The 2009 NASCAR season has started.  For years NASCAR was associated with moonshine and low-brow beers like Busch, Pabst Blue Ribbon, and Miller High Life.  However, the sport has gained sophistication in recent years, and it’s gained appreciation among wine drinkers.

This Long Beach Post sports article discusses six drivers wine drinkers may want to follow.  Among the drivers are Tony Stewart, Joey Logano, Dale Earnhardt Jr., Kyle Edwards, Carl Busch, and Jimmie Johnson.  The article explains why each driver pairs well with a particular wine.

We’ve had food-and-wine pairings on this blog before, and we’ve had food-and-beer pairings.  But NASCAR driver-and-wine pairings?  That’s a first.  Be sure to enjoy your wine while watching the NASCAR race in one of our wine glasses.

If you’re frying or grilling a steak, you can make it a healthier meal by first marinating it in booze.

So say the authors of this newsday.com article.  When you fry or grill a steak, you increase the amounts of cancer-causing compounds called heterocyclic amines (HAs).  Scientists at the University of Porto in Portugal studied the effects of marinating steak in either beer or red wine before frying.  They found that both beer and wine marinades were effective in reducing two types of HAs in fried steaks by 90%, and beer was more effective than wine for reducing a third type of HA.  Tasters thought the taste and smell of beer-marinated steak was superior as well.

Booze is good for you!  Scientists have said so.

Asia One recently profiled an ice cream store that opened in a Singapore neighborhood - the best kind of an ice cream store.  The owner wanted to feature ice cream because it’s a “happy food.”  The particular ice cream he sells will make you real happy, because it’s ice cream made with booze.

Their “adult” ice cream includes flavors like Cherry Bomb, Lychee Martini, and Rum Raisin.  To give the place a casual feel, they have graffiti walls you can write on, cow cartoons, board games, and a chalkboard where you can vote on ice cream flavors.

Fantastic idea!  Why doesn’t someone in the States franchise this?

In the mood for a new drinking game for your next party?  Check out this article on the Russian roulette beer bong, where a wheel is constructed containing many 2-liter bottles, one of which is filled with beer and the others are empty.  Each participant, when it is their turn, spins the wheel, and then picks a bottle.  If they picked the beer-filled bottle they have to chug it - all 2 liters worth.

Obviously you want to have a designated driver or cab rides home arranged before you start playing this game.

Find more drinking games and beer bongs at Mid-South Alcoholic Supply.

Seattle Weekly has an “Ask the Bartender” column where an experienced bartender answers reader questions about drinking.  This week someone chimed in with an excellent question:  Should I ask for my drink shaken or stirred? Or does it matter?

You can read the full answer here.  To summarize:  For vodka it doesn’t make a difference, but for other liquors it can.  Shaking makes your drink colder, which can be a good thing.  However, your drink gets colder because more of the ice melts in the process, which dilutes your drink.  Shaking also aerates the liquor more, which some people claims “bruises” it.  Her final verdict:  Chill your liquor in advance.

My final advice:  Whether you shake or stir your cocktail, pour it into one of Mid-South Alcoholic Supply’s martini glasses and enjoy.

Fat Tuesday is coming up, and people are getting dishes ready for Mardi Gras parties.  I did a little searching this morning, and came across this recipe for Frozen Bananas Foster Bombe, made with rum.  It’s Emeril Lagasse’s recipe so you know it’s got to be good, and the article comes with scrumptious photos to help you through each step.

Have fun Tuesday night at Mardi Gras parties, or tonight if you plan on getting started early.  We’re having one at a local bar called the Voodoo Room, with a crawfish pie eating contest and PBRtini drinking contest.  (A PBRtini is a Pabst Blue Ribbon poured in a martini glass.)  Should be fun.

Back tomorrow with more booze news!

For years, Anheuser-Busch products came with a “born on” date, and the company had a strict policy that no product would be allowed to sit on the shelf for more than 110 days.  Wanting to make sure that the customer always had a quality experience when drinking Bud or one of their other beers, A-B would buy too-old beer back from store owners and dispose of it.

However, according to this St. Louis Post-Dispatch article, A-B has now dropped the 110-day limit for some of its products.  Brewing processes and packaging has improved since the limit was adopted.  As a result, less oxygen gets into the beer, allowing it to preserve better on the shelves and retain its quality as long as 180 days from the date of packaging.  A-B is also getting rid of the “born on date” on beer labels.

For right now, they’re only implementing this change on their smaller products.  Big breadwinners such as Bud, Bud Light, Bud Select, Busch, and Natural Light will retain the 110-day limit and “born on” date.  Whew.  That’s good.  It would be unthinkable to pop open a Natty and worry that it might not taste good.

If you want to make your newborn beer taste extra great, pour it into one of Mid-South Alcoholic Supply’s beer mugs.

Drinkers celebrated a victory last week as a state senator withdrew a bill to ban beer pong in public bars.

Sen. George Della, a Democrat from Baltimore, introduced the legislation in early February.  In the days that followed, Della’s office received 1,200 phone calls and letters from unhappy beer pong players, and every a few bar owners.  Inundated by shouts of protest, Della withdrew the bill on February 11, and beer pong remains legal in the state of Maryland.

If you need beer pong equipment or a table, we’ve got what you need in Mid-South Alcoholic Supply’s beer pong store.

This SFGate.com article asks a question of interest to all barflies:  Which Muppet would you most like to have a beer with?

You can choose from any of Jim Henson’s Muppets… you know, the ones that were on the late ’70s TV show The Muppet Show.

For me personally, I know this is going to seem like the obvious choice, but I don’t see how you can go wrong with Kermit.  Kermit is just a regular guy… or, frog.  He seems like someone who’d be fun to chill out with, and I bet he’d have a ton of celebrity stories to share.

Fozzie Bear?  Um, no.  Fozzie is the annoying guy in the bar who will talk your ear off.  He’ll come up and sit next to you and start chattering on and on about topics which you have absolutely no interest in, and if you show even the slightest interest - anything more than a nod - he’ll take that as encouragement and talk even more.  If you try to excuse yourself and move to a different part of the bar, he’ll move too.

Miss Piggy?  HELL no.  She’d purposely try to get you drunk, and after 6 or 7 beers she might start to look good.  Um, make that 17 or 18 beers.

The old guys who sat in the balcony might be interesting bar buddies.  Good people to sit around with and make fun of everyone else in the bar.

If extended to include the Sesame Street Muppets, Grover wouldn’t be a bad Muppet to sit next to at a bar.  Elmo’s too young to drink, and is hyper to the point where he’d quickly get on my nerves.

Today I have perhaps the most important news I have broken in the history of this blog.  This is a major, major scientific breakthrough that is of interest to drinkers one and all.  According to this Austin Decider article (and we all know plenty of drinking is done in Austin), an artificial liver is under development.  If it passes FDA testing, it will be available soon at a cost of about $30K.  Drinkers who have been abusing their livers for years now have renewed hope.

So keep on drinking!