A Beer Drinker’s Multivitamin

Drinkwel is self-described as “the first multivitamin specially formulated for people that drink alcohol. It helps replenish nutrients, supports healthy liver function, and improves the way you'll feel the next day.” They come in $39.95 bottles of 90 capsules, which is the recommended supply for a month.

I looked through the ingredient list and found some of the standards for multi-vitamins/herbal supplements like acai berry, green tea, B12, vitamin C, and a few others. They also had a few others I didn’t expect to see like milk thistle, globe artichoke (another thistle variety), and some Chinese herbs like Schisandra. It almost looks like they just found as many “healthy-sounding” herbs and minerals as they could, tossed them in a mixer, and poured the result into a capsule.

Remember how I said that you get a bottle of 90 and that lasts you a month? Well, that’s only true if you don’t drink. Under the FAQ section it says that you’re supposed to take an additional 3 pills with water before you go to bed. If you’re drinking water before you sleep it will already help stave off a hangover. Also, that means that if you drink somewhere around twice a week your supply runs out a full week in advance.

Besides, who wants to take a pill 3 times a day? It sure seems like a better idea to get your vitamins from a healthy diet and drink some water before you go to bed. However, if healthy liver function is REALLY on your mind, this might be a good thing to check out.

Robots Are Neat

I’ve seen a lot of cool videos of robots doing things in the past. In fact, I’ve even seen a few other robots that get beer from a fridge, and then deliver it to you. This one beats it all though!

The people at Willow Garage have developed a program Beer Me Robot for the PR2 (Personal Robot 2) as a part of the hackathon competition. For the hackathon a team starts Monday morning and has a workable program for a robot by Friday afternoon. Click the link, watch the video and prepare to be amazed by this incredible robot!

I tried to check out what all this robot can do but a lot of the things I could find were WAY over my

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head. I was mostly just concerned with the “Beer Me” program put together by Willow Garage. You open the program on your computer, enter what kind of beer you want, and then it will go get it and deliver it to you.

If that wasn’t cool enough by itself it will also send you a message if your beer of choice isn’t in the fridge, and it knows how to use a bottle opener once it brings you your beer.

Most people think of the future and it involves flying cars, disease cures, and Marty McFly. When I think of the future, it is a robot that brings me a beer! Now if only I could get a Tinchilla and teach a robot how to use THAT too…

Beer Savers

I own a slap-chop.

That alone should tell you how I feel about silly gadgets which are almost worthless, I’m a big fan. Usually they’re great but I think I’ve found something that goes too far. A little silicon cap for your beer bottle called a Beer Saver. They’re advertised on the Beer Saver website as a tool to keep your beer fresh and safe. If you can’t drink your beer before it loses its freshness then you really probably shouldn’t be drinking beer.

When I read about this product I was reminded of a time in college when I had spent the entire hot afternoon working outside in the Texas heat. I came home and went to the fridge to grab my very last beer. I grabbed the nicely chilled bottle and flopped down on the couch to enjoy some TV and relaxation. When I cracked the beer open there was no pleasant release of carbon dioxide; instead it was just a light fizzle. Upon further inspection I realized that my beer, my last beer, was only half full. My “friend” that was over the night before, a notorious lightweight, drank half of a beer, recapped it, and put it back in my fridge. I suppose if I had a set of beer savers for him to use I would have immediately known to just go punch Joel instead of getting my hopes up.

One of the other self-proclaimed attributes of the beer saver caps is that the use of one “Helps keep your beer safely identified when in clubs, bars and restaurants.” Like with many products, there is a big difference between in-home use and using one in public. If you’re using a beer saver at home it probably wouldn’t be a big deal, but if I was hanging out in a bar and someone pulled a bright yellow silicon cap from their pocket to cap their beer my immediate response would be to turn away and immediately end the conversation.

The one redeeming value of the beer saver is the fact that they’ve slashed the price from $19.99 to $6.99. That seems like a reasonable price, but the original price sets them at over three dollars per cap, that’s asinine.

If you’re interested then go ahead and get a six-pack of beer savers. When it turns out that I’m wrong feel free to let me know just how great they are or how much you love to use them.

Tinchilla Instant Beer Cooler

I found this product on the website of North London based, family-owned and operated business Cyber Candy. This is in the same theme as my last post because like every other summer I’m spending a lot of time this July worrying about how to keep my beer cold while I’m outside. I tried out the cooler tip I posted yesterday and it worked great. This looks like a great solution if you only need to chill your brews one can at a time.

Tinchilla can cooler

The website says it will cool off your beer to nearly 35 degrees in a mere sixty seconds by quickly spinning the can against ice. I found a customer review that allayed my deepest fear about the product, that it would shake the can to a point where it exploded in my face when I opened it. I don’t know how it is possible but apparently this customer didn’t have any issue with that. I also figure that if it were a problem it would have shown up somewhere in the consumer reviews that I checked out.

The one big downside is that the Tinchilla is currently out of stock. The Cyber Candy website said it is pretty common to for them to run out of things but that they usually have their products available again after eight weeks. I’ll be watching their website pretty closely for when these dandy little things are on the shelves again and I’ll let you know when it happens.

In lieu of the Tinchilla being available for purchase I found an alternate product, the Cooper Cooler. It is the same basic idea as the Tinchilla but larger so it works for beer bottles and wine bottles as well. I found prices for the Cooper Cooler varying from as much $90 to as cheap as $49 on Amazon. Yes, it does more, but the Tinchilla is priced a little more reasonably at £9.99, roughly $15.00 in US Dollars. Also, like the Tinchilla it doesn't shake the beer while it spins it. Their website has a video that shows a deomstation where a can is pulled directly from the Cooper Cooler and opened with absolutly no overflow.

I also found an alternative to the Cooper Cooler made by the same people called the Blitz Chiller that is made specifically for cans and bottles, not for wine. The price is also a little bit easier to stomach - $39.99 on Amazon.

I’m pretty excited to get my hands on a Tinchilla as soon as possible but would be more than willing to take a more expensive Cooper Cooler or Blitz Chiller. That is, of course, if you’re interested in getting a gift for your favorite beer blogger.