High on Hops: Star Wars Beers From Across the Galaxy

By Lee Heidel April 25, 2015

Imperial Stout Trooper

Sci-Fi lovers from all over the world gathered in Anaheim, California last week for the Star Wars Celebration convention. Billed as “the ultimate fan experience,” this tenth official gathering of the Star Wars faithful featured panel discussions, live shows, vendors galore and more cosplayers than Tattooine has womp rats.

The Star Wars films live on because the themes presented in the movies have become part of our daily lives, influencing a generation of thinkers, artists and craftsmen. That distinguished group includes everyone from NASA scientists busy in their lab building “droids,” to your friendly neighborhood craft brewer.

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Star Wars themed beers have filled a popular niche in the brewing community because of the associated nostalgia factor, as well as the collectability of Star Wars-related paraphernalia. It crosses boundaries and goes outside of the core niche of beer nerds into the equally obsessive realm of movie fandom.

Related Post: The Illustrated Dictionary of Beer

While wines from George Lucas’ Skywalker Vineyards are fully licensed alcoholic memorabilia for collectors and connoisseurs, there are no officially sanctioned Star Wars beers. The brewers who choose to incorporate the themes of Jedi and Sith in their branding do so under the banner of parody and the chagrin of their lawyers. Many of these have limited availability due to the inevitable threat of a lawsuit, looming like an Imperial Star Destroyer overhead.

Imperial Stout Trooper
New England Brewing Co.

A delicious Russian Imperial Stout, the Dark Side is strong with Imperial Stout Trooper. After receiving a cease-and-desist letter, New England Brewing responded by adding a pair of Groucho Marx glasses to the Stormtrooper visage on the label. That graphic design change made first editions even more rare and collectible on the beer trading market.

OB-1
Snake River Brewing Co.

Officially representing the term “Organic Brown Ale”, OB-1 is a sessionable English-style Brown with a name that harkens back to the wise old hermit originally made famous by Englishman Alec Guiness.

Strikes Bock
Empire Brewing Co.

This German style Mai-Bock was the most recent Star Wars themed brew to draw the unwanted attention of Lucasfilm. The small brewery officially refers to it as Strikes Bock, by Empire, and doesn’t recognize the resemblance to the release title of Episode V in the Star Wars saga.

The Dark Side
Terrapin Beer Co.

Athens, Georgia’s Terrapin Beer Co. released a beer early in its Side Project series named for the all-compassing evil in the Star Wars universe. Described on the label as “black as the underside of Vader’s cape,” this Belgian Style Imperial Stout is a formidable brew.

Dark Helmet
Westbrook Brewing Co. and The Brew Kettle Production Works

Since parody is ultimately how these brewers are able to use recognizable trademarks in their beer names, beers inspired by the ultimate Star Wars parody, Space Balls, should also be included in this round up. Two breweries have created beers named Dark Helmet. The Brew Kettle’s is (appropriately) a schwarzbier while Westbrook’s is a black rye lager.

With a new sequel film set for release in December and a yearly release schedule for additional films planned for the foreseeable future, Star Wars isn’t going anywhere. And as long as breweries keep making Star Wars related beers, that galaxy doesn’t have to seem so far, far away.

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The best kegerators for keeping your favorite beers cold and fresh

Fresh beer is better beer. Now, you can have cold draft beer at home or on the go with your own personal beer keg setup.

best kegerator on amazon

There's a wide selection of iconic craft beers and tasty cheap beers available to drink in cans and bottles. But nothing beats a good, heady draft pint served right from a tap or kegerator. As the name implies, a kegerator is a refrigerator that keeps a keg of beer cold and fresh while allowing you to dispense the contents from a built-in pressurized tap system on top.

However, it is a costly appliance, so it’s recommended to do your homework and invest your hard-earned money in a top-notch quality unit that will surely keep your beer fresh. To help you save time on researching the best ones, we’ve rounded up our picks for the best kegerators of 2023, with our selections ranging from on-the-go options to the most innovative dual-tap kegerators.

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The Borg drink is a viral Gen-Z favorite that’s really not all that new

Sorry, kiddos. "Borg" has been around for a while. We just call it something else.

borg drink recipe

Every new generation thinks they've invented the wheel when it comes to anything trendy. We're sorry to say, Gen-Z, but "flared leggings" are called yoga pants, most of us were using flip phones before you were born, and don't even think about talking to us about pop punk unless you know who Billie Joe Armstrong is.
When it comes to drinks, most generations have a hallmark party beverage that defines their college years, holding the power to flood them with a rush of nausea and fuzzy memories even decades later. For Gen-Z, that drink is called "Borg." What they haven't realized yet, though, is that this falsely fruity concoction has been around for years under the name "Jungle Juice."
While Jungle Juice was originally invented by U.S. soldiers during the Second World War, it was Millenials who made it the truly trashy, hangover-inducing party swill it is. Most stereotypically mixed in a large bucket or something else that can be found in a dorm garage, Jungle Juice is a mixture of vodka and a cheap, fruity mixer such as Kool-Aid. Naturally, there aren't any hard and fast recipe rules, but that's the usual gist of Jungle Juice.
The Gen-Z twist, Borg, does have some clever upgrades, and for that, we give them due credit. Firstly, the rather gross-sounding name is actually a witty acronym for "Black Out Rage Gallon." We love that there's no beating around the bush with this generation. They know how to call a spade a spade. Second, unlike the communal trough that's used to dole out Jungle Juice, Borg is made and served in individual plastic jugs, cutting down on germ spread. We can appreciate that growing up in the days of COVID has made for some much healthier thinking. We also love that Borg can be capped, making it much more difficult for potential predators to tamper with a drink.
Of course, the optional addition of new ingredients like Liquid IV also help to curb the hangover that will undoubtedly come with drinking vodka from a plastic jug. That sure would have been nice back in the day.

Borg drink recipe

Food & Drink

Is erythritol harmful? What a dietitian says new data means for your Keto diet

Erythritol is common in many keto foods - what does that mean for your health?

erythritol in keto diet advice

While sugar substitutes have been around for more than a century, they didn't really become mainstream here in the United States until around the mid-70s. According to Carolyn De La Pena, professor of American Studies at UC Davis and author of Empty Pleasures: The Story of Artificial Sweeteners from Saccharin to Splenda, between 1975 and 1984, Americans increased their consumption of artificial sweeteners by 150 percent. This timeline makes sense when you take into account that the late seventies coincided with the start of our crazed diet culture and the revolving door of fad diets.
One such diet that doesn't seem to be going anywhere, however, is the Keto diet. Still hugely popular among Americans trying to shed a few pounds, Keto focuses heavily on limited or no carbohydrates. Because sugar contains carbohydrates, followers of Keto have turned to artificial sweeteners to satisfy those late-night cravings - sweeteners that, more often than not, contain erythritol. Erythritol in particular has become hugely popular because it's much better for baking than other sugar substitutes, has less of an artificial flavor, and will keep the eater in Ketosis, which is key for losing weight on the Keto diet.
A new study has made waves recently because its findings indicate there's a link between erythritol and higher rates of heart attack and stroke (though the study did note that only an association was found — not causation. So should you be worried?
We asked Dan LeMoine, RD, the award-winning author of Fear No Food and the Clinical Director at Phoenix-based Re:vitalize Nutrition, what he had to say about erythritol, including its benefits and potential health risks. "Artificial sweeteners are still sweeteners. While many are non-nutritive or zero-calorie, we tend to view them similarly as we do regular sweeteners or sugars — moderation is key. While many have amazing implications on weight loss – being low to no-calorie options and having little impact on blood sugar, some have their downside," he says.

While some of that sugar substitution has been good for waistlines and health issues that come from obesity, it seems to be causing more and more concern when it comes to other potential health issues. "For example," says LeMoine, "some research indicates the popular sweeteners stevia may have negative effects on the gut microbiome. And the recent study showing correlation between the sugar alcohol, erythritol, and heart attack and stroke."