Every year, this company releases new commercials solely for this fabled event. With the viewer count being in the hundreds of millions, TV networks gracefully put a $3 million price tag on each thirty second spot. Never the less, Busch has continued to impress us with their upbeat and hilarious ads.

Although the Super Bowl had many ads worth mentioning, here are my three personal favorite displayed from Bud Light (which, by coincidence, happens to be my favor recreational beer. That debate, however, we’ll save for a later time)

House of Beer

Click here to view the embedded video.

Auto Tune (Feat. T Pain)

Click here to view the embedded video.

LOST

Click here to view the embedded video.

Feel free to discuss these videos in the comments section. Thanks for reading!

Ahh…. beer, the drink of the century. To some it’s known as “poison”. To others, its one hell of a good time! So which is it? Is beer a wolf in sheep’s clothing? Or is it wolf daring the sheep to keg stand? In this review, we’ll point out the ups, downs, and room spinning aspects of this ever criticized drink, Beer.

Inebriation at it’s best

So whats wrong with beer? Many would say it causes car accidents, abuse and other forms of poor decision making. Although beer may be associated with these things from time to time, you have to know that the drink itself is not entirely up for blame. Does every college drinker drive drunk? Or does every dad with a beer have anger issues? No. It’s hard for people to accept that people have issues, so they blame their source of abuse! The point being that these problems are cause by the user abusing the drink, and not vice versa.

With that out of the way, there are problems with beer. I know, I know, for some this seems impossible. Beer does impair your normal decision making abilities.  Hell, if you were drunk, you couldn’t comprehend what I’m saying! So how do we avoid the issues caused by this? KNOW WHAT YOUR GETTING INTO BEFORE YOU DRINK.

Don’t get down just yet, Beer isn’t the devil

Listen closely friends, you may never get an explanation like this again. Beer is like football. Yeah, thats right, I just compared beer to football. You see, if you step out on the field with no idea of what to do, your just going to get trampled on, and its going to suck. But if you step out with a game plan, your going to have one hell of a damn good time! Play it right, and you’ll have fun without the cuts and bruises (except when your buddies think stair skiing sounds like fun. No guarantees there.)

Wait, Beer isn’t evil?
Thats right. Beer is just a drink. How you drink it is up to you. If you drink to much soda, you’ll get kidney stones. If you eat too much ice cream, you’ll become over weight. You see, the only reason beer can be judged as evil is because the results are more visual than other harmful foods and drinks. You don’t see that fast food clogging your arteries, but it is.

Beer has the natural ability to make you relax. It’s like a spa in a bottle. This combined with friends and family can cause happiness. It’s effect to relieve stress isn’t anything to worry about. But like everything else, too much can cause dangerous side effects. It’s not only beer that does this!

Image via Wikipedia

So in the end, beer is a drink! You are in control of what you do with it. Whether it’s a sport drink for beer pong, or just something to help you relax, it’s yours to enjoy. Have fun, live life, and feel free to pop one open from time to time!

Don’t get all excited, Kid Rock is not the reason why they are getting a tax break. Actually the Michigan Brewing Company is going to invest $7 Million dollars on this new product, that is going to create a whole lot of jobs, almost 400 in fact. The Michigan Economic Growth Authority decided to give them over $723,000.00 dollar tax credit stretched out over the next 7 years. Just more proof that beer actually does have some positive effects.

We all know Kid loves his beer, he loves to rock, and his name is synonamous with trailer parks so I am going to throw out a name suggestion let’s call it Old Milwalkee’s best. I kid, I kid! (pun intended)

If she brings you a beer too well then you win the day.

For beer lovers it is second nature to walk in and order that cold, bubbling, yellow concoction that slides down the gullet like so much water to a man in the desert. That parched throat is suddenly an oasis of flavor and chilled taste buds. Makes you want one right now, doesn’t it?

So have one, put your feet up, and learn a little about how that favorite brew is available to you in six packs…bottles or cans…or your favorite draft, of course.

Unfortunately, there are no mountain streams, complete with bubbling, frothing rapids, zipping down naturally from those Coors mountains, or anywhere else. There were no cavemen sucking back a brew after a hard day of hunting and gathering. Nope. It’s called a brew, obviously, because it has to be brewed.

Ever wonder what brilliant, insightful man, probably not a married one, figured out if you put a bunch of this plant, and that plant, and maybe a wee bit of this together it’ll really taste good with roasted mammoth? Seriously, this stuff dates back to 6000 BC. I bet the brewing water was really clean back then, and Coors had nothing on those guys.

Ancient Egyptians had a goddess named Ninkasi. I’m sure she was a babe, and I am not kidding, she was the goddess of beer. They even sang a song to her.

It wasn’t entirely altruistic though because, and again, I am not kidding, it helped them remember the recipe for their beer. Don’t you love the old traditions and rituals?

This may come as shock to the average beer drinker at the bar, but beer was spread through Europe as far back as 3000 BC by Germanic and Celtic tribes. Aren’t those the original Germans and Irish? Who woulda thunk?

Seriously this may surprise you. The earliest chemical evidence of beer was found in the Zagros Mountains…get this…in western Iran. Don’t tell me those people can’t party. They’ve just become a people gone bad, don’t you think?

Did you know beer was made in Monasteries at one point, and it became sold on a domestic scale before the Industrial revolution? See once they started getting beer out there, people became quite inventive. Of course once the industrial revolution took place, they started making it on an industrial scale and the home breweries started taking a serious hit.

I find that scandalous and shameful even if it did get beer out on a major scale. I think you should support your local businesses.

For those of you that don’t have a home brewery, and might actually be interested in how this quaff of the bar gods is made…here goes. Take a sip…I’ll wait.

Another if you would like.

Okay…that’s enough for now. It’s not gonna get warm before I finish. I promise.

Most of you know it’s got hops, and barley, and all that stuff they show you in the commercials, but there’s a bit more to it. I think it’s important every beer drinker have an insight to this process.

Not really but it sounds good, and it gives me something to write about…BEER!

The first real breweries were, as you might imagine, pretty simple devices. It turned simple starches into a substance called wort. They added yeast, and fermented it into beer. Pretty simple, huh? Not really, actually. Even then it was complicated, and now it is more complicated.

Making wort came from mixing what was normally malted barley, with hot water. Of course you had to malt the barley. That wasn’t done at some old drug store ice cream bar and didn’t involve straws and their favorite girl. That was termed mashing.

You might also find it interesting that the hot water used was called liquor. I call that stuff bath water and it goes great with a cold beer…in my hand.

You might not think it (but that’s what you have me for…to educate and elucidate…so you can drink beer), but barley is pretty sweet, in that it is a carbohydrate and contains sugars. The “grist” (remember the term grist mill from school? That’s used to crush barley and other grains) is turned into a product called “mash tun” and is added to the “liquor” and left to do its duty for about one to two hours to get there.

In that time, the starch – “grist” or crushed barley- is left to convert starches to sugars for the foundation of the beer, then the “wort” is drained off. Like any good chef, or chefs, they then wash the stuff and that’s called “sparging”

Maybe that’s where Sparta and the Spartans came from. They just slurred and no one knew.

Anyway, it starts really getting down to business then. This substance was filtered and wort separation took place. Believe it or not, this was called “lautering” and they used the actual grain bed as the filter. Clever, don’t you think? (Go back to Cheers, and Cliff’s buffalo theory…beer itself had to be responsible –if you don’t know this reference you aren’t a real beer drinker and need tutoring).

Here’s where it got stupid though. They would do second and third washing, weakening the beer. At least they realized it was stupid and named beer with several “runnings” as “parti gyle” brewing. Kinda says a lot, doesn’t it. Party gal with a slur.

After this, they boiled it down. This eliminated most of the water, and this, my friends, is where the miracle begins, in essence, making full use of the starches. They add hops during this process, and that extracts bitterness and flavor from the hops, overcoming the sweetness of the sugars (starches), and deciding the flavor of the beer.

The liquid was cooled at this point, and nowadays, it may be passed back through more hops to add back flavor lost in the boiling process, and once again adds another filter. Now for the good part – the fermenter.

Once it’s cooled, yeast is added, and it sits while all the itty bitty parts settle to the bottom (they call it “particulate matter” but that reminds me of something they want during a physical). Finally they allow for primary and secondary fermentation. The first takes place in the vat, and the second takes place in a new container, and allows for clarity and a broader, fuller taste. Secondary fermentation only is used when the beer requires long storage, deeper taste, and clarity is a real issue.

Now, don’t you feel like a lead buffalo?

PHILADELPHIA, February 4, 2009 - Philly Beer Week is one of the countless reasons to Love Philadelphia. From March 6-15, 2009, beer lovers from all over can sip their way through more than 100 events at the second annual Philly Beer Week, which attracted more than 15,000 participants during its first year.

This year’s Philly Beer Week will highlight the Philadelphia area’s thriving beer culture with 10 days of festivities. Brewers from the U.S. and beyond, including Fritz Maytag from Anchor Brewing, Garrett Oliver from Brooklyn Brewery and Fergal Murray from Guinness, will journey to Philadelphia and its suburbs to host tastings, dinners and events. The festival will also feature the return of three major beer festivals: the Opening Tap kick-off event on March 6, the Philly Craft Beer Festival on March 7 and the Brewers Plate on March 8. What’s more, organizers are introducing two new festivals, both taking place on March 15: the Yards Real Ale Invitational, highlighting the region’s premier cask ale producers, and Zythos America, featuring the best beers from Belgium and the best Belgian-style beers from around the world. Also in store at pubs, bars and breweries: a chili cook-off and a rock band tournament on March 8, Beer Balderdash on March 10, Philly- and beer-themed Quizzo on March 11 and a brewery bike tour on March 14. phillybeerweek.org

Beer lovers can sip safely while visiting the region by taking advantage of the popular Philly Overnight® Hotel Package, which comes with an extra incentive this season thanks to the new Love campaign. As always, the two-night offer, available at more than 30 hotels throughout the region, includes free hotel parking (valued at up to $75), a Philadelphia Privileges coupon book and a Philly’s More Fun® teddy bear. What’s more, 100 lucky hotel package buyers who redeem their stay before March 16 will be randomly named “Philly Guest of the Day.” Upon check-in, they’ll receive any number of prizes, including museum tickets, hotel upgrades and gift certificates for restaurants, nightspots and shops. The package is bookable at gophila.com/love.

The Greater Philadelphia Tourism Marketing Corporation (GPTMC) makes Philadelphia and The Countryside® a premier destination through marketing and image building that increases business and promotes the region’s vitality.

For more information about travel to Philadelphia, visit gophila.com or uwishunu.com, where you can build itineraries; search event calendars; see photos and videos; view interactive maps; sign up for newsletters; listen to HearPhilly, an online radio station about what to see and do in the region; book hotel reservations and more. Or, call the Independence Visitor Center, located in Historic Philadelphia, at (800) 537-7676

With that being said, if anyone can find out the beer most consumed on Super Bowl Sunday, that would be a fun and interesting fact to learn, but until then, let’s talk about beer.  Fizzy, yellow beer that comes in a can and is only tasty when chugged at ice cold temperatures.

Since I grew up in Pennsylvania, in a considerably rural area, I did the majority of my partying in cabins, woods, and  open fields.  I drank in cars, tents, and crude wooden structures built mainly for hunting.  More specifically, when I was sixteen, I attended parties with a handful of skateboarders and social misfits in the family owned and built hunting cabin of my friend Dave.  His father and grandfather designed the place around two activites: hunting and drinking, and the place had a great deal of charm suitable for such activities.  Dave undoubtedly inherited his sense of humor from his father’s side, indicative of the real live stuffed deer ass hanging on the wall, and the collection of obscure novelty beer cans dating all the way back to the sixties, which lined a shelf built around the inner perimeter of the cabin.  Many of these beer cans were collector’s editions of the annually released Old Frothingslosh, the self-proclaimed “original stale pale ale,” featuring Old Frothingslosh’s famous 300 pound pin-up model Fatima Yechburgh.

I don’t recall if I ever actually drank ye Old Frothingslosh, but a moderate amount of internet digging has revealed that it was a joke version of holiday beer put out once a year by Iron City Beer.  Ah, good ol’ Iron City.  Otherwise known as I.C. or I.C. Light.  And probably the first beer I ever drank.  My friend Jenny’s dad had a kegerator in his basement with a single tap sticking out, which dispensed nothing other than I.C. Light at all times.  Our dads would send us marching down to the stairs, empty mugs in hand, to refill their delicious frothy beverages, which we did willingly, because it allowed us ample opportunity to kneel down, cram our heads under the tap, and chug foaming beer straight from the tap.  It was on one of these occasions when I remember developing a taste for beer for the very first time.  It was summer, and all I remember is thinking: I would love nothing more than to drink a cold beer right now.  I should have known my future wasn’t so bright.

But back to the cabin, where the beer of choice was usually one or a combination of the following: Miluakee’s Best (Light or Iced), otherwise known as “The Beast;” National Bohemian, or “Natty Bo;”  Natural Ice, or “Natty Ice;” or Red Dog.  These were usually consumed with a combination of Jack Daniels, Jim Beam, Southern Comfort, Peach Schnapps, any flavor of MD 20/20, (affectionately and more commonly known as “Mad Dog”), or Cisco chugged straight from the bottle.  Now, it’s not like we didn’t know this beer was shitty.  In fact, that was kind of the point.  But it is quite amusing to think back to that time, when if we would’ve been slugging Rolling Rock, we would have felt like high rollers.

That brings me to the college days.  For some reason, it was Schaefer’s that became the staple keg party pounder, and to tell you the truth, I’m not even sure if Yuengling made it onto the campus scene, but I will say, as far as cheap, blue collar beer goes, I used to give Yuengling mad props.  But one must also understand that Yuengling tastes completely different when imbibed up north, than it does when brewed in Tampa, with Florida’s delectable sulphur-y swamp water.

As of right now, I’ll admit that if I’m sweating away at an August BBQ, I’m happy to pop open a Miller Light, or a High Life even better, because I’m of the persuasian that Miller Light at least has some amount of flavor, albeit, not much.  But it fares much more impressive to my palate than Bud Light or Rolling Rock.  And I must say, when Schlitz came back on the scene in 2007, I was thrilled to snap open a can of this nostalgic libation, complete with that appealing seventies labeling, but then the cans suddenly disappeared and Schlitz started only coming in bottles.  I don’t know about you, but something about getting rid of that can just killed the nostalgia for me, putting Schlitz too closely on par with its big American counterparts.  (What are you trying to be, Schlitz?  Just be the crappy beer in a can you’re so good at being!  Quit trying to fancy it up with a glass shell–we know what’s really in there.)

Of course, no blue collar beer article would be complete without mentioning PBR. I get it, I get it.  Scenesters, punk rockers, and construction workers alike can unite under this classic favorite of  cheap, crappy suds.  But I won’t touch the stuff.  Three days at a music festival serving nothing other than PBR would do this to you too.  By the end of the trip, it was all headache and no buzz, and I found myself running full speed to the nearest liquor bar for a shot of anything strong to rid my mouth of PBR’s metallic, pissy aftertaste.  Fie on you, PBR. Take your skinny jeans, tattoos, and ironic facial hair, get back on your fixed gear, and pedal your wimp ass outta here.

Last but not least, I must pay tribute to Busch. NOT Busch light, mind you.  Just good ol’ Busch. Our fridge is bursting with Busch cans whenever my boyfriend’s dad comes to visit, and I’ve been guilty of grabbing one for lack of a better beverage.  Much to my surprise, I found the beer quite enjoyable, not that bad at all.  Busch? I thought to myself.  Not bad. Not GOOD.  Oh no, no.  Don’t get me wrong.  But not totally undrinkable.  And claiming all natural ingredients as well.  I will still take it over Budweiser anyday.  Sorry, Budweiser.  It’s a principle thing.

So that about covers my tribute to blue collar beer.  I would love to hear what you guys grew up drinking in high school and college, and how your perception of “good beer” has changed.  If anyone has one of those great photos of dad, grandpa, or hell, even grandma holding an incriminatingly bad beer indicative of an unrefined palate and a thin wallet, you should post them on here and share them with the rest of us! Don’t be shy. We all have our guilty pleasures.

Beer + Maple Syrup + Big Boobs = Uh Oh

While we are at it don’t forget to vote for the free beer for stories giveaway. I will probably have another one for next month. What do you guys think?