A quietly-funny beer advert from Down Under. We should be following their example instead of the Americans. If the beer still tasted bad, at least we’d be smiling.

Alan McLeod of A Good Beer Blog links to an article in the Globe & Mail where the new CEO of Molson Coors laments the diversification of the beer market in Canada.

Quite frankly, I’m appalled by his talk of brand value and loyalty without any mention of what the company’s products are doing to deserve it; I won’t shed any tears if they were to disappear tomorrow. The whole system’s rotten anyway… and is Mr. Perkins calling us cheap? I say his beers are overpriced.

According to Jamie Boudreau, we have a new gin in Canada that goes by the name of Victoria. Since it’s from B.C., I’m betting red-tape and petty provincialism will prevail but I may yet see a bottle in Ontario someday. I’d dearly love to be wrong…

Another liqueur I’ll probably never get to try is from the States and an alcoholic version of root beer (sort-of) besides. Dubbed “Root” it looks delicious and is the result of a partnership between the makers of Hendrick’s Gin and collective called Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction. Yet another reason for me to take a road-trip and soon.

If you’re not working, a great way to spend this Thursday evening would be crawling amongst the bars of King St. West. Besides sampling some terrific beer, you could win tickets to Toronto’s upcoming Festival of Beer.

Speaking of which, I’m actually attending for the first time this year. Most of the time I procrastinate in applying for a press pass and end up not going but my brother bought a ticket for me and so August the 9th (a Sunday) will find me throwing tokens at vendors, getting sunburnt and being very, very drunk. I’ll try and take notes. If you’re going, let me know; we might even bump into each other (literally).

Doug of The Pegu Blog writes about yet another cocktail (the Dark ‘n’ Stormy) whose name you cannot mention unless you use copyright-holding company’s liquor in the recipe. While I don’t give much of a shit for issues of intellectual property, it’s an amusing tale nonetheless and Gosling’s is good stuff.