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.” |
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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. |