We are always big supporters of local entrepreneurs as we understand the struggles, love creative types, and believe in investing in our neighbors’ success. Our CTO Scott has been a part of San Diego Inventors Forum for years, and the rest of us are constantly coordinating with small businesses in S.D. to help promotion, business development and more.

One of my good friends, Alexis McCollom, has recently launched Equus Athletics. Equus Athletics is an innovative new equine sports equipment company that, as she puts it, “strives to advance equestrian athletics for horse and rider through innovative sporting technology for all disciplines and skill levels.” Having done some competitive research, its clear to me that she’s bringing a unique image and positioning to the equestrian market. Many of the sites out there are still very old school, while Equus is bringing a sleeker, more sophisticated level of branding that reminds me of lululemon and Nike.

Equus Athletics’ flagship product is EquiStix, a cost-effective manual equine massage device. At $74.50, it’s easily the most affordable horse massage equipment on the market, the other devices costing $100’s or $1000’s of dollars. And having witnessed an EquiStix in action, it’s a quick, safe, and easy way to provide daily massage therapy to your horse. It doesn’t require a power source so it can be used anytime, anywhere. Here’s a video explaining EquiStix better than I possibly can:

EquiStix Horse Massager

Alexis explains how she got her motivation to design and manufacture the EquiStix:

“I designed EquiStix after some frustration about how to prevent the chronic stiffness my mare developed in her shoulder.  I wanted a way to give her relief, as well as get more consistent performance from her.  Professional services certainly helped, but I just couldn’t provide them frequently enough to manage the issue. As an active athlete and sports enthusiast myself, I already knew how much better my own body performed and recovered when I practiced deep tissue self-massage before and after workouts.  The same goes for our horses.”

It makes sense that a large muscular being who’s performing at such a high level deserves some quality massage action. At least that’s what I tell my girlfriend! (rimshot!) Oh boy, am I hilarious… where was I? Oh yeah, so the 40Cozy crew wants to give a shout out to Alexis and let her know we’re proud of her as a fellow San Diego inventor and entrepreneur. Congrats on getting your first product to market, on the booming sales, and a prosperous 2012!

There are many ways to conceal your public drinking, since you’re searching for this I assume you know most of them. The technique below is a new one for me, the most seasoned of public drinkers. Usually, I’ll just fill it with a mixed drink or just pour the beer in. The nice part about this technique is the ice that keeps your beer cold during the sweltering summer heat.

I have to disagree with Heineken as it’s pisswater, but for the purposes of this image it serves its purpose. Enjoy!

I attended an amazing, private event with the team of Vineagogo, San Diego’s hottest new wine event company. With over forty craft ales, we had our hands full! The mission for the night was to provide tasting notes for Josh Orr, Vineagogo’s Wine Director and Advanced Sommelier.

Vineagogo is soon to open a swanky lounge/restaurant in the Marina District of Downtown San Diego, and Josh is working hard to develop an impressive beer list for their opening in October. Of course they gave us a call, the 40cozy boys being such prominent S.D. beer drinkers!

The Lineup

◄ Back

Next ►

Picture 1 of 6

Josh’s goal is to split the beer list in thirds: 1/3 California ales, 1/3 domestic craft ales, and 1/3 international ales. Some of the breweries represented in our tasting were Mission, Stone, AleSmith, The Bruery, Green Flash, Bear Republic, Lost Coast, Flying Dog, Avery, Unibroue, Chimay, Franziskaner, Harviestoun, and Hitachino.

Unibroue Trois Pistoles – A Belgian Strong Dark Ale with 9% ABV, this is one of my favorites of the night. Unibroue is a very solid brewery from Quebec, Canada using brewing methods inspired by the Trappist monks in Belgium.

India Pale Ales – San Diego is a hop-heavy city, so of course we had to focus much of our time finding the best hoppy ales for the beer list. This was just the first beer tasting, so there’s sure to be many more opportunities to ID the ideal IPA. Mission, an S.D. brewery, has an IPA and Shipwreck Double IPA, both of which got mixed reviews. AleSmith’s X was a crowd pleaser, though I slightly preferred their IPA. Stone’s Ruination was the favorite, getting solid reviews from all participants.

Hitachino Nest Beer – A brand of the Japanese brewery Kiuchi creating English-style ales, this was a pleasant surprise for our tastebuds. The novelty of an English ale from the East was a big draw for me, and I think they’ll be big sellers. We want a legit beer list for the lounge, though ultimately we need the beers to sell, so novelty is important. I prefer the White Ale to their Real Ginger Brew, though both are tasty.

Vineagogo is a great S.D. wine company and we had a blast. Tasting 40 different beers is a daunting task, but it was made much easier with some tasty homemade tacos and peanut butter cookies!

Vineagogo provides San Diego County beer and wine catering services, home wine delivery, an online wine store, private wine tasting party services, and a monthly wine club. Visit them at Vineagogo.com for more information.

I think this girl might have a lot more drinking to do!

Typically this blog is focused on beer news but I wanted to post sharing a cool new San Diego wine company some old friends and business colleagues started, because good times and great libations are our focus here!

Vineagogo provides the San Diego metro area with private wine tasting event services and home wine delivery.

Vineagogo's wine delivery truck, "Merlot"

Their concept is to bring the wine tasting experience into your home, with delicious wines hand-selected by their wine director and expert sommelier, Josh Orr. You can plan a private party at your San Diego business or home, select your favorite wine types or regions, and they’ll show up and take you on a wine tasting trip without having to get in the car. Speaking of cars, the ride they’ll pull up to your house in is a retrofitted Divco milk truck, recently converted into a tricked-out wine delivery mobile!

They also have a monthly wine club and online wine store where you can order a variety of delicious bottles from everyday wines (under $30) to high-end special occasion wines (over $60). They specialize in rarer wines that other sites and wine of the month clubs don’t. They ship nationally and will deliver local orders over $150 with their truck, Merlot.

So if you are looking to throw a San Diego wine tasting event or have a few bottles delivered in style, check out Vineagogo.com. I’ve attended two events and can tell you they are great!

We here at 40cozy are big proponents of enjoying the drink instead of just using it as a means to get drunk. Though, sometimes, you just want to unleash the beast and have a wild night. And with the way the economy is these days, there’s a lot of people looking to forget their worries by throwing a few back with friends. But that can be expensive, sooo….here is the perfect tool for all you penny-pinchers out there.

The website www.getdrunknotbroke.com has a glorious list of alcoholic-beverage brands that deliver the cheapest bang for your buck. All the drinks are listed with alcohol by volume, ounces needed to drink to get 3 ounces of pure alcohol, and the price per 3 ounces of pure alcohol. So, basically, what is the cheapest way to get drunk?

Here are the top 10 cheapest ways to get drunk not broke:

Now I don’t see Night Train on the list, but I very much appreciate them putting this chart together to help all us broke, booze-lovin’ bums. To learn more about street wines, visit bumwines.com.

And if you’re looking to get your drink on and avoid the beer belly, visit their other site www.getdrunknotfat.com!

With all the hullabaloo regarding the banning of caffeinated alcohol drinks by three states and now the FDA, there’s been a blow up of response online. We here at 40cozy believe in increasing the level of responsibility we all should take in our own actions instead of blaming inanimate objects for our poor decisions. We are all for maintaining personal liberties and reducing the b.s. nanny state nonsense.

You want to drink paint and go basejumping? As long as you aren’t hurting anyone else or creating a public danger/nuisance, go for it! And post the footage to Youtube please!

Below are some funny/interesting 4Loko related links for you all to enjoy:

The 24 hour 4Loko diet – This 34 yr old retired party boy challenges himself to drink 6 4Lokos in 24 hours without any other drink or food. He video records his progress. I’m sure you all can predict how this ends, but check it out anyways for a giggle.

FreeLoko.com – Join the cause fighting The Man’s oppression. “This war of aggression will not be met with silence.”

A Eulogy for Four Loko by EvilChili

Five Reasons to Like Four Loko by TheSmokingJacket

The Four Lokator – Where is Four Loko Banned? by Sloshspot

How to make your own Four Loko:

This is a very excellent visualization mapping out all the wonderful types of beer styles, branching out to the brand names that epitomize that style. Click the image to view it in its original, glorious bigness.

Whenever I go to the drugstore, I beeline to the vodka and newspaper isle. Nothing pairs as well as my favorite periodical and a vodka soda!

I think we can mostly all agree that Inception was a great film. Great special effects, mind-blowing plot, solid cast – the whole shebang. Enjoy this well-done and funny spoof video detailing the leading experts on ‘insobriety.’

As the creators described it:

“‘Inebriation’ is a mock trailer created by Atomic Productions parodying the concept of Inception, in a dangerous and unstable world of shared drinking and drunk within drunk.”