KegWorks Blog

The word on everyone’s lips this month (apart from "football") is Oktoberfest and nowhere on Earth is this more evident than a trip to beautiful Munich, Germany to see the mother-of-all beer celebrations. I honestly know of no better way to celebrate the marriage of German culture and beer than this epic annual event. There’s nothing quite like a steaming hot bratwurst with sauerkraut and mustard, pomme frites (with mayo, of course), great music, and a nice, big glass (or two, or three) of good German beer to wash it all down. YUUUM!

If wine is more to your taste, an event like Oktoberfest may leave you feeling like you’re in the minority. It’s not that you’d be hard-pressed to find wine, but let’s face it – the focus of Oktoberfest is beer. Not to worry, Mr. or Ms. Wine Drinker, because there is another Fest just for you.

Although I somehow missed it on my calendar for this year, I may as well tell you so that you can at least mark your calendars for next year. I’m talking about Weinfest der Mittelmosel – or, as we American military guys used to refer to it, Bernkastel Winefest.

Nestled in the foothills of the Eifel Mountains, midway between Luxembourg and Wiesbaden lies Bernkastel-Kues, a beautiful, medieval- and gothic- style town which stands on the winding banks of the Mosel River. Every year in September (around harvest time) the city comes to life is a HUGE music and wine celebration.

This picturesque burg straddles the mighty Mosel and is flanked by fields of grape for as far as the eye can see. The normally quaint town bursts to life during Weinfest with live music, local and world-renowned wine vendors, and happy, buzzed, friendly revelers for days. At night, there are fantastic fireworks displays – the more notable being the one at Burg Landshut (Landshut Castle).

In short, if you are a wine lover, I highly recommend you check this out. I also recommend taking the Mosel River Cruise if you get the chance.

If your budget won’t allow for international travel, that’s cool, go out and grab a bottle of Mosel-grown Riesling that you can sample and enjoy with your friends and family. Just don’t forget the food and music!

Viel Spaß!

TAGS [ BERNKASTEL WINE FESTIVAL | WINE FEST | GERMAN WINE FESTIVAL | BERNKASTEL-KUES ]

Last week my wife was out of town, so after the kids were in bed I had full control of my television. Being completely burnt out of watching the kids’ college savings disappear coverage of government bailout, I decided on watching a CNBC special on Budweiser that I had recorded months ago. Besides for the irony that the show was called American Originals, there were some things about A-B that I did not know.

1. Budweiser cryogenically freezes batches of its beer each year, so brew masters can compare flavor profiles from 5, 10, 15 and twenty years ago.

2. The "King of Beers" moniker was originally the "King of Bottled Beer." This self appointed title was given after A-B sold its 500,000,000 bottles of beer in the later 1800s.

3. The only time the production line in St Louis was fully shut down was during prohibition.

4. In order to keep the factory open and staff employed (biding its time until the end of Prohibition) A-B sold a variety of non-alcoholic products, including ice cream.

5. The Clydesdale horse team was a gift given to August Busch II from his sons to commemorate the end of Prohibition.

6. This team of Clydesdales delivered beer to the White House at the end of Prohibition.

7. Budweiser currently owns 250 Clydesdales.

8. This year the Budweiser Super Bowl ads were viewed over 30 million times on the Budweiser web site.

There are numerous other things about Anheuser-Busch that make it a very unique company. I understand the business reasons for selling to InBev. I just hope that the merging of the two very different corporate cultures does not destroy the legacy that is Budweiser.

-Tom

TAGS [ ANHEUSER BUSCH | BUDWEISER | INBEV | BUD ]

I moved to Buffalo, NY some six odd years ago and I’ve yet to leave. I do like it here but no matter how much I adore Buffalo, a big piece of my heart will always belong to my hometown of Rochester (as suggested by my blatant refusal to change my cell phone number to one bearing the "716" Buffalo area code).

Just an hour away by car, Rochester is home to Eastman Kodak, Genesee beer, Wegmans (the world’s best grocery store) and the Garbage Plate (the world’s best drunk food). Although I do not particularly love Genny, Genny Light or even the esteemed Genny Cream Ale, I am a huge fan of Rochester’s other signature successes. During a recent KegWorks lunch outing, I explained the culinary genius behind the Garbage Plate to some of my colleagues and Dave suggested that I share my enthusiasm with all of you and write a blog about this world famous post-bar cuisine. I thought that was a fabulous idea.

The Garbage Plate originated at Nick Tahou Hots in 1918 and the popular downtown restaurant is now revered as a true Rochester landmark. Tahou’s is holder of the trademark and the only restaurant able to use the name "Garbage Plate" but you’ll find tons of alternatively named imitations (think Trash Plate, Rubbish Plate, etc) on menus all over Upstate NY.

You’re probably wondering why anyone in his or her right mind would invent or more importantly order and pay for something with the word "garbage" in its name. All I can tell you is that to really understand, you absolutely must try one but I’ll do my best to do it written justice here anyways.

Basically, the Garbage Plate is an incredibly delicious pile of seemingly simple food selections all slopped together on a paper plate with no regard for component separation.

Two "base foods" are placed on the plate first. You choose your favorite combination of home fries, french fries, baked beans or macaroni salad. I like to go with home fries and mac salad for mine.

Your next selection is the "meat" of your garbage plate; cheeseburger, hamburger, red hots, white hots (another Rochester favorite), Italian sausages, chicken tenders, fish (Haddock), fried ham, grilled cheese, or eggs. I’m a cheeseburger girl myself. Keep in mind, there are no buns involved here – just two grilled cheeseburger patties piled right on top of my home fries and macaroni salad.

Next, diced raw onions are generously sprinkled on top, along with a schmear of spicy mustard for good measure. Finally, the whole shebang is drizzled with a greasy hot sauce made from ground beef and spices and it’s all served with two pieces of bread. A garbage plate made to my liking looks a little something like this:

To top it all off, it is imperative that one adds ketchup and Frank’s Red Hot to taste.

After a good night of drinking, I swear there isn’t anything better in the world.

What’s your favorite post-bar drunk food?

TAGS [ GARBAGE PLATE | GENNY LIGHT | ROCHESTER | FRANKS RED HOT ]

"Legend has it that Babe Ruth occasionally left baseball games between the New York Yankees and Chicago White Sox, headed to a Chicago bar called McCuddy’s and drank beer between innings.

"Beer and baseball have always been intimate, and recently, flavorful beer and baseball have gotten to know each other better. In fact, baseball announcer Andy Musser confesses, ‘I have been known to slip down the right field line at Coors Field’ in Denver, where Coors Brewing Co. operates its SandLot Brewery."

- excerpt from Take Him Out to the Brewpub, by Stan Hieronymus and Daria Labinsky.

We may be big on beer, here at KegWorks, but that’s not all we’re into! With summer officially over and the Major League Baseball season winding down, I have found a way to extend my obsession with baseball. For a measly $12.95 you can own and manage your own baseball team on whatifsports.com.

The real addiction involved in this is the pool of players you have to draft from in making your team – Any player that appeared in a baseball game from 1885 to 2007 may be chosen to make up your team. Salaries are prorated to modern salaries based on the players statistical value, and you have 80 million dollars to put together a team with 25 players. If this sounds very geeky it is, but be warned that some 400,000 members on whatifsports.com play the "Sim League" often.

Every stadium that pro baseball was ever played in is rated for its effect on pitching and hitting stats, and any one place can be chosen as your home ball park.

Check out more info on the company here.

And be sure to visit whatifsports.com but be warned: it’s a very addicting game …

TAGS [ BEER | DRAFT BEER | BASEBALL | WHATIFSPORTS | WHAT IF SPORTS | SIM GAME | SIM GAMES | MLB ]

About a month ago, it was announced that Jessica Simpson would be the spokesperson for Stampede Light Plus, claiming that she loved beer and drank it often. Apparently Stampede Light Plus is some sort of light beer with vitamins added to it; which I guess makes sense since I can’t see Jessica Simpson drinking beer unless it is some how healthy for you and crammed with vitamins.

Now Kid Rock is coming out with his own beer. My guess is, Kid Rock’s beer will not be enhanced with vitamins. Kid Rock and Drinks America will create a "product targeted to beer drinkers who appreciate value with an easy to drink, traditional, good tasting American manufactured beer." I am pretty sure that is beer industry code for a light, watery, cheap beer, made with adjuncts sold in 30 packs and wide mouth 22-ounce cans that you can a drink a lot of and get real wasted. Not sure if I will be a regular consumer of Rock’s beer, but that doesn’t mean we can’t have fun with this product announcement, so I am proud to announce KegWorks’ first ever photo-shop contest: Design Kid Rock’s Beer Label.

Download your beer label template here.

Official Contest Rules:

1. Get creative with Photoshop, or you editing program of choice, using our convenient template to create your vision of what Kid Rock the self proclaimed American Bad Ass’s label should look like. We will put our favorite submissions on our blog and pick an overall winner decided as decided by the KegWorks’ staff.

2. Keep it clean. Although submissions including nudity, foul language, copywrited material and any number of bad behaviors may be enjoyed around the office they won’t make it on to the site.

3. This contest has no actual affiliation with Drinks America or Kid Rock and will not be the proposed beer’s label. In fact, unless either entity is fan of our blog they may never see your hard work.

4. What you will win: Nothing!!! That’s right, we are not offering any actual prizes for this contest. Nada! Zip! Zilch! If you win all you get it is the incredible bragging rights of having won the KegWorks’ Design Kid Rock’s Beer Label contest. Who wouldn’t want that honor?

Download your beer label template here.

Email Contest Submissions to blog@kegworks.com by October 20th. Our favorites will be posted soon after!

TAGS [ KID ROCK | BEER LABEL | KID ROCK BEER | DRINKS AMERICA | BEER LABEL CONTEST ]

It’s just about time for my favorite holiday of the year: Halloween. Okay, so I may be jumping the gun a little… but it is less than 40 days away now. (Woohoo!)

Although I’m a self-proclaimed Halloween junkie, my love for this particular evening pales in comparison to my buddy Leo, who lives in San Jose, California. He’s not just one of those guys who hands out candy and occasionally jumps out from the dark to scare the crap out of little kids, this guy goes all out.

Every year Leo literally transforms his 1930s bungalow into a Gothic-style derelict church using a whole-house façade he built himself. The otherwise tropical front garden also gets a makeover into a phantasmagorical scene of the macabre – complete with corpses rising from the dead and other gory scenes. Inside, his entire house is converted into Halloween Party Central, where he annually hosts countless friends and coworkers from all over the country. The living room even becomes a dance floor (complete with a hired DJ). Scarcely a single detail is overlooked – all the way down to the puking skeleton punch dispenser – which spews a blood-red Hurricane mix at an alarming rate. Leo’s a brilliant guy and his mastery of electronics and lighting has enabled him to create a mood and atmosphere that is both fun and grizzly enough to make even the most hardcore horror fan get the heebie-jeebies and have a blast at the same time.

I’m going to miss not being able to attend this year’s bash at Leo’s place, so I’ll have to make do. For now I’m stocking up on decorations, drink recipes, and a few other Halloween supplies through Leo’s website skeletonfoundry.com. Of course, I’ll also have to dig up a few bottles of Werewolf and Vampire wine at Premier, mixers, and loads of some fun beer at Consumers to help set the mood for the party goers on my list this year.

The only thing left for me to do is to find a killer costume… Otherwise, I’m ready to roll!

TAGS [ HALLOWEEN | HALLOWEEN PARTY ]

An article posted on the Wall Street Journal references a study that evaluated the correlation of beer drinking and paper writing. Ummm….did we really need a study, sir?

Yes, drinking lots of beer makes you publish less books! I learned this in college and here’s my thesis: If I had a 30% increase in beer consumption at a Tuesday "Mug Night"; I was 79% less likely to finishing that philosophy paper and 51% more likely to make Ramen noodles.

Maybe this researcher was drinking too much Absinthe to realize some things don’t require a study.

Here’s to beer!

TAGS [ BEER STUDY | BEER STUDIES ]