Although currently buried in snow, the Twin Cities have something to look forward to at the end of March. Starting the week of March 29th, Oregon’s nationally renowned craft brewery, Deschutes Brewery, will begin selling its beer in Minnesota. Continue Reading »

Those cheeky punks at BrewDog are up to it again. This time, they’ve picked up the gauntlet thrown down by Schorschbrau who bumped BrewDog’s Tactical Nuclear Penguin off of the “world’s strongest beer” throne earlier this month with their Schorschbock. The only way they could have made this promo video funnier is if they had put Biz Markee in a penguin costume. Oh BrewDog youuu; you got what I neeeeed. Unfortunately, I’ll never get to taste it because the West Coast Mutineer Armory intercepts these kind of packages. The Villains! Continue Reading »

California mixologists and bar owners take heed, the Alcohol Beverage Control (ABC) is actively cracking down on bars and restaurants currently practicing the art of distilled spirits infusion. This recent crack down comes as a result of an industry advisory report the ABC released on the Rectification of Distilled Spirits in On-Sale Premises. The report states:

It has come to the attention of the Department that some on-sale licensees are exceeding their license privileges by engaging in rectification of distilled spirits in violation of Section 23355 of the Business and Professions Code. Continue Reading »

This should not be news to anyone, but earlier this year Haiti experienced one of the worst natural disasters in the modern Western Hemisphere — a massive earthquake that killed over 100,00 people, devastated the entire country and completely destroyed its capital, Port-Au-Prince.

The subject of Haiti hits VERY close to home at Mutineer Magazine. One of our very own editors, Brian Kropf, is currently stationed with the U.S. Army in Haiti.

The mass destruction in Haiti in combination with having a really good friend stationed there got me thinking about the beverage culture on the island. Does Haiti have a beverage culture? And if so, what does it look like? Continue Reading »

I’ve been glued to the Winter Olympics for the past week and a half. Like most of you, I’ve become addicted to curling (it’s okay to admit it…there are others like you out there), and I’m pretty disappointed by NBC’s coverage. It’s too stage managed and stale. You have to jump through mammoth hoops to even watch stuff online.

So it is with great joy that I show you this video as a tribute to our neighbors of the Great White North. Jon Montgomery won a gold medal in skeleton and on the way back from his run, a fan hands him a pitcher of beer. CTV caught it on camera and then played it on the air. If you look closely, you see the cops walking right next to him. Completely unscripted and the fan wasn’t tased. This was truly an epic Olympic beverage moment!

See the video.

Wine and beer folks are always trying to one up each other about their respective beverage’s health effects. Wine folks have volumes of research backing them up. They even have supplements like resveratrol that are derived from red wine grapes. Beer guys sometimes go out on a limb regarding health benefits (It makes you look cool…which boosts your self esteem…which contributes to your mental health…right?).

Well the suds soldiers finally have a legit arrow in their quiver. A study by brew friendly school, UC Davis, finds that beer has silicon in it which contributes to bone mineral density.

Yup, drinking beer can toughen up your bones and you don’t even have to hit your shins with a baseball bat like Muay Thai fighters. I’m really happy to know this because with all the beer I drink, I may have a super-skeleton like Wolverine.  I wonder if I keep up my beer consumption if one day I’ll get a bottle opener that will retract into my hand. One can only dream…

Dita Von Teese…doing a strip tease…in a massive glass of absinthe. I’ve had “massive stripper glassware” saved in my eBay searches for some time now, though I’ve had no luck in securing one of my own. I’m determined to get one of these futuristic contraptions into my residence for friends and guests to enjoy as I feel this is my duty as a true beverage professional. Stay tuned…

Lost’s Sawyer and Juliet with Dharma Rum

Back by popular demand, we examine the beverages of LOST. In part one, we examined beer and wine, and now in part two, we examine the harder stuff and the speedier stuff.

Coffee
Nobody can survive without coffee. If you can, I’m convinced you’re a robot. Besides, all those super scientists and scientific experiments had to be fueled by something. I’m guessing there wasn’t a Dharma station called “The Meth Lab”.

Coffee is the only viable “energy drink” from the ’70s (don’t tell resident Energyologist Jeff, his head would explode). A nasty frost in the late ’70s crippled Brazil’s coffee industry, and Papua New Guinea, feeling the heft of its newly found independence from the British, shot to stardom in the coffee industry. Continue Reading »