What Iceland and Vagabonds know about CHILLING beer

'Beer being cooled by evaporation', photo : @VagabondJourney

There's toilet paper on my beer, and that's a good thing.

Because you know you like drinking in the park ; ) , and because you 'forgot' your cooler at your friend's BBQ last weekend; you probably are in need of a low tech way to cool your beer while hanging out in the park, camping, "in a middle of a field", wherever you are. Well, Wade Shepard, of vagabondjourney.com, has found a very simple way of cooling your beers. 

"We were camping, without refrigeration, and I was drinking a cool beer in the middle of a field in Iceland ... 

Just wrap up the bottles in a blanket of wet toilet paper (or another material that retains water but also allows for it to dry) and wait for the water to evaporate a little. The drier the paper gets (the more the water evaporates) the cooler your beer should get."

Now, if it works with wet toilet paper, will it work with a wet Drink Toque perhaps??? I am willing to find out. Off to experiment, more on this later. 

Cheers,

The Drink Toque

Investing in Beer : drink beer, make money

... Well, now you can, for £95/share! (that's like $140 CDN or US)

Equity for Punks II 

BrewDog Brewery(Scotland) is selling a second round of shares, Equity for Punks II, to fund a purchase of land, and buildout of a state of the art, eco-friendly brewery. Do you need a stock account or something to be able to invest? Nope. Can you resell your shares at a later date? Yes. Are there other benefits to having these shares? You bet. Honestly, it is pretty cool: beers, bar deals, dividends, talk about beer, and maybe have some more beers. Check it out here, and if you like it, you can buy a share or two.

And, when drinking their beer, and increasing the value of your share(s), you can put a Drink Toque on it  : )

Equity for Punks 2011 from BrewDog on Vimeo.

Cheers!

The Drink Toque

Make beer in your closet in 7 days ... seriously (via socialsquared.com)

(via NZ Craft Beer TV)

YES PLEASE!

Want a beer? Too tired to go to the store? Why bother going ALL the way to the store, when you can brew a batch of beer in your closet ... in 7 days! (... for the low low price of $5000 ... even though this is really priceless don't you think?)

After watching this video, I am convinced:

The WilliamsWarn Personal Brewery from WilliamsWarn on Vimeo.

(via socialsquared.com)

Tears of Joy, Tears of Joy!

Happy Brewing,

The Drink Toque

Beer doesn't kill brain cells ... apparently

"no evidence the consumption of alcohol led directly

to the death of brain cells." Let's get sauced!

(photo : nubegreen.blogspot.com)

You see, every few years, I like to take a full month off from any drinking of alcohol. Shed a couple post-Holiday pounds a little more easily, get my liver doing push ups, etc. It just feels right sometimes. And, by the third week, I usually start to feel a whole lot smarter, ready to write my genius manifesto ... but, as it turns out ...

(Not sure how I came across this article, but I sure like its' findings!)

"

Beer's not so bad after all

• From:
• The Courier-Mail
• July 10, 2007 12:00AM

ALCOHOL may make you act like an idiot temporarily, but Queensland scientists have discovered that it won't damage your brain permanently.

New research to be revealed at a conference of some of the world's top neuroscientists in Cairns today has found booze does not kill off brain cells as previously thought.

Queensland Brain Institute director Professor Perry Bartlett said there was no evidence the consumption of alcohol led directly to the death of brain cells.

Some of the best studies show that a bottle of wine a night can actually reduce the risk of dementia in old age, Professor Bartlett said.

In moderation, alcohol has positive benefits for blood vessel health.

Research by Professor Bartlett and his team has found we all have an inbuilt repair kit replenishing the more than 100 billion cells – or neurons – in our brain."

http://www.couriermail.com.au/news/national/beers-not-so-bad-after-all/story-e6freooo-1111113924741

Time to hit the sauce! : D

Cheers,

The Drink Toque

Gingerbreads of Anarchy Motorcycle Club, Raincity Original (GAMCRO)

It feels like weeks ago now ... and I think we all miss the Holidays already. One of our Holiday traditions is a gingerbread scene ... but not your typical house and frosting combo. Last year it is was the S.S. Diabetes; a gingerbread, pirate ship theme. Awesome, yes. This year, there was no question about it, the theme was GAMCRO, or Gingerbreads of Anarchy Motorcycle Club, Raincity Original.

It turned out to be a battle scene of epic proportions.

Yes, that is gingerbread Yoda, on a bike, wielding his saber ...

... vs. gingerbread Darth Vader, on a bike, wielding his saber ...

The battle heated up fast. Not sure who killed this gingerbread Moose, but it was collateral damage ... yet still remained delicious.

And, at some point, things started to get WEIRD behind the clubhouse (Not sure what is going on here)

A lot of smarties were spilled in this epic battle ... it was delightful.

The gingerbread was delicious, and our Drink Toques were working their Holiday magic. Can't wait to see what we get up to next year ... GAMCRO!

Your Drink Toque is dirty, don't panic

Oh hi there

... Many people have asked us, 'what is the best way to wash my favourite Drink Toque?'

We think we have a low budget, fun, and easy solution.

SUPREBOWL 2010 Halftime Party MEGA MIX

Go Vikings! Oh, wait.

Watching the game? You need music. Look no further than here, as we have gathered some of the best songs from the past several Superbowl halftime shows, ending with The Who's Baba O'Reilly. Turn it up, let's get it on!


Rolling Stones - Start Me Up (live 1981, Mick in knee pads. HOT!)



Prince - Let's Go Crazy



Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers - American Girl (Live 1978)



Bruce Springsteen & the E Street Band - Born to Run (live at Hammersmith Odeon, 1975)



The Who - Baba O'riley (live Keith Moon) (crank this shit!)





Thank you to all these bands for making the Superbowl 2010 Halftime Party Mega Mix a success, and for nurturing some of my childhood rock sensibilities!

Go Vikings!
Go Saints!
Go Indianapolis!
Go Beer Fridge!
Go Party Snacks!
Go Teenage Wasteland!

See you on the other side.

Where is the Beer Launching Refrigerator?

When I saw the video below in 2007, I thought my life was finally coming into focus. He presented his Beer Launching Fridge on the David Letterman show, and you would think sales would develop from that. But, where is it? Where can we all buy one of these? I mean, who doesn't want beers, or whatever drink you choose, flying around at a party or gathering?

I, for one, still await the commercial introduction of the Beer Launching Refrigerator.

There isn’t a Drink Toque the size of a bottle of vodka for a reason

by Stephanie Bennett, The Drink Toque's East Coast Correspondent, Oct.7, 2009

What do people need when they move to a new city?

By order of importance:

1. A place to live, preferably a home. Got that. I’m living downtown, in an apartment on the third floor of a (heritage?) house. I’m assuming it’s a heritage house, but I’ve just wasted half an hour looking up the definition of a heritage house and all I’ve found are pro-life, abstinence and GOP themed pregnancy tests, who knew? (http://www.hh76.com/pro_life_products.asp?group_id=54). Hilarity and hypocrisy aside, I live in an old house.

2. Things to put in said home, preferably furniture. Working on it. I’m sleeping on a futon for the first time ever, something I hoped I was past when I turned 25. It works for now: I lie on it, I fall asleep, and in the morning I wake up. I also have a large pull-out couch apt for friends visiting from Vancouver to sleep on (come sleep on my couch). This monstrosity took 2 hours and 3 people to move into my place. Steve and I moved it from his parent’s house to about a third of the way up the tiny fire escape stairs until a lovely young man passing by asked if we needed help, whereupon I instantly dropped my end and batted my eyelashes. Feminism aside, at least the room below my glass ceiling will be comfortably furnished.

3. People to hang out with, preferably friends. Work in progress. I’ve been hanging out with Monica, Steve and Emma a lot. Emma and I like to talk about her poops, why the dog barks so much, Cheerios and the like. Monica introduced me to a friend from work, who in turn introduced me to some of his friends and somehow I ended up horribly underdressed in the only “dance club” in St. John’s. This is where the vodka times happened. After having a mellow month of drinking casual beers, the hard liquor decided to take things in another direction. A direction towards public urination and walking into things. Does a first impression not count if you can’t remember it? If I fall in the street, and no one is around to see it - does it not count?

4. A job, preferably one where I can eat all the popcorn I want, drink around 6 cups of tea a day and hang out with my baby friend. Done!

5. A direction in life. Blurg. If I want to start my Master’s degree here in September, I have to get my act together by February. This leaves me 5 months to decide what I want to do and how I’m going to do it. I’m told my choices are either law or medicine. Uh...

Making friends ...

Let it be known, Drink Toques are way more fun than Futons!

The Drink Toque Takes Manhattan

Drink Toque fan, JB, sent us an email. The first line read, "we brought The Drink Toque with us on our honeymoon". I was a little worried about the pictures ... then I was into it; and, then, .... The Drink Toque Takes Manhattan! Here are some pictures from JB's Honeymoon with his Drink Toque. JB, The Drink Toque says, "I do!".

JB with his DT at Bar Breton in Midtown. (Yeah, he takes his Heinz seriously!)

Nice gingham. Nice DT! Grimaldi's famous pizzeria in Brooklyn.

Menage a DT somewhere in Manhattan.

JB and his love for DT can't be stopped!

Thanks for sharing JB. Happy Honeymooning!


The Drink Toque

Introducing Stephanie Bennett, The Drink Toque's East Coast Correspondent.

About a year ago I decided to move to the farthest place I could go while still remaining in Canada: Vancouver, BC to St. John's, NL. My next decision was to drive there. Alone. As inconvenient and ridiculous as that sounds, I was confident and immediately settled into a lengthy period of denial where life continued as usual, no big deal. But apparently it was a big deal because I cried like a big baby from Vancouver to Merritt.

Lesson one from moving across the country: denial is a bad coping mechanism.

I packed light: brought my body and most of my essential personal belongings and left the family, friends, a man friend, homes, cats, jobs, bad cell phones, the Olympics, traffic tickets, etc. All I really wanted to take were the people and cats, but had to settle for myself and all my junk. I also took some Drink Toques along.

The Drink Toques had a pretty easy ride while I slowly went crazy. I drove and kept them busy through the prairies and most of Ontario with a steady diet of energy drinks, coffee, and soft drinks.



Being alone inside your own head while jacked up on energy drinks is a strange experience. A weird, unnatural meditative state. They got restless around Toronto so we took a break, had a beer and got some rest. This was a perfect few days of shenanigans, nostalgia and self-indulgence. It is also the place where I learnt you can order a Swiss Chalet chicken from the comfort of your own online Swiss Chalet account. Yeah, that happened. Montreal was the next stop, where (in my opinion) we transformed the entire park drinking scene into a hugely fashionable, less gauche activity! (Please refer to Chris’s “Before and After” post) This was a huge success and I’m looking forward to where it goes from here. Endless possibilities.

Lesson two, three and four from moving across the country: too much caffeine while bored is a bad idea, Swiss Chalet is more accessible than you think and the parks in Montreal are ripe for the drinking.

Refreshed from the break, we headed straight into Hurricane Bill, who ended up being second-rate and only delayed us 10 hours. The ferry company was also second-rate. Everything was late, the staff were mean, it smelt like heavy machinery and I was scandalized by having to eat a hotdog wrapped in a piece of bread because they were out of buns. There may have been a slight breakdown on my part.




Lesson five from moving across the country: if you come to Newfoundland, make sure you do so on a plane.

So now I’m here: Newfoundland, land of...finding new land? I keep being told this place takes ahold of you and sucks you in. I believe it. I’ve been here three weeks and I can already feel it. Things are just different here. It’s hard to explain, but I’m going to do my best as the Drink Toque’s new East Coast Correspondent to bring the rest of y’all up to speed on the essence of fun times in Newfoundland. I will be doing this while probably make a fool out of myself. Who’s in?!

Lesson six from moving across the country: St. John’s is different than Vancouver.




Stephanie Bennett
The Drink Toque's East Coast Correspondent.

Before and After

Before, things are are all paper bags, dark and lonely times.



After, everything is all Drink Toques, Rainbows, and Unicorns. Life is great when you're drinking in a park with a Drink Toque!

The Drink Toque gets published ... and gets Buck Wild doing it!

Your local news just got a little better, Drink Toque style! Over the past few weeks, Black Press, a local and community based newspaper group across B.C, Canada, has been running a Drink Toque Contest in several of its' Victoria and surrounding area newspapers : Victoria News, Saanich News, Monday Magazine, Gulf Islands Driftwood, and the Powell River Peak. Feedback has been quite positive from the Contest, and there is still time to check it out, and get in on the action! If you live in these areas, or know someone who does, pick up the local newspaper, and join in on the fun and your chance to win some free Drink Toques.




Www.drinktoque.com Contest alongside an article titled 'Buck Wild'. Priceless.



Looking good DT, looking good!


The Drink Toque

Wolfing Out! - easier than winning a boat race, harder to document

The question of what it meant to 'Wolf Out' was put forth on Friday (see story here). Over the following 48 hours, The Drink Toque investigated this topic. We wrote notes, took pictures, some indiscernable video, all in the hopes of understanding the general nature of the shenanigans that ensued.

Yet, as to what 'Wolfing Out' actually is, still might be hard to put into words. It is a state of mind, mind over matter, no matter the mind; more machine than man, more man than machine. It is a whirlwind of existential knowings, physical misgivings, insatiable appetites, and ... did someone say slapfight!?

The mathematical formula for Wolfing Out is as follows :

(Calamity / Maximum Awesomeness) to the power of Shenanigans = Wolfing Out

The graph below clearly shows that over a 24 hour period you consistently progress to a point of Maximum Awesomeness, and once crossing that threshold, you move into a zone of Calamity and unknown variables, that is further shaped by a high variable of Shenanigans.




Drink Toque fan, 'Matey', recollects the event with this handy recipe, "Recipe for Stag-Nation Shenanigan Soup (otherwise known as, Wolfing Out Soup) : Gather crew of new and old friends linked to [enter name here]. Drive a long dusty dirt road to a sandy beach on a river to camp by. Mix for 2 days at high heat with a healthy dash of Slap Fights, Shovel Justice, Led Zep, Clay Pigeons, Waterfall showers, Boulder Rolling, BBQ... Spice to taste in broth of choice... Voila!"


If this all still does not make sense, try this excerpt from some of our nonsensical, nighttime notes:

• 10:52 pm Stag man, 'Sleeve', has disappeared. Find him and consider dragging him through the river.
• 11:21 pm This is the best party I have ever been too. Thank you ACDC. Thank you Tom Ball. Thunderstruck, you are really speaking to me right now.
• 12:15 am 'Sleeve' lost his 2nd round of shotgunning beers. His skills have greatly diminished. 'Matey' is my new hero!
• 12:25 am Slapfight!?
• 12:28 am Someone said they needed a chiropractor, playful wrestling ensued.
• 12:55 am 'Thunderstruck' ... again.
• 1:16 am Why is this wrestling still going on?
• 1:18 am Furthermore, 'German leg wrestling' is the weirdest thing I have ever seen.
• 1:22 am 'Sleeve' has disappeared again. His tent has been ransacked. Still no sign of him.
• 1:45 am Public Enemy in effect. Our camp is in good shape. Time to visit the other camp.

We have over 100 photos documenting what it means to Wolf Out, of which we can show you ... 2.

AB taking care of business, early stages of Wolfing Out, enjoying it with a Project Grizzly.

Pre-Wolf Out Stag man and a Stag Party, at his Stag Party. (love the t-shirt!)

Wolfing Out is not for everybody, ... but it is a lot of fun. Thanks to everyone at the Party for showing The Drink Toque what it means to Wolf Out!

Good people, good times.

The Drink Toque, drink fashion for people who like drinks, and drinks who like people.

Captain Mudguts - sponsoring a winner!

Recently, DrinkToque.com was approached by Captain Mudguts to sponsor his boat in the upcoming 10th Annual Passage Island Seagull Race. The what? "It's a unique opportunity because it is the only one in the world", he said. "Great, what is it though?", I asked. "I have won the race 6 years out of the last 10", he stated proudly, paused, and then went on to say, "well, there's a bunch of pieced together, modified floating devices, some say boats, with small, somewhat unreliable, engines in them, and we 'race' them around a small island ... slowly. Really, it's just all about having good time". "Great, we're in!", I concluded.

Since we were going to be sponsoring his entry, I thought we should check in on Captain Mudguts' progress this week, take the 'boat' out for a tester run. Well, I have to hand it to him, the boat looks mean. Painted on flames, skull hook; he has taken a canoe and basically turned it into an inboard/outboard boat. "Wow", a little stunned by how motley it was, "does this thing work?", I asked. "Let's get sailing!", exclaimed Captain Mudguts. We put the 'boat' in the water. It floated! Nice start. Engine turned over. Check. Oh, wait a second the 'boat' only goes in reverse. "Ooops, that's not supposed to happen! Wait, we are taking on water! That's not supposed to happen!", exclaimed Captain Mudguts. Oh, wow. As he putted around the little bay, going backwards, I quickly realized this race wasn't about performance, and that the fun wasn't in the winning necessarily; but, as with all good times, it is all the little happenings surrounding the race that makes it all worthwhile, perhaps the 'notes they aren't playing, rather than the ones they are'.

Yeah, this is going to be fun!

Does the engine work? Yes, but the 'boat' only went backwards. Oh dear.

Back to the drawing board - At the Shop. "I think it's something under the hood".

The simple solution - a winning prop!

The key to sponsoring a winner, is finding someone who finds big solutions to small problems, and has fun doing so in the process.

I can't wait for the race on Sunday.

Aye aye Captain Mudguts!


Have fun,

The Drink Toque

Pic-a-nic in the Park, making a Sunday a SUMMER SUNDAY!

Joined some friends for a Pic-a-nic in the Park on Sunday. Good friends, sandies, salads, cakes, cookies, BBQ chicken, watermelon, drinks, and Drink Toques! What Summer Sundays are all about.

Some people just kept it mellow.

Some warmed it up with Mini-Nerf Football Mega Ruckus 2009, JET vs CSI, a winner takes all, mini-nerf football battle. The opposing team played a strong, fast snapping, running game; but we didn't panic, waited them out, and stuck to our passing game. With the score tied, and 'next point wins' on the line, our side connected with one the most beautiful mini-nerf pass combos I have ever seen. Touchdown! Victory is sweet.

A good time had by all. A great way to spend a Sunday. Thanks everyone!




Sarah enjoying the view.

Josh warming up for the Mini-Nerf Football Mega Ruckus 2009.



Victory is sweet, and sweetest with a Drink Toque to keep it cool.

Jeff Shenanigans at the Soccer Game

Jeff, Wednesday Night Soccer (we play that in Canada?), Drink Toques, and Friends = Good Times and Champions.

P.S. Legends of Soccer, can't wait for the afterparty!

PROFILE - Jeff Shenanigans

Jeff, Wednesday Night Soccer (we play that in Canada?), Drink Toques, Friends = Good Times and Champions.

P.S. Legends of Soccer, can't wait for the afterparty!