Would you drink a Pants on the Ground Porter? How about Boom Gueze the Dynamite?
The internet influences everything these days, and memes are the vehicles by which it does so. No one knows why certain YouTube videos and other messages on the internet become so popular (we're still waiting for someone do describe the allure of the "What What, in the Butt"), but there's no denying internet memes invade all parts of pop culture, including our lexicon, our music, and yes, even our beer. Hide yo' kids! Hide yo wife!
5. Chocolate Rain
The Bruery
Hard to believe it was more than four years ago that the video of skinny, dorky Tay Zonday belting out lyrics in a tone that would make Barry White jealous stormed the internet. Seventy million views later, Chocolate Rain has since become a crucial piece of internet culture. The Bruery decided to spin off the video by aging Black Tuesday, their bourbon-aged stout, in barrels filled with cocoa nibs and vanilla beans. The resulting beer is sweet, decadent and, while much sought-after, is in very short supply -- less than a thousand bottles exist. What can we say? Some stay dry, but others feel the pain.
4. 110K+OT
Cigar City Brewing
Years ago on the beer review website ratebeer.com, an especially braggadocious user started a discussion in which he sung the praises of his salary (110K plus OT, bro!) and asked other members of the forum how much they made. Other ratebeer users quickly swarmed the guy and proclaimed his douchiness, and the thread lives on in infamy. Inspired, the brewers at Cigar City crafted this beer "for the working man with taste for the finer things in life and the curiously structured salary that allows him to obtain them." The style varies from year to year (batch 2 was an India Russian Imperial Stout dry-hopped with Mt. Rainier hops and aged on toasted Spanish cedar; batch 4 an imperial amber) but always features flavors that pair well with delusions of superiority.
3. Double Rainbow
Trinity Brewing Co.
All the way across the sky! It's so beautiful!
Based on the internet video posted by Paul Vasquez -- a dude who apparently REALLY likes rainbows when he's high -- Double Rainbow is a collaborative, 14 percent ABV saison made in conjunction with Black Fox Brewing Co. In keeping with the colorful theme, the beer was brewed with a spectrum of pigment-themed ingredients: turmeric and honey for yellow; pumpkin and tangerine zest for orange; green peppercorns and parsley for green; saffron and rose hips for red; purple barley and raisened Shiraz grapes for purple; and blue corn and agave nectar for blue. Trinity's owners even invited Vasquez out from California for the beer's tapping on September 15 last year.
2. Tiger Blood Trippel
Alcatraz Brewing Co.
This is a beer. It's called Tiger Blood Tripel, and if you try it you will die. Your face will melt off and your children will weep over your exploded body. That's because it's 10.4 percent ABV and tastes like pineapple, tangerine, banana and winning. And it's made with Adonis DNA.
1. Fail Whale Pale Ale
If you Twitter, you've no doubt encountered and hold a special pocketful of hatred for the dreaded fail whale. The thing appears when the site is over capacity, and in the olden days of Twitter -- about a year ago -- it was seen so often you felt like taking a harpoon to your computer screen.
The crash-indicating sea beast inspired independent artist Ian Leino to create "Fail Whale Pale Ale" pint glasses, giving you something into which you can pour all your meme-inspired beers.
