Man's Best Friend Gets Even Better

A company called Bark4Beer has created the best canine accessory in the history of man's best friend. For just $14.95 you can purchase a dog collar that is embedded with a retractable bottle opener. And they know their marketing saying it's a "great gift for you, your loved one, fraternity brother, college roommate, hunting friends, tailgate posse and of course your dog. Bring out your inner party animal today."

Wondering how it works? Click here for a demonstration by disturbingly half-naked Joey. Now, if we could only get Fido to fetch the beer.

Tip of the hat to the Baltimore Sun's Unleashed blog.

You Don't Drink the Can - You Drink the Beer

The big brewers often rely on big marketing to sell there ware. That's not necessarily a bad thing. Any company needs to promote its product. Frankly, we can admit one guilty pleasure is a good Bud Light commercial. Today, we focus on MillerCoors and their efforts to increase market share by spending $100 million (and that's just for Miller Lite) on marketing rather than product improvement. Please, just stick with the Swedish Bikini Team.

Miller Uses Hops. Yep, just like every other beer, Miller Lite uses hops. You've seen the commercials: "How does Miller Lite get all that great pilsner taste? We add the hops not once, not twice, but three times during the brewing process." How you can add hops 3 times and get zero flavor is a discussion for another day.

Cold Beer Labels. Miller Lite's equally weak cousin, Coors Light, offers a labeling system that actually tells the consumer when the beer is cold - just by looking at it. Open the fridge and check the label on your Coors Light. Don't bother wasting all that energy extending your arm into the fridge and touching the bottle. If the label is blue the beer is cold...and your wife is pregnant.

Bottle Caps Keep Air Out. The engineers at MillerCoors have for years struggled with keeping their beer fresh. Recently, they discovered "taste protector caps" that actually keeps air out and the beer in. It gives you all the protection you need, which is probably why your wife is pregnant.


Footnote: According to the Wall Street Journal, we can thank advertising companies Bogle Bartle Hegarty and Interpublic Group's DraftFCB.

How to Get Free Beer

Well, it works in Canada, eh.

Weed: It's Not Just for Smoking!

Tip of the hat to one Vaune Dillmann of the Mt. Shasta Brewing Company and his fight to make weed legal. The LA Times reports that while brewing out of his Northern California brewery, Mr. Dillmann created a bit of controversy with his bottle caps labeled "Try Legal Weed". Turns out Mt. Shasta is based in Weed, CA and, according to the Times article, the town of Weed has been playing off the double entendre in a variety of ways.

Cue in the fuzz; stage right (wing). While most people can enjoy the goofy joke without getting the munchies our friends at the US Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms didn't think it was funny. They did make a brief stink of the situation (pun intended) but in the end cooler heads prevailed. The Mt. Shasta Brewing Company's Web site states that the ATF now agrees that their label refers to the brand product and does not mislead consumers.

By the way, Mr. Dillmann is not some renegade brewer that wears hemp and listens to the Grateful Dead. Turns out he's a former fuzz himself.

We've never had a Mt. Shasta beer so can't tell you if they are good, bad, or otherwise. However, if you find yourself in Northern California or Southern Oregon do your best to sniff out some Weed beer. It's worth it if only for the opportunity to support a microbrewery and try something new. Besides, everybody's doing it.