel, aftertaste, and flavour after the beer warms?
   For reviewing we look for the presence of these flavours:
   • Acetaldehyde: Green apple-like aroma and flavour.
   • Alcoholic: The aroma, flavour, and warming effect of ethanol and higher alcohols (think vodka straight, no chaser).
   • Astringent: Lingering harshness.
   • Diacetyl: Butter, butterscotch, or toffee aroma and flavour. Sometimes perceived as slickness.
   • DMS (dimethyl sulfide): Sweet, cooked, or canned corn-like aroma and flavour.
   • Estery: Aroma and/or flavour of fruits or roses.
   • Grassy: Aroma and/or flavour of grass or leaves.
   • Light: Skunky flavour from exposure to UV.
   • Metallic: Tastes like tin, copper, or iron.
   • Musty: Stale or moldy aromas/flavours.
   • Oxidized: Stale, papery, or sherry-like aromas and flavours.
   • Phenolic: Spicy (clove, pepper, etc.), smoky, plastic or medicinal aroma/flavour.
   • Solvent: Aroma and flavours of higher alcohols. Similar to acetone or lacquer thinner.
   • Sour/acidic: Tartness in aroma and flavour.
   • Sulfur: Aroma of rotten eggs or burning matches.
   • Vegetal: Cooked, canned, or rotten vegetable aroma and flavour (cabbage, asparagus, etc.)
   • Yeasty: A bready or sulfur like aroma or flavour.
5. Uniqueness: How well does it represent the style? Does it follow a style? Does it inspire innovation by creating its own style?
6. Cost and availability: How much does it cost and where can it be found? Is it a fair price? Is it a limited release or a regular attraction?
7. Summary: Our final thoughts about the brew.
8. Achievement!: In keeping with our video game theme, we award achievements (often silly and nonsensical).

Home Brewed The Series (hopefully)

This is a fun pilot episode set around the comically rich community of home-brewing. I look forward to more in the series, if they can get the funding.

http://www.homebrewedseries.com/

Check This Out! May 20, 2012

Here’s what we thought was cool since the last edition:

Beer:

The Shopping List (aka New Releases):

2012 VCBW Collaboration Ale now available at

Driftwood Brewing Naughty Hildegard

Howe Sound Brewing Fourway Fruit Ale

Vancouver Island Brewing Flying Tanker White IPA

Support This (please)!

Exp Bar is the fusion of gaming culture and drinking (which is kind of what this blog is all about).

They have an Indiegogo campaign here. And on the facebook here.

 

Blogs:

We’d like to welcome Is That Beer Good to the ranks of beer blogging.

There’s a lot of good beer blogs out there and we need to update our links page.

Events:

Vancouver Craft Beer Week: May 18-26, kicks-off tonight (we wish we were there!)

Van Home Brewers Awards Monday May 21^st (we will be there!)

 

 

Games:

Diablo 3 came out this week. See you all in 6 months!

 

 

 

Comics:

 Avengers vs. X-men (again) looks very epic.

 

 

 

Random & Cool:

 B.C. Zombie Preparedness Week: Are you ready?

Game Of Thrones theme song played on floppy drives.