Graphic designer Ricky Salsberry is behind this range of newly designed environmentally-friendly aluminum bottles for Great Lakes Brewery. Rebranding of Great Lakes Brewery includes new mark and packaging with an updated set of panoramic black & white photography or illustrations for the case and bottle. www.greatlakesbrewing.com/

Coronation Street, the most successful soap in the history of British television, is making plans to launch its own beer brand under the fictional brewers name ‘Newton & Ridley”. For years residents have supped on beer in the local pub The Rovers Return and now we all soon to be able to have taste. There are also plans for a knickers line from the underwear factory ‘Underworld’ and Corrie themed restaurants.   

What fun! What else can they do? A range of Deidre Barlow belts?

In these crunchie times it seems that the supermarkets in the UK are putting their responsible drinking ethics on hold. Tescos have slashed the price of a 18 bottle case of Carlsberg Export from £14.99 to just £5. Yes £5! This follows Asda’s price cut of a four pack of Skol to 90 pence earlier this week.  We haven’t been down to our local Tescos yet but reports are coming in of slight mayhem and hysteria. 

They say: Stack them high, sell them cheap!

We say: It’s crunchie madness!

Asahi Ginger Draft is a new “Happoshu” (brewed with 25% less malt content to beer) which contains a spicy ginger extract. The drink will which is targeted at a younger Japanese consumer will be available from mid-October for 160 yen for a 350-milliliter can.

J Pop superstar Anna Tsuchiya will be helping to promote the beer with a track on her forthcoming album named “Ginger” which is a collaboration between Anna and rock band Monkey Majik, to be be used as the theme song to the Asahi Ginger Draft commercial from October 21.

[Read more →]

Available in the US towards the end of the year are these cool new aluminum bottles for Miller Lite. Following in the footsteps of Bud Lite these new 16oz (a pint) bottles are recyclable and said to keep the beer cooler for longer. They are being sold in packs of 9. We approve.

Why aren’t the UK doing this? The fact they are pint sized would totally help the being given flimsy plastic glasses problem when you drink outside.

Conservationists warned yesterday about the decline of the British art of painted pub signs, a result of corporate pub chains and the homogenous pub branding. This is compounded by closure of 57 pubs per month. Quite rightly there is some outrage at the potential loss of this artform.  

How do we stop the decline? Well it’s unlikely that the corporatisation trend will slow down, so how about the Pitcher and Pianos of the world commissioning artwork for pub signs and giving each of their bars some individuality rather than some bland ‘fits all’ logo. They could approach contemporary British artists and revive the tradition.       

A Chilean brewer Ricardo Molina has made a quinoa based beer. Why didnt we think of this? Quinoa is the Peruvian supergrain which has tonnes of minerals, protein and good things and is loved by all wellbeing foodie types. Read up on it here. The beer - Cerveza Artesanal de Santa Cruz- has only recently launched in Chile but is doing well by all accounts and they aim to start exporting in two years. We couldn’t find a nice picture of the bottle so we chose a nice pixture of the grain instead.  Molina says:

“We started making this beer only six months ago, and it has already had spectacular success. We thought that the hardest thing would be to convince the consumers of the advantages of the product, but we were wrong; on the contrary, it was even harder to convince ourselves that we could have such success. ” 

We say: Inca beer genius

One of our favourite brewers BrewDog of PUNK IPA fame is being investigated by The Portman Group after a complaint about four of its products (Punk IPA, Rip Tide, Hop Rocker and Speedball.) 

Who’s complaining exactly and on what grounds? Tho shalt not use humour, irony and good branding? Apparently Brewdogs labels were deemed to be “associated with antisocial behaviour. ” Has Mary Whitehouse risen from the grave? 

A spokesperson for the Portman Group told Just Drinks “We received some complaints about BrewDog and they are being processed through the normal route which is our independent complaints panel who will hear the complaints made against BrewDod. The panel will make the final decision.”

Thank goodness for Melissa Cole of the Girls Guide to Beer blog who has criticised the Portman Groups recent draconian stance on beer names and launched a petition in defence of BrewDog. Have a read of her posts for some much needed sanity and sign the petition.

Cobra Beer is adding a new varient to its Cobra Bite range in the UK. Cobra Beer with Fresh Ginger will be added to the current range which originally went on sale last May in the UK. Other flavours include Cobra Bite with Sweet Lime, Blood Orange and Lemongrass.

Those crazy Aussies. A hot air balloon shaped as a Carlton beer pot was flown for 90 minutes during rush hour over the CBD (financial district) of Melbourne this morning. It’s part of an ongoing campaign which includes a really rather good TV advert and further actual balloon flying antics across Australia. Read full story at The Age and here is that ace ad after the jump:

[Read more →]

Just genius!

For those of you with iPhones to get the app just go to the itunes store and type in iPint. Its free.

Due to be released next month to celebrate the hunting season are these camo cans from Miller High Life. Not something you would likely see in Europe.

Check out the multi-pack packaging from last year after the jump.

[Read more →]

The BBC ran an interesting story yesterday about The Pigs pub in Norfolk, UK, allowing customers to swap their homegrown vegetables for beer in a bid to encourage custom during these credit crunch hard times.

Read it here.

Carlsberg are capitalising on their new position as the UK’s favourite lager (taking over Stella this year) by teaming up with The Sun newspaper for a national promotion for the August bank holiday weekend on the 23rd August. Readers of the UK tabloid can redeem vouchers for a free pint at over 13,000 pubs across the country.

UPDATE: The Publican has reported that the promotion is causing huge controversy with Liverpool FC fans who still harbour resentment after the newspapers coverage of the Hillsborough disaster in 1989. The fans are threatening to boycott Carlsberg. Read the full story here.

UPDATE 2: Carlsberg announced that the promotion has been cancelled due to the above controversy.

Mother has won the ad launch campaign for InBevs new Stella 4% variant. Lowe has been the Stella creative ad agency for over 25 years so this is a major blow. However Mother has only won the launch campaign and it’s yet to be decided who will work on the sub brand in the future. The ad campaign is due to break in November and we are looking forward to the campaign and the beer.

We have a taste for Porter right now and one of our favourites has to be the Flying Dog Brewery Gonzo Imperial Porter. It is inspired by the late Hunter S Thompson and the label artwork uses Ralph Steadman’s iconic portrait of the seminal gonzo journalist. It comes in at 8.7% so has a healthy kick.

Last month Forbes put together an interesting article on Brewery Tours and Beer Tourism with a focus on the growth of craft brewers in the US. Read the whole article here.

News today that InBev are to begin selling Stella Artois in pint sized cans (568ml) in the UK this month. Surprised this has taken so long really and we expect others to be following suit pretty sharpish.