Get Your Pinterest On: Halloween weekend is here, and beer drinkers across the country will be scrambling to get their holiday decor up to snuff before everyone puts it on Instagram. Beat everyone to the punch with a simple but nifty pumpkin keg, which you can fill with just about any libation. If you’re feeling extra crafty (or don’t want your drink sitting in a pumpkin all night), there’s also instructions for turning that pumpkin into a jockey box. Isn’t being an adult on Halloween terrific?
The Most Haunted Bar in Key West: If you’re far enough south, why not get into the Halloween spirit at a bar with a gravestone built into the floor and a laundry list of ghost stories? Captain Tony’s Saloon has you covered, and apparently the staff and regulars are more than happy to regale you with spooky stories from the bar’s past. Of course, Key West itself is more haunted than a Scooby-Doo reunion, so you might want to build it into a long, creepy crawl.
The Tale of the Brewers Association: Back in 2012, Sam Calagione took time as Director of the Brewers Association board to gather the minds behind the group and get an oral history down on tape for all posterity. It’s a remarkable look at the early days of the BA, including all the lumps, bumps and triumphs of trying to be heard as a trade association. You can also catch some more stories from our own co-founder and chairman Steve Hindy, which is always a pleasure. If you’re reading this at work, put it on anyway and listen along behind your spreadsheets.
Saying Hello to Scotch Ale: Now that the weather is truly making layers necessary, it’s the perfect time to get reacquainted with Scotch ales. Also called “wee heavy,” the style is thick, malty, and warming, but not so high in alcohol that you’ll totally ruin your plans (though it might delay them a bit.) It’s also an excellent beer for cooking, playing a versatile role in many cold weather soups, stews, braises and more. Be sure to stock up before things start getting snowy and everyone else has the same idea.
Space Gets Sloshed: A study published in the journal Science Advances claims that ethyl alcohol has been discovered for the first time on a comet, specifically one named Comet Lovejoy. Scientists are excited because they believe the material may resemble that of our solar system early in its creation, meaning that alcohol may have been one of the first organic compounds present when life emerged on Earth. For the rest of us, it’s a great excuse to imagine drunken aliens attempting to call cabs from Roswell. Your call.
Science Gets Dirtier: In a more earthbound story, a municipal water facility in Portland, Oregon recently held a contest to determine who could brew the best beer using water reclaimed from reclaimed wastewater. The drain-to-bottle experiment was conditional success; participants admitted that they enjoyed the beer, but many also said they were wary of drinking more than necessary since they knew the liquid had been utterly foul not long before. We think it helps to think of it as just a super-efficient water cycle, but we’re also not hopping on a plane to go try it out any time soon.
Now, to leave you in the Halloween spirit, we leave you with some classic tales from Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark. Enjoy your trick-or-treating, and may your costume make sense to all.