Leave it to the Japanese to come up with this! Sapporo Brewery has just released a very limited edition beer made from barley grown on the International Space Station. The barley comes from a 5 month mission to test growing crops in space, which also yielded harvests of lettuce, wheat, and peas.

The beer, named “Space Barley,” is available for 250 lucky beer-drinkers who will be selected through a lottery. A six-pack will set you back around $115, which I think is worth drinking the first beer from OUTER SPACE.

Watch the video below for more info, or go read up on Space Barley at Sapporo’s website.

All I know is were I at one of the tastings, I’d vigorously backhand the first person who remarked, “This beer is out of this world!”

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9,000-year-old beer hitting the shelves this summer

Beer Pong vs Beirut – what is the game called? Who gives a shit? See what 45,ooo kids voted on CollegeHumor.

Eva Longoria in a bikini – No, this isn’t about beer exactly. But it’s of interest to some. You’re a chick and not into Eva? Here’s a photo of David Hasselhoff in a mankini and matching cardigan. You’re welcome.

Unleash the inner outlaw and start slinging some shots with these bad ass drinking gifts. The beer bandolier is clutch for tailgating, allowing you to keep 6 beers within shotgunning distance at all times. With enough ammo to last a while, you can roam freely without the fear of being stranded sans brew, increasing the range you can be a jackass way past your ice chest. Pick one up at BrewBelt for $19.99.

For the grown ups out there who want to really step it up, I present the tequila bandolier. For all those dirt nasty banditos, the tequila bandolier holds 6 shot glasses and a bottle of fire water. It’ll make you the life of the party…or the a-hole everyone hates for forcing shots down their throats. Either way you’ll make a commotion. Pick one up at BaronBob’s for $20.

The camps where German soldiers are stationed along with some other troops serving with NATO’s International Security Assistance Force (ISAF), received about 990,000 litres of beer and 69,000 litres of wine and sparkling wine in 2007, according to media reports on Wednesday.

And this year the total is on track to rise, with some 512,000 litres of beer and 42,000 litres of wine being sent out in the first six months of 2008.

- via Some German News Site

Not surprisingly, reconstructing Afghanistan can really make a man want to throw back a few. Even less surprising is the fact that Germans are being Germans, and by that I mean drunk. Apparently Germans back home are quite concerned about this, but I don’t see anything peculiar about it. With only 3600 German soldiers stationed in these camps, that breaks their per capita consumption to:

284 liters of beer/year = 0.78 liters/day

23 liters of wine/year = 0.06 liters/day

Wait, why are they upset? Maybe my math is off, otherwise I don’t see what the problem is. What the hell else can you do in the middle of Afghanistan?

I think the really tragedy is for our American brothers and sisters stationed in the Middle East. A few of our homies are/were stationed in Iraq, and they’ve revealed the terrible fact that there’s no booze allowed in some of the US camps. Damned shame.

Last weekend we celebrated P.J.’s 24th by renting out a warehouse and going apeshit. Our marketing guy and resident drunk, this party needed to represent every part of his ridiculous existence. Around 100 rowdy hooligans showed up to rage, paint, crush, drink, dance, bang and fight into the early morning. Supplies required for such an event:

• 100 year old lumber mill, rooftop bbq, graffiti room,
• Two kegs, 12 handles, thirty-six 40oz’s of malt liquor, 50 bottles of homebrew
• One 6 ft tall pinata
• DJ spinning nasty baby-making House
• 5 beer pong tables, 30 person flip cup game, beer bong
• Paint, spraypaint, paint pens, pig’s blood

The original plan was for all the drunk asses to crash in the warehouse, so we could all get crazy without getting behind the wheel. Destruction ensued: the walls, livers, dance floor, massive pinata, furniture, nothing was safe. And leave it to P.J. to be the only person we know to get kicked out of his own birthday party.

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All in all, the first inaugural Notsoberfest was a hit and next year’s should be even wilder. Check out the photo gallery and see it for yourself.

Today I received a mystery box at the office. Not expecting anything, I was giddy like a schoolgirl at this surprise. That excitement tripled when I found 12 beers inside from various microbreweries located in the Sierra Nevada Mountains. After a quick fist pump, a “aww hells yeah!” and a little beer jig, I awkwardly sat down with all eyes staring at me. Screw them, I just got beer!

My girlfriend described it as a man gift, a bouquet of beers. I say skip the other stupid gifts and next time send your friend some delicious craft beer. Here’s a list of some of the best online beer stores, according to Eli from ConfessionsofaBeerGeek.com. Don’t mess with Eli, he knows:

Buy Beer Online at:

1. Ale in the Mail – They’ve got a beer of the month club, where they send you 12 microbrews allowing you to sample some of the best ales and lagers from all over the country. You can also send a tin Party Pail filled with microbrews, just add ice and you got a nice shindig starter.
2. Beer on the Wall – This is where I got my gift box from. I met the owner Rick Steven at the Monterey Beer Festival and he’s a stand-up guy. They have gift baskets, hard-to-find brews, and they can even customize the beer labels for any occasion.
3. John’s Grocery – Every week John posts a new group of special deals on imported, micro and specialty beers. Sign up for his newsletter to get the heads up on what’s in stock.
4. Liquid Solutions – With such an impressive inventory of rare and delicious beers, they truly are “Purveryors of World Class Beer”
5. Beer Geek – They’ve got more beers than you can shake a stick at. I hate that saying, but it’s actually true in this case. Very impressive.
6. Brewforia – These guys have specialty beers, ciders, gift baskets, beer gear and hard-to-find gems in their online store. Bonus: They’ll throw in a bonus beer with an order over $50 and two mystery brews for $100+ orders.

Yeah, speaking of those craft beers from the lady, I’ve already had too many of them, so I’m done with this list. Do you really need ten? Why are these lists always ten? You can find the rest of Eli’s list at Examiner.com. Now go buy some awesome beer you’ve never heard of. And while you’re at it, order some of our 12oz & 22oz beer koozies to keep your specialty brews at the perfect temperature to the last drop.

My suggestion: Go to ratebeer.com or beeradvocate.com and find some of the top-rated beers in the world. Start out easy though, cuz it’s a bad idea to jump straight from the rusty playground that is Milwaukee’s Best into the Thunderdome of Taste that is Stone Imperial Russian Stout or Lost Abbey’s The Angel’s Share (shout-outs to our recently world-famous local brews). You’re welcome in advance, thank Eli because he did the leg work.

Note: With each site, check if your state is one they can legally send alcohol. Apparently, there are certain states that aren’t part of Real America, where you can have booze delivered without even putting on pants.

We’re very proud of reaching the 100k mark in just two weeks. That’s the nerdy equivalent of a gold record, right? If you haven’t heard yet, we recently launched pour1out, a free iPhone application.

Pour1out is an iPhone application paying homage to the street tradition of pouring out some of your 40oz to commemorate fallen homies. The main feature is a motion-sensitive 40oz beer bottle that pours out when you tilt the iPhone. Users can select any of 40cozy’s beer koozies to add to the virtual beer. The greatest feedback involves the one-click button that finds the nearest liquor store, utilizing the iPhone’s GPS functionality.

We initially had some glitches in the first version, but I guess that’s what you get when you pay the developer in beer. We’ve released a newer version with better coding and we’ll keep working to improve the app.

While we’ve received some very positive reviews from several beer-drinking sites, it seems some of the iPhone users are slightly less impressed. We’re pretty sure they don’t get the tongue-in-cheek, ironic beauty of an application inspired by a $2.45 beer for a $300 phone. It has a button that finds the nearest liquor stores… and it’s free! Are you not entertained?

Perhaps they think we’re a slick corporate company trying to capitalize on the street cred of the 40oz. Well, we’re not. The app was created by Scott, our resident tech-savvy guy, in under two weeks. He filmed the 40 oz pouring out beer in his garage, dusted off his programming textbook, slapped at a keyboard for a long time, and behold: 40cozy’s pour1out.

We’re proud of it and we hope you enjoy it. We’re already working on another iPhone app for drinkers that’s going to blow every other app out of the water. That’s right, developer bitches, get ready for more genius from 40cozy.

Last weekend we headed up to the Monterey Beer Festival, an all-you-can-drink day party. Now I’ve been to the kind of “festival” where they give you a few tickets for samples. Screw that. If I spend $35, I want to be able to get it back by drinking my weight in delicious microbrews. If you’re looking for a beer festival near you, go to beerfestivals.org. The boys at Thrillist describe the site:

“This constantly-growing directory currently lists 500+ worldwide excuses to swill brews all day, complete with locations, festival links, and “highlights”, which in Helsinki means “international beer celebrities” (Spuds McKenzie? Alex from Strohs? They won’t leave my dog alone with that Medina.).”

To kick off the weekend, we accepted a coworker’s challenge to drink 7 beers on the 1 hour flight (only 40 minutes of drinking time, as you can’t buy beers until the plane levels out). The challenge isn’t so much the drinking, but the sweet talking required to procure 7 beers from the stewardess… I mean “flight attendant” (that’s the PC term right?) I got 5 from the sexy sky siren, Jeff could only manage 3 beers.

I had some delicious beers at the festival, including some very fine brews from Alaskan Brewing Co, He’Brew, Lost Coast, Chau Tien… I’ll write the rest when I can remember them, everything is still a little hazy. Here’s one of the local celebs we ran across:

Afterward, we ended up driving up onto our friends’ lawn in a Volkswagen van with a traveling Canadian metal band (don’t ask how we met up with them, we’re not exactly sure). Our long-haired friends threw an impromptu unplugged show and we drank into the night with a bunch of friends and a dozen or so people who were drawn in by the drunken jam sesh. All in all, I must stress: go to a beer festival this summer and every summer. You won’t be sorry.

Edward 40 Hands is a great time had by all…well, all who can drink two 40’s. If you can’t, read on anyways because we have another option for you. According to wikipedia (the source of all truth) the game is also known as “80 oz to freedom” and “The 40 Challenge.” Whatever you call it, here’s the rules:

1. Have a friend duct tape a 40 oz of malt liquor to each hand (or both hands to one 40oz if you’re taking it easy). The last person to tape in will have a harder time, but with some ingenuity they can manage.

2. Nobody can remove the 40’s from their hands until they’re finished drinking all 80 ounces of beer.

That’s it, those essentially are the two official rules. You can add some competition to the game by racing to finish, but completing the game is a solid accomplishment, so I wouldn’t worry about racing. You are allowed to go to the bathroom, answer the phone, have a smoke, whatever – that is, as long as your hands are still taped to those quickly-warming 40oz beers. If you can do that, cheers. It’s funny though, I’ve seen some very awkward times when a slow-drinking gent has to request a male friend to pull his pants zipper down. And that’s really just half the battle to emptying the bladder. The other half requires a weird wiggle dance…I guess you’ll figure it out if you have to.

The true beauty of the 40cozy is displayed when you use two 40cozy’s, one on each hand. With these on your paws, you’ll be able to take as long as you want, as your beer won’t become warm for a long time. The only thing that will rush your drinking is the increasing urge to urinate.

Don’t worry about the duct tape ruining the 40cozy’s, they come out looking great afterward. Next time you and your friends are sitting around with nothing to do, go buy a case of 40’s and strap up. Drink strong!

Found this video over at the BarleyBlog, pretty damn great Heineken commercial. It’s quite edgy and very funny. Nice find guys!

Not sure if Heineken is good enough to pull me back from the edge. Pretty much any other beer would do the trick though.