According to an articlein today’s Boston Globe, the rice used by Anheuser-Busch Co. to brew Budweiser beer is,

Tainted with an experimental, genetically engineered rice strain, according to an analysis released yesterday by the environmental organization Greenpeace. Three of four samples of unprocessed rice from the beer maker’s mill in Arkansas showed the presence of the strain, Bayer LL601, Greenpeace said.

The real question we all know, of course, is not “what is a genetically modified strain doing in the rice in Budweiser?” but rather, “WHAT THE HELL IS RICE DOING IN THE BEER IN THE FIRST PLACE?!”

While anyone who knows anything about beer knows that rice has no place as a replacement for better ingredients in beer in the first place, Greenpeace’s Doreen Stabinsky notes that U.S. consumers have a right to know that, when rice is used in beer, that it is genetically modified rice. To that end, the group has created an off-color YouTube “commercial” entitled ”Wassup With Your Beer?” to alert users to the presence of genetically altered rice in Budweiser; the video can be seen below:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XPZlYmCqALY[/youtube]

Peel Police have arrested a suspect in connection with last month’s theft of two trailers containing more than 100,000 bottles and cans of Moosehead, which we first reportedabout on September 19th. A man by the name of Pullara Calogero, 59, has been charged with two counts of possession of stolen property.

One of the trailers held more than 69,000 bottles of Moosehead beer, while the other was filled with over 44,000 bottles of Moosehead, James Ready Honey Lager and Carlsberg brands. Both big rigs were stolen from a Mississauga, Ontario trucking yard.  

Officers said the beer thieves crept into the storage spot in September. They stole two transport trucks to allow them enough space to get the trailers secreted and then made off with their loot undetected. Police said security personnel simply let them leave the complex without a challenge.

Officials from Labatt Breweries have announced that they’ve uncovered how a handful of Stella Artois bottles were filled with ethanol instead of beer and ended up in the hands of drinkers at several Canadian bars earlier this year.Working in collaboration with the Canadian Food Inspection Agency and bar owners across the country, the brewery found the affected bottles were meant for display purposes and were filled with concentrated alcohol as a replacement liquid; they were never meant to be consumed.

However, a handful of bars from Kamloops and Toronto accidentally placed the potent bottles in beer fridges and sold them to unsuspecting boozers. Patrons who drank from the bottles wound up vomiting and spitting out the pure alcohol.

Neil Sweeney, vice-president of corporate affairs for Labatt, said Canadian bar owners worked in collaboration with the brewery to inspect every bottle of Stella Artois being served across the country to ensure they were in fact filled with beer.

Labatt imports Stella Artois from Europe and distributes the brand across Canada. A press release from the brewery said new control procedures have been put in place to prevent a similar incident in the future.

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Guinness from a can will soon pour like Guinness from a tap. Thanks to a plate-shaped device called the “Surger.”

Guinness wholesalers are on the verge of placing the $25 unit into bars that serve the Irish import from the bottle or can rather than from the tap. After Guinness is poured into a glass, the pint is placed on the Surger. The bartender pushes a button to activate sound waves, which pass through the liquid creating gas bubbles and ultimately the familiar cascading effect typical of a Guinness pint poured from draught we all know and love.

“It gives me a new talking point that I can bring to my customers, which is good for us,” one U.S. wholesaler said.

Guinness has long secured tap handles in bars around the world, but has been trying to lift its packaged beer, which currently sees less than steller sales. Efforts have included the 2001 introduction of Guinness Draught in a Bottle, nicknamed in the trade as “the $13 million bottle”. That figure referred to the research, development and testing expense behind the Rocket Widget inside that released nitrogen with each pour.

Although one wholesaler on the east coast complained that his fulfillment of Surger orders has been delayed, he likes the idea and foresees the Surger eventually becoming available to consumers so they can drink a draught-like Guinness at home.

There are a lot of questionable products out there–many of which come from the country’s biggest breweries–which try and pass themselves off as beer, but I have to say that this one takes the cake. Budweiser has begun to market its own “chelada style” concoction (think Miller Chill but worse) of its own beer and Clamato (the disgusting sounding, although popular, mixture of tomato and clam juice). And don’t worry, if you’re watching your calories the beer is also available in a “light” style.

According to a review in the New York Press,

“The red beer-and-fish mixture is both thin and thick at the same time. The beer part tastes watered-down from the Clamato, but there is still the thickness of the Clamato throughout the beer. It has a taste and smell similar to a Bloody Mary at first glance, but that quickly disappears the more you drink.

Imagine your vomit after an evening of Bud and seafood pizza. That’s the feeling you get here. Disgusting.

As I’m sure everyone knows by now, Miller also markets a new “chelada style” beer, Miller Chill, but it doesn’t include any clam or tomato juice, just salt and lime – the way a chelada is made in Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula. In southern Mexico, however, I’m told that you either mix in Clamato or you don’t make a Chelada at all.

The beer, despite sounding downright putrid, is apparently wildly popular with west coast Latinos. Since I’ve never seen it on this side of the country, I guess it doesn’t have any crossover appeal in the east. Thank God…