Booze Newz: We’re Here, We’re Beer, Get Used to It!

Molson Deal with NHL Leaves Bitter Taste for Labatt

The National Hockey League is switching from Labatt to Molson Canadian in a seven-year endorsement agreement with MillerCoors and Molson Coors Brewing Co, Bloomberg reports. The deal, which will begin with the 2011-12 season, is purportedly worth $375 million, the largest corporate sponsorship in league history. Meanwhile, Labatt is finding the announcement hard to swallow, saying it was in good-faith negotiations with the NHL to renew its sponsorship and vowing to “pursue all legal remedies.”

Below: Booze Newz samples eco-beer, does the can-can and brown-bags it.

This One’s for You, Mother Earth

PurposeEnergy, a renewable energy startup whose motto is “Saving the Earth. One Beer at a Time,” has found a way to make beer greener, and we’re not talking about that stuff people swill on St. Patrick’s Day. The company has created a way to use the leftovers of brewing, including used hops, barley and yeast, to make natural gas that can provide power for a brewery. Magic Hat, a small brewer in Vermont, uses PurposeEnergy’s anaerobic methane digester to get natural gas from its waste as well as process the plant’s wastewater, saving $2 per barrel, and PurposeEnergy hopes to eventually be found in breweries around the world.

Craft Beers Do the Can-Can

Beer in a can has long been held to be inferior to bottled brews by beer snobs, but more craft brewers are showing that good beer doesn’t have to come in a bottle. Modern cans are lined so that the contents don’t touch the metal, and cans also effectively protect beer from oxygen and light, both of which can affect taste. Some craft brewers that have released canned beers include San Francisco’s 21st Amendment Bitter American, Colorado’s Oskar Blues’ Dale's Pale Ale, Hawaii’s Maui Brewing CoCoNut Porter and Minnesota’s Surly Brewing Abrasive Ale.

Doss Blockos Brown-Bags Its Beer

But for those who are too anti-corporate to want to drink beer out of a branded can OR a bottle, Australian brewer East Ninth Brewing Co. has the answer in its new brown-bagged Doss Blockos Pale Lager. Named after the famous ‘90s New York City squat, a six-pack of Doss Blockos comes in a cardboard carrier and each bottle is wrapped in brown paper, just like “the brown paper bag that everyone knows beer had to be drunk from when people needed to keep the law out of their face.” Certainly the most appropriate refreshment option for drinking on the street.