Newcastle Walk the Dog T-shirt Giveaway

Walk the Dog with Newcastle Brown Ale
Uploaded by multivu. - Full seasons and entire episodes online.


I recently received a great press kit from the folks over at Newcastle Brown Ale to promote their "new" Walk the Dog promo. It had a cool Geordie Schooner, Walk the Dog t-shirt, Newcastle keychain which turned into a flashdrive, t-shirt, dog tags and a pen. According to their website(which is awesome by the way) Walking the Dog is a euphemism originating from Newcastle, UK which means "going down to the local pub for a pint or two of Newcastle." This phrase was so prevalent that Newcastle Brown Ale's nickname eventually became "The Dog" and there is even a pub in England called "The Dog".

I'm a big fan of Newcastle as it was one of my "starter" beers into the better beer world and it continues to be one of my go-to beers so I asked Newcastle if they could send me some t-shirts to do a giveaway with and spread the Newcastle love.

So here is what I have: I have three mens size XL and 1 womens M and 1 womens L.

In order to win you need to sign up on The Beer Buddha blog(you can also "follow" me using Google Connect) and shoot me an email at thebeerbuddha@gmail.com with Newcastle Contest in the subject line of the email and your name and size shirt you want in the body of the email. I'll put your name in a hat and will announce the winners at some point tomorrow night(02/10/2011). Please read the contest rules before you enter the contest.

CONTEST RULES:

1) Winner must be in the lower 48 states only. I'm not shipping all over Gods green earth.

2) Please see the sizes I have. Whatever sizes I have is all I have. So please don't ask for a size I don't have.

3) If you're local to New Orleans I may just have you meet me at Avenue Pub to pick up your shirt. Easier for everyone and you can get a pint while you're there!

4) Winners must be 21 or older.

5) These t-shirts are new shirts and you will be getting them in the same condition that I received them in. If the postal guy trashes the package I'm not at fault.

6) Limit one entry by email per promotion. Do not abuse this rule. If I get tons of emails from the same address that email address will be blocked from all future www.thebeerbuddha.com giveaways.

7) Wear the shirt with pride!

8) Void where prohibited. Just sounded good to say.


Cheers and good luck!

The Beer Buddha

Beer Review: Newcastle Summer Ale

Many times on this blog I have mentioned the Theory of Time and Place.  The theory is simple: there is a time and place for every beer.  For me situation plays a huge part in what beer I will enjoy at the time I'm drinking it.  Here are some examples:

Situation #1: Mowing or having finished mowing the lawn.

Beer: PBR, Miller High Life

* Notice the trend here. I would go for something light, crisp, clean and refreshing.

Situation #2: Hanging out on the porch at night with the wife and kid late October.

Beer: Southern Tier Pumking, Sam Adams Octoberfest

* You see what I did there? Seasonals.

Situation 3# Throwing some bad ass Jamaican style throw down in my backyard complete with jerk chicken and reggae.

Beer: Red Stripe

* Again note what I did. The beer fits the situation.

Now of course not everybody does this and it really doesn't matter in the end as long as you're drinking beer. This is just me. I'm of the mindset that I can't drink a stout during 100 degree weather. Now 32 degrees and snowing? Stout me!

Recently I was contacted by Jack Follman from Formula PR Inc. who represents Newcastle. They wanted to send me a bottle of Newcastle Summer Ale to try and review. As a dedicated beer blogger I couldn't possibly turn down his offer so of course I accepted. I've done "business" with these guys before when they sent me some Newcastle Brown Ale. I love Newcastle Brown Ale. It was the import that turned me on to better beer. Situation played a HUGE part in that as well though. Sitting in O'Flaherty's Pub when it was open and drinking pint after pint of Newcastle was a big part of my life back in the day.

Anyways, I have never tried or even seen Newcastle Summer Ale so this was a great opportunity to try a new beer.  After attempting to do some research I really couldn't find much information on the beer.  I called Jack and he informed me "there is no official style" for this beer.  Newcastle Summer Ale releases in June and is off the market by September until the next summer.  It officially released in limited markets in 2009 and is not available yet in New Orleans.  Here is my review:

Brewery: Heineken International

Beer: Newcastle Summer Ale

ABV: 4.4%

Appearance: The beer poured a pale golden color with huge rocky head. No lacing present.

Smell: Slight grain aroma with no hint of hops.

Taste: Very grainy(corn)and grassy taste with a light malty sweetness, Not much hop bitterness despite the claim hops and glory on its bottle neck.

Mouthfeel: Thin and watery body. Medium carbonation.

Overall: Not a bad beer. Good for after mowing the lawn or any other outdoor activity in the heat of summer.

Score: 3 out of 5 Buddhas

Cheers!

The Beer Buddha

Free Beer Bitches! Yeah!

So, awhile back I received an email from Leah Dukes who works for a public relations company called formula. Working with Newcastle beer they have a marketing campaign called the MAN-ual and wanted to send me some free Newcastle. I emailed her back and said that The Beerbuddha would never fall prey to free beer and slick marketing campaigns and I would only judge a beer based on its qualities as a product. HA! Yeah right I got me some free beer bitches!

Along with the free beer I received a press release for the MAN-ual holiday promotion. I was going to write about it and explain it but received instructions to not write about it as it "contained some erroneous information". So I guess I have to wait until they send me some more info on this promotion. Oh well, at least I got some free beer!!!

Cheers!

The Beerbuddha