This is a series of about six labels, honoring The Wing Man. Dictonary.com defines the species as: “A male who will assist in the courtship or flirtation of another, usually by deflecting or otherwise befriending those in the company of the intended.” This label, from Skyscraper Brewing of El Monte, California, has some good lines. But Skyscraper was fairly late to the party, getting their first approval in 2008. Coors jumped on this social behavior as far back as 2003, with this TV ad celebrating The (mighty) Wing Man. Before that, the term became popularized from the 1986 movie Top Gun and the 1996 movie Swingers.

Both of these beers are brewed with spruce tips. We’ve heard very little about spruce tips and so we wanted to see what this ingredient is all about. The first example is Alaskan Ale Brewed with Spruce Tips, brewed by Alaskan Brewing Co. in Juneau, Alaska. This is not some newfangled concoction. The label for the second example, Steamworks Spruce Goose Ale, explains that beer with spruce goes all the way back to the Vikings. It says:

Beers brewed with Spruce, and other varieties of Pine, were introduced to Scotland by the Vikings. They would spike beers with fresh Spruce Tips prior to long journeys and before battle. … This, our modern day version, is pin-bright, complex and sprucy with a big mouth feel.

Captain Cook carried “spruce beer” on his voyages because spruce was a good source of vitamin C and helped prevent scurvy. Wiki further explains that “spruce has been a traditional flavoring ingredient throughout the upper latitudes of the Northern Hemisphere where it is found, often substituting for ingredients not otherwise available, such as hops.”

Here are two recent spirits products with an unusal and unusually large assembly of flavors. On the following list, the first 13 flavors are on the Root label, and the next 11 are on the Pink Spruce label.

1. Birch bark
2. Smoked black tea
3. Cinnamon
4. Wintergreen
5. Spearmint
6. Clove
7. Anise
8. Orange
9. Lemon
10. Nutmeg
11. Allspice
12. Cardamom
13. Pure cane sugar
14. Spruce oil
15. Cucumber
16. Juniper berries
17. Angelica root
18. Orange peel
19. Lemon peel
20. Coriander
21. Ginger
22. Orris root
23. Grains of paradise
24. Tangerine oil

The Pink Spruce Gin label also mentions that the product is made with “free range coastal water,” it is “Seasoned in Oregon Pinot Barrels,” and distilled from grain. The Root product strangely does not mention the commodity from which distilled and probably should. It was “inspired by a potent 18th century… recipe. … It is an alcoholic version of what eventually evolved into Birch or Root Beer.” There is almost no overlap in the list of flavors from one to the other.

The last post covered some of the most famous singers ever to appear on alcohol beverage labels. Today, we go off in search of the most famous songs to appear on such labels. Not the most famous songs about booze; that’s a big topic for another day. There are so many labels paying tribute to so many songs. I am sure the astute reader can find examples more famous than those above, but these three are mighty famous, and appear on this list of the greatest rock songs. Rosalita is red wine produced and bottled by Aspect Wines of San Francisco, California. It pays tribute to the Bruce Springsteen song. Hotel California is Tequila imported by Sipping Spirits of Glastonbury, Connecticut. It pays tribute to the Eagles song. It has no overt reference to Tequila but Henley, Frey and Felder apparently did not read CFR Title 27 carefully; they wantonly mingle wine and spirits, singing:

So I called up the captain, “Please bring me my wine” He said, “We haven’t had that spirit here since 1969”

And Margaritaville of course pays tribute to the famous Jimmy Buffett song. The song is pretty much drenched in Tequila and Buffett still owns the rights to this name.