Mar/101
How to Make Green Beer for St. Patty’s Day in 3 Easy Steps
Step 1:
Grab a case of your favourite light pilsner and some liquid blue food colour.
Note: You could attemt to make green beer with darker brews, but light beer results in a better green beer. Think back to your colour theory classes in high school 
Step 2:
Pick a mug of your choice for you and your buddies. Pop it in a freezer for an hour to make sure that the brew becomes nice and frosty after you pour it. If you are a bottle drinker, just make sure your brew is nice and cold. Check out the Beer Fridges and Coolers post to help you decide what fridge you’ll want for your birthday.
Step 3:
After you open your bottle of beer or pour it in your mug, squeeze a few drops of blue food colouring into the brew. Don’t worry the food colouring is vegetable based and does not affect the taste of the brew. Blue food coloring achieves a better green than green food coloring when making Irish Green beer. This happens because beer is yellow, so when you add blue food coloring you will get a greener color than if you use green food coloring.
Note: Don’t be to hasty with adding too much food colouring to your beer. You might find that the blue mixes in a lot quicker with the beer and you could end up with a very very dark green beer.
And remember!
Mar/100
The Hangover: What to do about it.
Continued from The Hangover: How to prevent one.
So if you did have too much to drink and found yourself one-on-one with a hangover, you are probably very much interested in how to get rid of this wretched condition. Fact of the matter is that there are plenty hangover cures out there. Some of them work and some don’t. In this post, I will try to explore some of the hangover cures known to me.
We’ll start with the most common one:
1) Greasy Breakfast – Probably the most common hangover cure known in this part of the world. Personally, I don’t feel this one works. The theory behind this hangover cure is that a greasy “All American,” “Full English,” or whatever-you-call-it will soak up the alcohol, thereby making you feel better. There is some mixed information here that makes this hangover cure a dud. It is true that too much alcohol may upset your stomach. it is also true that egg yolks contain amino acids that reduce stomach acid and may help you get over your upset stomach Unfortunately, if you are going to have a greasy breakfast after an alcohol induced, coma-like sleep, it is really too late for anything to absorb alcohol since the alcohol has been in your system for hours. So it is a good idea to have your greasy breakfast before you pass out and you may wake up without nausea and the upset stomach. Keep in mind that bacon and eggs will not save you from a headache. Another downside is that if you are feeling nauseous, just the thought of eating might make you hurl. (Which actually may be a relief, but you won’t find the process pleasant.) And after a night of polluting your system with alcohol, clogging your arteries with grease and making your liver work overtime is really not the best idea. Instead of this, I would recommend a bowl of chicken soup.
Feb/1014
The Hangover: How to prevent one.
No matter what kind of alcohol you prefer, I think we can all agree that the worst part of alcohol abuse enjoyment is the hangover. Thus, this blog entry is not exclusive to the world of beer and could have been written about any type of alcohol.
I hate hangovers and I’m sure you do too. I’m also certain that, like me, one of these painful hung-over mornings probably caused you to regret the events of the previous night. You also probably tried to get rid of your hangover or even vowed to never drink again (usually for reasons more than just physical and nausea caused by your alcohol consumption). So in this BrewBlog entry I will talk less about beer and more about how to relieve the pain caused by having too much beer (or anything else you were drinking).
First of all, what is a hangover? A hangover is an automatic physical reaction towards excessive consumption of alcohol. This may result in a crescendo of side effects such as reduced blood sugar levels, increased blood pressure, liver strain, nausea and some other unpleasant effects. The severity of the hangover depends on the amount of alcohol consumed, your body’s ability to cope and your age.
Before alcohol consumption results in a hangover, there are actually a couple of hangover-prevention methods that you may arm yourself with in an attempt to prevent a morning of misery. Some of the common ways to prevent a hangover are:
• Don’t drink on an empty stomach…duhh.
• If possible, don’t downshift alcohol volume. In other words, if you were drinking beer and then decided to have a scotch on the rocks, don’t go back to beer or anything that has a lower alcohol content than scotch.
• It’s a good idea not to mix alcohol types. So don’t mix grain alcohol (vodka, sake, whiskey) with grape alcohol (champagne, wine, brandy) or and agave alcohol (tequila).
• Have a glass of water in between drinks.
• Avoid chasing shots with carbonated soft drinks. That might actually make you barf before you even get to the hangover phase.
Following these simple rules will reduce your chances of a hangover. Check back soon for part two of my hangover post, where I will write about common hangover cures.
Oct/092
Monster vs Vermonster
This entry has little to do with the Canadian beer scene, but I’m sure similar events could happen here. So I’m gonna post this little blurb that may also sounds like a rant.
Over the past week there has been commotion in the US beer community about the Hansen Beverage Company (creator of Monster Energy Drink) bullying Rock Art Brewery, a modest Vermont microbrewery. The dispute is over the word ‘Monster’ contained in the name for one of Rock Art’s brews.
Oct/0925
Alexander Keith’s Brewery Tour
During my recent trip to Halifax, Nova Scotia, I decided to visit the famous Alexander Keith’s Brewery and attend their brewery tour. I confess that it was one of my first brewery visits, but it left a unique impression on me and set a benchmark yet to be defied by other breweries. First of all, this is not your typical tour where you are led through the facilities, educated on the history of the brand and their beer making process and then given the opportunity to try some of the beer samples. Alexander Keith’s tour is more like an interactive show in which you also play a role. Just as a side note… I will not describe the tour in step by step detail simply to not spoil the experience….assuming that one day you will go there as well.
During your journey, you take on a role of a visitor from ‘our’ time who somehow ends up in the 19th century Halifax, right when Mr. Keith was doing his brewing magic. The experience takes place inside the old Alexander Keith’s house and the neighbouring Keith’s beer production facilities. As you make your way through various rooms and buildings, you get a chance to meet some of the actors, portraying the people who played a significant role at Keith’s brewery. Each one tells you a few interesting facts about Keith’s brewing and the impact it had on our culture. They also talk about their responsibilities around the facilities and usually get you to do something related to the brewing process… like assess the barley or approve a beer sample. Towards the end of the tour and after all the hard work, your reward is a few mugs of either Keith’s IPA, Red, White or Stout inside what looks like the original Red Stag tavern. While you enjoy a fresh brew, the actors entertain you with popular 19th century Nova Scotian songs, dances and a few old tavern games.
I left the tour with a big smile on my face, but I couldn’t help feeling like something was missing. The actors were great, the sets and decorations were top notch, and the beer samples very fresh. However, I never had a chance to see any of the actual workers in the midst of the beer making or the actual brewing facilities (except for the green beer storage tanks). And where was Mr. Keith himself!?! J By the end of the tour I realized that this wasn’t really a ‘brewery tour’ as it was advertised…it was more like a historic site tour…not what I expected. Nonetheless, I did not feel like the $12 I spent were a total loss. The actors kept me entertained every step of the way, and I did get 3 mugs of beer (about half pint each). However, it would’ve been nice if I was given some sort of a souvenir (like a mug) at the end.
To all of you reading this and those who plan on visiting Halifax, I would suggest that you check out the tour. It’s unique, it’ fun, and you get to learn some interesting facts about Keith’s beer. Here are some pictures of the tour after the jump:
Oct/092
Craft Brewing
I find that a lot of my friends usually don’t know – or care – where their brews come from. That’s because the average beer drinker is someone who simply chooses the beer on sale at the liquor store, a brand they’ve seen in an advertisement, or the beer recommended by a friend or a bartender. 
To help you choose (and to choose wisely!) here are the three kinds of brewers whose beer you may get to taste:
- MACROBREWERS – The beer giants like Molson-Coors, Labatt, Carlsberg, etc. These brewers have been around for as long as anyone can remember, and they’re the ones who are lucrative enough to sponsor professional sports teams, sports events or concerts. Surely, you’ve seen their ads on primetime TV and in full-page magazine spreads. They are the big corporate entities driven, primarily, by profit.You can find macrobrewers’ brands in most stores and bars everywhere.
- HOMEBREWERS – At-home beer enthusiasts who brew batches of beer in their garage or basement or brew-your-own shops. (Akin to bathtub crystal meth chemists, or homegrown ganja farmers…if you can relate).
- MICROBREWERS or CRAFT BREWERS – These are your small local breweries that produce beer in relatively small batches. Microbrewers are the folks who truly love beer and focus on making the kind of beer that you would love as well. Unfortunately, these brews are often unavailable at most stores and bars.
Sep/092
Top 5 Beer Commercials
Beer commercials are great, usually a lot better than the beer itself. I find that this is especially true for Bud Light commercials. Good advertising, marginal beer.
On that note, my top 5 favourite beer commercials:
#1 Miller Light.
Sep/091
History of Beer
Here is a great example of how beer has shaped the world as we know it. Courtesy of Manolith.
Design and layout by 600 Series Design, illustrations by Dan Zettwoch.
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