While listening to the best speech at Beer Bloggers Conference, I was sipping a beer from that company. Specifically, Kim Jordan (co-founder and CEO) of New Belgium Brewing Company was giving the keynote address and I was sipping on Eric’s Ale. A few sips in I was diving into my bag for snacks. Not long after that, I was quietly demanding people sip and snack with me. (I even slipped one nice woman some pecans for later, since she wasn’t legally allowed to taste the beer while working the event.)

This comes about from reading, over on Getting Ready to Go, the packing list Matthew and Molly of Bub Gourmand shared. It’s from having been to beer bloggers con last year and knowing what it’s like (read: full of beer).

It was about being prepared. You know, about being a blogger. And about loving food and beer so very, very much. So!

If you have a smoker, you need some alder chips. If you don’t have a smoker, you need to get one. Either way, you need to chill some Eric’s Ale.

You also need raw pecans. No, not toasted. Raw. I mean this.

Dump the raw pecans in a pie plate or something else that. Don’t put holes in it; some of the fun is that the pecans each have different levels of smokiness. Then smoke them over the alder chips for about an hour.

Let them cool, maybe sit for a few days, maybe not. Then munch on them and sip on your Eric’s Ale. They suggest you listen to “the dulcet guitar work of Buckethead” while sipping this beer. I suggest that such an inspired pairing belongs with some sort of audio input that inspires you deeply. If that’s Buckethead or birdsong or Kim’s keynote speech…

Well, you’ll have no judgment from me. Go forth and be inspired.

A condition of registering as a “citizen blogger” at Beer Bloggers Conference was that I write a minimum of two posts about the conference. I am highly likely to write more than two posts, but this is the second of the required posts. Here’s my first one on ethics and beer and blogging.