Beer News

Forget the Milkshake—Add a Beer to that Whopper Meal

In South Beach, Fla., fast-food behemoth Burger King is opening up the second location of their new concept restaurant, the Whopper Bar. Hoping to attract business by promising to show customers “the sexy side of the Whopper,” they host a larger variety of sandwiches and toppings. In addition to the extra sauces and condiments, this South Beach location will offer something no other Burger King in the US ever has: beer.

For $2 more than the price of a regular combo meal, a customer will be able to switch out the fountain beverage for an aluminum-bottled A-B InBev or MillerCoors offering. The total cost of a Whopper, fries and beer would come to around $8. On its own, a bottle will cost $4.25.

The restaurant doesn’t plan on expanding their selections to anything else beyond those two brewers just yet, but will think about offering different brands depending on the outcome of initial customer response.

Schorschbräu, BrewDog Play Tug of War for Title of World’s Strongest

The title of “World’s Strongest Beer” continues to be a hotly contested battle between Scotland’s BrewDog and Germany’s Schorschbräu.

On November 26, Scottish brewer BrewDog announced they had brewed the world’s strongest beer, named Tactical Nuclear Penguin, which raised the bar to 32 percent ABV, breaking the previous record set by German brewery Schorschbräu, which had been set the year before at 31 percent.

BrewDog’s record didn’t last long. The next day, Schorschbräu posted lab results claiming they had crafted a 40 percent brew, and on February 10th, Schorschbräu officially released SchorschBock 40, an Eisbock with an ABV of 39.44 percent. The news prompted James Watt of BrewDog to post on BrewDog’s blog, “Tactical Nuclear Penguin is Dead. Long live the Penguin King.”

Again, this record didn’t last long. On February 16, Watt announced another record-breaking offering, a quadruple IPA called “Sink the Bismarck!” Despite what it may look like to some, Watt stated on the BA forums, “This is not a knee-jerk reaction to a beer launched two weeks ago, this has been five months in the making.”

He continues, “Schorschbräu also riled us for 2 reasons. When we launched Penguin they tried to steal the show with a beer which they may launch, someday, somewhere in the future … Secondly, they contacted us and tried to sell (yes sell!) us their secrets of brewing high ABV beers. Consequently, we wanted to playfully poke a bit of fun at them … This is very much about the beer itself, though.”

F.X. Matt Brewing Rescues Flying Bison

How much would you pay to save an endangered Flying Bison? What if that bison brewed beer? If you’re F.X. Matt Brewing Company, your offer stands at $100,000 and the assumption of some of the bison’s debts.

In a January 19 letter of intent, F.X. Matt, the Utica, N.Y.-based brewers of the Saranac brand, formally offered to buy Buffalo’s struggling Flying Bison Brewing Company for that amount. Flying Bison’s investors had mixed reactions about the proposed deal, but voted on February 11 to accept the offer, keeping the brewery alive.

As part of the proposal, F.X. Matt will invest in Flying Bison’s facility and infrastructure, possibly producing small-batch brews of Saranac at the Buffalo plant and eventually moving Bison’s main offerings to their plant in Utica, where they can be produced less expensively and in much greater volumes.

Flying Bison founder Tim Herzog will stay with the brewery under an employment contract with F.X. Matt. Herzog has stated on Flying Bison’s website that he hopes to resume production in early March, but is still “neck deep in paperwork, and nothing is solidified at the moment.”

Flying Bison has been the only distributing brewery in Buffalo since they began bottling in 2000. Despite having a loyal herd of consumers, a spike in the cost of materials eroded the brewery’s modest assets.

British Pubs to get New, “Safer” Glasses

Each year, there are nearly 87,000 injuries caused by glass attacks and accidents in the UK. Broken pint glasses can cause undue injury to unsuspecting bartenders, but more seriously, glasses used as weapons cause serious—even fatal—injuries. Victims are left with scars and psychological trauma, among other things.

However, British ad agency Design Bridge hopes to drastically reduce that number of injuries with new, shatter-resistant glasses. They are currently conducting strenuous tests on two different models, and hope to begin pilot programs in popular British pub chains within 12 months.

According to a Design Bridge press release, the first model, “Glass Plus,” looks just like traditional British pub glasses, but a thin layer of bio-resin is designed to hold shards together upon breakage. A second design, dubbed the “Twin Wall,” is made by bonding two ultra-thin layers of glass together, similar to car windshields. The glass is extremely difficult to break, but if it does, a middle layer of resin keeps all the shards in place.

David Helps, director of 3-D and innovation at Design Bridge, states via press release, “The beauty of these glasses is that they keep everything British drinkers love about their pint; they look good, work better and are safer in front and behind the bar.” ■