Last week Guinness announced that it will release a limited-edition version of its stout, which will be maltier and fizzier than traditional Guinness beer.  According to this MSNBC article, the new stout will be called Guinness 250, and will celebrate the 250th anniversary of Arthur Guinness signing a 9,000 year lease in Dublin, Ireland, for the building that became their flagship brewery.

The new stout will be higher in alcohol than traditional Guinness - 5 percent vs. 4.2 percent.  It will be made with a double brew stream that combines two types of malts, ale and stout.

The new beer will also have a one-part pouring process.  If you’ve ever ordered a Guinness at a bar, you may have found that it takes a while to get your beer.  That’s because the correct way to pour traditional Guinness is to fill the glass three-quarters full, then waiting until the surge of the foam settles before pouring the rest.  The limited edition stout can be poured all at once, at an angle.

The new beer will be available only in the U.S., Australia, and Singapore, and will hit the shelves April 24.

Enjoy your Guinness beer - the classic one or the new one - in Guinness pint glasses, available from Mid-South Alcoholic Supply.

When you think of America’s largest brewery, you immediately think of Budweiser, right?  Nope, acquired by foreigners last year.  MillerCoors as well.

That leaves Boston Beer Co., maker of the Sam Adams line of beers, as the largest pure American brewer.  However, riding a 20-year wave of growth, Yuengling is rapidly closing in on that title.  Right now the beer is only available in a dozen states, so there’s plenty more room for growth too.  Check out this PennLive article for lots of info on Yuengling’s history and how the brewery got where it is today.  There’s even a video of the Yuengling brewery.

If it’s available in your area, enjoy some “Vitamin Y” in one of our many fine beer glasses.

Here in Downtown Memphis, home of the Mid-South Alcoholic Supply HQ, Old Style beer is a party favorite.  Specifically, it’s a favorite because it’s cheap.  When I need to bring beer to a party, I can drive across the bridge into Arkansas and pick up a 30-pack for $12.99 plus tax.  Now that’s a drinking bargain!

There’s also a local bar that sells dollar cans of Old Style when the Chicago Cubs are on TV, that being the beer of choice for Cubbies fans.

This NewsNetBraska article says that Old Style is updating its image.  They’re using a different brewing method called “kreuzening” which changes the beer’s thickness and fizz levels.  It’s part of an effort to update the 100-year-old brand, long considered an old man’s beer, to appeal to younger, hipper drinkers.

One change that Old Style drinkers are not going to like is the change in price.  In Lincoln, Nebraska, where the article was written, a 24-pack’s price jumped from $12.99 to $18.99.  I haven’t been across the bridge to Arkansas recently, so I’m not sure if the price has jumped for my 30-packs.

Pabst has re-positioned its beers successfully in the past.  Over the last 10 years its flagship beer, PBR, has made a big comeback, and last year the brewery re-formulate Schlitz to make it more appealing.

Try an ice cold Old Style in one of our beer mugs for maximum enjoyment.

Are you a beer drinker on a diet?  Are you counting carbs, or calories, but don’t know how to do that when beer is involved?  We have a book that can help.  Does My Butt Look Big in this Beer? by Bob Skilnik contains nutritional information for more than 2,000 beers worldwide.  Good book to help you enjoy the suds in moderation.

Funny how a reviewer gave it 1 star out of 5… not because the info in the book is bad or wrong, but because “as a beer drinker, I don’t want to know these things.”  Um, don’t buy the book, then?  It’s not like you have to read it if you’d prefer to hide your head in the sand.  Good for calorie-conscious beer lovers though.

Have you ever encountered a bartender who couldn’t pour a decent pint of beer if their life depended on it?  There’s one down the street from the Mid-South Alcoholic Supply World HQ who can’t.  She slams back the tap as quickly as possible, leaving an inch and a half of head in the pint glass.  The she angrily slams the glass on the bar, spilling even more of the remaining beer.

I was complaining about this to one of my friends who brews beer, and he brought me a “Piaget” beer gauge.  This is a gauge you hang off the edge of your pint glass, and it measures how full your beer is.

You can get one of these at thebeergauge.com.  Handy little gadget to have in your wallet when you go out to the bar.

Car companies are desperate to create vehicles that run on alternative fuels, and the Times of India reports that the Sierra Nevada Brewing Company is working on beer as a fuel.  Don’t worry, though; cars won’t be taking beer away from us.  Rather, Sierra Nevada is working with the E-Fuel company in Chico, California to convert unusable “bottom of the barrel” yeast into fuel.  This yeast contains 5 to 8 percent alcohol, and through processing can be increased to 15 percent.  One day this may lead to an environmentally friendly solution that will decrease our dependence on oil.

The more beer you drink, the more yeast will be available for processing.  So have a few pints in our beer glasses.

On St. Patrick’s Day some of us were sitting around the bar drinking green beer and downing green Jello shots, and one of my drinking buddies grabbed a straw and started slurping his beer with it.  “You know, you get drunk faster if you drink beer with a straw,” he told me.  Of course, I’ve heard that ever since college.  Is it true?  I decided to do a little research.

The best answer I could find was on this forum, and according to the post’s author, yes, you do get drunk faster with a straw.  He gave two reasons:

• When you sip beer through a straw, it creates a vacuum that lowers the boiling point of alcohol below the normal 79 degrees C.  Therefore, more alcohol vapors get into the lungs, and these vapors get absorbed into the bloodstream much more quickly.
• Because the beer enters the mouth via a very narrow jet, it has more surface area.  Therefore, more alcohol can evaporate before the beer is swallowed.  The palate, rich in blood vessels, absorbs these vapors, again getting more alcohol into the bloodstream more quickly.

So you do get drunk faster, although the overall amount of alcohol consumed is the same.

Whether you use a straw or not, be sure to sip your beer from some of our fine beer mugs.

Looking for some drinks to mix tonight to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day?  YumSugar.com has recipes for 5 beer cocktails. There’s the Michelada, a Mexican cocktail (which could serve as a Cinco de Mayo drink too); the Clara, a combination of light beer and lemon soda; the Black Velvet, made with stout and sparkling wine; the Liverpool Kiss, a berry-flavored cocktail made with stout and Creme de Cassis; and the Broadway, a Japanese favorite which is one part Coke and one part beer.

I’d like to add a couple of variations to the Black Velvet recipe.  One of our local bars here prefers to mix pear cider with the stout, rather than sparkling wine.  They also have a “Blue Velvet,” which is a Black Velvet topped with port.

Be careful out there celebrating tonight!  One of our pocket breathalyzers can help keep you safe.

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.

Happy Presidents Day!  Here in the States, this is the day when we celebrate the birthdays of Washington, Lincoln, and all the other Presidents who have led our country.

Did you know that George Washington brewed his own beer?  Not only that, but one of his beer recipes has survived into modern times.  Here’s a link to Washington’s recipe for porter.

Be sure to enjoy your Presidential brew in one of our many fine beer glasses.