One of the best things about travelling the world is trying the remarkable variety of beer available from each place you visit. In fact, I’ve come up with my own shoddy Beer Index which lists the price of beer per litre in each country I’ve visited. (Though I can’t see any government department referencing it as a cost of living guide any time soon!)
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Beerkah at Charlotte Airport © Joel Olives
Back in the Middle Ages, it was safer to drink the amber ale than water. These days, it’s one of the most popular beverages in the world. But it does take on strange and unusual forms depending on where you choose to consume it. This might range from strange names to bizarre watering holes to consume the stuff. Here is a list of some that I’ve personally stumbled across …
Most Apt Beer Name: Knockout Beer (India)
I was walking around Bangalore one day when I decided to visit a supermarket. In beer aisle, I spotted a beer brand name that immediately grabbed my attention: ‘Knockout Beer’. Then I found out why – it had an alcohol content of 8%! After a few of those, you’ll likely be spending your night sleeping in the nearest patch of grass you can crash on. But hey, the liver is evil and must be punished, right?
Best Way to Drink Beer With Friends: Beer Tower (Samoa)
It’s hard to go past the Beer Tower in Samoa. You simply buy a self cooling container that holds about 2.5 litres and refill your beer glass from the comfort of your seat. Beats fighting off the crowds at the bar!
The Beer Brewed Specifically for an Unusual Purpose: Space Beer (Sydney)
The 4 Pines Brewery in Manly, located north of Sydney, devised an ingenious marketing plan to promote their microbrewery – brew a beer that can be drunk in space! ‘Space Beer’ is a stout-like brew that can be consumed in zero gravity without it floating around and covering your face. It has actually been tested in zero gravity, and my goal is to somehow score a free trip on Virgin Galactic so I can have a beer with Richard Branson in space!
The Easiest Way to Buy Beer: Vending Machines (Japan)
Hard to go past Japan for this one – the land of vending machines. You can buy pretty much anything from a vending machine in Japan and that includes beer. You can freely go up to a beer can vending machine in the street, pop in a few yen, and collect as many beer cans from the machine as you want! If this concept was available in many countries, I’m sure the Gross Domestic Product would collapse immediately.
The Funniest Beer Label I’ve Come Across: My Wife’s Bitter (Australia)
The marketing gurus at every brewery in the world are trying to come up with more innovative campaigns for the beer loving consumer to fork out some money for their next big brew. This includes witty and unusual beer labels and names.
The funniest beer name I’ve stumbled across is from the Burleigh Brewery, located on Australia’s Gold Coast. It’s an English style bitter, which has a lot of flavour and comes with two temperature serving suggestions – hot for English people, and cold for Australians! But it’s the name of their beer that has made headlines – it’s politically incorrect, but funny – ‘My Wife’s Bitter’ ….
Best Example of Beer Bottle Recycling: ‘A Beer Chandelier’ (Botswana)
I don’t like sending beer bottles to landfill when they can be easily recycled and refilled. But one of the more unusual ways of re-using beer bottles is this ‘Beer Chandelier’ which I spotted at Planet Baobab in Botswana. Looks like a lot of work went into this remarkable example of lighting!
Most Unusual Festival Thinly Disguised as an Excuse to Drink Beer: The Cockroach Races (Brisbane, Australia)
The Cockroach Races are held at the Story Bridge Hotel in Brisbane every Australia Day (January 26). It’s pretty hot at that time of year, and thousands of people converge on the pub to watch cockroaches race to the edge of a plastic mat and down lots of icy cold beer. But the event is also an excuse to raise money for charity, so there’s nothing wrong with that!
Anyway, there you go – some of the more unusual aspects and events associated with beer. My aim is to keep travelling around the world to keep finding more! Cheers for now!