Stella Artois

Any beer whose website can display in six different languages must be popular. But although you can read about Stella Artois in French, Spanish, or even Ukrainian, it’s not a snobby beer. Sure, it’s seven centuries old, European, and has a fancy label–but Stella holds up fine at a big party. Just think of it as Budweiser wearing a beret.

Stella Artois is kind of the bread-and-butter of beer. It’s your basic staple: tasty and inoffensive, always good to have around. If you’re going to keep one beer in your fridge for all occasions, Stella is probably a good choice. It’s not too bad to serve with dinner, and not to good for a game of beer pong.

And when you offer them to guests, make sure to tell them that Stella is one of the oldest beers around–brewed since 1366 (although I hope they’ve changed the recipe since then). Finally, for those of you with culinary aspirations, Stella is the perfect cooking lager. Add a bottle to a sauce or marinade, and even your food will taste like beer!

Party Value: 3/5

 

 

Class Value: 3/5

 

 

Taste Value: 3/5

 

 

New Bars Lets You Tap Your Own Beer

Patrons serve themselves from taps installed at the bar’s tables

A new franchising concept called the Pilsner Unique Bar is mixing the town of Pilsner’s venerable brewing tradition with leading-edge technology. Patrons no longer have to line up at the bar or wait for a server. Instead, they serve themselves from taps installed at the bar’s tables. A display keeps track of how many beers have been poured.

On top of that, the Pilsner Unique Bar is connected to sister franchises elsewhere in the country, so that patrons can challenge barflies in other towns to contests.

Not only do the taps cut down on staffing needs, it also lets customers get their brews as soon as they want them, and attracts parties and groups.

This concept is similar to the The Baggot Inn in Dublin, where people swipe a credit card to pull their own beers. Staff is on hand to offer tips on how to pull the perfect pint.

When will this concept show up at your local dive bar? And what’s next? DIY Cocktail bars for wannabe mixologists?

New Study: High School Drinkers Become College Drinkers

According to a new study from the University of Maryland, the amount that a person drinks in High School is a strong indicator of the amount that they will drink in College.

The researchers checked how closely parents monitored their kids’ activities in high school (Who’s going to be there? What time are you coming home? Were Tom’s parents there?”) and then checked how much alcohol they drank .

The closer the parents monitored high school behavior, the less the kids drank. And the more the kids drank in high school, the more they drank in college.

“High school drinking level by far was the strongest predictor of college drinking,” said a researcher.

But interesting to note is that high school supervision didn’t necessarily translate into less drinking in college.

20ft Tall Moosehead Bottle Stolen by Spring Breakers

Spring Break pranksters make off with 20-foot inflatable beer bottle

The beer bottle bandits waited until 5 a.m., after all the cooks and waitresses had gone home and the managers had locked up.

Then they ducked under a rope fence, pulled the plug on the motor and slashed several of the cords supporting the 20-foot inflatable beer bottle.

“The engine is fairly big 40 or 50 pounds,” said cook Luis Wicho Rodriguez. ” Then two or three had to get the bottle itself. “All that was left the next day was an extension cord and tracks in the sand leading to a nearby beach approach. The Spring Break burglars even slipped past the Ocean Deck’s security cameras without being detected.

“Some drunk spring breakers did it,” employee Brady Carter surmised. “But that was a pretty nice heist.”

It turns out that the mammoth bottle of suds is worth about $5,000, which would be considered grand theft, a felony.

The makers of Moosehead beer want it back. They are offering a case a week of Moosehead light for one year to the person who brings the bottle back to its home at the Ocean Deck.

“It will probably end up at some frat party in Tallahassee,” said Capt. Scott Petersohn, spokesman for the Volusia County Beach Patrol.

Decision 08: Beer vs. Wine

Beer drinkers appear more likely to vote for Sen. John McCain in November, while those who enjoy wine say they’re more likely to vote Democratic in the fall. Among registered voters who prefer beer to wine, McCain has a 53 percent-46 percent edge over Sen. Hillary Clinton while McCain winds up in a virtual tie with Sen. Barack Obama among beer drinkers. In the head-to-head match-ups with McCain, Sens. Obama and Clinton each win a majority among registered voters who prefer wine to beer.

Overall, 28 percent of all Americans say they prefer beer to wine and 31 percent say they would rather have a glass of wine than a bottle of brew. (The rest claim that they never drink under any circumstances.)

The apparent political differences are really matters of gender and class – men are big beer drinkers while women prefer wine over beer, as do higher-income Americans and college graduates.

The poll of 950 registered voters was conducted by telephone on March 14-16 and has a sampling error of plus or minus 6.5 percentage points.

P Diddy’s Car Service for Drunk Stars

Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs is launching a car service to drive drunk celebrities home.He hopes his new venture will put an end to much talked about celebrity DUI arrests.

A representative for Combs says, “He wants to make sure everyone’s partying responsibly.”

“After partnering with Ciroc vodka, he wants to make sure everyone’s partying responsibly,” his rep says.

Next Page »