A beer a day......
Unashamedly stolen from last nights Mock the Week
If, when you have have the flu vaccine the doctor injects you with a little bit of the flu virus, surely having a beer a day is stopping me being an alcoholic.
Works for me
Hi and thanks for stopping by my blog about beer! Just to be clear I'm not a beer blogger but I do love beer and thought I might show you why. Enjoy!!
Hi, good to see you!
Just so you know, I'm not a beer blogger but I do love beer. If you want to to know all about the brewing process, read some great beer reviews and get some advice on brewing your own I can recommend some great beer blogs for you (Pete Brown, Impy Malting, Top Fermented, Girls Guide to Beer,Woolpack Dave,and Cooking Lager are some of my favourites) but I'm more on the lighter side of beer.
I work in communications for a brewery, spend most of the day talking about beer and thought I might share some of that here because currently beer doesn’t have such a great image amongst British women.
An over spilling warm pint isn’t the most appealing accessory on a night out but beer can just as easily be stylish, sexy, and fun - which doesn't mean sticking a straw in it and making pink!!
Just maybe you'll see some things here that might make you love beer like I do.
Cheers
Kristy
www.bittersweetpartnership.com
Filed under
beer
Forgot all about the mulled beer.....
......that I said I was trialling earlier. Am still on the look out for a great mulled beer recipe ready for Christmas time. I tried the Blue Moon Version but anything you have to strain egg bits out of is never going to top anyone's top drinks list!!
But I have a cold so I figure lemon is in order so I just tried this
- Combine 3 bottles Coors Light with 50g brown sugar, 2 cinnamon sticks (snapped in half) , 6 cardamom pods, 4 cloves, ½ tsp freshly grated nutmeg and 2 slices of lemon in a saucepan over a medium heat, stirring until liquid simmers. Turn off heat and leave to infuse for at least ten minutes serve in mugs or handled glasses (serves four).
And you know what, it was actually really nice. Warmed up you can really taste the popcorn notes in Coors Light so you get a nice caramel sweetness that blends well with the spices.
If you've got any better send them my way.
nb. Picture not the actual finished version, I don't have a cupboard of luverly mulled beer glasses and perfectly sized cinnamon sticks but the chipped, blue, spotty Sainsbury's mug didn't take such a nice pic
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Not pink and frilly please........
<> Looks like we're not the only ones whipping up beer cocktails, seems the
French are having a go to and I spotted it being discussed across the
pond in the US of A.
It makes a simple point but a good one, make things look nice and women
will buy them! For me that's key to getting women to love beer but to be
clear nice does NOT mean pink, frilly or twee, it means stylish and
attractive. Beer cocktails are one way but serving beer in a nice glass (a much
debated topic I know) goes a long way, you wouldn't serve champagne in a
mug so why serve beer in an ugly pint glass??
But it's a bank holiday, not a day for too much deliberation so why not
enjoy Jez serving something very attractive......
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Beer and Carrot Cake
Followed the example today of my good friend Kate and decided to do some home baking (domestic goddess I am not) and whipped up a scrummy carrot cake.
Have paired it with a bottle of Brewdog's Hardcore IPA, that I picked up from Sainsburys today as part of their 2009 beer competition.
Tis delicious.
Wonder if it counts as one of my 5 a day, maybe if I have 4 more pieces.............
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Wine, Pizza and Chocolate Truffle Cheesecake Belly...........
Just sat considering joining Weight Watchers for the 345th time (mainly because if my fingers are googling they can't be getting food out of the fridge!!) and came across these Top Tips from WW on beating the beer belly.
Now what gets me is the continual bashing that beer gets for being the reason lardys like me are piling on the pounds, beer bellies indeed!!
Beer (in moderation obviously) is not the cause of a beer belly, in fact beer has less calories than wine (and no fat don't you know) but most definitely less calories than Kebabs, Pizzas, Chips and Dry Roasted Peanuts......maybe a few less of those and we could all slip into a smaller size.
So if you have joined the weight loss wagon (to banish the 'wine' belly) I found this great post with a whole heap of points for some great beers.
Hmmm, two bottles of Zatec or one glass of Wine for the same points.....decisions, decisions.......
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Oh what a night............
Now I know that I am very lucky to have such a great job (what with spending all day talking about beer) but there are sometimes when it exceeds all of my expectations and is just amazing!!
This week I tripped along to the first ever BitterSweet Partnership Garden Party to spend the evening with a whole host of fab celebs celebrating the beauty of beer......what's not to love?!
No I know that currently beer doesn’t have such a great image amongst British women. In fact nearly 8 out of 10 say they hardly ever or never drink beer, which to me feels like a real shame. But lets face it, an over spilling warm pint isn’t the most appealing accessory on a night out, so to see so many beautiful women (and me) enjoying a beer just shows, beer can just as easily be sophisticated and fun – it comes in many shapes and sizes, with often less calories than wine and spirits, and with a lower alcohol content, it can be a sensible drink choice too.
Held at the Rock and Roll Hotel, Mark Fuller's sumptuous Sanctum, celebrity guests came in their droves to help change the image of beer and to try some delicious beer cocktails, all mixed up by the lovely Jez (released from Burton for the night thanks to The Dial). Proving that beer can be very stylish, guests including Kimberly Wyatt from the Pussycat Dolls, TV presenter Jenny Falconer and fashionista Brix Smith Start (I love her!!), were served the Amber Mojito, Summer Breeze and Dutch Sunrise beer cocktails as well as a range of lovely beers including Kasteel Cru, Blue Moon and Coors Light.
Other guests to the Garden Party included Tom Crane, Sinitta, Zoe Salmon, Konnie Huq along with some of the stars from this year’s Strictly Come Dancing.
I had a ball - here's to the next one and more women enjoying a beer as much as we all did!!
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Festivals and Famous Faces
I spotted this article in the newspapers in the weekend round up of V Festival coverage
AMY WINEHOUSE made a triumphant return to the V Festival last night, telling me over a beer later: "It feels great to be back!"
Now I'm not suggesting that Amy is a role model for beer drinking (although she does look better on it!) but it did get me thinking how rarely female celebrities are photographed drinking a beer and when they are it's normally at a festival.
And the Love Beer research at BitterSweet echoed this, showing that a third of the women surveyed chose beer over and above other drinks at festivals but would be embarrassed normally to order it in the pub.
So what is it that makes it more socially acceptable to enjoy a pint over festival season? My hunch is that women really get the functional benefits of beer, that it's lower in ABV and really refreshing, that make it the perfect choice for a long, hot weekend. But what about the taste, could it be that women actually do like the taste of beer after all? I find it hard to believe anyone would spend 2 days drinking something they didn't like the taste of!!
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Fancy a beer on holiday.......Oogy wawa!!
Never be caught out ordering a beer on your travels again, here's how to say Cheers in as many languages as you'll ever need!
Afrikaans : Gesondheid! : (Ge-sund-hide)
Albanian : Gëzuar! : (Géschuar)
Arabic (Egyptian) : في صحتكم! : (Fee-sa-ha-tak)
Armenian : Armenia : (Gen-ots-it)
Azerbaijani : Afiyët oslun! : (Afeeyet Ohs-lun)
Basque : On egin! : (On egín)
Bosnian : Živjeli! : (Zhee-vi-lee)
Bulgarian : Наздраве! : (NAZ-dra-vey)
Chinese (Mandarin) : 乾杯! [干杯!] : (Gan BAY)
Chinese : (Cantonese) : (Gom bui)
Czech : Na zdravi : (NAZ-drah vi)
Croatian : Živjeli! : (ZHEE-vi-lee)
Danish : Skål! : (Skol)
Dutch : Prosit! : (Prowst)
English : Cheers! Bottoms up! Down the hatch! Here’s mud in your eye!
Esperanto : Je via sano! Toston! : (YEH VEE-ah SAH-no/Tóston)
Estonian : Terviseks! : (Ter-vi-seks)
Ethiopian (Amharic) : Letenachin : (L’-TAY-nah-chin)
Farsi : (Ba-sal-a-ma-TEE)
Finnish : Kippis! : (KEEP-us)
French : A Votre Sante! : (Ah Vot-ruh Sahn-tay)
Gaelic (Irish) : Sláinte! : (Slawn-che)
German : Prost! : (Prohst)
Greek : στην υγειά σας! : (Stin Eyiassou/Stin Eye-ee-yass-ooh)
Hawaiian : Okole Maluna! : (Å’kålè ma’luna)
Hebrew : לְחַיִּים!/L’Chaim! : (Le Chy-em)
Hungarian : Egeszsegere! : (Egg-esh Ay-ged-reh)
Italian : Salute! : Cin cin! (Salu-tay/Chin Chin)
Japanese : /Kampai! : (Kam-pie)
Korean : 위하여 (Chukbae) : (Sheet seki yah)
Latvian : Prieka! : (Pree-eh-ka)
Lithuanian i : sveikata! : (Ee sweh-kata)
Luxembourgish : Prost! : (Prohst)
Maltese : Evviva! : (A-vee-va)
Mongolian : Эрүүл мэндийн төлөө! : (Erüül mehdiin tölöö)
Norwegian : Skål! : (Skoal)
Persian : به سلامتی! : (beh salamati)
Polish Na : zdrowie! : (Naz-droh-vee-ay)
Portuguese : Saúde! : (Sow-ooh-jee)
Romanian : Noroc! : (No-roak)
Russian : Будем здоровы! : (Boo-dem Zdo-ro-vee-eh)
Serbian : Ziveli! : (ZHEE-vi-lee)
Slovak : Na zdravie! : (Naz-drah-vee-ay)
Spanish : ¡Salud!/Salut! : (Sah-lud/Sah-lute)
Swedish : Skål! : (Skol)
Thai : ไชโย! : (Chuc-dee)
Turkish : Şerefe! : (Sher-i-feh)
Vietnamese : Chúc sức khoẻ! : (chook-sa-koi-ah)
Yiddish : Zei Gazunt! : (Zye GAH-zoont)
Zulu : Oogy wawa! : (oogee-wawa)
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My favourite beer.......
A little introduction to my favourite beer, Zatec, which in my humble opinion is the king of Czech Pilsners.
Brewed in the town of Zatec, in a brewery that sits within the walls of Zatec Castle (I've been there, it's amazing) with a brilliant quote on the office wall 'where beer is brewed life is good'.
So why do I love it, the taste of course...unlike the more well know Czech brands you will typically see, Zatec has the balance just right....the right amount of alcohol at 4.6% ABV, a wonderful floral hop aroma and a taste to dream about to get you towards beer o'clock on a Friday afternoon.
Na zdraví!!
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It's Friday, fancy a beer cocktail?
How can you improve on beer, the nations favourite drink (we drink over 26 million pints a day in the UK!)? Well, it’s a tough call, but here at BitterSweet (with the help of Jez from The Dial) we thought we'd have a try. Just like other cocktails beer cocktails involve the blending of beer with other beer and other ingredients, simple really!!
Now we reckon that some of you will have tried a simple beer cocktail - the chances are you may have tried the more basic varieties like Lager and Lime (lager with a dash of lime), which goes down well on a hot day, and Snakebite and Black (half beer, half cider with a dash of blackcurrant) or Shandy is a simple one (half lemonade, half beer).
But we know that a pint of Shandy is not a stylish accessory on a Saturday night out so we wanted to try something a little different and little more sophisticated and created a some beer cocktails that we think you might like at www.bittersweetpartnership.com/experiment/ .Take a look and give them a try.....though not all at once
And you can see how the lovely Jez mixes them up too
Cheers
Kristy
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