There’s An App For That: Plan a brewery trip on the fly with HopPlotter, a new app that organizes your itinerary for a brewery crawl anywhere you please. The app features a simple map functionality and filters for tap rooms, brewpubs, tours, all ages, and more. This is shaping up to be a must-have for any thirsty traveler.
A Lifelong Look at Yuengling: Beer writer Lew Bryson wrote in to All About Beer Magazine last week about his long-running relationship with Yuengling, America’s oldest brewery. Younger drinkers may find themselves aghast at Lew’s description of setting up his first tour at the brewery in 1986 by writing a letter on a real, live, non-ironic typewriter. You’re going to need a beer or two to go along with this one. Cheers, Lew, and long live Yuengling.
Beer On The Road: Another morning spent battling slush and snow has put all of us in a mind to get out of New York City for a little while. Fortunately, Brew York has put together a list of the six best beer destinations for 2016, and most of them are having much better weather than we are at the moment. Honestly, just head to the airport now and fly standby. Anything to avoid another sock-drenching step off a curb.
The Perfect Gift For A Very Specific Someone: Prove how well you know your significant other (or that you have questionable hobbies) with a pair of vintage Soviet-made porcelain vodka jugs emblazoned with canine cosmonauts Belka and Strelka. The jugs recently popped up on eBay, and are estimated to have been made in 1960 to celebrate the Russian space program. We’d say you can just buy both for yourself, but the idea of buying two vodka jugs to drink alone is a little too depressing.
What Hath Science Wrought: A team of students at UPenn have developed a way to ferment beer faster than ever, taking the $10,000 top prize in the school’s Y-Prize competition. Tasked with improving an existing technology, the students harnessed microfluidic technology to increase the surface area of liquid sugars exposed to yeast, resulting in a faster fermentation without compromising quality. It’s an intriguing method, but also feels like it could anger a pantheon of brewing deities. Step carefully, students.
Beers And ‘Bowl: You didn’t honestly think we wouldn’t mention the Super Bowl this week, did you? Food Republic has saved you some agonizing shopping and laid out the best beers for the big game, representing Colorado and North Carolina in the names of their respective teams. We’d also recommend picking up a few Brooklyn Brewery beers, but we may be biased. Still, neutral ground can’t hurt, right?