Beer
by Dave Freeman on October 29, 2009

Meet the arkeg. The ultimate combination of a MAME console, and a kegerator. Those lucky bast blokes at Wired managed to get they hands on one to review. It’s got some good and bad points, but you have to admit it’s cool no matter what.

by Doug Aamoth on October 12, 2009

After a long, hard day of… playing with toys, watching cartoons, and napping, nothing spells refreshment like a frosty glass of Kodomo No Nomimono – a phrase which I can only assume means something close to “beer for kids” in Japanese.

by Doug Aamoth on August 8, 2009

kegpackIf you ask me (and nobody asked me) the standard 12-ounce beer size is long overdue for an upgrade. We, as Americans, like things larger than life and there’s no reason we should still be drinking a single beer in under a minute. Until all beer manufacturers start shipping suds in 32-ounce (or larger) cans, we’ll have to make due with an apparatus such as this: the Portable Tap Dispenser.

Chrome and PBR link up for Limited Edition Citizen PBR messenger bag
3 Comments
by Peter Ha on July 20, 2009

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What happens when you mix one of the best ‘budget’ beers with the best messenger bag company in the biz? The best messenger bag of all time! That’s right, friends, Chrome is giving away one (or maybe more than one, I don’t know) LE Citizen PBR bag. How do you win? I’m glad you asked because it’s the easiest contest I’ve ever come across.

Sign up for Chrome’s e-mail correspondences before July 31 and you’re automagically entered to win! A winner will be announced the following day. Easy, right?

Citizen PBR Bag [Chrome]

by Doug Aamoth on July 10, 2009

beerBrewing your own beer by hand is soooo 1992. You can now automate most of the process using an Arduino controller and some source code over at Halfluck.com.

by Doug Aamoth on June 15, 2009

BeerPaQOkay, this is definitely a new one. The “BeerPaQ CarboPouch for Draft Beers” is pretty much exactly like it sounds, although you could drop “BeerPaQ” and “Carbo” to achieve the same effect: it’s beer, but in a pouch. But why?

by Doug Aamoth on March 19, 2009

The Beer Blaster isn’t NEW new, per se, but keep it on your radar as we prepare to enter the first days of outdoor drinking season – spring, summer, and fall. The kit consists of a gun that allows you to shotgun a beer to someone else, if that makes sense, and you’d be remiss to wander about your neighborhood barbecues without the additional holster and ammo belt.

by Scott Merrill on February 3, 2009

Beer, the third most popular beverage in the world after water and tea, just gained another reason for our support. Sierra Nevada Brewing, makers of fine beverages, recently purchased an EFuel 100 MicroFueler, which produces ethanol from water, sugar, and yeast. Guess what one of the major byproducts of beer fermentation is? Yup, yeast! The excess yeast left over from brewing will soon find its way into ethanol production.

by Matt Burns on December 31, 2008

Okay. We have all lost a beer. It happens. You set it down for a moment, only to lose it seconds later. It’s frustrating early in the night, but infuriating around 2:00AM. Enter the Remote Control Beer Pager.

CrunchDeals: Free shipping at Mr. Beer
2 Comments
by John Biggs on November 21, 2008


I love me some Mr.Beer and if you get a chance, pop over before November 26 for free shipping on all orders. I’ve made Mr. Beer beer yearly for the holidays and the kits are easy to use and the beer tastes great. If you order now you can literally have homemade beer in time for Christmas.

Bandai Japan sells beer shampoo
7 Comments
by Serkan Toto on November 20, 2008

Bandai Japan today announced it will start selling beer shampoo (in beer bottles) December 1st [JP]. It’s about time somebody came up with this. The company is promoting the shampoo as part of its “One of the things everyone has been wanting to try for a long time at least once” series, which includes fake money bills that you can take a bath with [JP].

Bandai says one of the ingredients of the shampo is hops extract, exactly the kind found in normal beer. According to the company users are supposed to simulate the joy of opening a beer bottle with a splash without the usual consequences in their own home.

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How to ease your girlfriend into liking beer (plus bonus grammar challenge!)
8 Comments
by Nicholas Deleon on November 3, 2008

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I’d say 90 percent of the staff here is one weekend bender away from a one-way trip to the Betty Ford Center.

But beer doesn’t merely ruin lives, no sir. It can, apparently, ruin relationships, too! That is, unless you follow the advice of The Frisky, a new women’s site that was just brought to my attention. They’ve put together a list of 10 so-called “gateway beers*” that your better half will enjoy.

For example, Red Stripe is described as a “lager-style beer that has a cola-like thickness, no wonder it’s brewed by a former soft drink manufacturer. It also has a faint hint of molasses making it not too sweet and not too bitter.”

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Lego beer pouring machine run by the iPhone: The perfect Digg storm
9 Comments
by John Biggs on October 27, 2008

This video shows an iPhone controlled beer pouring machine that is triggered by the word “Pour” found in a Pownce RSS feed. It does not solve world hunger or cure cancer, but I think the creator’s heart is definitely in the right place.

Digg users/Gizmodo take note: this product, made from Legos, run by the iPhone, and designed to pour an entire bottle of beer into a glass is aimed squarely at your target demographic. Our only improvement? If the iPhone had been controlled by a man in a Boba Fett costume and the woman in the video had been dressed like Leia in the Jabba’s lair I think the true awesometude would have blown this video off the charts.

Cancer-fighting chemical to be added to beer
5 Comments
by Doug Aamoth on October 23, 2008

beer

We’ve all heard the “red wine is good for you” argument before, but let’s face it; not everyone would choose a glass of red wine over a nice, cold beer. I wouldn’t, at least. Anyway, the actual benefit of drinking red wine comes from a cancer-fighting chemical called resveratrol, which occurs naturally in grapes.

The problem with the red wine argument is that you’d have to consume about a half a bottle each day to get the beneficial effects of the chemical. If only someone could figure out how to add a more potent blend to delicious, nutritious beer…

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Review: Heineken Draught Keg
36 Comments
by John Biggs on October 18, 2008

Think back on the last party you attended. Perhaps you enjoy sitting around an impeccably decorated living room and sipping glasses of cold, frosty beer poured by a nattily attired waitress named Nicole hired for the night so the hostess could mingle with the glitterati in attendance. Or perhaps it was at your friend Terry’s house where you ended up puking all over his couch after trying, and failing, to put firecrackers on his cat. If you read CrunchGear, I’m suspecting it was the latter. That is why the Heineken Draught Keg is not for you.

Conceptually, this bucket of beer is solid. Who wouldn’t want a big keg of Heinie on the counter, ready for all comers? It’s like a party ball without the ball you can cut in half and put on your head later.
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Clever promotions company fills USB drive with beer, other liquids declared the best thing on earth
by Peter Ha on October 6, 2008

This is what’s wrong with Digg. I just wish I had found it first. Heh.

CNK

Spin the Beer Wheel, win a prize (beer + knowledge)
2 Comments
by Doug Aamoth on September 25, 2008

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People who are really into wine get cool sounding titles like “Sommelier” and “wine enthusiast” while people who really love beer are often just called “fat” and/or “drunk”. Unfair though it may be, I happily plop myself into the latter category of beer lovers. So for the beer lover who’s got it all, here’s the $8.99 Beer Wheel — a drinking gadget, if you will. Ooh, and it’s edumacational, too.

It’s actually probably a better gift for people just getting into beer, as it’s got all the pertinent info about all the wonderful beers of the world. You’ll learn about lagers, ales, bocks, pilsners, stouts, and more. Plus the more you drink, the more fun it is to spin the wheel. I’d keep the fridge loaded with beers of each type, spin the wheel, then drink the type of beer it landed on. Then you could learn about your beer as you’re tasting it. There’s a bar near my place that has a beer wheel, although you don’t really learn about the beer. You just give them money and spin the wheel.

Beer Wheel [Organize.com via Uncrate]

TrekStor creates a thumb drive that you might actually keep in your pocket
by Doug Aamoth on September 8, 2008

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Hot on the heels of our back to school week comes one of the most seemingly indispensable storage devices to date: The TrekStor USB stick with built-in bottle opener. Let’s face it, there have been a lot of stupid, dumb implementations of flash drives before (keychains, wristbands, necklaces, etc.) and a lot of brilliant implementations of bottle openers before (Reef’s “Fanning” sandals, for one) and it’s about time we got some crossover between the two.

The TrekStore flash drive comes in a solid, brushed aluminum housing and is available in capacities between one and 16 gigabytes. It’ll be available in October (hopefully it’ll make its way here) for between 6.99 and 49.99 Euro, depending on which capacity you choose – that’s about $10 to $70 US.

[via DVICE]

IFA 2008 Booze Cruise
by Scott Merrill on September 2, 2008

2008 is the first year that the IFA consumer electronics show in Berlin has included so-called “white goods” in addition to the traditional media and entertainment products on display.  Particularly interesting to me were a collection of high-end wine coolers like those pictured above, and the Philips Perfect Draft beer fridge.  Stick a pony keg inside the Perfect Draft and you can reenact your favorite scenes from Cheers!

Stella Artois-branded PSP: That’s a fancy beer, midwesterners
9 Comments
by Nicholas Deleon on August 25, 2008

stellapsp

Stella Artois is a non-offensive beer best consumed while watching non-American sports like the Champions League or the Tri Nations. The Sony PSP is a portable video game system best enjoyed after it’s been loaded with a custom firmware and decked out with emulators and the like.

But a Stella Artois PSP? Madness.

The PSP isn’t an official Sony product, but rather represents the handiwork of Fosters’ sales team. (Remember, Fosters is Australian for “beer.”) It’s got the lager’s logo on the back of the system itself, and comes with a cloth case that just so happens to have the Stella logo for all to see. Some 50 of these were produced.

Now, if someone makes a Miller High Life version, then we can all celebrate. To quote Opie and Anthony producer Danny Ross, it’s the champagne of beers.

via Kotaku

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