Summer Is Coming, Gotta Get The Chillsner.

I spotted this over at the awesome site, Cool Material. As an owner of the corkcicle, I was pleased to see they've adapted the genius idea for beer drinkers - or anything that comes in a smaller bottle and is served cold.





The Chillsner is the first ever in-bottle beer cooler you can drink through. Simply toss it in the freezer for 45 minutes, take a sip out of the beer you’re going to put it in, then pop in the Chillsner and you’re good to go. Staying cool for a long time, the Chillsner will even keep that gross last back-washed bit nice and cold.




Each purchase includes two Chillsners, a freezer storage case, and two instructional coasters. No more warm beer and no more funky koozies.

$30 USD. Buy it here at Cool Material

The Winner (And All 29 Finalists) of The Heineken Future Bottle ‘Remix’ Challenge

Heineken has announced the winner of their 2012/13 Your Future Bottle Design Challenge. The winning design (shown below) was created by Fernando Degrossi, who is a graphic designer from Sao Paolo, Brazil.

The Winning Design:


Fernando submitted several designs, a few others of which were finalists and shown later in this post.

To celebrate its 140th year, Heineken put its design elements online and challenged creatives everywhere to ‘remix’ these assets into an iconic bottle, designed for the future. The remix theme gave designers total freedom to delve into Heineken’s past and play with the brand's DNA to create a cool new design. The winning approach remixes five circular Heineken logos from five different decades, and incorporates the red star, Heineken’s famous trademark.

The video invitation to the design challenge:


The winning design and the finalists were selected at a live judging event at Heineken’s space in the heart of the creative community at Milan Design Week, which has been visited by more than 10,000 design fans since opening on Tuesday. Fernando’s design beat almost 2,000 entries and becomes the second Limited Edition bottle that will be produced. It will go on sale around the world in early 2014.

The Top 5 Finalists:
Anna Ptasinka:

Andy Audsley:

Tomasz Wagner:

Fernando Degrossi:

Bartek Bak:


The Other 24 Finalists (in no particular order):
Balazs Kaczper:

Davide Colombo:

Elina Presniakova:

Fernanda Ochoa:

Fernando Degrossi:

Fernando Degrossi:

Ji Yeon Kim:

Johan Bl:

Joris Blomjous:

Milos Dostanic:

Nemanja Djordjevic:

Nicolas Vicario:

Nivedita Sivaprakash:

Paolo Tonon:

Pat Corrigan:

Thijs Mensink:

Victor Correa:

Dominique Hernandez:

Leondios Tsiobanelis:

Marco Bellarosa Architects:

Marco Bellarosa Architects:

A Serbian designer whose name I do not have the characters to type (I'm so sorry) so I pasted his name above his design:


Sergey Rizhov:

Sergey Rizhov:


The judging panel consisted of designer Joshua Davis; Evan Orensten of Cool Hunting; Mark Dytham of PechaKucha and Heineken’s global head of design Mark van Iterson.

Mark van Iterson, Global Head of Design at Heineken, said "This is the completion of a five month process; a contest that has attracted over 2,000 high quality entries. The use of our heritage in this winning design is really clever and results in a very contemporary iconic bottle. It was a bold step to put our brand history into the hands of emerging designers, but Heineken is a progressive brand and this contest has proved again that opening up in the search for creativity pays off.”

Heineken

Pantone on Draught. The Ultimate Color Guide For Beer Lovers, Beertone, Is Now Available for Purchase.

Here's a Pantone-like color guide that is truly useful for Beer enthusiasts. A brilliant idea from Alexander Michelbach and Daniel Eugster of Switzerland, they have captured accurate colors and compiled a color matching system in booklet form, featuring 202 beers from Switzerland and relevant information about them.

The project was successfully funded via their own social media crowdfunding campaign and is now selling the Swiss edition Beertone color charts, which began shipping April 15th.

Below is an ad and a video they created to promote the Beertone concept via social media:



What is on each card of the Beertone color chart:


Three purchase options - which all come with Beertone stickers and mats, make great gifts for the Beer Aficionados in your life:


Shop for the Beertone color matching system here.

Now, if only they'd sell the wonderfully branded pilsner glasses and beer mugs on their own...



Beertone

The King Of Beers Is Getting Bent Out Of Shape. Budweiser Introduces Bow-Tie Shaped Cans.

Now you can really tie one on with the new bow-tie shaped beer can from Budweiser. The new can design is Budweiser’s 13th since Anheuser-Busch began offering its flagship brand in cans in 1936.

Can Chrononology:


"This can is incomparable, like nothing you've ever seen before," said Pat McGauley, vice president of innovation for Anheuser-Busch, in a press release. "The world's most iconic beer brand deserves the world's most unique and innovative can. I think we have it here."




The bow tie can -- which is not replacing the traditional Budweiser can -- has been in development since 2010, though the idea was formed a couple of years prior.


above: The bow tie has been associated with the Budweiser brand since it appeared in a national advertising campaign in 1956.

It took the company a few years to develop the unique shape and is molded at Anheuser-Busch’s metal container facility 90 miles north of New York City. The beer maker says it made major equipment investments at its can-making facility in Newburgh, N.Y., to facilitate the 16-step process to create the cans.



This three-year undertaking involved some significant changes both at the can-making facilities and on the packaging lines. Creating the can requires a 16-step process: ten steps to form the bottom half, with an additional six to form the top. According to the release, the physical limitations of aluminum required the angles of the bow tie to be very precise.



The bow tie can actually uses twice the amount of aluminum compared to a traditional can and it costs the company more to manufacture. However, there is slightly less beer in each -- 11.3 ounces, compared to the traditional 12 ounces. Each bowtie can holds about 137 calories, which is about 8.5 fewer calories than in a 12-ounce can.

They ought to consider a tie-in with BBC America's Doctor Who, because as any Whovian knows, "Bow Ties Are Cool":

You can buy the above shirt here

The bow tie will be available in an eight-pack rather than a six-pack beginning May 6th. This was a strategic decision to get the new shape noticed on shelves. "We look for innovation within our brands, and we look for renovation within our brands," McGauley explained. The move toward a new shape and new packaging focused on the latter.

The slightly odd shape of the can isn't the only new development on which Budweiser has been working. In 10 states, the company is test-marketing a 25-ounce can, which gives consumers one more ounce of beer than the traditional 24-ounce can. Sales of this can will begin over the summer. While McGauley had no other news to report at this time, he stressed that packaging was an important aspect in Budweiser's ongoing plans to innovate.



Budweiser breweries in Los Angeles and Williamsburg, Va., will be the first to package the new cans. More than 10 million cans have already been produced for the spring launch, with another 8 million currently being manufactured this month.

A marketing campaign that includes digital, print and new spots out of Anomaly will support the launch of the can, which will be available at supermarkets, convenience stores and liquor stores beginning May 6th. Consumers can find out where the new 8-packs can be located can call 1-800-DIAL-BUD.

Anheuser-Busch