This Baltimore Sun article claims that pickle juice is the latest, greatest mixer to use with liquor.  The writer notes that his friend from Russia would chop pickles into small slices, then chase shots of vodka with a bite of pickle.  Eventually he was convinced to give it a try, and noticed that the pickle juice immediately killed the sting of the vodka.

This trend is starting to catch on in bars too.  The writer reports that there is a new drink making the rounds called the Pickle Back, although he had heard conflicting reports whether it consisted of Jameson chased with pickle juice, or Jack Daniels chased with pickle juice.

Be sure to check out our supply of shot glasses to hold shots of your favorite liquor, or of pickle juice.

When you’re sitting around the house and you pop open a cold beer, do you ever feel guilty that you can’t pop one for your best friend as well?  Although some people feed their dogs beer, this Michigan Live article claims that they shouldn’t.  Hops can cause seizures in dogs, and the alcohol in beer can lead to other health problems.

However, a new brand of beer called Bowser Beer has the solution to this problem.  Bowser Beer is made for dogs, and is neither carbonated nor alcoholic.  It comes in two flavors, Beefy Brown and Cock-a-Doodle Brew.  Both beers are low in calories and fat.

So now you can have a beer with your dog.  We don’t sell doggie bowls at Mid-South Alcoholic Supply, but check out our supply of beer mugs.

Japanese company Bandai plans to release a beer shampoo on December 1.  The concept is simple, according to this Inventors’ Spot article: “Pour a beer over your head (or your friend’s head) and get dirty and clean at the same time.”  According to the press release, the shampoo isn’t pressurized and won’t spray out of the bottle when opened; for maximum effect, you’ll need to add water and shake to get the beer shampoo foam to spray out.

Yet another brilliant idea.  Alcoholics make ingenious inventors.

Last Thursday, November 20, was a day celebrated around the world, the day when the first wine from this year’s French harvest arrived on the shelves.  This Connecticut Post article talks about the significance of Beaujolais Nouveau, with its simple, fruity taste.  It’s made by about 2,500 French wineries, with grapes harvested in early fall and bottled 6-8 weeks later.  The wine is shipped to the US in small quantities in order to be available in time for Thanksgiving; larger quantities arrive afterward, reducing the price.

Be sure to enjoy some of the first fruits of the 2008 harvest in one of our many fine wine glasses.

Now and then everyone has a wine bottle they need to open or unscrew.  And when it comes to screwing, one of this country’s foremost experts on the topic is former President Bill Clinton.  So it only makes sense that someone would create a Clinton corkscrew, shown at left.  This wine opener definitely leaves the impression that Bill has trouble keeping it in his pants.

You can order the Corkscrew Bill wine opener here, and be sure to check out our many other wine openers and corkscrews as well.

We have a variety of hot beverages available to keep us warm and toasty on cold winter nights.  There are coffee and tea, of course, as well as hot apple cider and hot chocolate.  But, beer?

Turns out it is possible to serve beer as a hot beverage.  This wikiHow article will teach you how to make a sweet, creamy beverage called hot mulled beer.  To make it, you’ll need eggs, sugar, honey, cinnamon, cloves, ginger, nutmeg, and of course, beer.  The article recommends you use an ale, but a lager will work too if that’s all you have on hand.

Be sure to enjoy your hot mulled beer in one of our many fine beer glasses.

Thanksgiving’s almost here, so it’s time for some advice on pairing traditional Thanksgiving food with beer.

• This Bloomberg.com article has good advice for not only pairing wine with turkey, but with side dishes and with the crazy relatives that tend to show up for Turkey Day.
• Here’s another article full of advice on Thanksgiving wines.  The writer likes sparkling wines, because they won’t overpower side dishes like creamy mashed potatoes.  If you don’t like bubbles, she has traditional wine pairings too.
• Finally, this writer argues that wine is fine, but beer is much more versatile when it comes to matching the variety of flavors you’ll find in a Thanksgiving dinner.

Be sure to stock your Thanksgiving table with some of our wine glasses and beer glasses.  Check back often - lots of good stuff to come this week, including one of the funniest corkscrews ever.

Just in time for Thanksgiving, it’s time for a weekly roundup of booze-related recipes.

• Pumpkin bourbon cheesecake with spiced graham pecan crust
• Peach bourbon BBQ shrimp and bacon wrapped scallops
• Chocolate chip bourbon pecan pie
• Bourbon-butternut squash soup
• Blackberry wine cake

Enjoy!  Don’t forget to browse the Mid-South Alcoholic Supply bookstore for books containing lots more recipes.

A lot of attention is given to recycling wine bottles and reducing waste associated with them, but what about the wine corks?  According to this SFGate.com article, San Francisco and Reno are taking the lead with an aggressive program to recycle corks.  The corks can be easily ground and recycled; they don’t reappear as new wine corks, but can be used in compost, flooring, or shoe soles.

Here in Memphis, home of the Mid-South Alcoholic Supply World HQ, we have a different kind of recycling program for corks.  When a popular Downtown bar called The Blue Monkey burned down in 2005, Memphians saved their wine and champagne corks and donated them to the bar’s owners.  When the bar reopened in spring 2008, thousands of corks had been used to decorate the walls.

Before you recycle that cork, you’ll need to get it out of the bottle.  Mid-South Alcoholic Supply can help with wine openers and corkscrews.

The University of Florida has been rated the #1 school academically in the state, and the #1 party school nationwide.  So it’s no surprise, according to this Palm Beach Post article, that the resourceful students of the U of F were able to invent the world’s first 40-person beer bong.

The article notes, however, that the UF model is not the world’s largest beer bong.  That one was hooked up directly to a keg at the University of Wisconsin, another party school, and is capable of draining the keg in 5 seconds with each person consuming 1.65 beers.

You can find more conventional beer funnels and beer bongs at Mid-South Alcoholic Supply.