Earlier this month, Minnesota announced that may ban alcohol at all college sporting events. I can just guess how well that went over for students, but how do you guys feel about it?

Image: sxc.hu

Some thoughts I have:

• Having alcohol at the games at Penn State isn’t dangerous, so I can’t see how it would be at Minnesota. The people who get so drunk they can’t see are typically students who walk home, and the drivers are responsible most of the time. There will always be incidents, but not enough to ban alcohol.
• The possible ban stems from state alcohol disputes with the school. The liquor licensing control board says that they have to offer alcohol to everyone at the stadium or to no one at all. So instead of making beer available to people in the stands, they’re going to take it away from people in club areas. Yes, that makes tons of sense.
• All this is going to do is make people hide their alcohol or binge drink before getting to the game. Those things are a lot more dangerous.

All in all, its a bad decision to ban alcohol at any college sporting event. Control, yes…but ban? No.

Your thoughts? Leave a comment!

When I was in high school, I was by no means a “wild” child. I never snuck out. I never [well...almost never] broke curfew. I got good grades and I had a part-time job as a DJ. I was pretty much every parent’s dream teenager.

Image|Luxco

Now, all that being said, I did occasionally imbibe at the random after-football game party or the parents-are-out-of-town-so-let’s-party party. Purple Passion was the go-to drink back then since it tastes just like grape soda. Grape soda doesn’t offend the young [and stupid] palate like other drinks might and I didn’t have a taste for beer [the other go-to drink of that age set].

Mint Lip Gloss got me started thinking about the grape goodness with, “Is Purple Passion considered hard liquor? Do they even still make that stuff? That stuff was a staple in college! :)” after I conducted an unscientific survey on Twitter about everyone’s favorite hard liquor.

Red Jade summed it up rather well: “We drank that crap like pros. And barfed it up like amateurs”.

Spoken like a true lover of Purple Passion.

What I didn’t know back then is that Purple Passion is made by Luxco and contains Everclear. No wonder our young butts were knocked on the ground by that stuff.

Another thing that I wasn’t aware of when I was drinking Purple Passion is that “Purple Passion” is the name of a mixed drink. I’m not sure which came first [I figure it's a chicken and egg kind of deal] but after reading a couple of recipes, I say leave the pre-made Purple Passion to the kids [the 21 and over kids] and go get the stuff to make the cocktail.

Purple Passion Cocktail

Ingredients:

• 2 oz Vodka
• 2 oz Grape Juice
• 2 oz Grapefruit Juice
• 1/4 oz simple syrup

Directions:

Shake all the ingredients in a shaker with ice and strain into a cocktail glass.

Recipe courtesy of: Cocktail Times

According to the the Chicago Tribune, Chicago Bears fans have persuaded the city to loosen the liquor laws to allow beer sales in grocery stores to start at 9am instead of 11am on Sundays.

I don’t see why this is such a huge deal. A true beer fan would know which shady grocery stores sell them early anyway. Though I don’t think it was really Bears fans that did the persuading. I think it was the wives and girlfriends of Bears fans. Two reasons I think they are the ones behind it:

1) If they have to stay home while their husbands watch sports all day, they want to be hammered.

2) If they can get their husbands sauced enough, they can take the credit card and hit the mall or maybe a salon.

Who needs beer so badly at 9am on a Sunday? Aren’t you still in bed because of the partying from the night before? Anyway, good job guys. Football fans, wives of fans and alcoholics can all get what they want now.

Q:  What is groaning ale?

Answer after the jump…. Read more

Paul Newman always seemed like a standup guy, and so the man who played everything from Cool Hand Luke to Doc Hudson’s voice in the movie Cars will be sorely missed. He was one of a rare breed, Hollywood men who marry and stay faithful, and who live far from the strange micro-system which is Los Angeles.

Apparently he was also a beer drinker, at least according to the BBC, which claims Newman “credited a regular beer intake for his good fortune.” According to an interview with David Letterman, Newman preferred suds over grapes because “It’s the drink of the common man,” although it would also seem he had a tendency to have a few more than might be advisable in one sitting.

So, while you’re hoisting that Oktoberfest beer today say a quick zum Wohl to one of Hollywoods most uncommon men.

image courtesy of Wikipedia, public domain

It’s day 7 of the official Oktoberfest in Munich, the world’s largest beer party!

At Oktoberfest, the beer is supplied by breweries known as the Big Six: Spaten, Löwenbräu, Augustiner, Hofbräu, Paulaner and Hacker-Pschorr. Each brewery has its own tent, holding thousands of festival-goers. The price of beer varies from tent to tent, but ranges between 7.80 and 8.30 Euros per liter - or about $12 US.

Estimates are that 6.2 million visitors will consume a mind-boggling 6,940,600 litres of beer. Do the math. That’s about $84 million US on beer alone - no wonder the German government seems to love Oktoberfest!

More amazing images after the jump.

Read more

The economy is hitting everyone hard - including small brewers who are worried about rising prices on hops. The solution? Grow your own.

As the costs of hops rise - and the supplies drop - small brewers are the ones that suffer. They don’t have the leveraging power of the larger brewers and are often forced to take “leftovers” - which doesn’t necessarily result in quality brew.

Some brewers are looking into producing their own hops instead of relying on hope suppliers. And why not? As we previously reported, hops are not terribly difficult to grow - and growing them is becoming more popular.

Stay tuned to see how it changes the industry!

The award winning ‘Skull Splitter’ may be pulled from shelves in the UK amid claims that the branding is too “aggressive.” The Viking-branded bottles have too aggressive a theme, according to some consumers and a report commissioned by the Portman Group, an alcohol watchdog group.

The beer has been brewed by the Orkney Brewer for two decades and is named after Thorfinn ‘Skullsplitter’ Einarsson, the seventh Viking Earl of Orkney (947-977).

There is no word yet on an appeal.

Anheuser-Busch desperately wants to be American, despite the fact that it’s now Belgian owned (gosh, that’s weird to say).

I’m sure that you know what I’m talking about - the overtly American-themed commercials, the red, white and blue branding and the use of the word “American” in everything. Now, A-B has introduced Budweiser American Ale, which went on draught this week. It will debut in retail stores on September 29.

According to A-B, the American Ale is a craft brew (don’t get me started on the overuse of that term) and is all-malt, top-fermented ale. It’s dry hopped with Cascade hops from the Pacific Northwest.

A-B plans to promote the new brew like crazy in television, print, outdoors and on the internet.

As those of you who read this blog regularly know, I’ve spent more than my share of time in Germany, most of it in Bavaria. That’s what makes this article all the more painful - it’s a fascinating trip through the Bavarian beer industry, and I wasn’t invited. Check it out.