Appropriately named Armageddon, the new beer from Scotland’s Brewmeister Brewery will probably end your days if you drink too much of it. The potent concoction has an alcohol content of 65% by volume. That’s stronger than vodka or whiskey.

Although the Guinness Book of Records has yet to certify Armageddon as the world’s strongest beer, that hasn’t stopped Brewmeister from slapping the unofficial title on the label. And who can blame them, after all, that’s what makes their drink so special. Company co-founder, Lewis Shand says Armageddon “is closer to a liquor than a beer, but it is classified as a beer and we are pleased with it.” He added that “it delivers a supersonic-charged explosion and delivers the drinker to Drunksville”. That’s probably why Brewmeister’s brewers have cautioned that the beer should be sipped and served in small doses.

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Something strange is going on at the Rogue Ales Brewery in Newport, Oregon. Brewers there are developing an ale made from wild yeast harvested from the beard of Rogue’s award-winning brewmaster, John Maier.

He hasn’t shaved since 1978, and that apparently makes his beard the perfect place to harvest yeast. I’m just kidding, it’s far from perfect, but Rogue Ales’ president, Brett Joyce said he was looking for a “different place that might have some magic yeast in it” and decided to try out Maier’s facial hair. The guys at Rogue had tried developing some new yeast strains from some of their own hopyard, but came up empty-handed, so as a joke they had their lab guy take a couple of Q-tip swabs from John Maier’s fluffy beard. Amazingly enough, he found a yeast cell, did some fermentation tests and the unique “beard beer” was born. What started out as a joke turned into something really special, since they never expected to find the new yeast they were looking for right in their brewmaster’s beard. ”This really is the needle in the haystack” John Couchot, Rogue Ales’ self-described mad scientist said.

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Chocolate has traditionally been seen as a gift appropriate for women. But here’s something that gives it a manly twist – beer flavored candy.

Beer has been used as a candy flavoring for quite some time now and is something that many chocolatiers are experimenting with. The earliest known beer candy was introduced around three years ago, by Nicole Green. Ms. Green is the proprietor of Truffle Truffle, an online confectioner. Their top-selling product is the “Beer and Pretzel Collection.” The collection consists of goodies such as the beer-and-pretzel truffles and caramels, beer brittle and beer marshmallows.

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Artist Karen Eland paints all kinds of portraits and paintings using nothing but beer.

The first time we featured Karen Eland on Oddity Central was when she took the art world by storm with her beautiful coffee paintings. She started her artistic career doing portraits with water color and colored pencils, but quickly moved on to painting with coffee, which really helped her make a name for herself. Now, after 14 years of creating art with the world’s favorite breakfast drink, Karen realized there are a lot of other drinks and foods she could experiment with, so she tried tea, beer, liquor, and lots of other stuff, but beer eventually proved the most successful.

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A British company has brewed the world’s firs beer laced with Viagra, to commemorate the upcoming Royal Wedding between Prince William and Kate Middleton.

BrewDog, Scotland’s largest independent brewery is set to release a limited edition ale called Royal Virility Performance, which contains Viagra and a series of known aphrodisiacs. Apparently, drinking three bottles of this unique beer has the same effect as taking one of the famous blue pills Hugh Hefner loves so much. The company has already sent several bottles of Royal Virility Performance to Prince William via Royal Mail, just in case he needs a little help on his wedding night. James Watt, co-founder of BreDog stated: “As the bottle says, this is about consummation, not commemoration, so we hope he gets it”.

The company will initially produce only 40 bottles of the miraculous concoction, which will be available for purchase on April 29, via BrewDog.com, for £10 a bottle. In the UK Viagra is available without prescription, so Royal Virility Performance is only available for Brits, but the company announced buyers will be limited to one bottle each, because of its powerful effects. If the beer proves a success, BrewDog plans to continue production.

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J. Wilson, a blogger from Adams County, Iowa, is giving up solid food for Lent, as he investigates and old story about Paulaner monks who lived on beer and water only, during fasting periods.

Wilson, who has been a home beer brewer for more than 14 years, says he’s been considering testing the story of the Paulaner monks firsthand, for a few years now. According to old tales, this order of monks would use a dark, calorie-rich beer known as “liquid bread” to sustain themselves during fasting, when they weren’t allowed to consume solid foods.This happened in mid 16th century Germany, and no one really knows if this mysterious dopplebock ale actually replaced food, so Wilson is trying it out for himself.

Working with the guys at Rock Bottom Restaurant and Brewery, in West Des Moins, the young beer aficionado has created the Illuminator Dopplebock, which has 288 calories per 12-ounce pint, and an alcohol content of 6.67%. Lucky for J. Wilson, the state law has recently changed, allowing beer with more than 5% alcohol to be commercialized. He will consume four pints of Illuminator ale every day (around 1,200 calories) and a lot of water in between, to prevent dehydration.

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Small Mexican brewery Minerva has just launched two very special brands of ale, Salamandra and Purple Hand, aimed at the LGBT (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transexual) market.

Beer is the most popular alcoholic drink in Mexico, but 95% of the market is already controlled by the two largest breweries in the country, Modelo Group and Cuauhtemoc Moctezuma, which makes it almost impossible for smaller companies to compete. But it seems Jalisco-based brewery Minerva has just found an untapped niche that has so far proved very profitable – it has created two brands of “Artisan Honey-Ales” made with organic honey and malt, a mix that infuses the drink with an orange flavor that appeals to gay communities.

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Heineken has unveiled its original Christmas tree, made out of 1,100 FULL beer bottles, in Shanghai, China.

Created by stacking Heineken beer bottles on a custom-made armature, the beer-bottle Christmas tree has Nanjing Street passers-by drooling when they look it. It may not look like a traditional Christmas tree and beer is definitely not as tasty in winter as it is on a hot summer day, but Heineken’s Christmas tree is definitely my favorite for 2009.

via Inhabitat

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Leave it to the Japanese to come up with something totally weird yet not totally unpleasant. After some of the weirdest. After stuff like the  Hello-Kitty Gundam and the husband-hunting bra, Japan introduces the blue, green and red beer.

The people at the Abashiri Brewery have found a use for the icebergs that wash up on Japan’s cost every year. They’ve melted them and used the water to make the world’s first blue beer. The unusual draft looks amazing and is said to taste pretty good as well. Japanese blue beer also contains a fair amount of seaweed.

Abashiri’s green beer is also made of seaweed, as well as hops and a mixture of plants from Japan’s Siretoko peninsula. The red beer contains anthocyans, natural pigments found in plants and fruit.

via eToday

The Dutch love to ride bikes and drink beer, so they decided to mix them together and created the Beer-Bike Bar.

Able to accommodate between 10-19 beer lovers, the Beer-Bike Bar is powered by its clients’ pedaling. An increasingly popular party-mobile, the beer-bike is equally popular with both men and women, but it has raised some concerns because of two accidents, since it was launched, in April.

According to Ard Karsten, the manager of the Beer-Bike Bar of Amsterdam, the authorities will certainly realize that although people are allowed to drink in public aboard the beer-bike, they are only served 30 liters. Whether there are 10 or 19 people on board, there are only 30 liters of beer available. The Dutch must all be heavy drinkers, because I have some friends that can get pretty wild after 3 liters of beer. However, the man who steers the Beer-Bike Bar around the city is always sober.

via All Pics 4 U