Hail the Ale! Beer Blog

Of course, we don’t condone drinking games here at Hail the Ale! (mainly because we are married and the only reason for drinking games is to pick up girls and partially because somebody has to think of the children!). But, if this is your bag then check out the Brent Musburger Drinking Game this football season. Some highlights:

“Jack Arute”. Whenever Brent says “Our ol' buddy Jack Arute” everyone has to say “AROOOOOOT!” Last one to do it has to do a shot. If everyone does it simultaneously, the Pardner must do a shot.

Calling a touchdown before the player actually scores. For example, during an interception return, Brent says “It's a touchdown!” before the player actually scores. In this case, everyone must start drinking and continue to drink until the player actually does score. If by some odd event, the player does NOT score, everyone must finish their drink.

Oh, and Musburger was busted for an open container this past weekend.

In Chapel Hill, NC a parent is pissed off about the local Target selling t-shirts with Corona and Guinness logos on them.

Dale Pratt-Wilson is a member of Community for Drug-Free Teens, an advocacy group opposed to alcohol and drug use among teens. She wants the Target on 15-501 to stop selling T-shirts emblazoned with Corona and Guinness beer logos in the young men's section.

“I was there with my 17-year-old son and I was outraged that Target was promoting beer logos to our young men,” Pratt-Wilson said.

“It's like we're saying to our kids… drink beer. That's what we're saying,” Pratt-Wilson said. “It's like we're saying 'It's OK for young people to drink beer,' and it's completely inappropriate.”

What are your thoughts? Should Target pull the t-shirts?

Flying Dog Brewery honors HST with the Gonzo Imperial Porter.

Like Hunter this beer is deep and complex. Gonzo Imperial Porter has been brewed with black, chocolate and crystal malts, and hopped with Millennium and Cascades. This is a turbo charged version of the Road Dog and at 9.5% ABV it will bite you in the ass if you don't show it the proper respect.

I’ll admit that I don’t care for most of the Flying Dog brews. However, porters are a favorite style of mine so I’ll definitely be seeking this one out if the beer distribution gods are benevolent.

Link via: Everything and Nothing

Oktoberfest officially starts tomorrow and runs through October 3rd. Here’s why it is called Oktoberfest even though it begins in September—other than Septemberfest doesn’t have the same ring to it. Courtesy of the official Oktoberfest site (English):

The historical background: the first Oktoberfest was held in the year 1810 in honor of the Bavarian Crown Prince Ludwig’s marriage to Princess Therese von Sachsen-Hildburghausen. The festivities began on October 12, 1810 and ended on October 17th with a horse race. In the following years, the celebrations were repeated and, later, the festival was prolonged and moved forward into September.

By moving the festivities up, it allowed for better weather conditions. Because the September nights were warmer, the visitors were able to enjoy the gardens outside the tents and the stroll over “die Wiesen” or the fields much longer without feeling chilly. Historically, the last Oktoberfest weekend was in October and this tradition continues into present times.

For those of you planning on going next year, it begins on September 16. It still ends on October 3 so you get and extra day! Just don’t get too fetznrausch.

Nothing beer-specific here, but I wanted to say thanks to a couple of people who were kind to Hail the Ale! in my quest for Blogads sponsorship:

• Taegan at politicalwire.com
• Adam at sliceny.com

Actually, Adam’s blog is about pizza. Beer goes with pizza, so…