Be Careful Drinking in Mexico

An investigation by the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
is raising questions about drinking at all-inclusive
resorts in Mexico. According to the report, people at
certain resorts are blacking out and becoming ill
after consuming allegedly tainted alcohol.
The U.S. State Department acknowledged the
incidents on its Mexico travel information page
under the “Safety and Security” section. The
department states: “There have been allegations
that consumption of tainted or substandard alcohol
has resulted in illness or blacking out.  Some of the
people the Journal Sentinel spoke with lost
consciousness after only a drink or two.

If you’re traveling to Mexico, here are a few
suggestions to make sure you stay safe.
Purchase recognized brands: Rather than drinking
bottomless drinks or specials, buy sealed bottles
from brands that you know and trust from reputable
retail stores. The Journal Sentinel found that
people reported illnesses after drinking various
types of alcohol from tequila to rum to beer.
Know what’s in your drink: If you’re at a bar, order
drinks using specific brand names and watch how
much alcohol is poured in when the drinks are
made. A sealed beer is the safest option.

Stone Beer In Germany- Update

It took courage, craziness and chutzpah but a year after Jim Koch opened his now-thriving
brewery, beer garden and restaurant in the Mariendorf section of south-central Berlin Germans are
no longer laughing at the 52-year-old executive chairman and co-founder of Stone Brewing Co.  It
is a cavernous temple to beer built out of the ruins of an abandoned gasworks plant dating to the
turn of the last century. About half of the splendidly refurbished 34,000-square-foot factory floor in
the red brick building was turned into the brewery that will produce 925,000 gallons of beer this
year for Germany and export to 24 European countries — especially Britain, Sweden and the rest
of Scandinavia.The beer styles are, for the most part, the same as those Stone produces in the
United States, including Stone IPA and Stone Ruination Double IPA.

The other half of the former gasworks, separated from the tropical temperatures in the brewery by
a spectacular floor-to-ceiling glass window, is reserved for the relaxed, California-style restaurant
for up to 1,100 people. It has a bar that features 75 beers on tap and, for German standards,
uncommonly friendly service staff.

“The average German considers American beer to be thoroughly undrinkable, and that’s thanks
to beer like Bud Light,” said Nina Anika Klotz, the founder of Germany’s first and largest craft
beer magazine, Hopfenhelden. “That reputation of watery beer has made it even more difficult for
Stone. It’s only been in recent years, thanks to younger Germans who’ve tried American craft beer,
who know the truth is completely different and the quality of American craft beer is outstanding.”

Koch said he wants Germans to try what he insists is better-tasting beer, even if it costs double or
triple what they’re used to paying. But Stone’s move to Germany also reflects the slowing growth
that craft brewers are facing in the U.S. after years of rapid expansion. Stone, which had more than
$200 million in sales last year and is the ninth largest craft brewer in the United States, laid off
roughly 5% of its 1,200-employee workforce last October.

Klotz at Hopfenhelden said Europeans are quickly learning, as Americans have, to savor the
richer flavors of craft beers. Many are surprised to learn that, with more than 150 beer styles
and 20,000 brands, the United States now has more choice than any other country.But Klotz said
Stone faces two major problems in Germany: its relatively high prices and the fact that it sells beer
in cans. Craft brewers say that cans better preserve freshness, but many Germans don’t agree.

“Cheap beer comes in cans,” Klotz said. “It’s what the bums in the street drink. Germans are
used to drinking beer in bottles because they want to recycle them, not throw them away.”
Feature News  
from  beernexus.com
Edited by Jim Attacap
BEERNEXUS
the crossroads of the beer world
Noodles Beer

There’s finally a way to taste Cup of Noodles
without using a microwave or burning your
mouth. The Collective Brewing Project in Fort
Worth, Texas recently made a beer called Cup
O’ Beer brewed with 55 pounds of ramen
noodles — and it’s enough to make a nostalgia-
loving beer drinker speechless.Cup O’ Beer is a
gose that the brewery describes as “lightly tart”
with “hints of lemongrass, lime, ginger and
coriander.” There was a limited released to the
public on June 10 for $7 a bottleOn Untapped
the beer has a 3.86 rating — higher than the
Founder’s All Day IPA, for comparison


North Korea Cancels Beer

If an event is branded as annual but it happens
only once, can it still be called annual? This is
the case for Pyongyang's "annual" Taedonggang
Beer Festival, the second of which was slated to
take place late August.China-based tour
company Koryo Tours, which is among the go-to
tour groups organizing trips into North Korea,
writes that it was "informed" North Korean
organizers have canceled the event.
We weren't going anyway.