Anti glassware ban online petition

Thanks to Geoff Griggs, there is now a petition online for all beer enthusiasts who are sick of discrimination. If you're not familiar with the
background, the original article may be read on stuff. Please consider signing the petition. We at SOBA will be very appreciative.

I mentioned this to a few friends, and a comment that came back was that
the glassware in question only furthers the image of "low brow beer
swillers", so perhaps after we have won our campaign here, we should
work on getting the BBB organisers to design a more suitable
glass!

Blues, Brews & BBQ's - Mt Maunganui (video NSFW)

For those that couldn't make it here are some photo's from the Blues, Brews & BBQ's event at Mt Maunganui a couple of weeks ago.

12,000 tickets sold out in just 90 minutes. What a crowd! What a day!

Lots of beer, lots of food, and a great time had by all.

More Pictures

Here is a video from late that night were the bar staff where having some fun dancing on the bar. [explicit] See you there next year.

Early-bird tickets sold out!

Early-bird tickets have disappeared 6 weeks before the New Zealand Beer Festival. A spokesman for the event has been quoted as saying “I’ve never seen them sell so fast in my life!” He continued by adding that full-price tickets are still available but “there’ll be tears before bedtime if people leave purchasing theirs until the last minute,” as numbers are limited.

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BAR STOOLS

Cheers to Beer: Amazing Benefits

The Healthy, Happy Hour Beer Quiz:

True or false?

- Beer is good for your heart?
- Beer will reduce the chance of stroke?
- You should give your grandma a beer?
- Beer makes you funnier and more attractive to the opposite sex?
- Beer is both fat-free and cholesterol-free?
- Beer is good for breasts?
- Beer could save the Three Blind Mice?
- “Beer is proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy." ?

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Beer festival glass ban is 'pure snobbery'

Banning glasses at the Blenheim Blues, Brews and BBQs event while still allowing the Wine Marlborough festival to use glasses is nothing more than snobbery, according to beer connoisseurs.

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No More Beer Production Stats For New Zealand

So who was funding this?

With this gone and Beer Wines & Spirits now defunct no one will know how much beer is made in New Zealand.

Do you care?

---------------------

Dear Sir/Madam,

As a recipient of the Beer Production survey data, I wish to inform you that as a result of changes to funding, Statistics New Zealand will no longer be collecting and publishing this data.

The September 2006 quarter (released 15/11/2006) was the last quarter to be published.

Kind Regards

Denise Carlson
Statistical Analyst
Business Indicators
Statistics New Zealand

Phone: (03) 964 8364
Fax: (03) 964 8759
Email: Denise.Carlson@stats.govt.nz

Pru is thirsty for brewing knowledge

The 26-year-old Invercargill woman started work late last year at Steve Nally's Invercargill Brewery in Wood St and is thirsty for knowledge about the the art of brewing.

When The Southland Times arrived to interview her she was both capping bottles with a manual machine and keeping an eye on rows of bottled beer as they filled.

She'd bottled and capped 18 crates of beer that morning and said the interview couldn't start until she'd finished 20 crates.

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The Beer Emporium

First thing's first. This is going to sound like a paid advertisement. I can assure you it is not. I'm just a raving fan!

While in Christchurch visiting friends for New Year, we all went for a drive to The Beer Emporium in the suburb of Merivale. It was like Aladdin's cave, full of beery treasures. It was all I could do to resist rubbing one. That said, had a beer genie appeared, what more could I have wished for anyway? This truly is all anyone could ever want in a beer store. Well, alright, maybe the availability of mail order to Hamilton also, but I always ask a lot!

Harvey Shepherd, the proprietor, has done a fantastic job, showing just how much of a connoisseur he is, both by his selection and by the condition the beers are kept and presented in. The selection is well researched, and has something for everyone - I even found a Belgian Quadrupel (St. Bernardus Abt 12) - not an easy style to locate. Harvey says that he has far more than what fits on the shelves, and as a result, he rotates stock regularly so there is an ever changing selection. Sounds like heaven for a Christchurch native, but hell for the poor guy down from Hamilton with only one day to spend there. Many of the beers are kept in temperature controlled fridges, set appropriately for the styles they are storing. That kind of attention to detail prevails throughout the store, with descriptive labels attached to the shelves with velcro tags, to make changing stock simple, and to inform the customer.

When it came time to pay the piper, I also noticed a small but excellent selection of beer related books. I purchased a copy of Garrett Oliver's "The BrewMaster's Table" for a great price in addition to my large pile of beers. Harvey also provides the option of tasting notes with your purchases. These are printed out and affixed to a tasting sheet allowing you to compare your notes with the ones provided, and to score your beers.

Eventually (and probably to the delight of the poor customers my group had been holding up) I left in a haze of satisfaction and went home happy with my haul of amber loot.

I recommend that anyone lucky enough to live in the garden city get themselves in to The Beer Emporium at their earliest convenience. If you're not in Christchurch, it's as good a reason as any to visit! Just a word of advice, make sure your bank account is healthy - it's very hard to leave without spending a reasonable wad of dough.

Beer, Giants and an Heiress, Oh My!

A couple of lighter items today:

The good old boys at Modern Drunkard Magazine have declared the late, great Andre the Giant to be the "Greatest Drunk on Earth" saying "You won’t find it in the Guinness Book of World Records, but Andre the Giant holds the world record for the largest number of beers consumed in a single sitting." You can read about Andre's prodigious (and often very funny) drinking feats here.

And in what is likely to be the most clicked link of the year, here is Paris Hilton launching a new low-carb lager called "Bondi Blonde" with a gaggle of bikini models.

While the flavour of the beer is never mentioned, Paris Hilton and her blonde beer was the second most mentioned news item in the world after Saddam Hussein's execution.

Lego Beer Song

Michael Jackson has Parkinson's Disease

"The Beer Hunter", Michael Jackson has revealed that he has Parkinson's disease. Like many people I know, Michael's "Bible", The Great Beer Guide, has been a guide and an inspiration when seeking out great beers from around the world. This is very sad news, and I'm sure I'm not alone in the realbeer.co.nz community in sending Michael our best wishes.