National Mild Month

CAMRA, the Campaign for Real Ale, and Britain’s pubs and brewers, will once again be championing the Mild beer style with a variety of events throughout May to promote this traditional drink.

Mild beers tend to be of a low alcohol by volume, and are usually dark in colour, due to the use of well-roasted malts or barley, and are conventionally less hopped than bitters. Past CAMRA Champion Milds include Beckstones Black Dog Freddy, Hobson's Mild and Oscar Wilde Mild by Mighty Oak.

CAMRA is encouraging all its local branches to get behind the campaign and send out a dominant message as to the importance of the Mild. Past events such as 'Mild Trails' and tasting sessions have been highly successful, and with local brewers signing up to show their support, Mild Month 2009 could prove a pivotal year for this wonderful beer style.

Ruth Tyrrell, CAMRA National Beer Styles Coordinator, said:
‘Milds are at the heart of British brewing heritage, and we are urging all licensees to support the initiative by stocking a mild throughout the month of May, or even organising events such as ‘try before you buys’ and ‘meet the brewer’ sessions. One of the main aims of Mild Month is to show licensees that serving a range of beer styles offers diversity to the consumer, and could prove beneficial to their trade, which is important at the moment when so many pubs are closing.’

National Mild Day will be celebrated on Saturday May 9th and more details of this date will be released on the CAMRA website nearer the time- www.camra.org.uk

RETURN OF THE BIERE DE MARS

(Fort Collins, CO. April 6, 2009) - With a sour flash of Brettanomyces yeast, citrusy notes of lemon verbena and a dry finish, New Belgium’s Biere de Mars evokes the hearty character of the Belgian countryside. Brewed with barley, oats and wheat malt, Biere de Mars is the latest offering in the brewery’s newly created Lips of Faith program. Lips of Faith offerings feature spiced, fruit and wood beers on a regular rotation (http://www.newbelgium.com/beer).

“Picture rolling hills, brick farmhouses and an area once rich in mining,” says New Belgium’s brewmaster Peter Bouckaert. “I want you to visualize the organic architecture of Victor Horta, a curving banister with soft light falling from the window. This is what we tried to put into this beer.”

A wild Brettanomyces yeast strain added for bottle-conditioning creates a refreshingly sour flash across the palate. Lemon peel coupled with lemon verbena imparts some fruitlike character and a citrusy finish. Peter has allowed for a five-month shelf life during which the beer should mature nicely.

Biere de Mars is an old favorite at New Belgium that has not been produced in over three years. It will be available on draft and in 22-oz. bombers through the brewery’s Lips of Faith program throughout the year.

About New Belgium Brewing Company

New Belgium Brewing Company, makers of Fat Tire Amber Ale and a host of Belgian-inspired beers, began operations in a tiny Fort Collins basement in 1991. Today, the third largest craft brewer in the U.S., New Belgium produces seven year-round beers; Fat Tire Amber Ale, Sunshine Wheat, Blue Paddle Pilsner, 1554 Black Ale, Abbey, Mothership Wit, and Trippel, as well as a host of seasonal releases. In addition to producing world-class beers, New Belgium takes pride in being a responsible corporate role model with progressive programs such as employee ownership, open book management and a commitment to environmental stewardship. For more information, visit www.newbelgium.com.

HomeBrewing.com Domain Acquired by Niche Stores

Specialty website holding company Niche Stores adds another premium domain to its roster

AUSTIN, Texas, April 6 /PRNewswire/ -- Niche Stores, an Austin-based boutique of category-specific internet properties announced today that it has acquired the domain name HomeBrewing.com, for an undisclosed sum.

"The HomeBrewing.com domain has been at the top of our dream list for quite some time as we have developed other successful properties within this category and we are simply ecstatic to have made this acquisition," said Niche Stores CEO/Founder Christian Lavender. "Category-specific domains are truly worth their weight in gold. Given the fact that the home brewing supply market accounts for several hundred million dollars per year in retail sales we know this domain is quite precious. Even if our intention had been to make a quick profit from the resale of the domain it would have justified the significant acquisition price, as we have already been approached by several large brewing companies offering us large premiums over our original purchase price. However, our long term vision is to leverage the domain to dominate the lucrative home brewing equipment sales market. The perfect domain name coupled with our development and marketing expertise should give us a strategic advantage in reaching this goal," added Lavender.

Niche Stores builds and operates numerous websites within internet verticals that can uniquely succeed on the web by efficiently reaching a global audience of niche consumers. The acquisition of generic keyword website domains within new verticals is a key strategy for Niche Stores. These types of internet addresses can draw significant amounts of direct type traffic and are logically favored by Google and Yahoo in search engine results pages.

"Despite the current economic environment and the decline of the housing market, internet real estate continues to be an excellent form of value investing. HomeBrewing.com is an important square on the internet monopoly board for us," added Lavender.

About Niche Stores

An Austin, Texas-based firm, Niche Stores, specializes in founding, developing and operating online businesses built on generic domain name brand platforms. Niche Stores and its partner's track record include the acquisition of Kegerators.com, Mandolines.com, OhmMeters.com and DogHomes.com. Niche Stores currently operates margarators.com, grasstools.com, dogpools.com, and homebrewing.com.

Source: Niche Stores

CONTACT: Niche Stores, +1-512-394-7955

Web Site: http://www.nichestores.com/

ALL VOTES ARE IN: THE PALM PASSES THEIR SPRING DINING STIMULUS PLAN

Legendary Restaurant Rolls Out a Value Driven Dining Package with its $17 Business Lunch and $39 Steak Dinner

(WASHINGTON, D.C.; April 7, 2009) --- The Palm Restaurant Group (www.thepalm.com) announced today the roll out of their “Spring Dining Stimulus Plan” with an all-new Business Lunch Menu and $39 Biggest Steak dinner, available at Palm Restaurants nationwide.

Renowned as the restaurant to “seal the deal”, lawyers, politicians, and businessmen and women alike have long chosen The Palm as their fine dining “meeting room” to schmooze and network with colleagues, partners, and clients. The all-new Business Lunch Menu offers diners, now challenged with decreased budgets and limited expense accounts, a value menu without compromising the size and quality of ingredients The Palm is known for.

“In appreciation of the long-standing loyalty of our business and social diners, we’re offering two great menus at a great value – our own ‘economic relief package’ for our guests to continue celebrating at The Palm with family, friends and colleagues,” said John Bettin, CEO of The Palm Restaurant Group.

The Business Lunch, priced between $17 and $22 depending on the location, includes choices of:

STARTER
Mixed Green Salad, Caesar Salad or Soup of the Day

ENTRÉE
Twin Tenderloin Filets, Blackened Steak Salad, Chicken Parmigiana, Chef’s Fresh Fish of the Day, or a Palm Burger.

Served with Palm’s Signature Half and Half – cottage fries and fried onions

DESSERT
New York Cheesecake or Key Lime Pie

The Palm is also premiering its Biggest & Best Steak Dinner offer. Guests will enjoy choice of

STARTER
Mixed Green Salad
Caesar Salad
Monday Night Salad – finely chopped romaine, iceberg, tomato, onion, roasted pepper, radish, scallion and anchovy
Lobster Bisque – brandy, cream and fresh lobster meat

ENTREE
14 ounce Filet Mignon – choice of sauce: brandy peppercorn, port wine demi-glace, or classic bordelaise
9 ounce Filet Mignon Oscar – jumbo lump crabmeat, asparagus, fresh tarragon and hollandaise sauce
Wild Alaskan Halibut

Served with any Palm Signature Side

The Biggest & Best Steak Dinner Menu is offered all for only $39 per person and available at all Palm locations nationwide, through May 31, 2009.

Year of the Lobster
Earlier this year, the company announced enormous savings on their signature jumbo Nova Scotia Lobster. In celebration of The Palm’s Year of the Lobster, 3lb lobsters are priced at $62, and only $12 for each additional pound (savings of almost half what other fine dining establishments are charging). Guests are invited to join in the celebration of 40 years of serving the finest lobsters with a year long of special offers. Please visit www.thepalm.com/lobster for more details.

About The Palm
The Palm Restaurant proudly serves USDA prime-aged beef, fresh jumbo Nova Scotia lobster and premium seafood cooked to perfection with service and atmosphere like nowhere else. Known as the "place to see and be seen," the famed walls of each Palm are adorned with the caricatures of celebrities, politicians and socialites who make up its impressive customer base. Through four generations, the two families who opened the original Palm in 1926 on the East side of Manhattan have maintained co-ownership of the restaurant company. The Palm currently has more than 25 restaurants across the United States, Mexico and Puerto Rico, including its newest location in Tribeca, New York City. For more information on The Palm, visit www.thepalm.com.

New Belgium Brewing Pedals into Indiana on April 20

Brewery Brings Bombers of Fat Tire, 1554 and Mothership Wit
to the Hoosier State

Fort Collins, CO – April 7, 2009 – New Belgium Brewing, the third-largest craft brewer in the U.S., today announced that 22-ounce bombers of Fat Tire, 1554 and Mothership Wit will be available throughout Indiana beginning April 20. Indiana is one of four new markets for New Belgium in early 2009.

“We’re excited to be rolling into Indiana,” said Bryan Simpson, spokesperson from New Belgium. “There’s a savvy bike scene and an appreciation for good beer so it should be a great fit all around.”

New Belgium is nationally recognized for its progressive environmental practices. By tapping into one of its core values of environmental stewardship, consumers can enjoy their new favorite beers even more. All of New Belgium’s beers are produced at a brewery where choices like reduced greenhouse emissions, green building techniques and water conservation are a cultural way of life.

Indiana residents looking to learn more about New Belgium can check out the New Belgium newsletter, The Tinkerer: http://www.newbelgium.com/the-tinkerer or New Belgium’s site: www.newbelgium.com. For those who love man’s greatest invention (the bicycle) as much as New Belgium, join Team Wonderbike today: http://www.teamwonderbike.com/.

Here are the beers New Belgium is bringing to Indiana:

Fat Tire
Like the ageless delight of pedaling a bicycle, Fat Tire Amber Ale’s appeal is in its feat of balance: Toasty malt flavors (sorta like biscuits just pulled from the oven) coasting in equilibrium with crisp hoppiness. Delicious stability - in the world of sometimes-precarious beer flavors – is perhaps what prompted one consumer to say, “This beer just makes you smile.”

Fat Tire’s depth of flavor, achieved with neither a disproportionate sway toward hops or malts, tandems well with a full spectrum of today’s engaging cuisines. Salmon, dry-aged cheeses, roasted chilies, omelets at midnight, sweet potato French fries and just about anything with grill marks or garlic are just a few of the edibles we like to partner up with our Amber Ale.

1554

Other than being dark in color, 1554 has little in common with Porters or Stouts. The beer is fermented at relatively high temperatures using a European lager yeast that imparts a refreshing, zesty acidity. Chocolate and coffee tones in the nose give way to a surprisingly clean finish. With 1554 we hoped to create a beer similar to what folks enjoyed nearly five-hundred years ago without ignoring five-hundred years of technological innovation.

Mothership Wit

New Belgium’s first organic beer offering, Mothership Wit elevates the zesty Wit or White beers of Belgium with wheat malt, coriander and orange peel spicing - all of which are organically grown. The Mothership experience begins with a cloudy pale yellow appearance capped by a creamy white head. Next is the alluring, slightly spicy, floral nose. The refreshing taste is the result of a gravitational balance of citrus and sour flavors held in suspension by a bright burst of carbonation.

By mid-2009, New Belgium beers will be available in 26 states across the United States. Fat Tire is the brewery’s flagship brew, with its other year-round and seasonal Belgian beers recognized for their mature flavors, unique history and high quality ingredients.

About New Belgium Brewing Company

New Belgium Brewing Company, makers of Fat Tire Amber Ale and a host of Belgian-inspired beers, began operations in a tiny Fort Collins basement in 1991. Today, the third largest craft brewer in the U.S., New Belgium produces seven year-round beers; Fat Tire Amber Ale, Sunshine Wheat, Blue Paddle Pilsner, 1554 Black Ale, Abbey, Mothership Wit and Trippel, as well as a host of seasonal releases. In addition to producing world-class beers, New Belgium takes pride in being a responsible corporate role model with progressive programs such as employee ownership, open book management and a commitment to environmental stewardship. For more information, visit www.newbelgium.com.

TALES OF THE COCKTAIL ANNOUNCES THE OFFICIAL COCKTAIL OF THE 2009 EVENT

WHAT:

Tales of the Cocktail, the annual culinary and cocktail festival, announces the winning bartender and recipe of their annual Cocktail Competition to determine the “official cocktail” of the event.

Tales of the Cocktail in partnership with Culinary Concierge Magazine and CocktailTimes.com invited bartenders to submit a winning recipe for the Official Cocktail Competition of the 7th Annual Tales of the Cocktail.

For our seventh anniversary, we stirred things up with our annual cocktail competition and asked bartenders to create a julep that we can use as our official cocktail at this year’s event.

Originally, the term julep would have been used to refer to a medicinal potion, but in the American South it was used to refer to a heavily iced beverage of some type of spirit, sugar and mint.

Today, a “mint julep” is usually thought of as that classic drink of the Kentucky Derby, served in its quintessential silver cup. In truth however, a julep can take a variety of forms, and we have found a recipe that would help us illustrate this fact.

Bartenders all over the world have been turning back the clock to rediscover forgotten drinks and recipes with flips, bucks and cups, which are appearing on many menus around the world.

The annual Official Cocktail Competition finals took place at in April. Judges throughout the process, included author, David Wondrich, Mixology Research Engineer, Robert Hess, TV Personality Lorin Gaudin, Yuri Kato, Editor of CocktailTimes.com and Chris Hannah of Arnaud’s French 75 Bar.


WHEN: Monday, April 20, 2009
2:00 pm (Start Time)
rsvp@talesofthecocktail.com


WHERE: Cure
4905 Freret Street
New Orleans, LA 70115

About Tales of the Cocktail
Tales of the Cocktail is an internationally acclaimed festival of cocktails, cuisine and culture held annually in New Orleans, Louisiana. The event brings together the best and brightest of the cocktail community—award-winning mixologists, authors, bartenders, chefs and designers—for a five-day celebration of the history and artistry of making drinks. Each year offers a spirited series of dinners, demos, tastings, competitions, seminars, book signings, tours and parties all perfectly paired with some of the best cocktails ever made.

About the New Orleans Culinary and Cultural Preservation Society
The New Orleans Culinary and Cultural Preservation Society is a non-profit organization committed to preserving the unique culture of dining and drinking in New Orleans and the storied bars and restaurants that have contributed to the city’s world-wide culinary acclaim. This organization supports members of the hospitality industry through education and the production of events like Tales of the Cocktail and, most recently, Trails of the Cocktail, a scholarship program for emerging talent in the New Orleans cocktail industry.

Every summer spirits from around the world descend on America’s most soulful city. This summer will be no different as Tales of the Cocktail returns. Join us for a spirited schedule of cocktails, cuisine and culture that will stir even the most idle of souls.

For more information on Tales of the Cocktail, visit www.TalesoftheCocktail.com and register your name to receive email updates, ticket-sales announcements and to view the exciting line-up of events and celebrity presenters for 2009. TICKETS ARE ON SALE NOW.

Beer Festival - Kingston & Leatherhead Branch of the Campaign for Real Ale

Friday 26th and Saturday 27th June 2009
New Venue – Kingston Workmen’s Club and Institute
Old London Road, Kingston, KT2 6ND
just behind the ’falling down telephone boxes’
and 4 minutes walk from Kingston rail and bus stations
Opening times
Friday 11am to 3pm and 5.30pm to 11pm,
Saturday 11am to 9pm
-More than 45 real ales plus a range of cider and perry
-Hot and cold food available all sessions
-Seating in Function Room, Lounge, small outdoor drinking area
Admission
Friday lunchtime FREE, Friday evening £3, Saturday £2
CAMRA members £1 discount [cards must be shown on door]