Beer Balm! Beer in a Lip Balm
My recent astonishment at the existence of a lip balm branded by favorite brewing company made me curious. Are there any lip balms that are actually made with beer?
Well, off to the land of Google and Dogpile searches I went, and sure enough, there is such an amazing thing!
It turns out that one of my favorite homebrew companies (even though I don’t currently brew), Williams Brewing, carries the Old Chub Stick–a balm that is made with beer–Scottish Ale to be exact. A bit more searching credits the manufacture of the balm to the Oskar Blues Brewpub in Colorado. Here is the ingredient list:
Active (drug) ingredients: Octyl Methoxycinnamate (7%), and Oxybenzone (4%). Both are added as sunscreens.
Inactive Ingredients: Sweet Almond Oil, Macadamia Nut Oil, Beeswax, Cocoa Butter, Coconut Oil, Chocolate, Cocoa Extract, Shea Butter, Old Chub Scottish Style Ale, Malted Barley, Hops, Vitamin E, Natural Flavoring, and Rosemary Extract.
I purchased one and it really is a pretty tasty balm with a nice feel. The flavor is unique, although not particularly that of beer. It has a bit of a chocolate taste, I imagine from the cocoa extract. But the beer and malted barely does give it an interesting and quite good flavor. I recommend it not just because it is a neat novelty item, but because it is a good balm all around!
Next, I found that My Lip Stuff (read previous review), home of 400 (yes 400) lip balm flavors not surprisingly also has one– but not all the time. The My Lip Stuff Limited Edition New Years Beer Balm was still available when I ordered it. The balm is not actually made with beer as far as I can tell. In all honesty it didn’t taste a thing like beer either. Instead, it just plain tasted odd and I actually didn’t care for it, although I do like other flavors from the My Lip Stuff company.
Also of interest, although not exactly made with beer, the Schlafly Hopstick from another of my favorite brewers, Schlafly, is made with hop oil. I was recently at the Schlafly Tap Room and unfortunately was told that they have at least temporarily quite making the balm. So I couldn’t try any. Here’s hoping (hopping?) that they get it back in stock again!
Photo courtesy of Mike Wagner.
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Erica | Aug 22, 2008 | Reply
Sweet! Now if they could only make one flavoured like Bailey’s…
Jen | Aug 23, 2008 | Reply
I can’t tell if this one is made with beer, but Leinenkugel’s has a Sunset Wheat lip balm:
http://shop.leinie.com/browse.cfm/4,4359.html
Carleenp | Aug 23, 2008 | Reply
Thank for the info Jen! I’ll have to check that out!
Stephanie | Aug 25, 2008 | Reply
WOW! I new beer was a good conditioner for your hair. Who knew its great for the lips!
Bionic Beauty | Aug 27, 2008 | Reply
Love this article! And I adore Schlafly… I was always up at their brew pup in St. Louis. I hop(e) they bring it back. I’d love to give it a try! Maybe they just needed to market it to us bloggers. lol