I had a dream last night: a local microbrewery prepared a Maibock, and labeled the bottles “Not to be Opened until 1 May 2006.”

They sold the beer months in advance, however, so that people could have the beer sitting around, waiting for it to mature, like wine, and build that anticipation.

Furthermore, the 750ml glass beer bottles were enclosed in a larger glass cylinder, which was full of water. The stated reason was to provide better “climate control” for the beer, by dampening temperature changes.

While in the waking world I can’t imagine that the small volume of additional water would have a substantial effect, it would be a neat marketing gimmick.