From Mother Nature Network
Since it was announced late last month, Google's new beer has been creating a better buzz than anything related to its terrible online app (Buzz was officially killed off last week) — and I'm happy to hear that Google bees had a hand in it.
Didn't know Google kept bees? The online tech giant installed four hives in the spring of 2010 and ended up with more than 405 pounds of honey during the subsequent fall flow. “The honey is being put to good use — everyone who participated in the extraction got a jar to take home, while the rest of the honey will be used in the cafes and for cooking classes organized by Marc Rasic, an executive chef at Google and one of the people behind the beekeeping initiative,” wrote software engineer Rob Peterson.
Like the White House, Google has recently put some of that honey to use for an official company beer. In partnership with eccentric Delaware brewery Dogfish Head (the same guys with their own series on Discovery Channel), the search giant included the sweet stuff — along with many "interesting" ingredients from around the world to create "Urkontinent." PC World lists some of them as wattleseed from Australia, amaranth from South America, green roobios tea from Africa, and Myrica Gale from Europe.
"It’s what Google does every day — take a fractured world of information and put it into something cohesive and whole," Dogfish Head founder and president Sam Calagione told the site.
URKontinent went on tap Sept. 27 and may be packaged for full distribution depending on how people like it. So far, reviews over on BeerAdvocate.com trend towards the positive.
"I was expecting the worst given the aroma but it was completely different from what I imagined," said one. "The wattle seed really came through in the end, with a little malt back bone. Overall very smooth. Mouthfeel was nice, not as heavy on the mouth as the appearance would suggest, but light and good carbonation."
You can check out a comprehensive 13-minute video on Google's new brew. The company, however, is careful to point out that it has no interest in entering the beer business and will not make a dime off of URKontinent. Bottoms up!
