October 2011

Newcastle Werewolf

The (Sometimes) Blood Red Beer

As a general rule, I'm not a fan of gimmicky marketing when it comes to alcoholic drinks of any kind. Wines or beers with catchy names are almost never very impressive when it comes to the actual flavor. Newcastle Brown Ale, on the other hand (or “Nookie Broon” as it was first described to me) is a beer I've been drinking for a number of years, and I trust the Newcastle and Caledonian Breweries to deliver the goods. So it was with a mix of anxiety and anticipation that I picked up a six-pack of “Newcastle Werewolf,” one of their four new seasonal beers.

 

The label shows a picture of a legendary werewolf creature of the Newcastle moors, and the beer itself is supposed to be “blood red.” When you pour it out in a pint glass it is definitely a dark brown or copper color, and I've seen some reviews commenting on the lack of redness. I was a little disappointed in this myself- if I take a gamble on a gimmick, I expect the gimmick to at least pay off!- so I held the glass up to the light at various different angles while slowly rotating it.

Quotations: Writers on Alcohol

Is it beer before liquor never sicker or the other way around? Anyway, here are some other quotes about drinking.

I’ve recently been writing some of my favorite quotations from different writers on the difficult art of writing. In the course of doing my research, I have to admit that I did imbibe a beer or two; and in so doing, I came across some fantastic quotes from a variety of sources on the extremely delicate art of drinking alcohol. Not surprisingly, writers (and others) love to speak eloquently about alcohol, almost as if alcohol is a lovely woman that should be admired or hated as the case may be. 

 

Here are some of my favorite quotes on drinking (or not drinking) a variety of forms of alcohol. Some of the quotations are from writers, celebrities, and other people you may be aware of, but a few of the quotations about alcohol are from more obscure folks. 

 

An Irish queer: a fellow who prefers women to drink. --Sean O’Faolain

I like liquor--its tastes and effects--and that is why I never drink it. --Thomas (Stonewall) Jackson

Nothing ever tasted better than a cold beer on a sunny afternoon with nothing to look forward to but more of the same. --Hugh Hood

I’ve never been drunk, but I’ve often been over served. --George Gobel

The whole world is about three drinks behind.--Humphrey Bogart

He is, like many other geniuses, a greater friend to the bottle than the bottle is to him. --William Lyon McKenzie

I am only a beer teetotaller, not a champagne teetotaller. --George Bernard Shaw

He who drinks a little too much drinks much too much. --old saying

Alcohol is the cause and solution to many of life’s problems. --Dan Castellaneta (Homer Simpson)

I have taken more good from alcohol than alcohol has taken from me. --Winston Churchill

Alcohol may be men’s worst enemy, but the bible says love your enemy. --Frank Sinatra

Alcohol may be a good preservative for everything but brains.--Mary Pettibone Poole

If you need an excuse for why you don't drink alcohol, you could say that addiction runs in your family and you don't want to try it even once because you may not stop until you are dead in a puddle of your own vomit or smashed into the side of a mini-van with children's body parts scattered around your corpse. --Dwayne Alan Hahn

It only takes one drink to get me drunk. --The only trouble is I can’t tell if it’s the thirteenth or the fourteenth. --George F. Burns

 

What are your favorite quotes about alcohol?

Solo Cups: The Beauty of Square Keg Cups

Square Party Cups: Good or Bad?

 

 

Keg cups were sold in bulk in the town where I attended college. Industrious fraternity brothers, house dwellers, and those in the industrial style campus apartments earned hundreds of dollars by selling cups and buying kegs of the cheapest, frothiest beer imaginable. As this SLATE article points out, keg cups have looked the same for so long that it’s hard to fathom any change in the form of the actual keg cup.