Cleaning the Draught Lines

An occasional feature a/k/a "emptying my 6-month-old clippings pile of beer-related ephemera and gadgetry"...

Robots and Gadgets:

• Opening and Pouring Beer
• Futurama's Bender Brewer
• R2-Beer2
  
• The Gamerator (1, 2), an arcade game cabinet plus kegerator
  
• A counter-top kegerator (of limited utility unless you really, really like Heineken)
  
• A far-more-useful Mac G3 Tower
• Make your own LED, pressure-sensitive coasters (1, 2)
  

The Ecology and Science of Beer:

• Pumpkin brewing (as opposed to pumpkin brews)
• A beer-powered battery(?)
• The physics of beer bubbles
• Recycling beer waste for cattle feed
• Question the environmental impact of your beer
• Consider breweries that are already green (1, 2)
• Learn about new supersonic brewing methods
  

Media:

• Songs and Videos curated by WFMU's Scott Williams, proprietor of the now-concluded 2:40 Podcast (1, 2)
• The ever-popular holiday editions of Barstool Mountain and Big Rock Candy Mountain, currently preparing for the birthday of patron saint Shane MacGowan
• Musings on a Zappa-inspired beer
• Maria Callas-inspired opera gowns, woven from beer and soda cans
• And sadly, the UK legal system is open to banning international satellite feeds in pubs (The case isn't over yet, so I may come back to this one over at Deadly Tango in the new year...)
  

Concerns and Predictions for 2008:

• There's a hop shortage!
• There's a barley shortage!
• High prices may not decrease demand!
• Science is spending time on virtual beer instead of improving what's already on our shelves!
• Brewers are too generous in their reward offers for lost laptops (1, 2, 3), leading to a rash of thefts!

And with that, happy new year to all... and look forward to some travel reports (and related beverage reviews) in January.