This has nothing to do with beer, but Mario, who posts frequentkly on this blog sent this photo along after reading the post yesterday from Associated Press about the plight of Mount Shasta Brewing’s slogan: Legal Weed.

He brews in Weed, CA. and beer is still legal, but the  feds demurred.

The college, by the way, is College of the Siskiyous.  Choices, choices.

Wow, here’s a lesson in government-ese for you. If you brew beer in Weed, California, better be careful what you put on the label, not to mention the bottle cap. The feds are watching.

Calif. brewer ordered to stop using ‘Legal Weed’ bottle caps
By Juliet Williams, Associated Press
Article Created: 04/23/2008 03:59:47 PM PDT

SACRAMENTO _ Vaune Dillmann thought the wording on his bottle caps was just a clever play on the name of the Northern California town where he brews his beer _ Weed.
Federal alcohol regulators thought differently. They have ordered Dillmann to stop selling beer bottles with caps that read “Try Legal Weed.”

The dispute started in February when Dillmann sent the proposed label for his latest beer, Lemurian Lager, to the Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau for approval. The agency, which regulates the industry, asked for some changes to the label, along with a sample bottle cap.

Dillmann obliged, sending the caps he has been using for his five current beers.
The agency responded that the message on the caps amounted to a drug reference. In a letter explaining its decision, the agency said the wording could “mislead consumers about the characteristics of the alcoholic beverage.”

Dillmann scoffs at the notion that his label has anything to do with smoking pot.
“I’ve never tried marijuana in my life,” he told The Associated Press on Wednesday. “I don’t advocate that. It’s just our town’s name.”

The town of 3,000, sitting beneath Mount Shasta about 230 miles north of the state capital, takes its name from Abner Weed, a timber baron who opened a lumber mill there in 1901 and eventually was elected to the state Senate.

Dillmann, 61, started the Mount Shasta Brewing Co. in 2004. He said he has always used the town’s name on his beers and named the company’s first official brew Abner Weed’s Pale Ale. READ MORE….

I’ve been meaning to post this U.S. beer label map for a while. It comes from a Web site that among other things writes about spirits and beer labels. If you follow the link, use the Flash version, it’s kinda neat.

The site is produced by Etiquette Systems, which (shock) makes custom labels.

This is so stupid that I had to post it. Would you believe, an entire pub made out of beer crates? Ir really happened – in Belgium. Check out the video….

Note….something hinky with Wordpress…I input the video paramets, but the video start button fails to display. So just click the photo and press the start button yourself.

Matt Venzke, of Yorktown, VA. , in t-shirt, center, with a beer, naturally, and the judges at Wynkoop Brewing on Saturday.

Here’s the noos er news : Wynkoop Beer Drinker of the Year is Matt Venzke, of , VA. This is a contest that somebody had to event and Wynkoop Brewing, the seminal Denver, Colo. brewpub did a few years ago. Over time. it’s gotten more and more elaborate, drawing entries from around the U.S. with the winner chosen by a panel that includes past year winners and journalists Lisa Morrison, of Portland, OR. and Rocky Mountain News (Denver) beer columnist Jay Dedrick.

Matt beat out two other finalists, J. Mark Angelus, of Nehalem, Ore. and Richard Pedretti-Allen, of McKinney, Tex., answer a bunch of occasionally serious, beer-related questions from the judges.

But his beer-drinking resume’ won the day. Consider: Venzke has visited 454 breweries in 69 nations and 39 states. Over the past five years, he has recorded tasting notes on over 3200 different beers in 69 different styles.

He logged 3,000 miles in 2007 while traveling to breweries across North America. While stationed in alcohol-free Kuwait on a military deployment a few years ago, Venzke conducted a tasting of 17 non-alcohol beers.

His will, Venzke said, includes instructions for him to be cremated and his ashes used in a beer brewed for his wake. (“I’ve instructed my wife,” Venzke stated, “to tell people at the ceremony, ‘Matt is more a part of you than you think.’”)

The prize, besides a trophy: Free beer for life at Wynkoop in Denver and a $250 tab at his local, the Taphouse on Queensway in Hampton, VA.

Wynkoop was founded in 1988 by John Hickenlooper. It was a cornerstone of the redevelopment of an area once occupied by railroad yards and the homeless. Now it boosts many brewpubs, Coors Field, with it’s own Sandlot Brewpub, condos, coffee shops, and other hallmarks of the American urban revival. Hickenlooper’s now Mayor of Denver.

I love Wynkoop Brewing and make it my local pub each year during the Great American Beer Festival. If you do visit Denver, don’t miss it, and check out Coors Field and the Sandlot too.

Got your iBeer? OK, this one’s outrageously funny and stupid. If you have an iPhone, you can download it from www.hotrix.com for $2.99 It’s a video, but it looks like your iPhone is filling up with beer. The trick is to time it so when you tip the phone up to your lips, you’re drinking it. Check out this video:

There are many others including iBlood for Haloween or goths; ipopcorn, which looks like you’re popping popcorn on your iPhone; igoldfish, which looks like a real goldfish swimming around; igefeltifish for the kosher around us.