We Heart; Lifestyle & Design Magazine » Beer

DRNK; Jeremiah Weed Brews

James Davidson — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 18:23:11 +0000

If you’ve ventured out to any invite-only ‘hip-and-happening’ exhibition openings, dance parties, or cultural events in the last few months; you may have noticed your free-booze had a new face. We first encountered this phenomenon at Brick Lane’s oh-so cool Old Truman Brewery at the tail-end of last year… It wasn’t premium beer, it wasn’t even the cans of Red Stripe they dish out when everything else has gone – it was a rootin’ tootin’ Deep South brew, and bloody good it was too. Jeremiah Weed have been popping up all over the shop with their ginger tinged ‘root brew’, and delectable bourbon infused ‘sour mash brew’, as they carefully roll out their new brand to us detestable hipsters. Want an insider tip from us? We’re happy to put our necks on the line and say they’ll be the taste of your summer…

Want to bag yourself a Jeremiah Weed t-shirt? The first 18 people to tweet this get one. Can’t say fairer than that, can you?

Mikkeller Bar, Copenhagen

James Davidson — Wed, 15 Jun 2011 15:59:50 +0000

Getting it right; it’s the balance between hip and homely, relaxed and revolutionary – that magic blend where style effortlessly meets the substance, where the offerings are not overshadowed by the design and where the design hasn’t been used to mask the shortfall in offerings. Above all this, it’s about being unique, innovative and interesting – of course without being brash, gaudy or overbearing. You see, getting it right, really right, is harder than you think. That’s why, when you see something that’s just so perfectly ‘right’ as the Mikkeller Bar – from cutting-edge Danish microbrewery, Mikkeller – you need to take a minute to compose yourself, admire designers Femmes Regionales‘ faultless fusion of modernism and traditional Danish pubs and, well, book your ticket to Copenhagen naturally…

BrewDog’s Craft Beer Bars

James Davidson — Mon, 09 May 2011 21:06:18 +0000

Famed Scottish brewery BrewDog have recently begun opening a chain of bars creating a special outlet for their unique blend of craft beer. The first two are located in Aberdeen and Edinburgh, and are designed by local firm CM Design. Drawing on the maverick brewery’s edgy punk reputation and a request for a revolutionary pub brand – the designers decided on a ‘Cold War chic meets abandoned factory’ concept. Also under strict instructions to rebel against big budget contemporary design bars, inspiration for the concept design was found in old and abandoned factories in Eastern Europe…

After stripping both sites to a stark, stripped down interior, the designers went about adding new recycled materials such as reclaimed gym flooring for wall cladding – complete with old sports markings. Special concrete bar tops were commissioned at 100mm thick with rough finish and reclaimed bricks added to complete the look. Both bars have a mixture of polished concrete floors and Durbar non-slip industrial steel sheet flooring used widely in factories and as manhole covers. Most of the bars’ fixtures and fittings were sourced from architectural salvage yards, auctions, antique shops, eBay and the occasional skip. Get along and whet ye whistle in a perfect beer drinking environment this summer – with a new outlet opening in Glasgow very shortly…

Win Tickets to Blue Moon’s “Living Exhibition”

James Davidson — Fri, 26 Nov 2010 15:41:08 +0000

If you haven’t already come across the artfully crafted American beer, Blue Moon, then you may well do soon – the brand are starting to make somewhat of a splash on our shores and, already being big fans ourselves, we can assure you that that’s a good thing. Handcrafted from white wheat, oats, coriander and orange peel, Blue Moon is our sort of beer – which means that inviting a pair of lucky winners to an exclusive invite only party that the American brand is hosting next week is rather exciting for us.

Taking place at John Torode’s The LUXE, Spitalfields, on Wednesday 1st December – Blue Moon’s “Living Exhibition” is set to be a night to remember, especially as East London’s super-cool Print Club London are involved, bringing their unique live t-shirt screen-printing to the party. DJs, “special” guests, food and, of course, Blue Moon are also on the agenda – so, if you’re free to party next Wednesday night, just leave a comment on this post before 5pm Monday, and we’ll randomly pick a winner for the pair of exclusive tickets.

Print Club London

Beck’s Live Art Billboards

James Davidson — Fri, 15 Oct 2010 16:21:09 +0000

You may well have seen Beck‘s latest ‘art label’ campaign in which French indie-popsters Phoenix, alongside emerging artists Inventory Studio and Valero Doval, have created limited edition labels for the German beer brand, with every bottle or can bearing a code that can be exchanged for free music at Play.com. If you were near the Foundry in East London or Birmingham’s Bullring this week then you may also have seen emerging artist Jamie Brown abseiling with a spray can or Inventory‘s Robert Boon and David Lane using thousands of CDs – each charged with the task of creating a huge ‘live art’ billboard to promote the campaign. Embracing art and marketing innovation is an integral part of what Beck’s do and rather lovely it is to see an international brand pushing the envelope, and indeed, pushing emerging artists onto a higher platform. Quite literally…

Biero Bar, Melbourne

James Davidson — Tue, 28 Sep 2010 17:21:50 +0000

We’re big beer fans here at We Heart. Not necessarily the ‘warm 6-pack in front of the Sunday afternoon footy’ type of beer – although, everything has it’s time and place – more the ‘lovingly produced artisan’ type. And, whenever we stumble across a bar that has a healthy supply of said artisanal beers, we get rather excited and dive straight in. That being said, sampling a wide array of bottled beers can be a costly – and with many micro-brewery offerings weighing in at over 8% volume, a mind altering – affair… the very reason that students Edwin Koh and Iqbal Ameer invented their world-first beer dispensing system, BeerVaults™. The innovative system, at their own Biero Bar, allows for any bottled beer to be available on tap – cleverly using carbon dioxide to push the beer from the bottle, ensuring it never comes into contact with the oxygen that would effect its taste and lifespan. Along with bringing down the cost of sampling worldwide beers – and of course allowing us to gaze at those wonderful Frankenstein-ish canisters behind the bar – this revolutionary system means that boutique beer can finally have the audience it deservers. We can even have our own tasting evenings, and finally hit back at all those bloody wine drinkers who’ve been so smugly peering down their nose at us for so long…

Beck’s Art & Music

James Davidson — Fri, 18 Sep 2009 05:31:25 +0000

Having been a massive supporter of arts and music for over 20 years, Beck’s have a sound reputation for respectable collaborations which have seen artwork from the likes of (the seriously lacking in sense of humour) Damien Hirst, The Chapman Brothers, Tracey Emin and Gilbert & George. This month sees the UK’s most imported lager adorning a series of hip London public houses with music inspired artwork, including Shoreditch’s ‘The Old Blue Last’ (pictured above) as inspired by The Cure’s Love Cats, along with giving up their iconic label to bespoke artwork from Ladyhawke, and, erm, Hard-Fi, who we haven’t pictured through fear of losing credibility by association.

Ferran Adrià’s Inedit, Estrella Damm Beer

James Davidson — Sat, 06 Jun 2009 19:14:21 +0000

Do it yourself molecular gastronomy sets, fast food and pizza, not the usual next moves of a top chef, but then ‘thebestchefintheworld™’, El Bulli’s Ferran Adrià, is not the usual chef. So whilst others roll out prohibitively expensive chains in five star hotels around the globe, Adrià continues to do what he does best, challenge peoples perceptions of ingredients and tastes and his latest venture, a beer that wants to be a wine, does just that. Estrella Damm’s Inedit is a ‘unique coupage of barley malt and wheat with hop, coriander, orange peel, liquorice, yeast and water’ that undergoes a second fermentation after bottling. Cloudy, fruity, creamy and delicate, Inedit should be kept in a wine cooler and served in a white wine glass, no more than half full, of course.