By Bob Lesher
3 Days.
400 breweries.
1,800 beers.
That about sums it up. Three days of yeast, love, and hoppiness. The 2009 Great American Beer Festival is heading to the mile high city and if pre-event ticket sales are any indicator (which I’m pretty sure they are) this one promises to be a blowout.
The annual Great American Beer Festival is a true celebration of all things beer. Where else can you get the chance to sample such a wide variety of beers from all over the US? Nowhere. This is the granddaddy of beer shows and if you are even remotely interested in beer you owe it to yourself to be there.
The way it works is pretty simple: There are four sessions (two on Saturday) during which you get to run around like the malt maniac you are, sample cup in hand, getting your taste buds on just about any kind of beer you could imagine. (Sorry, I had to wipe some drool off of my keyboard.)
The cost of a session ticket is $55. You can also get a 4-pack to get
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Let’s face it – we all watched some part of last night’s MLB All-Star Game because there was absolutely nothing else on. It was fun for a while, and then you started to notice the flaws. By the time the game was over, no one cared anymore.
The All-Star Game will never be as huge as it once was, but at the very least, it could be more exciting. Here are some suggestions.
Expand the rosters:
Every year, people bitch and moan (sometimes rightfully so) about deserving players left off the All-Star team. Why does there need to be some arbitrary roster restriction? Does anyone care about this? If you set some parameters – say, any player with 20 homers, over 60 RBI or 10 wins is in – you’ve covered most of the people who got screwed.
Ditch the World Series rule:
Why should a mercy selection from the
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A lot of guys don't have room in their house for a dedicated man cave or even a dude den. (Yeah, I know. You married guys. Sorry.) But everyone's got space for a Man Wall. Even if she's using the spare bedroom as her scrapbooking center...
Designed to bring complete guy entertainment ("Guy-tertainment"? Someone call Spike) in one convenient and customized wall-sized center, the Man Wall's got everything we need to spend a weekend planted in one heavenly spot.
The centerpiece is a 42″ Vizio flat panel LCD HDTV, surrounded by three 26″ flat panel Vizio LCDs. A matrix splitter lets you control all four TV’s by a single remote, so there's no juggling.
Bringing the noise is a 1000 watt Panasonic 5.1 Home Theater System complete with two wireless surround sound speakers and a DVD player with 5-CD changer and iPod docking station.
And if those four HDTVs aren't enough to satisfy your sports jones, the Wall is topped by a 7-foot live sports ticker with its own built-in computer. (My broker can kiss my ass with his stock ticker...)
Because man can not live by visual entertainment alone, the Man Wall boasts a full-sized, built-in, refrigerated beer keg with tap. (I need to change underwear.)
Light up a cigar from one of the two humidors. Each has its own humidity gauge and holds 25 smokes.
Hungry? Heat up some frozen burritos in the 1000 watt microwave oven. Got a date? Pop the cork on a red from the 32-bottle wine rack. You could go an entire week and never move more than 9 feet.
So what's it going to run you for this wall of dude dreams? $14,900. Plus shipping. And beer.
For more info, head over
www.hybridspacefurniture.com
GEAR | BACHELOR PAD
July 14, 2009
Wondering what's the one piece of clothing no guy should be without? Didn't think so. But I was, so I spoke to our friend Fred Reali, snappy dresser and chief style guru over at
Hamilton Douglass Clothiers, and asked him.
He came back with an immediate answer: The White Shirt. (And the way he said it, I'm pretty sure all the words were capitalized.)
Season after season, year after year, it leads the list of wardrobe staples.
Why's the white shirt so essential? Reali backs it up with four good reasons:
1. Very few pieces have the level of versatility of a white shirt. It's a fresh canvas, that can be painted upon with any color or pattern of necktie and worn with everything. (Style gurus talk like that.)
2. The white shirt is the number one selling shirt color in the world, and is gaining ground in popularity. It's followed closely only by blue. Everything else, in the way of patterns, stripes, etc. is a distant third.
3. When times are tough men want to be serious about their look. In a vibrant booming economy many men turned to colorful dress shirts. Now, in an era of restraint and conservatism, a simple white dress shirt sends a savvy and timely message that a man is seriously ready for work.
4. Whether it's properly pressed and crisply accenting a pinstriped suit or worn wrinkled with a pair of faded jeans, the white shirt is about as classic of a fashion icon as they make.
And who doesn't want to be iconic?
www.hamiltondouglass.com
By Bob Lesher
You like beer. You like food. It’s only natural that you want to combine the two, right? I agree whole-heartedly... and so does food author and fellow beer-lover Lucy Saunders. In her cookbook, "The Best of American Beer & Food," she’ll have you crafting the perfect pairing of suds and grub in no time. And this book isn’t your run-of-the-mill cookbook. It’s loaded with full-color pictures and easy-to-follow recipes that just about any guy should be able to nail – even after a few pints.
The Best of American Beer & Food showcases chefs and craft brewers from around this great nation who not only love beer, but cook with beer. You’ll get suggestions on beer and food pairings that cover the gamut from pilsners to porters and everything in between. The book starts off innocently enough with a useful primer on the art of beer and food combinations and then dives straight into the goods.
There are 75 recipes, each complete with a suggested beer pairing to get you off on the right foot. The first half of the book is arranged by region of the country so you can easily head down south for some pulled pork and IPA or up to the Pacific Northwest for some salmon and hefewiezen.
Isn’t it time you beefed up your culinary game? We all know that women love a guy that can cook, and if you can get your beer at the same time, it’s a win-win.
$22.95
www.beertown.org
From Lance Armstrong's personal video files: Funny man and bike race fan, Robin Williams stopped by to chat with Lance after a Tour de France stage... and do a few impressions, give Lance shit about his compression socks, and show off his heart surgery scar.
A little something for everyone...
By Bob Lesher
In a previous Brew Review I covered the brilliant English elixer, Newcastle Brown Ale (
read), and was quick to point out that the best way to experience this classic is on tap at your favorite pub. Well, the folks at Newcastle agree and have decided to make it even easier for you to get your hop-loving hands on some Newkie the way it was meant to be served.
They announced recently that they would begin test-marketing the Newcastle DraughtKeg. Incorporating some pretty sweet (and patented) beer technology, together with Newcastle’s unique flavor and refreshing, smooth finish, the DraughtKeg is basically your own porta-pub, giving you the real draught experience just about anywhere. I wouldn’t recommend trying to sneak it into a movie, though. It’s not exactly stash-friendly.
Featuring the same technology used in the Heineken mini-keg, the Newcastle DraughtKeg combines an internal CO2 system with a mini tap. This feature helps keep the beer fresh for up to 30 days after tapping, and
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By Bob Lesher
You know it and you love it. One of the greatest rock shows ever to grace the planet, Lollapalooza, is getting ready to rock eight stages in the windy city August 7-9 and we here at BG don’t want our readers to be left out in the cold.
So The Bachelor Guy is teaming up with Island Records to celebrate their 50th Anniversary... and to give you a chance to win a pair of tickets to the annual Lollapalooza festival in Grant Park, Chicago.
What? You can’t afford the gas money? How about we take care of that and throw in a $100 gas card to help get you there.
So you’re just that much of an asshat to complain that a weekend full of live music with mega-stars The Killers, Beasties Boys and Tool (to name just a few) isn’t quite enough... then you’re in luck because Island Records is also hooking up the Grand Prize winner with the entire Killers’ catalog - as well as albums from Noisettes, Airborne Toxic Event, and Ida Maria. Now that should shut your hole.
But wait, there’s more. (Thanks Billy.) Just because you don’t win the biggie doesn’t mean you shouldn’t get to share in the love.
Island Records is also giving away custom Zippo lighters and music download cards with the top 50 Island songs from the past 50 years to 25 runners up.
Don’t pass up your chance to get in on the action. All you have to do is get off your lazy ass and
enter your info here. The contest runs until August 3rd, so get on it. For more information on the festival lineup and stage locations check out the Official Lollapalooza Website at
www.lollapalooza.com
ENTERTAINMENT
July 13, 2009
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