And the next great American beer will be...?
Pabst may be worshiped by hipsters, but can it replace Budweiser as the best classic domestic brew? The answer may surprise you.

It was one of the hipper events this unhip correspondent has ever attended. The Windy City Story Slam was held in an unmarked storefront on the northwest side of Chicago. The neighborhood was in the interzone between a bohemian enclave and a barrio. Paintings hung from the bare brick walls. The opening act was a locally famous Mexican bartender in overalls, who played obscene folk songs on his guitar. During the Slam, five contestants spun five-minute vignettes -- one was about a childhood fight, another a druggy ex-boyfriend. The winner, a man wearing the biggest glasses I'd seen since Charles Nelson Reilly ruled "Match Game," took home $50. Every mote and motif in the room was a post-millennial hipster cliché, including the beer of choice. In the back of the room was a bar selling Pabst Blue Ribbon.

Since the beginning of this decade, Pabst Blue Ribbon's audience has changed from old guys with refrigerators in their garages to arty young urbanites. An unexceptional and declining brand, a former top-three beer turned redneck also-ran, Pabst reinvented itself as the coolest of brews in a movement that began in a Portland, Ore., dive bar and spread to indie-rock shows across the country. But now Pabst is trying to move on from its success with hipsters to conquer a far larger and very different demographic: all-American beer drinkers alienated by Anheuser-Busch's sale to a Belgian corporation. In its campaign to snatch Budweiser's title of Great American Lager, Pabst is already employing the kind of slick, misleading marketing that's bound to turn off hipsters who've embraced it as the anti-Bud. It may be exactly the right move.

-> www.salon.com/...

BBC » Maybe there doesn't need to be a next great Amerian beer. Go local.

The rise and fall of an American beer
Before it was bought by Belgium's InBev, Budweiser trampled local breweries across this land. Who's crying in their (piss) beer now?

I did my heaviest drinking before I turned 21. I had the motivation: I was spinning my wheels in community college. I had the opportunity: My best friend was already losing his hair, so he never got carded. And the gas station in my neighborhood sold a beer I could afford on my $3.35-an-hour video clerk's salary: Falstaff. Twelve stubby brown torpedoes of Fort Wayne water, subtly flavored with hops and barley, packaged in a plastic yellow tray. Under every bottle cap was a rebus ("It's [heart] 2 [bell] [leaf]") that was fun to solve before the first beer, but not worth the trouble by the fifth or sixth.

Falstaff was once the third biggest brewery in America. George Will drank it when he was a teenager, as hard as it is to imagine George Will as a teenager. It even outsold Budweiser in St. Louis. But Falstaff no longer exists. The last bottle was capped in 2005. The only remnant I know of is a faded mural on the East Side of Chicago.

Ever since Budweiser was sold to Belgian brewing monster InBev on Sunday, beer drinkers have been sighing that a piece of Americana has been lost. They've got it all wrong. During its rise to President for Life of Beers, Budweiser ended up crushing dozens of local brands that formed part of this country's colorful drinking heritage.

-> www.salon.com/...

BBC » Good riddance King of Beers.

Subject: WORK
The Center for Disease Control has issued a medical alert about a highly contagious, potentially dangerous virus that is transmitted orally, by hand, and even electronically.

This virus is called Weary Overload Recreational Killer (WORK). If you receive WORK from your boss, any of your colleagues, or anyone else via any means whatsoever, DO NOT TOUCH IT. This virus will wipe out your private life completely.

If you should come into contact with WORK, you should immediately leave the premises.

Take two good friends to the nearest grocery store and purchase one or both of the antidotes - Work Isolating Neutralizer Extract (WINE) and Bothersome Employer Elimination Rebooter (BEER). Take the antidote repeatedly until WORK has been completely eliminated from your system.

You should immediately forward this medical alert to five friends.

If you do not have five friends, you have already been infected and WORK is controlling your life.

Subject: Cool Test
I'm pretty sure you are cool, but just take this quick test to make sure.

Plastic fantastic beer bottles
The plastic beer bottle, says nanotechnology analyst Peter Conley, has long been the Holy Grail of the global beer industry. A switch from glass and aluminum to plastic would dramatically cut costs for the big players. The problem: plastic bottles have a bad habit of letting oxgyen molecules get through when sitting on the shelf. This is bad for beer. Very, very bad.

Enter AMCOL, the largest producer of kitty litter in the world. AMCOL has devised a "nanocomposite" that solves the problem, keeping oxygen molecules out and carbon dioxide molecules in. So be prepared, a new era of plastic beer bottles is upon us.

Whether this is progress or not depends on a complex mix of aesthetics, logistics, and perspectives on the proper role of technology in our lives. If you're Budweiser or Coors, anything that allows you to cut costs while maintaining the same horse-piss taste is considered progress. If you happen to savor the feel of an ice-cold glass bottle gripped firmly in your hand on a hot summer day, you might think otherwise ...

-> www.salon.com/...

BBC » What a dumb idea. Drinking beer out of plastic vessels sucks. But on the other hand, if all beer was sold in plastic bottles it might increase the value of my collection and I wouldn't feel like I have to continue updating this website.

West Bank beer fest
A Christian-Palestinian microbrewery is defying the hardships of occupation -- and perhaps Hamas' vision for an alcohol-free Islamic state.

TAYBEH, West Bank -- High up in the hills of the West Bank in mid-September, thousands of visitors arrived for a two-day village fair filled with music, folk dancing and local goods, from honey and oils to embroidery and olive-wood carvings. But the star attraction this year was a more surprising local offering: a German-style beer brewed here that bears the name of this small Palestinian village.

Located about 20 miles northeast of Jerusalem, Taybeh is a Christian enclave dotted with churches rather than mosques, but entirely surrounded by Muslim villages. The village festival is billed as an "Oktoberfest," after the annual beer-lovers bash in Munich -- although it takes place in September so as to avoid clashing with the Muslim festival of Ramadan.

Taybeh the beer is crisp, clean and very drinkable. It comes in light and dark versions, with a label that proudly reads "The Finest in the Middle East." Its makers seem to have tapped an unlikely region for venturing into the beer business.

"Everybody thought I was nuts to build a brewery in a Muslim region," said Nadim Khoury, the company's master brewer, regarding the glaringly obvious problem that the Quran forbids the consumption of alcohol.

-> www.salon.com/...

BBC » The world would be a better place if we all had access to good quality beer. Can't trust them teetotallers like Bush, Bin Laden, Ahmadinejad and Hitler.

Subject: Drink up
Good news for most of us. Happy hour for drinkers' wages.
New study reveals that those who enjoy a tipple now and then earn 10 to 14 percent more than teetotalers.

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- If you thought swigging beer or indulging in a glass of chardonnay was putting your career on a fast-track to nowhere, think again.

In fact, a study conducted by two economists and published Thursday by the Reason Foundation and in the latest edition of The Journal of Labor Research, says that drinkers earn 10 to 14 percent more than those who refrain from drinking.

"Instead of earning less money that nondrinkers, drinkers earn more," authors of the study, Bethany Peters and Edward Stringham, wrote. More specifically, the study found that workers who drank in a social setting earned more than those who tipped a glass at home.

The study contends that social capital, which entails everything from a person's charisma to the size of their social network, can be enhanced by drinking.

Those who drink socially, for example, may have an easier time finding a new job if they had made more business contacts, the authors claim, or they might strengthen relationships with co-workers or clients that could ultimately affect their salary.

While earnings for both men and women benefited from drinking, the study discovered a few noteworthy differences between the two groups.

Female drinkers earned 14 percent more than non-drinkers, while males who drank earned 10 percent more than their teetotaler counterparts.

At the same time, men who went to a bar at least once a month earned an additional 7 percent on top of the 10 percent drinking premium. But women who engaged in similar behavior did not experience any effect on their earnings.

The authors said their research came in response to growing efforts to restrict drinking on college campuses, limit alcohol advertising and raise taxes on liquor.

A spokesman for Reason Foundation, a libertarian public policy research organization which was founded in 1968, said the group was not commissioned by any outside parties to conduct the study.

Subject: Thought this might be of interest to you....
Just checking my care factor for the week.

Nope... still don't give a fuck.

Subject: Beer
After a Beer Festival in London, some of the brewery presidents decided to go out for a beer.

Corona's president sits down and says, "Señor, I would like the world's best beer, a Corona." The bartender takes a bottle from the shelf and gives it to him.

Then Budweiser's president says, "I'd like the best beer in the world, give me 'The King Of Beers', a Budweiser." The bartender gives him one.

Coors' president says, "I'd like the best beer in the world, the only one made with Rocky Mountain spring water, give me a Coors." He gets it.

The guy from Guinness sits down and says, "Give me a Coke." The other brewery presidents look over at him and ask, "Why aren't you drinking a Guinness?" and the Guinness president replies, "Well, if you guys aren't drinking beer, neither will I."