KegWorks Blog

Yep, you read that correctly, today is Hot Buttered Rum Day friends! Every year on January 17th the world celebrates this delicious and cozy cocktail that has brought joy to so many throughout the years. How fitting that Hot Buttered Rum Day falls in the middle of one of the coldest and most dismal months there is! Here at KegWorks we encourage you to celebrate this day in a big way – put the holiday credit card bills aside, put on a big comfy sweater, turn on the fire and make yourself some fabulous hot buttered rum!

Check out this awesome site for some Hot Buttered Rum history and a great recipe.

TAGS [ HOT BUTTERED RUM ]

Love This Post? Share It!  Learn More

As a professional marketing guru (self proclaimed of course), I can affirm that marketing isn’t always just about making a sale. Sometimes marketing is about making a sale and sending out an important message. For example, InBev (the company behind the Belgian pilsner Stella Artois) is sending out a pretty big message with their upcoming marketing campaign. The message (intended for Stella enthusiasts across the UK) is a slightly warmer and friendlier version of “Stop stealing, ya bloody jerks!”

Stella Artois branded chalice glassware seems to be disappearing from pubs and bars across the world at an alarming rate. According to Stella representatives, nearly 400,000 of the glasses have gone missing in recent months, putting pressure on InBev to fund replacements next year. Even worse, the stolen goods are consistently being sold on eBay for close to $15 US dollars a piece.

So how does Stella plan to convince people to stop stealing? By giving the glasses away of course!

A promotion set to run in major retail supermarkets across the United Kingdom entitles consumers who buy two 20-bottle cases of the lager to one free glass.

A spokesman for Stella Artois says: “On average, the drink stays 23% colder than when served in an average pint glass, so of course we understand why consumers want to get their hands on them. But, if you want to create the perfect pint experience at home, take part in our off-trade promotion instead of stealing them from our on-trade consumers.”

I’m anxious to find out if this promotion actually impacts the popular five-finger discount on Stella, or backfires by simply forcing the company to “give away” more glassware. Us marketing folk really are a risky bunch…

If you want to avoid bars & pubs full of thievery, the solution is simple… keep Stella on tap at home. All you’ll need is our European Sankey Coupler and some personalized Grand Pilsner Glasses – they’ll keep all of your favorite pilsners (including Stella) nice and cold and they’re personalized, so no one can accuse you of stealing them. :)

TAGS [ STELLA ARTOIS | PILSNER | DRAFT BEER ]

Love This Post? Share It!  Learn More

In the interest of full disclosure; I will admit up front, that the reason I am reviewing 4 beers from Flying Dog is that they were sent to me by the Flying Dog Brewery PR department. A comment was left in response to my blog post reviewing Jolly Pumpkin Brewery’s Bam Noire by Stephanie, from the PR department of Flying Dog Brewery, offering to send me some free bottles of beer. I, of course, responded like any beer geek would, “I would love some tasty brews from Flying Dog. Who doesn’t like beer delivered to them at work?” True to her word, a few days later a box arrived containing 3 bottles of beer, and then Flying Dog sent me another bottle of a very limited edition beer, their Horn Dog Barrel Aged Barley Wine. Awesome!

For whatever reason, I have not had much exposure to Flying Dog’s beers. I am sure I have had their beer in the past, but I can say that about a lot brewers’ product. All I really knew about Flying Dog, is that their bottles all had super cool Ralph Steadman designed labels. I am a huge fan of all things Hunter S. Thompson, so these labels always grabbed my attention as Ralph Steadman did the illustrations for most of the late great Dr. Gonzo’s books and articles. Check out the Flying Dog Website for more information about the link between the brewery and Hunter S. Thompson. The site is very well laid out, extremely informative and probably the best brewery website I have yet to come across, so get clicking on it.

On to the beers… I gathered my wife and my good friend Mike, who is always interested in trying new tasty beers, for a mini tasting in our kitchen to try out the four beers I had been sent.

First up was the K-9 Cruiser Winter Ale. The beer was dark red amber with little noticeable nose. We all found it very balanced with a steady undertone of hops layered over with sweet toffee malt. Overall, a very balanced and drinkable ale on the strong side (alc. 6.4%). My friend was glad to note that there were no spices or added flavors like a lot of other companies winter ales.

Next was the Gonzo Imperial Porter. I was very excited to receive this beer as I have not met too many imperial porters I did not love. Plus, it had great caricature of Hunter S. Thompson on the label. The beer did not disappoint, and was my favorite of the bunch. As soon as I opened the bottle I could scents of floral hops and dark roasted coffee hit my nose. The beer poured dark with a minimum dark brown head. The flavor was dominated by dark chocolaty roasted malt with a slight anise (me) or dried fruit/raisins (my wife and friend) flavor. My little tasting group found this to be a very rich complex brew that left us all with slightly different impressions. We all agreed that the beer finished extremely dry with and a nice warming feel of alcohol (9.0%).

To be continued…

TAGS [ BEER REVIEW | FLYING DOG | FLYING DOG BREWERY ]

Love This Post? Share It!  Learn More

Sadly, football season has come to a close and my beloved Buffalo Bills didn’t quite make the playoff cut… again. Not since the infamous and gut-wrenching “Music City Miracle” in 1999 has the team played a game in January. That’s a long stretch of futility for a once-proud franchise and their rabid fan base.

Fortunately, the team has been stocking up on likable young talent. Though they finished the season with another painfully mediocre 7-9 record, it looks like they’ve turned a corner and are poised to make a move up the standings next year. Then again, I’ve had a similar sentiment this time every year for nearly a decade.

Anyway, even though the Bills are playing golf instead of football right now, the playoffs look like they’ll be very entertaining. The most high profile running subplot is, of course, if the New England Patriots can cement their status as the greatest team of all time with a championship victory. I hate them, mostly out of jealousy, but I like the way they embraced the role of hated villain throughout the season. Our entire country, outside of New England of course, has found common ground in loathing the Patriots. Here’s hoping they get stomped by Indy or, better yet, Green Bay in the final.

Speaking of football’s grand finale, there’s still time to gear up for the “Big Game.” You know, the one at the beginning of February. I can’t mention the game by its real name for fear of a certain wildly popular football organization sending hired goons after me. Or worse, lawyers. It’s okay… my older brother’s a lawyer. I kid because I love.

Enjoy the playoffs. As for the Bills, there’s always next year… right? What do you mean they’re moving to Toronto in a few years?

TAGS [ FOOTBALL | PLAYOFFS | TAILGATING ]

Love This Post? Share It!  Learn More

Most beer lasts four to nine months on the shelf. How do you know the beer you are buying is fresh? If you’re purchasing a beer brewed by Anheuser-Busch (Budweiser, Bud Light, Michelob etc.) just check out the “Born on Date” to tell you when the beer was bottled. For all other brews, you may have a harder time trying to read the code on the side of the label. Other breweries use pull dates (the date after which a product should no longer be sold) or a Julian date system. Here is a great chart I found on this site to help you decipher the code.

TAGS [ BEER | BEER CODES | FRESHNESS DATE ]

Love This Post? Share It!  Learn More

Like many others this holiday season, I hosted a holiday party. In an attempt to be incredibly classy and ultra sophisticated, I distinguished this party from the others that I typically throw. This wasn’t going to be a beer guzzling, hotdog roasting type event- this was a cocktail party. I sent out fancy invitations and even purchased red and green cocktail napkins depicting partridges in what I assume to be pear trees. I stocked up on fancy hors d’oeuvres and plenty of mixers…and then there was the booze. I spent more cash at the liquor store than I did on most of my family’s gifts. As I perused the aisles wondering how much of each spirit I should have on hand, I recalled my friends who would be attending. I thought that I knew their tastes and I chose accordingly. The party was a huge success and it led me to major realization… gin is in!

I had purchased more vodka than anything else – expensive vodka, cheap vodka and flavored vodkas spanning from blueberry to espresso. As I evaluated the post-party mess in the morning I couldn’t help but notice that many of the vodka bottles contained remains. The gin bottles however were dry as a bone.

I have always enjoyed gin and tonics as my “summer drink” and most of my friends have teased me for ordering them, “Gin and tonic? My grandpa drinks those…”

I have news for those friends (the ones who probably drank all of my gin)… your grandpa was onto something!

If you’re like my judgmental friends and think that drinking gin is only a benefit that comes with your AARP membership, I urge you to reconsider. If you’re already a proud gin and tonic fan like myself, try your favorite brand of gin with the new Q-Tonic Water. You won’t be disappointed!

Also keep in mind that there are plenty of other drinks that use “the other white spirit.”

One of my personal favorites, hailing from the Bellagio Hotel in Las Vegas, is the Blue Moon.

Ingredients:

1¼ oz gin (I prefer Tanqueray)
½ oz Blue Curacao
1½ oz fresh sweet and sour mix
3 oz pineapple juice

Mixing instructions:

Mix all ingredients into an ice-filled shaker. Shake and strain into an ice-filled highball glass. Garnish with a lemon wheel.

That being said, my new New Year’s resolution is to drink more gin, all year round.

Cheers!

TAGS [ GIN | TONIC ]

Love This Post? Share It!  Learn More

I don’t think I could count on all my fingers and toes how many times I’ve locked myself out of places. For example:

The house	Work	The car

One time I broke into my car with a fork after I locked my keys inside.

We sell a product that a few people have been locked out of. Fortunately, I have skills at getting into locked things. So I tried my skills on this item. It is the Portable Travel Bar, 3 Bottle Size.

Apparently what happens is people accidentally set the combination on this thing and can’t open it. I have had to get into a few of these and there is no shortcut. Not even my handy fork could help me out in this situation. You have to flip through every single number and slide the button until it pops. I think the longest it ever took me was 2 hours. I was just working on it a little at a time and doing other things. Finally at 783 it finally popped open. I was very excited. After you crack the code, you have to write it down and never forget it. As I understand you can’t reset the combination after it has been set. The directions do not speak of a reset so I believe it to be a permanent number.

Hopefully you wont get locked out of your liquor, but if you do, hopefully your combination is on the low side of 999 possibilities. Good Luck!

TAGS [ TRAVEL BAR | TRAVELS BARS | LIQUOR ]

Love This Post? Share It!  Learn More