The Cascade Brewing Company have been busy of late in conjunction with the help of beer expert Matt Kirkegaard and creative company Droga5 creating a unique social/informative app for the iTunes store called The Brewer’s Nose.
The brilliant part about this app is that it allows you to simply scan the barcode from whatever beer you’re drinking with the help of the iPhone’s camera and then directs you to a page with information about that specific beer and best of all it actually works! I have tested myself with two different beers, first of which was the beer I last reviewed Fűrstenberg and secondly was Schöfferhofer which I am currently drinking, see below for the proof.
This new application features more than 500 local and international beers. It gives you a brief description of the scanned beverage along with a food matching service, as well as the ability to leave your own tasting notes which you can share with your friends on Facebook or Twitter. There’s also a ‘find’ feature that allows you to search for a nearby store, bar or pub.
Click here for a direct link to the app but you will need iTunes and an iPhone to make use of it:
I think The Brewer’s Nose application holds a lot of promise and is exceptionally easy to use. Some features of it will need to be expanded on to make it more appealing but it currently serves well as a quick source of knowledge on a range of beers and as an interesting way of sharing your thoughts about brews with your mates. It’s free to download so go get it and give it a try for yourself.
We recently had the pleasure of trying out the BottleMate and here is what we thought of it.
What is it? Well it’s a clever little contraption that as the name suggests has something to do with bottles and in its case opening them. Now it doesn’t just open pop tops but it also will open twist tops without any problems. The best part of the BottleMate is its ease of use. To use it you just have to follow these simple instructions:
Make sure the bottle is on a firm flat surface
Place BottleMate over the top of the bottle
Ensure the BottleMate is positioned vertically
Push down firmly and quickly
The bottle top is removed and captured by the inbuilt magnet
Start enjoying your beverage.
Below is an official video demonstrating the above instructions.
The BottleMate can be purchased online here and will cost you $9.95 for a single unit. Costs decrease with the quantity ordered and you can also get custom printing made up as well, which is perfect for certain businesses mine included. I’d like to thank Dan from BottleMate for sending us some test products.
This brilliant little invention is truly a great, simple product, which is exceptionally easy to use. My only gripe with it and it’s a small one at that is that the built in magnet doesn’t always catch each bottle top – now this could be purely due to the fact I was using it too quickly or maybe applying too much pressure, in any case I’m willing to look overlook it.
BottleMate is marketed as being “probably the best bottle opener in the world”. Now as we can’t comment as to the validity of that statement we can say that it is probably the easiest bottle opener we’ve ever used!
I’ve decided to review something a little different this time round but don’t panic, it still requires beer.
Beerbird is a handy little cooking device that is available at your local BCF for $19.95. It will help you cook the most succulent chicken you’ve ever tasted and I can vouch for this. Let’s look at how it works. Firstly you need to buy a whole chicken, and then you need to prepare that chicken. Luckily enough the Beerbird comes with a handy recipe book. If for some reason yours didn’t or you lost it you can download a copy here. There are seven different recipes to choose from in this book and I decided to go with the Italian Beer Chicken. Once you have chosen your recipe and prepared the chicken to your satisfaction you now have reached the hardest part of the Beerbird process, deciding what beer you want to insert in it and yes I said insert. Unfortunately this product requires you to use canned beer and we all know that there aren’t many great beers readily available in that form so I went with a low carbohydrate option, with a 375ml can of Pure Blonde. Ok, now that the hard part is over quench your thirst and drink one third of the beer. Then insert the opened can up the chicken’s ass, shove it right up there, now you’re ready to cook. You have one of two options either to barbeque it or cook it in the oven. I decided on the latter purely due to the fact my BBQ may not have had adequate room to use the Beerbird correctly. The Beerbird must be used upright and this means the rear end of the chicken facing downwards with the head or what’s left of it facing upwards.
The strange thing about the Beerbird is that one would assume it evaporates the beer during the cooking process thus producing a moist succulent chicken but guess what that’s not the case. The recipe book confirms this and so did the can when I removed it after cooking, I was surprised to notice that nearly all of the golden liquid was still there, unfortunately it was just a tad too hot to drink not that I would have after knowing where it had been. Cooking time varies but expect to wait a minimum of two hours before you can start devouring your tasty Beerbird chicken.
My experience with the Beerbird was fantastic. It really did produce a mouth watering, succulent chicken that my family and I enjoyed. It’s also easy to use and non expensive. I highly recommend you try this innovative product and share it with your family like I did. Next time it’s the barbie for my Beerbird!
