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Dent Brewery, Cumbria, U.K

Apr03
2011 Written by admin

Dent Brewery, Cumbria, U.K

Dent Brewery is set in the some of the most stunning countryside the United Kingdom has to offer.  The Yorkshire Dales National Park, which at this Western edge is actually part of Cumbria, covers almost 700 square miles and is mostly contained within North Yorkshire.

To the beer then and Dent Brewery is an iconic name in this part of the world and the village itself is popular destination for tourists, hikers, cyclists and the like.  Dent Brewery has not been around long in comparison with other micro-breweries.  It was started in 1990 by Martin Stafford as a way of supplying the local Sun Inn with real ale.  Ownership and brewing management changed hands in the mid-2000s and the operation is currently run by Paul and Judith Beeley but methods and techniques have remained largely the same.

The brewery purchased the George and Dragon Inn in Dent in 2006 as a natural progression of the business and this now acts as a type of brewpub.  It serves not only Dent Brewery beers but also a guest selection of other quality real ales and is a magnet for visiting beer drinkers.

Dent brewery beers So to the beers then and a brief word about one or two.  The cask ales are what this brewery is best known for.  Because of the nature of the land and the historic work done on the countryside, many of the beers have sheep related names – Golden Fleece, Rambrau, Ramsbottom – but the most well known does not, and that is Aviator.

Aviator is often on sale a long, long way from Dent in the most unlikely places and its popularity is justifiable.  It’s a moderate 4% ABV and the brewery describes it as an:

“….amber coloured ale with strong hints of citrus and a hoppy full flavour [which] develops into an enjoyable bitter finish.”

Another big seller and a personal favourite is the 5% ABV Kamikaze which the brewery describes as a:

“…..full-bodied, gold-coloured, strong bitter with a pleasant dryness and a hint of citrus and honey in the finish, leading to a bitter after taste.”

Dent Brewery also produces a range of bottled beers and and special ales, as well as line of clothing with the Dent logo.  If you’re in the area pay them a visit, the countryside and the beer won’t disappoint.

 

 

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The Best Beer Commercials – Russia

Mar22
2011 Written by admin

Back to our occasional look at some of the world’s best beer commercials and we’ll move a long way North this time, to the largest country in the world and one which has an appetite for alcohol.  Unfortunately for us it’s an appetite for vodka which keeps them warm on these extremely long winter nights but they do also drink beers such as Baltika and Ochakovo and for our first ad – Stolichnoye.

Fans will recognise it as a classic of the genre, the girl spends hours making herself look fantastic and trying on a variety of different outfits in the process before it all goes wrong when………..well check it out for yourself:

A fairly gentle one next and you can’t help thinking that if this ad was made in some other country there would have been some sort of surprise ending – like the girl would have turned out to be a bloke or something but it’s a good’un anyway.  It’s for Lidski Kvas beer.

I’ve included the next one for the last scene as much as anything else – it’s a standard photographers-taking-pictures-of-the-pretty-girl-but-in-fact-they’re-snapping-the-beer type ad.  All well and good so far, but then she jumps in her car while still waving her bottle around.  Do the Russians encourage drink driving?  Is it a light beer? Who knows?  Can’t see that scene happening in many other countries though.

One last one then and this ones from Baltika. It’s always a shame when a Russian ad doesn’t feature a girl prominently – they’re all so damn good looking- but this is a quality one anyway.  It even features pool and funky last shot which prompts the drinking of beer.  Baltikas all round!

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The Best Beer Commercials – Canada

Feb23
2011 Written by admin

Let’s leave Europe for the time being and head back to North America for this post, specifically let’s go to Canada and check out what the imaginative advertising agencies have cooked up for us there in recent years.  The beer industry is mostly dominated by the giant Molson and Labatts breweries so their going to feature pretty heavily.

The first one is the type of ad you only get in young, smallish, usually ex-colonial countries such as Canada and Australia and to me in always seems to demonstrate a touch of identity crisis.  I can’t imagine any of the old-world, European countries producing an ad like this but have a look yourself:

If I’m going to be honest I’ve really got no idea what this next ones about.  It’s got some beer at the end (Molson’s), a bit of sport mentioned at the beginning and most importantly some girls in the middle but I don’t get the message, but then I’m not Canadian.

This next one I like if only for the way the truck owner briefly slips on the balls after they come pouring out of this car.  A genuine laughing soundtrack is always good too and as with so many beer ads there’s really very little connection with the product and the action except that maybe if you were drunk you would pull a stunt like this:

Another good one this – no need for much commentary except “Hot Girls on Skates”:

…..and lastly this one, there’s a while series of ads like this but this gives you some idea of the story behind it:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wD8BbS5soKE&feature=related

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The Best Beer Commercials – Denmark

Feb16
2011 Written by admin

Right then, back to Europe for this edition of funny beer adverts or commercials for our trans-Atlantic cousins.  This time we’re heading for Denmark, home of Tuborg and Carlsberg.  In fact it’s all really Carlsberg now as they acquired Tuborg in 1970.  There are a few micro-breweries but that’s too serious for a post like this so we’ll leave that for another occasion.  I think we should just celebrate the fact that a country the size of Denmark has advertising agencies creative enough to come up with the following.

This first one is a Tuborg ad and demonstrates the ability of beer to turn a plainly attired young lady into a foxy chick – would probably take more than one glass though.

Now because this is Carlsberg, I’m going to include ads which are shown in other countries, by which I mean the U.K, because that’s their biggest market.  This effort is fairly straightforward anti-German mickey taking but given a bit of extra oomph by the commentator and the England delegation who can’t help laughing as England draw Vatican City out of the hat and Germany draw impossibly hard opponents.

This a is a smooth ad, a bar full of good looking people and a cheeky chap trying to chat up someone else’s girlfriend.  If the consumption of beer really did help you think on your feet like that it would be a magical substance indeed.

This last one’s a clever one and seamlessly produced by Tuborg.  Thankfully it almost includes some girls getting their clothes ripped off……

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The Best Beer Commercials – United States

Feb09
2011 Written by admin

The Best Beer Commercials – United States

From Australia then we’ll make the gigantic leap from the lucky land to the one of the other ex-colonies – the United States.  Possibly the most developed advertising market in the world, although there are occasions when the humour does not travel well and, as a colonial, I’d rate my home market of the U.K. as more creative (aka funnier). 

However it’s certainly true that the States has produced some of the great classics of beer advertising and the first one we’re all surely familiar with.  It spawned one of the most annoying catchphrases possibly of all time which still lingers in some dark corners even now:

Right, are you suitably recovered?  Reminded of those recurring nightmares featuring “Wassup”?  Anyway, love it or hate it, it did the business,

OK, another Budweiser one now and the beer may taste somewhat underwhelming but the advertising is first rate.  Observe the drab office colours and low start to the ad, then witness the tirade of cursing aimed at raising money.

Don’t think I really need to expound too much on this one, I could talk about girls wrestling in concrete and other appealing scenes but it’s also quite funny.  From Miller.

Something form one of the smaller companies now, Sam Adams, and this is not one of the funniest, or biggest budget commercials ever but it does make the point that if you want decent beer you sometimes have to go and find it.  And what’s a Martini bar?

Plenty more of these to come but not in this post.  Perhaps we’ll head back to Europe next post, or maybe South America.  We shall see.

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