"guinness" news and stories

Each Thursday, we round up a selection of scrumptious links from our friends over at YumSugar. Here's what they've got cooking this week:

• A handy corned beef for the St. Patrick's Day Parade.
• Shake up no-meat Lenten Fridays with this seafood casserole.
• We'd take a break with this best-selling East-meets-West Kit Kat.
• A Guinness milkshake is a greater brogue-inducer than green beer.
• Do you enjoy "monkey eyes" -- a.k.a. capers?
• Pastrami and corned beef are Irish twins.
• End your St. Paddy's Day festivities with grasshopper pie.

While the urge to guzzle Guinness on St. Patrick's Day may be overpowering, there's no need to follow the herd -- or subject yourself to (gasp!) green beer. These 10 stouts are every bit the flavorful alternative. And yes, if you ask nicely, we'll even draw a shamrock in the beer's foam.

Bell's Kalamazoo Stout:
The marvelous Michigan stout pours coal-black, with an aroma of roasted malt and a licorice-like flavor blended with bittersweet chocolate.

Rogue's Shakespeare Stout:
Inky with a fat brown head, Shakespeare tastes like mocha coffee reimagined as beer.

Sierra Nevada Stout:
This affordable, widely available stout doesn't disappoint, providing a creamy body with roasted bitterness and a little hint of hops.

Earlier this week, Advertising Age ran a story entitled "What Your Taste in Beer Says About You."

Citing researched compiled by Mindset Media -- a "market researcher specializing in psychographics" -- the article discusses how the beer a person drinks can be a strong indicator of his or her personality. For instance, Bud drinkers are "sensible, grounded and practical," Bud Light drinkers can have "frat boy-like personalities," and Michelob Ultra drinkers "think highly of themselves and can be a little bit conceited."

The concept is interesting, but why spend all that money on "research"? Most people could come up with those same assumptions on their own. In fact, the list can be extrapolated even further... massive research grant hopefully forthcoming.

• Pabst Blue Ribbon drinkers consider playing bass in a punk band "gainful employment" and have handlebar mustaches.
• Miller Lite drinkers consider the consumption of 20 beers "moderate drinking" and include beer bongs on their list of "proper glassware."
• Sam Adams drinkers love wearing the same Red Sox hat for their entire adult life and believe there's nothing wrong with hitting on someone else's girlfriend.
• Guinness drinkers think the best football team is Manchester United and consider a fist fight a "night out on the town."
• Busch drinkers think the best bar in America is their porch and consider a proper food and beer pairing to be "a pounder and a bag of Hardee's."

And snobby craft beers drinkers tend to be people like beer writers who think they have a right to make fun of others!

What other beers bring to mind distinct personality types? And what does your favorite beer say about you? Let us know in the comments!

Two Fools Tavern. Photo: 2foolstavern.com.

A weekly look at the draft selection in beer-friendly bars across the country.

Finding two English-speaking cities more different than Dublin and Albuquerque, N.M., would be a pretty tough task. So some four years ago, when Two Fools Tavern opened its doors proclaiming to be "Albuquerque's only authentic Irish Pub," one can assume it was an ambitious undertaking.

"There was a need for it," says Russell Reid, general manager of Two Fools Tavern, explaining why they tried to bring a touch of Emerald Isle to the American Southwest. The gamble (if you can call opening an Irish pub a "gamble") has paid off: "We've been very successful."

Part of that success comes from having a solid beer selection, including nineteen draft lines. "We have Irish and English beers that are staples of what you'd need in a pub and then have a rounded balance."

Included in that balance are a number of American craft products. Via Full Sail, the bar has two exclusive Two Fools selections: a pale ale and a house cider. They're also proud to provide the beers in Sierra Nevada's Imperial series on tap, as well as other unique brews from around the country (particularly Colorado).

Reid knows his customers appreciate the additional selections: "Albuquerque is a great beer market. A lot of people don't realize that. It's much more of a beer town than other spirits." Still, despite continuing to evolve the draft list, Two Fools always keeps the Irish pub standbys. As Reid reminds us, "We're the largest seller of Guinness in the state."

Check out the current draft list at Two Fools Tavern after the jump.

Young green strawberry. Photo: tanakawho, Flickr.

• Ontario farmers beat the heat challenge and find a way to grow fresh, sweet strawberries until first frost.
• "Mud to Mouth" takes 6 acres of donated farm land and shows students where food comes from.
• After financial woes, Jamie Kennedy sells the Jamie Kennedy Wine Bar.
• Toronto's Recipe for Community hopes to bring generations together and rebuild the community of Alexandra Park.
• A talk with Jen Yates of Cake Wrecks, and how her blog has become a book.
• September 24th marked the 250th anniversary of Guinness.
• Wine critic Gord Stimmel's global values cover Italy, California, South Africa, Spain and Australia.
• Recipes: Coconut Curry, Chicken and Corn Chowder, Grilled Tomato Vinaigrette Chicken, Turkish Beet Salad.