Cognac.com has posted 35 interesting facts about alcohol, including that it is illegal to feed fish alcohol in Ohio, and that distilled spirits such as brandy, gin, rum, tequila, etc. contain no carbohydrates, no fats and no cholesterol of any kind (#29) (notice that this says nothing about calories!). These are great bits of trivia to throw around at cocktail parties.

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The Lost Abbey is a brewery in San Marcos, California, and has one of the most interesting websites that I have seen in a long time. Their tagline is: Inspired Beers for Saints and Sinners alike. The beers are modeled after the Trappist and Monastic beers, and include Lost and Found Abbey Ale, Devotion, and Judgement Day. The Lost Abbey also has a line of seasonal beers and non-denominational ales. Click on the link, “Our Crusade” to find out more about the brewers themselves.

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Pubwalk mashes Google Maps with a list of pubs and bars around the United States, so that you can always find the closest brewpubs, wine bars, and other types of alcohol serving establishments. You can also save your Pubwalk maps. A wonderful tool for the traveler.

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PubCrawler is a search engine for bars, brewpubs, and microbreweries around the world. It is best for the US and Canada, but does cover other countries.  You can search by city, state, or province, and there is a box on the right hand side that lists new beer spots. There are also reviews of pubs and such.

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For all of us bargain hunters out there, here is a search engine to find a cheap beer. Their definition of cheap is $2 or less, and their engine only locates beer in Tennessee (Knoxville, Cordova and Memphis), Colorado (Denver and Aurora Park), New York City, and Chicago, but, hey, it is a start.

There are a lot of interesting links on this site as well, including Dr. Booze’s Blog, books, and hangover recipes.

Cheap Beer Search Engine

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I found an excellent source of beer news. A new blog directory called Alltop has an entire section devoted to beer.  Alltop covers blogs on beer, including microbrews, brands, the beer industry, craft brews, and the international scene.

Top Beer News

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Can you name all 18 labels in this quiz? I missed two of them and figured out the rest. A great way of seeing if you can visually  brand beer.

Name That Beer Label

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I found this fascinating booklet hidden in my father’s cupboard a few months ago. It is called Here’s How and What To Serve and was published by the Brown-Foreman Distillers Corporation (the company that still makes Old Forester whiskey). There is no date on it, but I would guess the late 1950s from the style of the illustrations.

In it, there is a great diagram of what the various glasses used in making mixed drinks are called and how much they hold. A Jigger is 1.5 oz, while what we call a shot glass (1 oz) is a Pony. A Julep glass holds 12 oz., but a Cocktail glass is only to have 3-4 oz. A brandy snifter should have 1 oz of brandy, and a whisky sour 5 oz.

I will be sharing more of this booklet later.

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