SLIF Vol. XVI.....

 

Its Friday again folks! That means its time for another edition of SLIF! A fairly short one, but its one none the less, so, crack open a beer, sit back, relax and enjoy the weekend!

I was so excited to get my glass of KBS,
I almost drank it all before I got a picture!

Founders hits Arizona!
This past Thursday, the 24th, Arizona was lucky enough to welcome yet another highly regarded brewery to the valley, Founders Brewing Company from Grand Rapids Michigan. Founders holds a few spots in top 25 of  Beer Advocates best 250 beers in the world (their Kentucky Breakfast Stout, KBS is currently rated #5, with a score of 100 out of 100!). They bring a SOLID line up for beers to our state. A couple of stand outs in their line up (aside from the ever popular, afromentioned KBS), their Centennial IPA is just outstanding, Their Porter, and Imperial Porter are a couple of the best porters I've ever had as well. Hopefully we will see such seasonal offerings as Devil Dancer as well. On a personal side note, Founders also happened to be the favorite hang out of the Late, Great Roving Beer Czar Correspondent Uncle Gary. So, if you see them on the shelf, grab some, and check um out!

Enjoy your beer, naked??
Something that has been going around the beer pages recently, is a "special" beer festival in Penn. What makes this beer festival so different then all the rest? You are required to attend it, buck ass naked! That's right, its at a nudist colony! I did a little follow up on it, its at the Sunny Rest Resort in Palmerton, PA. Your $18 ticket gets you UNLIMITED samples (I would need that many). Oh, and for those worried about this being a complete sausage fest, quite literally, tickets are only sold to couples, men attending must be accompanied by a female, so, its not just a bunch of horny naked drunk dudes hoping to see some female skin! So, all you need to pack is your sun screen! If you go (here is the site for all the info....) we would love a complete report!!! (check out a complete article about the festival here....)

Drinkinaz
If you haven't liked or checked out Drinkinaz yet, please do so! Click on the "badge" to the right of the screen to check out the blog, or find them on Youtube. Check it out for all the latest news, and information about the Arizona craft beer and spirits scene. I am lucky enough to have been invited back, to sit in, and act as "co-host" again for a couple more episodes. We got to chat with Dylan of  Cartel Coffee Lab and Brewery, as well as Cory and Bryne (sp?) of  Southern Nevada Brewing Company, a name I think you might be hearing more from in the very near future!

Comicon!!!

Also, don't forget, mark your calendar's and plan on attending Phoenix Comicon this June, where you can see yours truly, take place in a panel discussion with the fine folks at Masterpiece Theatre. I will have a lot more details to come as they become available. You can get what info I have here......







So, there it is, all the news that's fit to report, and some that isn't.....

As always my friends, have a great weekend, enjoy some great beer, with some great company, but as always, be smart, and be safe.

Until next time
Bottoms up my friends

The Beer Czar

Shower Beer, yeah, its a real thing!

The Shower Beer is defined by Urban Dictionary as

 "The beer you take into the shower when you're in a hurry to go out and still need to get cleaned up, or want to relax from a long day."

 

or as

 

 "The most delightful beer in the world. Can be anything from Pabst to Guinness, but must be consumed within the shower and while the shower is on."

 

 

 

A while back, on The Beer Czar Facebook page I posted a pic of a product geared towards the "shower beer". I had never heard of such a thing, but there seemed to be a fair amount of common knowledge around the subject, so I wanted to look into it a little further.

 

I was a little shocked to be honest. A quick Google search will yield results such as comment threads, blog posts Reddit threads, tons of photos, how to guides, do's and don't guides, and even products geared towards the shower beer (here and here).

 

 

Why have I never heard of this? I am a fairly active member of the beer community, I shower on an almost daily basis, why have these two wonderful worlds never collided for me before now?? It seems a match made in heaven if you think about it, I mean, drinking beer, naked? Yes please! So, I wanted to know what you thought about it, so I asked the question on our Facebook page...."have you ever had a shower beer?". Well, it was one of my most responded to posts on our Facebook page. The results were a tad shocking to me. The question was multiple choice, the choices and results were as follows....

 

 

1. Never done it...  14.29%
2. I've done it once, that's all...  7.14%
3. I have on occasion, I don't make a habit of it..  42.86%
4. Love it, do it quite often...  32.14%
5. Don't ever shower with out one..  0%
6. Only when I have company...  3.57%

 

 

I got over 50 responses! So, it seems most, 85% to be exact, have at least tried the shower beer, 75% of them indulging in the practice on at least a somewhat regular basis. A few of the things that seemed to play a factor, at least for the folks responding to our little, unscientific survey was age, and time of year. Some said they use to be a 4, now that they are older, they are a 3. It also seems summer time is the preferred time to partake in a shower beer

 

So, I figured, why not? I love beer, I shower daily, plus I normally prefer to shower at night, so I figured it would just lend itself to the occasional shower beer if I had a favorable experience with it. One shot against it I thought, before trying it (at least for me), I am not the kind of person that lingers in the shower. I take about 3 minute showers normally (I don't have any hair to shampoo), and I wasn't planning on shot gunning a beer in the shower, so well, I had mixed feelings as to what to expect. So, one evening, after getting home from the gym (that isn't a joke, yes I do actually go on occasion) I decided it was time to try it. This is what I learned....

 

First, I think cans or plastic cups would work best, a must really. I made the mistake of pouring my Mudshark into a beer snifter, and well, with wet, and sometimes soapy hands, it became an almost stressful affair at times, afraid I would drop my glass, and break it, and lets face it, you are a bit more exposed then you normally are when you are in the shower, and the thought of a cut needing a trip to the ER to get stiches from an injury I sustained in the shower was a bit embarrassing.

 

Second, make sure the beer is quite cold, colder then you would probably normally drink it. Drinking in the shower is sort of like drinking in a sauna, its a bit hot and steamy in there, and it will warm your beer at a disappointingly, and surprisingly rapid rate. This could be why summer maybe "shower beer season". Summer beers would work best I think, they taste pretty good really cold, and you don't normally take scalding hot showers when its 115 out. 

That being said, this could be (and was for me) a very enjoyable practice. If you don't have kids running around, and you have some extra time to kill, or you are trying to save time and start pre-gaming even earlier, this is for you! I don't see myself doing this on a regular basis, but after mowing the lawn (as was suggested as the best time to indulge in one by a fellow blogger) or other yard work, after a hike, or lengthily workout, I can see a shower beer being a wonderful way to relax, unwind, refresh and cleanse yourself, all at the same time. Multi tasking at its best!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I still want to hear from you if I haven't already. Is this something you do, have done? Even better, if you decided to try it, as a result of reading this, I want to hear from you, send us your thoughts or even photos of your prized shower beer if you have them, we would love to read or see them!!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Until next time

Bottoms up my friends!

 

The Beer Czar

 

 

p.s.- the photos were all taken off a public Reddit "shower beer" thread, and already made public. None of the photos are of fans or readers of The Beer Czar (that I know of)