Today’s DIY generation can be a fickle mistress when it comes to making connections with mainstream brands. This is a demographic, after all, that would much prefer to invent, craft and create their own products and experiences than subscribe to popular culture. So rather than fight the tide and push its product on this growing demographic, beer-maker Pilsner Urquell this summer decided to set the stage for an event where amateur and home brewers could compete to make their own unique take on a Czech-style pilsner and vie for the title of Master Home Brewer.

For the months of October and November, the folks at Chivas, a division of Pernod Ricard beverages, are deploying six 1801 Clubs in two phases to treat its new band of brothers like the high-class gentlemen they are. The brand launched the Chivas Brotherhood this year to entice men of the affluent, stylish, young-ish and cool demographic to try the premium blended Scotch whisky in its 12-, 18- or (if they’re really savvy), 25-year varieties.

It’s a global phenomenon that just won’t stop.

The booming video game industry continues to grow as the world’s gaming leaders keep releasing new titles that are as addictive as they are immersive, as participatory as they are sophisticated—and as tethered to online community gameplay as they are to individual living rooms and basements.

New York only passed the same-sex marriage law this July, but the LGBT community has been fraternizing on the state’s Fire Island since the 1960s. For the uninitiated, the island is divided into several sections, two of them mostly frequented by the LGBT community—the Pines primarily by gay men and Cherry Grove by lesbians. The Pines also boasts having the most expensive real estate on Fire Island with about 700 houses in one square mile. The thousands of vacationers that flock to the area—most on timeshares—live and work in Manhattan.

 At the Food Network New York City Wine & Food Festival’s Grand Tasting at Chelsea Piers (Sept. 30-Oct. 2), Ravenswood wine’s Sonoma County-inspired booth stood out among the rows of wine tasting tables. It harked back to the brand’s tasting room in the Mayacamas Mountains with rugged wood panels and wrought iron elements, including an old army cot turned photo installation. Consumers were prompted to have their photo taken by staffers dressed all in black with dangling raven-inspired feather earrings.