You’ve got to love Bud ads… especially when they’re touting the Buffalo Bills (who practically invented the no-huddle offense). Enjoy!
TAGS [ BEER ADS | BUDWEISER AD | BUD ADS | BUFFALO BILLS BUDWEISER AD ]
Archive for November, 2009
Top 5 Baltic Porters
Tuesday, November 3rd, 2009The History of Baltic Porter
Baltic porter is the biggest, blackest, and boldest of all the Porters. Considered to be a bit of an evolved version of a traditional English Brown Porter, they started to rear their heads in the late 1700s from the countries bordering the Baltic Sea. Much like the origin of India Pale Ale, these beers were brewed with 
a higher alcohol content to survive their boat ride across the North Sea or beyond. Additionally, their dark brown color covered up some cloudiness, and numerous malt varieties were used to cover up imperfections. It may come as a surprise, but the majority of them are actually brewed with a bottom fermenting lager yeast as opposed to a top fermenting ale yeast.
Baltic Porter Characteristics
Baltic Porters have a rich, malty, sweet aroma that can contain caramel, toffee, nuts, toast, and even licorice. You’ll probably pick up some alcohol notes of moderate strength, along with plums, raisins, prunes, cherries, or currants, occasionally with a vinous, port-like quality. Those brewed with darker malts will give off some chocolate, molasses or coffee, but keep your nose tuned for burnt notes, because they should never be there. They can be dark reddish in color, to very dark brown with a thick, sticky tan head. Oddly enough, these beers are relatively clear, but the ones on the darker side can be opaque. As with aroma, this style will have a rich malty sweetness with a complex blend of deep malt, dried fruit, and alcohol. There’s a silky smooth, mouth filling schwarzbier-like roasted flavor that again, won’t be burnt, and that lager yeast that it’s brewed with will give it a very clean character. They start out sweet but that darker malt flavor will quickly take over and be right there to the last sip. They’ll be a bit on the dry side, with some coffee or licorice in the finish, with medium bitterness from the malt and hops, but just enough to provide balance. Baltic Porters are quite a mouthful, with some well-aged alcohol warmth, but with the moderate carbonation they won’t be too heavy on the tongue.
Baltic Porter and Food Pairings
Right out of the gate, if it’s meat, and it’s roasted, smoked, grilled, baked, braised, or broiled it’s a perfect match for this big, bad style. Any kind of dish with a classic mole sauce that contains spices, chilies, nuts, and chocolate will be great with Baltic Porter, not only with the flavor profiles matching up, but that clean lager character in the background will tame some of the spice in your dish, and the roastiness will play well with whats going on. As you’ll probably guess, desserts with Baltic Porter are a no-brainer. The chocolate malt in the beer will pair up with literally any kind of chocolate dessert (as long as it’s not too sweet), and it will also be a great contrast to a dessert with fruit, especially anything with raspberries, cherries, or strawberries. If you want to go the simple route, get yourself some good vanilla ice cream and you’ll have quite a treat.
Why You’ll Enjoy Baltic Porter
If you’re a fan of darker, less-bitter beer, and you haven’t yet checked out this style, do yourself a huge favor and seek out a few that I have listed below. One great aspect of this style that you may not expect is that the price point for these beers is surprisingly reasonable, especially imported versions. That doesn’t happen too often these days with beers of higher strength, so if cost efficient is part of your game plan when you head to your local beer store, put some of these on your shopping list.
Cheers!
TAGS [ BALTIC PORTER | TOP BALTIC PORTERS | BALTIC PORTER CHARACTERISTICS | ABOUT BALTIC PORTER | BEER REVIEWS | BALTIC PORTER BEER REVIEW ]
Pub Etiquette?
Monday, November 2nd, 2009Did you know that there is such a thing as pub etiquette? Well it’s true, there is! Pubs are such a great place to enjoy an awesome beer like Guinness or whatever you like! Just remember to read this article that I found, before your next visit to England or the like.
This article is more for British Pubs but I think the idea (besides tipping) is basically the same. So drink up and enjoy!
TAGS [ BRITISH PUBS | PUB ETIQUETTE ]
From Our Warehouse to Your Computer Screen – How New KegWorks Products End Up Online
Monday, November 2nd, 2009We’re constantly adding exciting new products to our website. Whether it’s draft beer equipment, an incredible cocktail mixer or some kind of crazy t-shirt, there’s a whole process that happens behind the scenes. Before an item can achieve KegWorks.com website status it’s carefully selected, tested out, photographed, described and reviewed for quality.
Take this stainless steel straw for example. As a Marketing team, we’re smart enough to know that we can’t make it anything other than a straw – but we try damn hard to give you an honest and accurate idea of what kind of straw it is. As it turns out, this one is pretty awesome.
This is Greg (known on the blog as "Gerg"). Greg is key player when it comes to getting products on the site. One of his many duties is to take product photos, so you know exactly what you’re buying. It’s not as simple as pointing the camera at a straw and snapping a photo though – this guy has talent! In order to capture the real essence of the stainless steel straws, he made delicious milkshakes and root beer floats and recruited some fellow KegWorkers to partake in the shoot.
This photo shows Greg working his photographic magic. To the right you see Pete, one of the purchasing guys, our resident draft system expert and the official KegWorks model. Look around long enough and you’ll see his charming good looks all over the website!
The head of hair you see on the left is yours truly (known on the blog as "Liz") and I am the KegWorks copywriter. It’s my job to explain the straws in great detail and answer any questions that you might have in the product description.
Don’t worry- I am very qualified to write about these straws, as I drank an entire float through one right before I sat down to do tell you about them. I can honestly say that it’s not an ordinary straw. The stainless steel takes whatever you’re drinking and makes it a whole new kind of cold. When you’re dealing with frozen drinks, it’s quite an improvement. As strange as it sounds, there’s something to say about the mouth feel of the steel as well. It’s an entirely different way of drinking.
After the pictures and the description are all set, we load all of that information into the back-end of the site, have it reviewed for accuracy and then set it live so you can find it on our What’s New page.
There you have it folks, a stainless steel straw’s journey from KegWorks to you.
TAGS [ KEGWORKS | PRODUCTS | STAINLESS STEEL STRAWS | REUSABLE STRAWS | METAL STRAWS ]
