To the complete and utter shock of the rest of the world, the U.S. has somehow blossomed into a nation that likes to drink good beer. Remember how surprised they all were when we started making decent wine (the subject of the recent movie Bottle Shock)?

Well, after decades of dedicated brewing, craft beer in the U.S. is finally exploding in the market place. In the first half of 2010, sales volume at craft brewers rose 9%, while overall sales volume for the U.S. beer industry dropped 2.7%.

Those are impressive numbers, but craft brews only made up a paltry 7% of the beer market in 2009. It’s easier to see impressive increases when you’re still a small part of the market. On the other hand, that little 7% is almost double the 2008 share of the market when craft brews were only 4%. That’s right, during one of the biggest recessions in our history, expensive beers almost doubled their market share.

As the category grows, so does the number of U.S. brewers. In the last year alone, 100 new craft brewers have entered the market according the Brewers Association. It seems like a huge number, but most of them only brew and sell locally – a boon to the rising tide of localvores. Of all the craft brewers in the U.S., Sam Adams is the largest, with a market share of around 1% of the U.S. beer market.

What we are seeing is [the] emergence of a real beer culture in the United States,” C. James Koch, founder of Boston Beer, told BusinessWeek. “Twentysomethings are adopting craft beer in the same way that baby boomers adopted wine.”

Admittedly, 1% is tiny, especially compared to Anheuser-Busch’s solid 50.9%. But that hasn’t stopped big brewers from taking notice and offering their own versions of craft beers. Anheuser-Busch has released several craft brews ostensibly under the Michelob label, but with the branding nearly absent. Shock Top and Hop Hound are both marketed without the Michelob name attached, unlike Michelob’s other craft offerings like Michelob Bavarian Wheat and Michelob Porter.

Champions of craft beer consider this brand deception and shy away from offerings by the bigger brewers. In fact, this past Monday, shares of the Craft Brewers Alliance fell sharply on speculation that Anheuser-Busch may try to buy out the alliance.

It makes sense that the fans of craft brews would fear consolidation. The craft brew scene in America is all about variety: imitating the vast variety of European styles and putting stuff in beer that would give any reasonable German a heart attack. If there’s anywhere in the world our beer scene resembles, it’s Belgium, whose 125 breweries produce 800 standard beers. If you add special and seasonal beers, there are actually around 8,700 beers made in Belgium. Of course, for all its size in the beer world, Belgium is physically quite small. There are over 1,675 registered craft brewers in the US, and no one has a reliable estimate of exactly how many varieties there are.

More Brewers Mean More Beer

In fact, if there’s anything that gives America the edge in the world beer scene, it’s our extreme beers. Koch first used the term to describe the release of Sam Adams Triple Bock in 1994 (then the strongest beer at 17.5% ABV), but we’ve been brewing insanity ever since: tripling the hops, tossing in oysters, seaweed, heather, strawberries, raisins, basically anything that will ferment, and seeing what brews.

Dogfish Head Spits in Their Beer

Dogfish Head, a brewery known for their quirky beers and non-traditional brewing methods, leads the American craft brewers in quirky experimentation. They’re offering Chicha again this year: a beer made in the traditional Peruvian fashion. That is: it’s fermented with spit. That’s right, the whole brewery gets together and chews purple corn for a day before leaving it to ferment and eventually make its way into the beer. Dogfish Head assures consumers that the spit-fermented beer is totally sanitary, as it’s boiled after the whole spit ordeal, but no amount of boiling can wash away the off-putting connotation of drinking someone else’s spit.

Dogfish Head also offers Midas Touch, a beer created from ingredients in the sediment found on vessels in the tomb of King Midas, Chateau Jiahu, inspired by trace ingredients from a 9,000-year-old dig in China, and Palo Santo Marron, a beer aged in unique handmade wooden brewing vessels of Palo Santo wood.

And, shock of shocks, America’s extreme brewing has even caught on in other countries. Since the creation Sam Adams Triple Bock, it’s been a constant contest to become the world’s strongest beer. On July 22^nd, BrewDog, a Scottish brewing company, announced its 55% ABV brew as the strongest in the world. They were offering 11 bottles of the stuff called “The End of History,” which they claimed was the final word in the ABV wars. Each bottle came inside a dead squirrel or stoat. They sold out in an hour. Then, just seven days later on July 29^th, the Dutch brewer ‘t Koelschip (The Refrigerated Ship) announced its 60% ABV beer called “Start the Future.”

Scottish Brewer BrewDog Stuck Its Latest Beer in Dead Things.

The future of craft beers looks bright indeed. A recent Gallup poll found that 67% of Americans say they drink alcohol, the highest percentage in 25 years.

And what’s their number one choice of beverage? Beer.

Happiness is a hot topic these days among marketers. Sharing or spreading happiness is an even hotter one. Over the past year, we’ve seen Coca-Cola’s global Open Happiness campaign come to life with stand-outs like this video of a Coke vending machine that keeps pumping out free sodas to unsuspecting students.

This week, Unilever unveiled its take on vending machine fun, bringing some Augmented Reality technology into the mix. Folks attending the Cannes Lions International Advertising Festival are getting the first taste of what amounts to smiling your way to a yummy ice cream treat. When the machine asks users to smile, it uses facial recognition to measure the smile, take a photo and ultimately send to Facebook (with permission of course). At that point, users are prompted to choose from a selection of sweet treats.

The video below shows the machine in action and be sure to check out a photo gallery of smiles from SapientNitro, the brains behind this experiment.

[Disclosure: Coca-Cola is a BFG client.]

If you’re a wine lover and into travel, this might be right up your alley. BFG recently launched a social media-based promotion on behalf of Lapostolle that will bring one lucky wine passionista to Chile where they’ll spend two weeks as a wine apprentice. They’ll learn the ins and outs of winemaking from a team of the some of the best around. Plus, they’ll even leave with their own blend.

To enter, all it takes is a little creativity and a Twitter account. Apprentice hopefuls are being asked to tell us (or show us) their passion for wine in a Tweet that includes #Lapostolle. If you followed BFG’s search for an Assistant Content Manager via Twitter, this may sound very familiar. Creativity counts here but in this case so does voting.

Twitter entries are displayed on UncorkThePassion.com where site visitors can let their voices be heard by casting votes for favorite Tweets. A pool of the top 50 Tweets will be selected based on community votes.

From there, we’ll turn it over to the experts. Our team of three judges will narrow the pool of 50 down to one lucky apprentice. The judging panel includes Gary Vaynerchuk of WineLibrary, Nick Fauchald of Tasting Table and Lapostolle winemaker Andrea Leon.

The entries are pouring in already so go ahead and cast your vote or get your creative juices flowing and Tweet your way to Chile. We can’t wait to see what you come up with.

Anyone who uses social media has one of these friends. They don’t just share details about their lives. They overshare, Tweeting or Facebooking about bodily functions, personal health issues, and mindless details that simply don’t interest anyone. The site Oversharers.com popped up to highlight some of these funny and even at times shocking updates. Now Pringles is stepping in.

They’ve created an application that allows you to call out your oversharing friends on Facebook and Twitter. Once you’ve allowed the application, you’ll have an extra option on status updates. Instead of clicking the “Like” button, you can click “Overshare!” and send an update to your friend with a link that promises them some help from the folks at Pringles.

If you’re more into the Twitter world, simply Tweet the offending overshare remark to @helpoversharers and see your Tweet make it to their oversharing wall.

The campaign is meant to go along with the idea that Pringles is one of the few things out there worth sharing. While I’m not sure that I necessarily agree with that statement, I do love this campaign. Like Burger King’s Whopper Sacrifice on Facebook, this shows that Pringles gets it. They understand their audience and the things about social media that likely annoy a big chunk of them.

By the looks of things, Pringles is investing pretty heavily into this fun concept. In addition to the Facebook and Twitter functionality, they’re encouraging people to add to an overshare video. There’s also a store where you can buy t-shirts that show off oversharing remarks.

Gizmodo shared some useful advice today on how to create a Coke bottle cheat sheet using common household items: Coke bottle (what else), glue stick, scissors, and a computer with a printer and scanner.

We don’t of course advocate cheating but do appreciate interesting mashups. Instead of spending so much time coming up with a cheat sheet for your Coke bottle, perhaps this could be an interesting way to pass silly love notes among friends. Definitely a way to spread some happiness.

[Disclosure: Coca-Cola is a BFG client.]

Good thing I just ate lunch because after scrolling through this site dedicated to the cheeseburger and dripping with pixelated deliciousness I know exactly what I’d be going to eat right now if I wasn’t already full (though the more I stare at these burgers the more I know what I’m having for dinner).

The website is brought to you by the good cheese loving folks of Wisconsin and the states Wisconsin Milk Marketing Board and it sure does the job of stirring up the cravings for an awesome burger piled sky high with tasty goodness (that is, if you are not a vegetarian and/or lactose intolerant).

It’s also a very good example of how a site can show a slew of good recipes, with an easy to use and understand interface and begs that you fire up your grill and get to making some burgers for you and yours.

Also, in this day and age of becoming a fan of all manner of inanimate objects, the Wisconsin cheese slathered cheeseburger admiration society asks that you become a fan of the cheeseburger on Facebook where you can interact with other meat, bun and cheese lovers.

Also, for a change of pace, you can skip the burger and just make a grilled cheese sandwich and for that you can go to the Grilled Cheese Academy (also lovingly brought to you by those Wisconsin Milk folks).

I’m hungry again.

Gary Vaynerchuk kicked off his SXSW session today by thanking people as they walked into Ballroom D at the convention center. That simple act set the tone for his talk, which centered around the “thank you economy.” In plan English, it’s all about customer service and appreciating and thanking your customers, viewers, etc. It’s all about being human.

Vaynerchuk firmly believes in being human and of course customer service. “No matter what you do or where you think you’re going, you’re all going to be doing one thing: customer service. That’s what I’m obsessed with,” he said. People and companies “massively underestimate caring. Your product will have a problem if you don’t give a [expletive].”

He also talked about some of the problems he sees among companies. “No real business is built overnight. You don’t build a business in six months. I hear people say if this new product doesn’t take off in six months, we’re out,” he said. These things take time and the key according to Vaynerchuk is to never veer away from your core values.

Vaynerchuk also touched on the importance of loving what you, the subject of his book Crush It. Before the Internet, it wasn’t necessarily practical to keep working a dull day job and work on your passion in the evening. But now, it’s possible.

Vaynerchuk talks to 80 and 90 year-olds all the time and they never tell him they wished they had more money, he said. They tell him they wished they hadn’t worked in that awful factory for so many years. “They didn’t have the out that we do. This room has no excuses. We should be embarrassed if we don’t try to make ourselves happy.”

Six content creators took over the SXSW Day Stage this afternoon to take part in a matchmaking session with Miller Lite care of Digitas. Representing Miller Lite was VP of Marketing Grant Leech.

The session took a quick-paced approach where content hopefuls were given a total of six minutes on stage: 45 seconds to introduce themselves, three minutes to sell the idea, two minutes of Q&A with Leech and 15 seconds to give a final impression. The winning pitch meant $24,000 and the audience pick meant $8,000.

The purpose of the session was to shed some light on how brands and content creators can get together in this new world of advertising. For the participants and audience, I also saw it as a great lesson in pitching and timing. If you can’t share your idea within a few minutes, that’s a problem. For folks out there wishing to improve their presentation skills and timing, I’d recommend taking part in an Ignite or Pecha Kucha event near you.

On to today’s content hopefuls. Up first was Ben Relles, a creator of the “I Got A Crush On Obama” video. His idea was to tap into a web show that already has an established audience and a good audience fit for Miller Lite, The Key Of Awesome. For Miller Lite, the show would do a music parody series where Miller Lite is the star. The title would be “I Love My Miller Lite - The Rock Opera” and it would be about giving people a break in the day where they can enjoy life and be entertained through the video.

On the plus side, Relles has a built-in audience so Miller Lite would be guaranteed a good number of video views. Relles’ pitch was also entertaining and he even sang a few lines.

Moving on to the second pitch, Kent Nichols took a very different approach. He opened up by sharing his understanding of the Miller Lite audience and some of the challenges alcohol brands face online. To avoid any age verification issues, Nichols’ idea would be around controlling who can see the Miller Lite content. To do that, he envisioned a buzzworthy events series at 21+ venues that would show a longer form film. The film would be shown on a large screen and would be something very overwhelming to the senses.

Nichols showed how big he can think and dream. For alcohol brands, building an experience around content could be enticing although I could see cost quickly becoming an issue.

Next up was Kestrin Pantera, a cellist and the creator of a mobile karaoke experience. Pantera’s concept was entitled “For Quake’s Sake” and centered around a big earthquake hitting L.A. That would mean it’s time for “The Party At The End Of The World” where a series would show survival skills in a fun way and of course Miller Lite would be there. They would even encourage a competition around solving challenges using nothing but a ziptie, blowtorch and duct tape.

And finally, Greg Goodfried of Eqal pitched his concept, “A Love Story Told On The Internet.” This was all about focusing on that same everyday kind of guy, the lovable loser. This character, Charlie, would be depicted on a trip to Paris where he meets Sophie, a girl (and fellow Miller Lite drinker) he wants to spend some time with. Through a miscommunication, Charlie thinks he is supposed to meet Sophie on Chatroulette but is instead expected at a cafe called Chateau Roulette. The idea here is that viewers would be encouraged to go on Chatroulette, find Charlie and let him know where he is supposed to meet Sophie.

This final idea was my favorite because it’s not the typical beer ad and it taps into a technology that’s extremely current. It would connect the brand to something relevant to its audience and get consumers engaged. Goodfried even had some interesting concepts for the retail environment. This idea ended up becoming the audience’s pick.

Miller Lite’s pick was pitch five: The Beer Run. I’m looking forward to seeing how it comes together after being present for the initial pitch.

In the 44 years since the grandest of sporting spectacles began (at least in the United States), the Super Bowl has become more than just a mere football game. It is a national obsession. It is an annual, ritualized holiday celebrated across the land by a vast cross section of people, young and old, from all walks of life.

When you think of the Super Bowl and all the crazy accoutrements that accompany the big game, what immediately jumps to the frontal lobe of your mind? Do those funny (and not so funny) TV commercials that companies have paid millions to run past your eyeballs for 30 seconds jump to the front of the line? What about the endless supply of cold beer quaffed in the company of family and friends?

What about the food? It’s “Super Sunday” and that means the fans are super hungry. There is only one fix for that: fire up the grill.

What turkey and cranberry sauce are to Thanksgiving dinner and hot dogs are to the 4th of July, grilling up a vast assortment of beef, pork and poultry for a house full of crazed fans goes hand-in-hand as one of the most honored and revered of all Super Bowl rituals.

According to the Hearth, Patio & Barbecue Association (HPBA), Super Bowl Sunday is the most popular grilling day of the winter. “When you factor in the 70 percent of Americans who cite easy clean-up as a huge perk, grilling for the big game at home is a convenient, no mess way to pull together a feast big enough for a football team or a pack of die hard fans,” says Leslie Wheeler, communications director for HPBA.

Once the host has fired up the trusty grill, many of the guests will all make the obligatory pass by the flames to get a quick gander at what’s cooking.

There it is, a veritable Roman banquet searing away above the flames: rows of beef patties, whole chickens and T-bone steaks are sizzling. Many grill masters will also toss in some corn sheathed in green husks surrounded by a vast array of kabob skewers festooned with more meat, shrimp and an assortment of goodness from the produce aisle to complement the meat.

Super Bowl grill & swills are grazing affairs that see the gathered hordes move from room to room, each one well stocked with a TV showing the game. Each room is stocked with bowls overflowing with chips and dip for those moments when the fan can’t eat another massive helping of grilled meat and instead wants something crunchy. Super Bowl grazing is a delicate juggling act as participants are somehow able to haul around a heaping plate of hot food, hold on to a cold beer, and somehow eat and drink it all at the same time.

For the host, quantity rules, though quality is very important and not to be overlooked. Just like the game, which is the granddaddy of all overproduced, over-hyped mega-events, a real Super Bowl grill & swill is something to be celebrated.

Hosts take their role very seriously, for this is usually not the first time that they’ve opened up their abode for a rampaging flock of fair weather fans, many whom have decided only that day which team they’ll probably root for, to come over and spill food on the new couch and rug.

Super Bowl grill & swills are events as revered as the game itself and as the big day approaches people look forward to that visual, aural and appetite filling spread that falls on a Sunday every winter.

This Sunday as the two opposing legions – one from New Orleans and one from Indianapolis - stomp the gridiron under the Miami sun, sweating and bleeding for the opportunity to hoist the Lombardi trophy under a rain of confetti and cheers, millions upon millions will be right there with them in wild oblivion, with a mouthful of charred meat and a belly full of cold beer on what might really be America’s most truly beloved day as it crystalizes who we really are and what we really love as a nation.

When I think of a love story featuring a pair of robots called I’m Here and directed by none other than Spike Jonze, I immediately think of vodka.

Well, not really, but ABSOLUT Vodka is betting I’ll associate their brand with the 30 minute film, which is having its debut this week at the Sundance Film Festival.

“It was a pretty incredible opportunity,” says Jonze. “They (ABSOLUT) didn’t give me any requirements to make a movie that had anything to do with vodka. They just wanted me to make something that was important to me, and let my imagination take me wherever I wanted. And it wasn’t like working with some huge corporation where I had to meet with committees of people. It was just a small group, and it seemed like creativity and making something that affected them emotionally was the only thing that really mattered to them. I got to make my first love story. It’s about the relationship between two robots living in Los Angeles”.

Making films, even with all the new technology, can be expensive, even if you are Spike Jonze. Getting funding and being given total creative control with that money rarely go hand in hand, but in this case it seems the vodka maker wanted Jonze to kind of do his thing and they’d roll with the results. ABSOLUT has always prided itself through its extensive partnerships with artists of all stripes over the years who’ve made designs for the iconic bottles and ads and have probably learned that if you want to work with the best at what they do, it’s best to not put too many constraints on the work.

This is not the first time that ABSOLUT has found robots associated with its vodka, in 2008 they teamed up with some brainiacs at MIT and a Swedish research development company and made a robot that played music and that could be interacted with online.