Holiday Tragedy

The cursed residents of Wheat Ridge, CO dealt with another in a series of recent tragedies yesterday when another semi-trailer filled with beer overturned on Interstate 70. The driver was heading eastbound and exiting Highway 58 just after high noon and apparently failed to hit the ramp at a slow rate of speed. The truck was carrying more than 70,000 lbs of beer, including 160 kegs and more than 1,000 cans of beer. According to reports, this is the third truck to roll on what we are now dubbing "Devil's Off Ramp" since August of 2008.

The truck, owned by Central Refrigerated Services, Inc. was said to be coming from the Coors Brewery. The good news is that the driver was not hurt and the spilled beer was apparently Keystone, which nobody drinks anyway.

A Holiday Brew Review - Twelve Days

The stockings are hung by the chimney with care, the holiday lights bring cheer to the neighborhood, and there's a wonderful winter wonderland across the country. Maybe it's wonderful because while much of the country is getting pelted with cold rain, ice, and snow we're sitting in front of the warm glow of the television while drinking our latest find - Hook Norton Brewery's Twelve Days English Christmas Ale.

This ale comes from our brothers across the pond in the UK (Oxfordshire, to be exact) in a tall and unique 1 pint .9 fluid ounce dark bottle. It pours into the pint glass quite smooth and results in a rich, thick head that's somewhere between egg shell white and beige in color. It's a clear, dark brown ale that begs to be enjoyed. And as it's enjoyed the brew leaves a beautiful lacing on the glass (always a sign of good beer). The back label on the bottle accurately describes Twelve Days as malty above all else with some hints of nutty and chocolate flavors. It goes down smooth, a bit sweet, and is not too carbonated. It's not a complicated flavor so probably easily enjoyed by most at your holiday party. If the merry gatherers don't like it just feed them something with "drinkability" so you can enjoy the real beer.

Nothing overtly negative about this ale but nothing that makes it overtly memorable either. It's the kind of beer you will enjoy this year and next year wonder what that beer was from the UK that you really liked but don't remember the name and wish you could because you really liked it. If you're lucky you will accidentally pick it up again next year.

Look, Up in the Sky

We are not intentionally grabbing only Florida drinking stories - we promise. A woman in Ft. Pierce, Florida was found drinking on the roof of somebody else's home. According to the article, the woman come down and leave but only if the owner gave her more beer. The woman, who was not identified in the article, faces a disorderly intoxication charge.

The AP went on to report that the woman "has been in trouble before".

Take Us into the Weekend Johnny

Pour Some Out for the Homies

We're on the soapbox this morning - a bit delayed but that's because of the hangover. We were not thrilled with the InBev purchase of Anheuser-Busch but we played the stiff upper lip. It's still brewed in America, still headquartered in St. Louis, and there is still something American cool about going into a bar and ordering a Bud. Besides, it's the way of the world for the big brewers (ahem, MolsonCoors). And when big fish eat even bigger fish do beer lovers hear it?

We knew the winds of change were blowing but less than a month into this new venture comes the announcement that A-B will be cutting 1,400 jobs - 75 percent of which are located at the St. Louis headquarters. This does not include the 415 contractor jobs that are also being cut. This will save the company $1.5 billion and that's a lot of money. Part of this is our own fault. In the Wal-Mart world we live in everybody races to the lowest price quality be damned. We're over-simplifying two very complicated issues (1-InBev's job cutting and 2-the entire economy).

We had thoughts on calling for some sort of boycott but we're taking a different strategy. Don't boycott anything - buy. Buy American. Buy local. Everywhere you can purchase a product made in America - preferably if it's an American-owned company (thereby keeping profits in America). Keep the jobs here, the middle-class labor and manufacturing and engineering jobs. This doesn't mean you can't enjoy a Molson or Blue every now and again but think about what your buying before you buy - whether it's a beer, #2 pencil, or shovel from Home Depot.

Next Blog

Proving that our blog is at least as insignificant as all the others.

Running for Rhinos: Describing the Progress Training to Run the London Marathon 2009 to Raise Money for Save the Rhino International.
How many kilometers is in a marathon? Nevermind, we're not running it regardless of what happens to the rhinos.

Aloware Corporation: Disenado por louis
Looks like some sort of corporate partnership between Apple and Google - you know, because they don't own enough of the Internet already.

Israel is Real
Dispelling the myth that Israel is fake.

Hoy Libro!
Aye Carumba

A "Far Out" Westerly View: The Musings of A Conservative Mind Plus Rants, Raves and Accolades
You might think we found the real life Steven Colbert but it's not much more than a family blog with suspect spelling (see post - "will tomorrow every come").

Vincit Omnia Veritas
Seeking to fill the void in life by blogging (seriously, we're not making that up)

Learning to Live Love: An Expression of My Journey of Learning What it Means to Live Love
Oh, puke.

Planet of the Kates
Ripping off a crappy movie for your blog title. Kate does apparently own a giant size old school Nintendo controller so we give a slight tip of the hat.

Wow Online Strategy Vault: Wow Strategies for Dominating World of Warcraft
We'd rather go back to Learning to Live Love. And we just got the "WOW" acronym.

I am Not Like Everybody Else: Andrea Orciari
Yes you are.

Merry New Year, Ya Hosers

A Little Father-Son Road Trip

In our continuing series that highlights the lowlights of drinking and fatherhood we today bring you the story of Joshua Fagan of somewhere in or near Fort Myers, Florida. Having recently lost his job in construction and his wife to divorce Mr. Fagan did what many of us might do - he had a few drinks. As is sometimes wont to happen, Mr. Fagan had enough to recognize that he was in no condition to drive. He apparently was drinking at home so being impaired and not driving is good but doesn't get you the same bragging rights as if you were smart enough to cab it home from the bar.

Here's where the story gets interesting. Mr. Fagan was not done drinking and decided that rather than break the law he would simply have his 9 year old son drive to the store for some more of the good stuff.

The local CBS affiliate, WINK (seriously, the CBS affiliate is WINK? Florida is messed up) followed the story. Here's a portion of Maggie Crane's Peabody-worthy report:
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REPORTER: "We have this police report. Would you care to comment on the safety of your son?"

FAGAN: shut the door to his home without comment.
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Riveting.