A bottle of beer rescued from the crash of the Hindenburg recently sold at auction for over $16,000 according to This is Wiltshire in the UK. This is significantly above the estimate placed on the bottle of $4,000 - $8,000. The airship crashed on May 6, 1937 over Lakehurst, New Jersey where the bottle and other memorabilia was found by fire Chief Leroy Smith at the scene of the disaster.

Apparently the fire chief found a total of six scorched bottles and a pitcher at the scene. He buried his treasures and then came back afterward to dig them up and hand them out as souvenirs to his colleagues. No one knows where the other bottles are located except for one, which chief Smith gave to the Lowenbrau brewery in 1977, where it remains today. He kept one bottle and the pitcher, which bears the logo of the Deutsche Zeppelin Reedrei airline that operated the Hindenburg. Both pieces are scorched and were sold with letters of provenance and an account of how the items were acquired.

Auctioneer Andrew Aldridge of the British auction house Henry Aldridge and Sons has been quoted as saying "It is the most valuable bottle of beer ever sold." Even though one can still see the contents of the Lowenbrau bottle, the remnants of the beer would be undrinkable. The auction house specializes in relics of disaster and has been the largest auctioneer of memorabilia from the Titanic.

Maverick Scottish beer brand BrewDog, known for their outlandish-sounding ales, is releasing a limited edition Atlantic IPA (right), the first commercially available, genuine sea-aged India Pale Ale in over two centuries.

Only 960 bottles will be available in the U.S. at $25.99 per 330 ml, making it one of the most precious brews on the planet. The artfully-designed label declares it to be something extraordinary.

Made according to an 1856 recipe, the Atlantic IPA spent two months aging aboard BrewDog co-founder James Watt's fishing boat in the North Atlantic.

The incredible journey involved a "tense barrel-rescue-mission, beatings from force ten storms, 60 foot waves and encounters with killer whales." You can view the Atlantic IPA voyage online here.

The Atlantic IPA is bursting with malt character: "biscuit, toast, caramel, pirate ship oak, salt and tobacco," in addition to notes of honey, pine and vanilla.

The generous use of English hops adds a substantial kick to the forefront of the nose and mouth with a smooth slick spicy, earthy herbal quality and a lingering woody bitterness in the finish.

Normally one doesn't care to see wine or beer or spirits of any kind on their wall, but would you believe that the art above is a magnified image of English oatmeal stout? It's beautiful!

BevShots takes microscopic photos of your favorite vice, be it wine, tequila, or even just cola, blows them up and colors them to make gorgeous modern art, suitable for any home. BevShots just launched in August. Their ready-to-hang pieces range from $199 -$549 (not including shipping and handling) depending on sizing and framing options -- you can get simple prints rolled in a tube for as low as $49.99.

You can shop by color or even by beverage. Visit the website for more info, and check out some fabulous finds in the gallery below!

Australian beer maker Fosters has gotten into the luxury beer market with a lager that costs $70 Australian a bottle. The 2009 Crown Ambassdor Reserve Lager is the second vintage of the lager which undergoes in-bottle fermentation for a more complex taste and is presented in a 750 ml champagne-style bottle. The beer doesn't need to be quaffed immediately, it can be cellared for up to 10 years. Last year the beer sold out quickly and it is expected that those who missed out on one of last year's 5,000 bottles might grab one of this year's 6,000 brews. One bottle you can't get is the first bottle. The Queen of England has both the first bottles of the 2008 and 2009 vintages in her cellars.

Great beer requires proper glassware to be enjoyed to the fullest; enter Spiegelau's new Beer Classics Barrel. Containing a "six pack" of lager glasses from the brand's Beer Classics Collection, with a SRP of $75, nestled in a cardboard aging-vat look-alike, each glass holds 17 ounces of beer.

Since the glasses retail for $30 for a two pack, the barrel includes one for free. The Spiegelau lager glass (right) augments the inherent characteristics and varying flavors of grains, yeast and hops to the brews' maximum advantage.

The narrow base broadening into a wider mouth channels the aromas, preserves the frothy head and volatiles, and highlights the color, clarity and carbonation. You can purchase the Barrel online at www.riedelwebstore.com.

Beginning next month one of our favorite beers, Newcastle Brown Ale founded in 1927 in the Northeast of England, will launch its new portable DraughtKeg in select markets initially including Southern California, Minneapolis and Chicago.

Featuring the same technology originally created by Heineken, the Newcastle DraughtKeg is a pressurized recyclable mini-keg that serves up to 10 pints (5 liters) of Newcastle draught beer for the ultimate at-home pub experience. The suggested retail price is $22.99.

The DraughtKeg's pressurized draught system utilizes a patented internal CO2 mechanism with a mini tap which helps keep the beer fresh for up to 30 days. It's also compatible with the Krups BeerTender, which chills the DraughtKeg and maintains its ideal temperature.

First we heard Ferran Adria, the famous Spanish chef from the world's greatest restaurant, El Bulli, was interested in pizza and it turns out he's already got the beer. Adria, his partner Juli Soler and two of his sommeliers have worked on a beer for the 100-year-old brewery Estrella Damm of Barcelona. This is no ordinary pint, The NY Times quotes Adria who says that, "The idea was to make a beer to drink with food, from a wineglass."

Inedit is actually a combination of two beers, a lager and a German-style weissbier with flavors of coriander, orange peel and licorice. The two beers are fermented separately and then combined in a 750ml wine bottle where they undergo a secondary fermentation. It is recommended that the beer be chilled in a wine cooler and served in white wine glasses which are supposed to be filled only half full so that the nuances of the brew can be appreciated. It sells for $9.99 and is available at Whole Foods.

Many celebrities have wine projects, some have liquor lines, but celebrities with their own beer are a bit rarer. A Michigan company will produce a craft beer to appeal to fans of Kid Rock. Kid Rock's beer has actually been in the works since last fall when Drinks America, the company behind Trump's vodka, Dr Dre's cognac and Willie Nelson's bourbon announced the deal. But this week the Michigan Economic Growth Authority approved a nearly $723,000 tax credit for The Michigan Brewing Co.which will produce the new product. The company sells a variety of craft beers and has said that production of the new beer will create much-needed jobs in Michigan . No details on the name of the beer have been released but it is said to be something that will evoke both rock and roll and the American spirit.

Prevailing wisdom says that when times are tough people drink the cheap stuff. While that may be true for the most part, the Distilled Spirits Council of the United States shows that sales for whiskey are up (4.3% by dollar value and 1.3% by volume in 2008) fueled by a love for whiskeys like Jack Daniels and bourbons like Maker's Mark. The last few years brought big numbers for top shelf vodka, tequila and rum but right now super premium whiskey is the hottest growth category for spirits. The classic appeal of bourbon and its use in traditional, simple cocktails may be part of the appeal. Sales of liquor in restaurants and bars are down over all as more people drink at home.

Somewhere between whisky and beer there is Fuller's Brewer's Reserve. The whisky-beer hybrid was launched by the London pub and brewer and is the result years of effort by head brewer John Keeling to create a beer with some of the characteristics of a single malt. The beer is aged more than 500 days in 30-year-old scotch whisky casks. Brewer's Reserve is available in 25,000 individually numbered bottles and presentation box. The company recently tangled with British Customs over whether the brew was a beer or a spirit for duty purposes. It was decided that Brewer's Reserve will be charged at the beer rate.

English restaurant chain Belgo is serious about their Oktoberfeast and has hired a "beerologist" to go on a beer hunt to find unique Belgian beers for their menu. The beerologist, otherwise known as Sam Hjelm, has tracked down eclectic and delicious beers, which include Trappist brews, still made by monks using traditional medieval recipes. The menu, which will be available throughout October, includes Abbey and lambic beers, a strawberry fruit beer and blonde beer, each matched to specific dishes, including: moules blanches (mussels cooked in brugs witbier with bacon lardons); carbonnade flamande (braised beef cooked in faro beer, nutmeg and brown sugar); and even a leffe beer ice cream, served with syrop de liège and pralines. The menu will cost £27.50 per person for three courses with three glasses of matched beer.

For the last few years wine has been steadily gaining on beer but it looks like that trend has ended. A recent Gallup poll revealed that U.S. adults now prefer beer by a double-digit margin over wine. As you can see from the chart above, wine briefly surged above beer in 2005 but has since slipped further from favor. Beer still is not as widely preferred today as it was in the early 1990s but wine's popularity is now at 31% down from a high of 39%.The poll revealed that it's mostly among Americans between the ages of 30 and 49 that have switched back to referring beer. The drinking preferences of younger adults have remained stable in recent years, with 18- to 29-year-olds still showing a wide preference for beer and drinking liquor more often than wine. The survey doesn't ask where the people drink but I suspect the younger drinkers are indulging in their cocktails out in bars more than the more mature drinkers.

Wine remains the preferred beverage of older drinkers. Sixty-two percent of Americans say they drink alcohol and the average drinker reports having consumed 3.8 alcoholic drinks in the past week. Daily drinking is more common among Americans of higher socioeconomic status: 41% of drinkers with incomes of $75,000 or greater say they have had a drink in the past 24 hours, compared with 36% of middle-income respondents (those with household incomes between $30,000 and $74,999) and just 23% of those residing in lower-income households (with incomes of less than $30,000).

This past holiday weekend beer was the beverage of choice for a lot of people, and although an ice-cold brewski may seem at first glance like one of the most unassuming and simplest of alcoholic beverages the experts at Spiegelau have a different take. They've taken their combined 500 years of experience and created three distinct glasses made especially for bringing out the best in different kinds of beer. Their Beer Classics collection is geared for optimizing the appearance, aroma, taste, and finish of your favorite brew -- get a hold of these glasses and you could find yourself becoming quite the beer snob.

Via Decanter

We've seen some pretty expensive beers before (the sippable Sam Adams Utopia springs immediately to mind) but the new brew from Carlsberg is now the proud owner of the title of world's most expensive beer. The Carlsberg Vintage No.1 costs close to $400 a bottle (2,008 Danish kroner or $396.47 to be exact). The beer will be sold in just three Copenhagen restaurants. Why so expensive? The 10.5 percent proof beer is a very limited edition of just 600 bottles. It has been stored in French and Swedish wooden casks and has a deep brown color. The tasting notes reveal prune, caramel and vanilla flavors making it a natural pairing for cheeses and desserts. So far there are no plans to export Vintage No. 1.

The picture at right may look a bit like bottles of Champagne it's actually a special limited edition collection of the new Stella Artois Nobilis beer. This six pack of Nobilis, bottled in Magnums, was recently purchased by AOL Canada for $15,000CDN. The proceeds benefit WildAid. The WildAid Stella Artois Nobilis collection is comprised of six magnums autographed by sixfilm celebrities: Angelina Jolie, Kate Hudson, Charlize Theron and Woody Harrelson (same bottle), Bo Derek, Ryan Gosling and Samuel L. Jackson.

WildAid is a nonprofit with the mission to end the illegal wildlife trade within our lifetimes. They focus on raising awareness to reduce the demand for threatened and endangered species products and to increase public support for wildlife conservation. WildAid operates in China, India, Ecuador and London and is based in San Francisco. WIldAid accepts donations and they also sell branded products including T-shirts.

[via The National Post]