For the tech-head beer-drinker on your gift list (that’s me!) comes the Opena Case. It’s $40. And it’s Australian.
Oct 252011
It’s a documentary! About beer! And about how it saved the world. Heck, saved it? More like created it! And built the pyramids. And invented math and poetry!
And in the future? Beer’s taking us to space, man. For reals.
Source: How Beer Saved the World | Watch Free Documentary Online.
Oct 212011
I’m still waffling over whether to get an iPhone 4S (yes, I know, I should have decided two weeks ago and been a fanboy) but one of the undeniably cool things about it is Apple’s new artificial digital assistant, Siri.
Although Siri is less useful (so far) in Canada than “she” is in the States, I’ve had the chance to play around with a friend’s iPhone, and I think she’s still kind of cool (she’s not capable of loving me, however).
As the video above shows, though, with a little bit of ingenuity, perhaps there is no limit to what Siri will do for you.
Apr 012011
High noon. The sun beats down on a dusty town. It’s just the two of you. You … and your thirst. Draw!
If you want to walk away, trust only this genuine leather beer holster, $30. Fits cans or bottles.
Mar 262011
Nicely done, BLager.
Let’s just say that if you’re too lazy to go get your own beer, you should be too lazy to design and build a computer-controlled catapult.
Much, much more information, including closeups and details, at RossWehner.me.
Dec 222010
Pop your package of beer-making ingredients into this special cask, just add water, and pop it away for a week, then come back to perfectly brewed beer? Sounds awesome.
It’s about $150 and it makes 10 L of beer at a go, so you could get a fast payback, that’s for sure.
Is it too late for Christmas? That’s okay, I’ll forgive you the belated gift.
(thanks, Andrea!)
Nov 282010
A Klein bottle is like a Mobius strip in three-dimensions, but that’s not really accurate because a Mobius strip is actually a two-dimensional form expressed in three dimensions, and the Klein bottle is actually a four-dimensional form expressed in three dimensions.
Essentially, the inside of the bottle is also its outside. If you were able to perceive the Klein bottle in four dimensions, it wouldn’t plunge into itself (there would be no self-intersections).
The “no inside, all outside” of the bottle is what makes it cleverly perfect for opening a beer bottle. Or, as Bathsheba Sculpture puts it:
The problem of beer That it is within a ‘bottle’, i.e. a boundaryless compact 2-manifold homeomorphic to the sphere. Since beer bottles are not (usually) pathological or “wild” spheres, but smooth manifolds, they separate 3-space into two non-communicating regions: inside, containing beer, and outside, containing you. This state must not remain.
A proposed solution Clearly the elegant course is to introduce a non-orientable manifold, which has one side and does not divide 3-space. When juxtaposed with the beer-bounding manifold described above, it acts to disrupt the continuity thereof, canceling the outdated paradigm of distinction between interior and exterior. This enables the desired interaction between beer and self.
Implementation The Klein Bottle Opener shown above is an example. It is palm-sized, durably constructed in stainless steel, effective, and blissfully ergonomic.
Q E D You need one.
You can buy these, at Bathsheba Sculpture. And they actually work. But they are a jaw-dropping $78, which is insane for a bottle opener, but I suppose the price is actually fairly reasonable for a fourth-dimensional object.
(via Scienceblogs)
Nov 192010
Talk about a solution in search of a problem! These glasses, available for $20 for a set of two (currently out of stock) are too clever by half, in my opinion.
Sure, sometimes I want a shot with a beer chaser, but the whole idea is that once you’re done the shot, the beer is right there. Who wants to slam their shot glass down and then calmly pour themselves a pint?
Also, who wants to alternate hard liquor and beer dripping onto the table or bar as they flip a glass upside down over and over again?
Also, have the designers behind this glass never done a drop shot?
(via Gizmodo)
It’s a cooler, with a catapult in it, remote-controlled. Just load up 12 cans of beer, and have them launched to you whenever you’re thirsty.
And it doesn’t matter how thirsty you are — it can reload in just two seconds.
Awesome?
ShootABrew is available for pre-order. It’s $300, and they don’t say if it’ll ship before Christmas or not.
If I had seen this recipe about a month ago, so that there was time to brew it before Hallowe’en, I would have been all over it. All. Over. It.
Next time, Gadget. Next time.
Click on the image to see it larger, or, because I know you’re not a cheapskate, why not click over to Pop Chart Lab, where you can buy a big ol’ poster for just $25, and you can mount it in your home office, or rumpus room or on the back of your dorm room door, and you can highlight or something all the beers that you’ve sampled.
Mmmmm, this poster makes me thirsty.
There sure is a lot of chaff to sort through on your way to the wheat, but every now and then there something that reminds me of the good in newspaper readership. They’re not all illiterate, knee-jerk racists.
For example, in today’s Winnipeg Free Press, they’re highlighting a story of recovered two-century-old beer from the bottom of the Baltic. The story comes with a picture:
Divers who found what’s believed to be the world’s oldest drinkable champagne say they have also discovered two-centuries-old bottles of beer at a shipwreck in the Baltic Sea …. Researchers who tried drops of the dark, foamy liquid liked the taste of it.
But what really made me laugh was this comment, by “kiov”:
They must be quite valuable given the care that is going in to protecting them. I always place all of my rare, breakable artifacts on a stack of papers on the edge of a desk while I send emails a few feet away.
Ha! Touché!
Aug 192010
The Diablo Royale Este is a giant Mexican-themed saloon in New York City. They will sell you a beer popsicle:
the barman-witchdoctors at Diablo … [inject] the beer with simple syrup and lime juice, jamming a wooden stick into the hole of the can and then putting it in the freezer. For four days.
The result is a genuine beer popsicle, which the bartender must saw in half with a serrated steak knife (or samurai sword) to open. Then it’s up to you to push the wooden stick upward to dispense the hopsicle in true Push Pop style, and decide if you want your savory sweet frozen joyride bathed in tequila as well (note: you want this).
Sounds way better than what I normally do, which is bring home some warm beer, pop a few in the freezer to try and chill them quickly, but forget about them, and then, days later, discover that I’ve got burst beers all over my freezer.
You know who likes frozen beer drippings that melt all down the side of your fridge? Ants, that’s who. Ants that will crawl up into your freezer and freeze, trying to get at what they must assume is the motherload.
Anyway, I’m still going to try this hopsicle thing.
Aug 092010
One of my favourite sights is a half-full wine bottle with a cork stuck into it. It looks more inviting, friendlier, than a bottle not yet opened.
It’s also a great way to save a bottle that you didn’t finish, and set it aside to enjoy later.
Perhaps you’d like to do this with beer, as well as with wine?
Beer Savers are silicone bottle camp charms, and they should fit most nearly any bottle of beer. They’re designed, according to the website, “to help keep beer fresh and safe.”
Fresh — maybe. I’m sure that it would be better than just leaving a beer lying around, but no second capping will keep a beer well-carbonated for longer than a few extra hours, I’m sure.
Safe is the one that gets me. “beersavers™ help keep your beer safely identified when in clubs, bars and restaurants,” they tout.
Surely would-be date-rape druggists could pop off a silicone cap? And, really, do you see anyone actually using this while on a night out at the bar? Beers are for sipping — a cap would quickly get annoying.
Anyway, they’re for sale. Eight bucks for six.