Trumer Rube Goldberg

This video has been floating around the internet for a couple of days now and I thought it was WAY too cool not put up. It's a Rube Goldberg machine made by the people at Trumer International. Watch to the end, I think I might need to install one of these at home!

Yes, I know the video overlaps the side bar. However, you can still watch the video and that's way more important than my cloud of tags!



I found the video on the Brookston Beer Bulletin website. Also, here is a link to the Trumer website (where I couldn't find the original video).

Awesome Bottle Opener

I usually check in on the blog Neatorama.com fairly frequently. They’ve got all kinds of interesting articles about all kinds of nifty things of interest. One of my favorite things about the site is that beyond articles they have a lot of very cool products for sale.

I just wanted to tell you briefly about two of them. The first is a unique bottle opener. I’m too young to remember them, but aluminum cans used to have pull tabs that came completely off when you opened a can of soda/beer. The Neatorama shop has just started selling a an oversized pull tab that is a working bottle opener.

I’ve got a giant collection of beer koozies and I’m just starting to collect interesting bottle openers. I feel like this would be an ideal addition to a fledgling collection. The only problem is that it is 2-3/4” by 1-3/4” in size. I’m pretty sure that I would manage to lose this thing before too long. It would be excellent until I lost it though!

The second thing that I’m kind of digging is the “Hopside Down Beer Glass.” It is a pint glass shape but the interior is cut out to resemble the top of a beer bottle. When filled it looks like you’ve got an upside down bottle in your pint glass.

Just a couple gift ideas for your favorite beer blogger. I keep saying that, but no one is taking me up on it yet. Work on that everyone!

Personalized Beer Labels

So this is a beer bottle. I’m sure you’re familiar with those. This one originally held Sam Adams, the Boston Lager I think, but I’m not positive.

It is just one of many that I use when I try homebrewing. I always save most my pry off bottles when I’m drinking at home so they can be refilled with my own beer later. Here is the problem, they’re ugly, especially when the labels have been removed. I’m typically not too concerned about aesthetics, especially when it comes to beer, but it still bothers me a little.

You can make your own labels with a few kids of label-maker things. You can get labels that you run through your printer too. Usually either one of those options turn out looking like crap. I know, I’ve tried both.

I just found a website that may well be the solution, myownlabels.com/beer. There are two major draws to the site. First, you can print very few. As few six that are all together on a single sheet. Then you can buy the matching neck labels and back labels to go along with your basic front label.

The other huge draw is the fact that they’re cheap. The most expensive labels are $1.17 each. That’s a little pricey but the lower end goes all of the way down to $0.39. Even with the most expensive label, matching neck label and matching back label it comes out to $2.14/bottle. With each 5 gallon batch of beer averaging 45-50 bottles of beer that comes out to about $122.00/batch. The six pack carriers only come in increments of six, so you would need 12 for a price of $16.00.

That’s a little expensive, but it’s also the absolute most expensive option. While no, this wouldn’t be something you did every time you made up a batch of homebrew it could be pretty neat if you’re doing something classy. Maybe a wedding or something. Either that or maybe you just want to class up a six-pack or two to give away, that would only run you twenty bucks or so for the expensive ones!

If you homebrew, it could be a great thing to check out for something special. If you end up ordering one send me a picture at allhoppedupblog@gmail.com

Pabst Raps

Coming pretty soon here I’ll be doing a lot of things. Upgrading the blog (I already added nifty tabs, more are to come later), leaving on my beer trip (the 23rd), and I’m going to be writing a few articles for beerandvideogames.com. They found me last week and asked if I would be interested in writing a few articles for them from time to time so I am jumping at the chance. I’ll let you guys know when something of mine goes up over there, but you should really just check out the website regardless. It’s a pretty awesome place for big dorks like me!

All that aside, I think it’s pretty obvious that I’ve been watching the Beer and Videogames posts pretty closely since I originally heard from them. Today something went up that was just too good to not link to. Apparently Pabst is putting out a blue vinyl record full of rap songs out that are all about Pabst Blue Ribbon. Only 300 are being printed and they're being given out tonight in Boston.

This link is to the original article on Beer and Videogames and includes two pretty impressive excerpts from the record.

Go. Listen. Enjoy.

Guinness: Good Things Come To Those Who Wait

I’m a blogger. As far as I know that means I’m supposed to work on sketchy/limited sources, anonymously attack anything or anyone, and of course, use subpar grammar. At least…I think that’s what it means to be a blogger.

Okay, so maybe I try to avoid that stuff (except the grammar thing), but it’s still in there. Newspapers check their sources. They have their journalist’s names out there for anyone to see. Oh, and the grammar is usually stellar. I’ve got a lot of respect for newspaper writers and that is one of the reasons that when I see a good newspaper article about beer, I’ll usually toss up a link to it.

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That’s the plan for today thanks to an excellent article written by Lauren Marmaduke (I think it sounds like a fake name too) of the Houston Press about Guinness’ “Good Things Come to Those Who Wait” advertising campaign that aired from 1998-2007.

The name of the campaign alludes to the fact that you’re supposed to let your Guinness sit for about 120 seconds after pouring before you take your first sip. That was something I hadn’t known before going to the Guinness Brewery in Dublin. Once I was educated by a bartender in their tasting room, Guinness became a new beer to me. If you’re not waiting to drink your Guinness, you really are missing out. And no, this isn’t just me being an elitist, beer snob prick, it makes a big difference. Hence the advertising campaign.

The article is a good one with interesting information about all five of the embedded videos. Also, notice that each video is about the amount of time you’re supposed to let your Guinness rest before drinking. However, if you don’t feel like spending seven minutes watching Guinness ads (even though they’re awesome) then be sure to watch the second, The Surfer, all of the way through. It was voted by the Sunday Times in Great Britain as the greatest ad of all time. That’s some pretty high praise!

Okay, here is the link. Go. Watch. Enjoy!

Musical Beer

Designer Matt Braun has come up with a pretty neat product. He calls it “Tuned Beer.”

You know how every now and then you get bored (or drunk) and start blowing across the top of your bottle to make that noise? As you’ve no doubt realized in your scientific experiments the tone is higher if there is more liquid remaining in the bottle, and lower

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as it empties. What Matt did was to make special marks on the bottles that tell you exactly what note you’re blowing dependant on how much beer you have left.

That is cool by itself, but there is more. The bottles have ridges on the sides that you can drag a stick over to make some other sort of percussion noise. I think it is supposed to sound something like a washboard.

I’m not sure where these little sticks are coming from but they can also be used on the bottom of the unique wooden six-pack carrier. All six “beer slots” are a different size so they can be used as drum heads with different sounds.

Matt Braun’s website has a little note that answered my biggest question. “Yes, a small batch of microbrew was produced and sampled with great success. Tuned Pale Ale is currently seeking larger brewing and distribution options.”

Here is Matt’s statement from the website: “Tuned Pale Ale is a product that explores the musical affordances in everyday objects and promotes social spontaneity. While drinking beer, people become musically encouraged and often start making music with objects around them. This product aims to promote more of this type of social interaction. This product aims to inform users about the musical qualities of existing bottles and to make the bottle a better instrument.”

I’ll keep an eye on his site to see if he ends up getting his beer put into production. I sure hope he does, I’m pretty curious about what note I’m blowing on my Boulevard unfiltered wheat right now!

Check out the link here

Beer Style Poster

I haven’t posted too many links as of yet, but this one is worth it. It comes to us via the website PopChartLab.com. The site must be pretty darn new because as of yet there are only two items available. It looks like they’re going to be offering T-shirts in the future, but just the two posters for now.

The first is a “grand taxonomy of rap names.” Although it has absolutely nothing to do with beer, it is still mildly interesting. I imagine that if I listened to rap it would be significantly more alluring to me.

The other item they have up for sale is a poster under the title of “The Very Many Varieties of Beer.” The poster is a foot and a half by two feet tall and features a beer glass prominently in the middle. The meat of the poster is the cloud chart of different styles of beer.

The first division is obviously between ales and lagers. Then it breaks further into sub-categories such as going from AlePale AleIndia Pale AleDouble IPA. Then when it gets to the terminating style it gives a couple examples of each. In the earlier example the beers they chose were Dogfish Head’s 120 Minute IPA, Flying Dog’s Double Dog Double Pale Ale, and a beer I’ve mentioned a few times, Brew Dog’s extremely high-proof beer, Sink the Bismarck.

It could be a handy poster for anyone who is just getting acquainted with the world of beer, or just something neat for anyone who appreciates beer. The price of $25 isn’t too bad for a big poster, but I’m a pretty cheap guy, so I’m usually not a good judge of stuff like that. Regardless of that though, I want one. Feel free to buy one for me!

End of the World!

Yeah, I know it has been a while since I last updated. Sorry.

I’ve read a few things about this recently but Jarrod Greene down at TCU shared a link about it with me so I figured it was time I wrote about it.

In 2007 a couple of guys in Scotland got together and set up Brew Dog. They named their brewery for one of the founders’ dad’s dog, Bracken. They describe him on their website as their “guard dog, head taster, accountant, and general buddy.” I

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bet their financial books are pretty interesting with an accountant like that!

Okay, so now the reason I’m talking about Brew Dog. They brew high-proof beer. Really high proof beer. In July of 2009 Brew Dog started their line of obscenely high-proof beer with Tokyo, a 18% ABV beer.

Then they set their sights slightly higher with Tactical Nuclear Penguin, a 32% ABV beer. Why 32% you might be asking? Because the previous strongest beer in the world was a German one called Schorschbraer that had an ABV of 31%. I’m a little hazy on the details of how they could get a beer to be that high-proof but it looks like the way they do it is to age it and freeze it down to somewhere about -4 degrees Fahrenheit. Throughout the freezing process the beer is decanted occasionally to concentrate the beer, hence raising the ABV. The extremely low temperatures it is stored at for three weeks are the reason for the “penguin” name.

In response to Tactical Nuclear Penguin the German brewery Schorschbrau, released a 40% ABV beer called Schorschbock. Naturally, Brew Dog upped their game and topped it by countering with a witty knockout punch (in more than one way), Sink The Bismarck, a quadruple IPA with a staggering 41% ABV. The name, an obvious homage to the famous German battleship sunk in WWII, is both witty and telling of the fact that Brew Dog will NOT be topped!

At least they won’t be topped by anyone but themselves that is! They have just brewed an EXTREMELY limited release of “The End of the World,” a 55% ABV Blonde Belgian Ale. Only 12 bottles were produced and only 11 of those are for sale. Seven will be a smaller size and four will be larger.

As if the extreme alcohol content were not enough to make this a unique beer, the packaging takes the cake. Each bottle is encased in a taxidermed piece of roadkill. The smaller bottles are encased in the skin of a stoat and the larger bottles are wrapped in squirrel.

Both the stoats and squirrels are now sold out but while available they cost about $775 and $1,080 respectively. So you missed your chance to get the End of the World beer, but you can still get yourself a bottle of Tactical Nuclear Penguin or Sink the Bismarck here.

Also, here is a list of the highest alcohol percentage beers. Just for in case you were curious where some others rank!

Spending Spent Grains

I’ve been doing some research for my impending beer road trip and one of the things I have been looking at is sustainability, carbon footprints, and the such. Pretty much the only waste product of brewing is the spent grains, and even those are usually disposed of responsibly. Most breweries ship their spent grains off to farms for animals to eat or to use as a fertilizer. I found a few articles about a relatively new idea that seems to be gaining some ground that I find extremely cool.

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Running a brewery takes a lot of energy. The wort has to be heated, then cooled. The final product needs to be chilled. Many pieces of heavy machinery such as bottlers, labelers, etc also suck a lot of power. Oh, and I suppose they might want to do a few other things like keep the lights on as well.

A few breweries, such as Magic Hat Brewing in Vermont, are setting up facilities to utilize those spent grains and other waste products on the premises. The idea is to burn all of the waste as fuel for the brewery itself.

Once the grains are used they are taken to a fermenter loaded with bacteria. The bacteria eats through all of the waste and produces methane gas. The methane is then burned to turn a turbine which in turn supplies some of the power for the brewery. An article in Live Science said that there is potential for a brewery to supply up to 60% of their own energy by burning their waste. Granted, it’s not like the spent grain was really being wasted by going to a farm but it saves a lot of diesel by not having a truck come pick it up and drive it back out there.

There are a few other ways to use spent grains but one of my easy favorites is what Court Avenue Brewing here in Des Moines does, make pretzels with them. They bring a few pretzels out with three dips, beer cheese, stone ground mustard, and caramel. The pretzels are delicious, the dips work well with them, it is just….ideal! They’re a bit pricey for a cheapo like me ($6.99), but they’re absolutely worth it.

Many bakeries are making breads and a few other things from the grains. I also found a few reports of people using them to grow mushrooms.

Here are a few recipes you homebrewers can try out with your spent grains. Let me know how they are!

(Source 1, Source 2)

Fourth of July Beers

I’m usually a pretty big fan of various imported beers but in honor of Independence Day I thought it would be appropriate to put up a link to a story posted last year on WashingtonCityPaper.com. The article gives a few American alternatives to popular imports. I’m not too familiar with most of their suggestions outside of Sierra Nevada’s Summerfest, which I agree is a great alternative to Heineken or Stella Artois. That one isn’t just a good replacement because of patriotism but in my mind it is just a better beer.

If you have a suggestion for a good American beer to replace an import for the fourth of July then please let me know and I’ll share it with everyone.

Okay, one more link from last year. This one comes to us from the website Brian’s Belly. This site usually has posts all about beer, guy movies, and food. Last year there was a post titled Two Six-Packs of Truly American Beers for the Fourth of July. The post is about as self-explanatory as possible, he just lists out twelve different American beers he thinks would be appropriate for drinking for the Fourth.