There’s nothing like a piping hot chug of foamy beer on a summer’s day. Right? Oh, wait. Strike that. If you plan to enjoy a few brews, you might think tossing them in the freezer would be the quickest way to chill your beer, but it’s a bad idea (and actually freezing your beer is even worse). You’ll be sacrificing the quality of your beer by putting it in the freezer.

If a beer spends too much time in the freezer, it could easily explode or, at the very least, break its seal. A broken seal will release the carbonation and lead to a flat drink. A lot of things can go wrong if you choose to freeze and then thaw out a beer to drink, but the worst consequence for a beer lover is how this affects taste. Losing carbonation isn’t the only, nor the most egregious, reason why cooling your beer down in a freezer is a bad idea.

Read more: 3 Smarter Ways To Hack A Bag Of Ice Apart

It might sound like a cool, refreshing idea if your beer actually freezes solid, but the thawing process can come with some challenges. For example, if you don’t let the beer thaw completely, you’ll end up with sips of mostly straight-up alcohol while the water content of the beer stays frozen.

Another issue with freezing and thawing beer is that it can change its color and aroma. The Beer Syndicate conducted a taste test in which participants drank frozen to thawed beer and an “unadulterated” beer. Participants were not told which beer had been thawed and were told to identify the beer they thought was different.

Of the participants, 75% were able to identify the thawed beer, and those who described the beer said it had a duller flavor, less carbonation, and less aroma. It was also noted that the thawed beer had a lighter, hazier color compared to the non-frozen beer. The haziness is caused by proteins in the beer separating and binding together after being thawed. So, though you may want an ice-cold beer, it may be best to aim for a well-chilled can instead. (Surprisingly, though, you shouldn’t be afraid to let a chilled beer get warm and be re-chilled).

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“Float Flex” Asks Americans to Train to Lift One of Fast Food’s Heaviest Drinks

LEXINGTON, Ky., Aug. 5, 2024 /PRNewswire/ — A&W, America’s oldest franchised restaurant chain, is bulking up its annual National Root Beer Float Day promotion this August 6th with a nationwide challenge for those who think they’ve got the muscle to handle one of the heaviest drinks in fast food: Want a free float? Show off your flex.

On National Root Beer Float Day, August 6, simply show off your “Float Flex”—that is, flaunt your new physique with your best muscle-flexing pose—at any participating U.S. A&W location between 2 p.m.–8 p.m. local time for a free, small Root Beer Float.

The “Float Flex“ campaign encourages Americans to prepare their bodies for the roughly 3 pounds 5 ounces of Made Fresh Root Beer and creamy vanilla soft serve in a frosty glass mug that make up the massive A&W Root Beer Float known around the world for over 100 years.

The brand tapped social influencers like Keith Habersberger of The Try Guys to get the word out, and even created a home exercise kit featuring weighted Root Beer Float replicas, headbands, wristbands, and more to help float fans pack on muscle before the big day. A&W will be promoting “Float Flex” content on their own social media channels, as well as with paid social ads targeting existing customers and other fast food fans.

No purchase is necessary. Just a suggested donation to A&W’s nonprofit partner DAV (Disabled American Veterans). Since the start of the annual promotion, A&W has contributed over $1 million for veteran-related charities.

“A&W’s iconic Root Beer Float is without a doubt one of the heaviest drinks in the quick service restaurant industry,” said Liz Bazner, VP of Marketing & Innovation at A&W. “It’s so heavy that we worried we might be missing out on a whole untapped market of folks that simply can’t handle its hugeness. This National Root Beer Float Day, we wanted to get everyone pumped up and ready to enjoy their free float.”

Anyone aged 13 and up can get a free Root Beer Float every year on their birthday, plus more exclusive deals on A&W’s All-American Food, by joining Rooty’s Mug Club at awrestaurants.com/float-flex.

About A&W Restaurants
Founded in 1919, A&W is America’s oldest franchised restaurant chain. Known for its All American Food, as well as Root Beer that is made fresh in each restaurant and served in frosty mugs, there are more than 900 A&Ws in the U.S. and Asia. Visit awrestaurants.com and awfranchising.com for more information.

View original content to download multimedia: https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/aw-is-giving-away-free-root-beer-floatsif-you-can-handle-the-weight-302214388.html

SOURCE A&W Restaurants

Krug Park was known as “Omaha’s Polite Resort,” “Everybody’s Playground,” “Home for Picnics,” and “Omaha’s Joy Acres.”

The taglines varied during the time the amusement park, situated northwest of 52nd and Maple Streets — the current location of Gallagher Park — was operational, with some interruptions, from 1897 to 1939.

Within its 20 acres, the park featured a one-acre swimming pool and beach with bath houses, bowling alleys, athletic arena and ballfields, a ballroom, picnic grounds, a roller rink, and carnival rides.

Krug Park’s third management invested $300,000 in a swimming pool, bathhouse, and beach, as shown in a July 3, 1919 photo.

Among the rides was the Big Dipper, on which four people were killed in 1930 in what remains the deadliest roller-coaster accident in U.S. history.

Krug Park supplanted the Tietz Park beer garden started by German immigrant Charles Tietz sometime before 1885, when the Military Road had its share of roadhouses and saloons outside the western city limits of Omaha.

“A pleasant and desirable place for families,’’ an early newspaper ad proclaimed. Every Sunday there was a concert by a military band.

Carriages and the Benson electric streetcar shared the road passing the Krug Park entrance in 1900.

Tietz Park could be a family place. The Jolly Painters of Omaha had their July Fourth celebration in 1893 in the park, with “dancing, base ball, foot ball and amusements of every description.” A bowling alley was among the amusements.

But the park also condoned illicit activity such as dog and cock fights and boxing. At least three men leased the park between 1887 and 1894.

“(It’s) wide open every Sunday and beer and whisky flow free,’’ The World-Herald reported in 1893. “It is a rendezvous for ex-pugilists and men of very shady character.

“It has been the only available place to obtain liquor Sundays and as a result fully 100 men are found there gambling and plying their nefarious games. It is a great resort for lewd women and has answered splendidly for a place of assignation.”

Charles Tietz had his share of tragedy. His first wife died in 1886, leaving eight children without a mother. He accidentally, fatally, shot an employee, Hans Puls, the next year.

After several citations for selling liquor without a license, Tietz in January 1895 sold the remaining 16 acres from his 1873 purchase of 40 acres to the Fred Krug Brewing Co. for $12,000. Tietz relocated to Papillion, where he tended bar before his death in June 1897.

The Krugs saw Tietz Park having the potential to be a park with entertainment and high-class musical and refreshment features. Said William Krug, a son: “I want to make this the most beautiful place of the kind in the world. I want to make it even rival the famous old Kroer garden of Berlin and if I live I shall.”

Improving the old grounds — and the park’s reputation — took several years. In 1897, the year the name changed to Krug Park, residents of the West Omaha precinct that included the yet-incorporated village of Benson objected to the Krugs getting a liquor license.

In 1898, some of the area’s earliest bowling competition — 3-, 4-, 9- and 10-pin games — were held on the Krug Park alleys in the winter and spring. The outdoor facilities at the “Great Family Resort,” including swings for the kids, opened on June 5. Sunday band concerts came back.

Donkey rides in 1899 were the first step toward a true amusement park. “Beautiful Krug Park” was open afternoons and evenings for 20 weeks starting in May, with the bowling alleys reserved for ladies only on Wednesdays. Omahans seeking relief from the heat could board the Walnut Hill trolley car and transfer to the Benson electric cars that passed the park.

A new neighbor for Krug Park was the Omaha Country Club, which built its first golf course in 1900 across Military Avenue from it. Parkgoers that year could bowl, shoot billiards or stroll the grounds while children partook of the swings, “goats to drive and donkeys to ride.”

By 1901, Krug Park was said to be Omaha’s answer to Denver’s Elitch Gardens. William Krug took ideas from a visit to the best parks in Europe. He added a merry-go-round, a menagerie exhibit of rare birds and animals, and shooting galleries. He installed more than 1,000 electric lights on the grounds and brought in weekly entertainment acts and had a 30-piece house concert band play daily.

Under the management of the new Western Amusement Co., “Omaha’s Polite Resort” (1901) touted balloon ascensions (1901), reproductions of the Oberammergau Passion Play (1901-06), a soda fountain, fine dining featuring sirloin steaks and mutton chops (1902) and its first rollercoaster (1903).

The first of the park’s several setbacks was a fire before its opening in 1904. On Friday the 13th, the flagpole on the roller coaster tower was blown over and damaged the ride. Several picture machines fell out of a wagon.

Bad omens. For the next day, with defective wiring blamed, the new $15,000, 700-seat pavilion with a second-floor café (no alcohol served) seating 200, the bandstand, the bowling alleys, the stables and sheds and all buildings along the east boundary except the office were destroyed. The insured loss was estimated at $25,000.

The park opened for the season on time on Memorial Day. It also withstood a brief tornado spin-up a month later that destroyed the big top of the Kilpatrick Brothers circus that was the week’s attraction.

Krug Park built an early version of Disney’s Small World ride in 1905 with Wonderland, a half-mile artificial river ride winding through caverns, bowers and grottos. It was among 100 other attractions.

In July 1908, however, the lights went out, the rides were turned off and the new Japanese tea garden shuttered. A temperance movement in Benson, which had annexed the park, challenged the park’s liquor license renewal and won in court on a technicality. The park, which lost money the previous year, needed beer sales for sustainability.

Brothers Joseph and Herman Munchoff re-opened the park in 1912 on a five-year lease from the Krugs (William Krug died the year before in an Omaha auto accident). Among the new rides at “Everybody’s Playground” were a carousel, ferris wheel, miniature railroad and roller rink.

The park was closed for the 1917 season, with Prohibition on its way and the Munchoffs moving on to build Lakeview on Carter Lake in East Omaha.

It reopened in 1918 by the Ingersoll Amusement Co. of Detroit on a 20-year lease.

Brothers Fred and L.F. Ingersoll spent $200,000 on the “New Krug Park” just in 1918. They obtained the carousel from the 1915 Panama Pacific International Exposition in San Francisco. The mile-long roller-coaster was proclaimed by designer John Miller of Chicago his best work. Danceland was a pavilion that could accommodate more than 1,000 couples.

The next year’s outlay — by the Krug Park Amusement Co. that L.F. Ingersoll and two others from St. Joseph, Missouri, formed — was $350,000 for “American’s Largest Swimming Pool” ($300,000) and the water ride “Swanee River” ($50,000).

It was the Roaring Twenties and Krug Park, “The Home of Picnics,” was thriving. In 1925, park attendance was 555,672. The roller coaster grew longer and more thrilling.

But what goes up usually comes down. Fred Ingersoll committed suicide in a park concession stand in 1927.

Then came the tragic evening of July 24, 1930. Our narrative picks up there next time.

That idea to move traffic from 30th Street has been bandied about since the 1930s.

Many Omahans of a certain age remember visiting Santa at Toyland in the Brandeis department store. The tradition dated to the 1900s when J.L. Brandeis and Sons were the proprietors of the Boston Store.

The Benson and the Hanscom are just two of the more than 70 theaters that emerged outside downtown Omaha during the first half of the 20th century. Most of these theaters opened — and subsequently closed — during the era of silent films.

Omaha’s first auto club, established in 1902, comprised 20 of the city’s 25 car owners. Their inaugural event was a road rally to Blair and back.

Explore the history of the Chermot Ballroom and some of the famous names that graced its stage.

The New Tower’s front lobby featured a Normandy castle theme with grand stone walls, heraldic crests, and a wood-burning fireplace. This majestic style extended into the Crest Dining Room with its massive beams and lofty ceilings.

A generation of Omahans — and newcomers to the city — likely are unaware that Peony Park, the major amusement spot from the 1930s through 1994, was at 78th and Cass Streets. 

Pardon the pun, but another of my deep digs has turned up forgotten burial grounds across Douglas County.

The fame of Curo Springs was so far-reaching that in pioneer days — every fall and spring — people from 100 miles away (some crossing the Missouri in crude boats) would come to load up with the water.

Here are some books relating to Omaha and Nebraska history, many by local authors, to check out.

They were the twin banes in Omaha’s pioneer years. One of them came back to life during the nighttime deluge that hit the area last weekend.

The Omaha Chamber of Commerce was prepared to remove its $35,000 hangar — built in modular sections — until the city was ready to build a municipal airport. Then came back-to-back windstorms.

Research has turned up a juicy nugget — the whereabouts of the burial site of Omaha, the Triple Crown horse in 1935. Hint: there are people resting every night on top of it.

Keystone has become the name applied to the area bounded by 72nd and 90th Streets, Maple Street, Military Avenue, and Fort Street. It has expanded since Keystone Park was platted in 1907.

Ezra Meeker’s crusade is credited for reawakening awareness of the Oregon Trail in the early 20th century. In the process, he erroneously linked Omaha to the trail and others took his word for it.

An Omaha real estate firm had the idea in the heyday of the ’20s that it could sell 1,500 cottage lots platted away from the lakes and the Platte River. So what happened?

Check out a glimpse of Omaha’s Black history before 1880.

The Dan Parmelee-Tom Keeler feud, which included an Old West shootout on the outskirts of old Elkhorn in December 1874, left Keeler dead and made news nationwide.

In the 1950s and 1960s, Omahans had their pick of drive-in movie theaters. Cars with families and cars with teens — some watching the film and others, well, you know — side by side, wired speakers hanging inside a car door.

Clontarf never was incorporated as a village, but functioned like one and wielded political clout larger than its 47 acres. There was a lawless element, too.

‘Mascotte was a big joke but it looked good while it lasted.’ The village had a factory, railroad depot, hotel, general store, school and about 40 cottages. By 1915, it was all gone. 

West Dodge Road has been rebuilt over and over. And along the way, the Old Mill area has lost its mill, its hazardous Dead Man’s Curve and the most beautiful bridge in the county.

stu.pospisil@owh.com

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Reporter – High school sports

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