Category Archives: Beer!

‘Tis the Seasonal Beer!

Hi everyone! So, I sent out a call for guest posts for NaNo, and then got so sucked into life that I failed to get them up. They’re really good, so I was not going to miss sharing with you all, even if November is over. I’m starting here, with my friend Russ Chibe’s thoughts on seasonal beers and what places a specific beer within a specific season. Russ is a member of HOPS! homebrew club, a lawyer who does both products liability litigation and brewery consulting, and writes about beer for the Chicago Daily Law Bulletin and over at his personal blog, Chibebräu.

Will 2014 be known as the year that we hit peak pumpkin? I suppose you can’t truly identify a peak until it’s passed, but I will note that this year even I brewed a pumpkin beer, and I can count the number of pumpkin beers I like on two fingers.… Continue reading →

Alan McCormick of Growler Fills on BBC14

Back when I first posted various bloggers’ thoughts on the 2014 Beer Bloggers’ Conference, I mentioned that three folks had answered a bit more thoroughly than the rest, and I would share them later. As I tackle NaNoWriMo, the time is now. The first set of answers is from Alan McCormick of Growler Fills. Alan moderated this year’s “Ethics in Beer Blogging” panel, and then spent a fabulous lunch with me discussing ethics in beer. Thus, he was absolutely on my list of folks I was curious about. When I got his response to my email, the opening paragraph let me know I had some useful information to share.

Enjoy!

Alan McCormick: In my answer to the first question I took the liberty to explain the answer to a question you did not ask.… Continue reading →

Great American Beer Fest Part I: On Being First Timer and On Beer

Walking into Great American Beer Fest (GABF) for the first time, the first thing I truly noticed was the din. The sound differential between the room where I had my wristband checked one last time and the room containing all the beer was substantial, and I found that reasonably surprising because there were so many people on both sides, and the doors were open between them. Just goes to show how well even small barriers work as sound dampening.

I arrived later than expected; the start time on my Friday ticket was 5:30 pm, but I was delayed until about 7:00pm. There was still a line to get in at that point, but the lines I experienced later were far more intense.

For example, the Saturday morning line involved several people holding signs like this one, announcing where the end of the line was.… Continue reading →

Accidental Cider Share

Bill and I have been traveling a bunch recently. When we travel, we tend to rent places from Air BnB. I’ve mentioned this before, but it’s worth reiterating. It is, at this point, rare that we stay in a hotel.

It’s not just the fact that we can make our own coffee, make our own breakfast, and almost always bigger than a hotel room for the money. It’s that the space we get is more usable, overall. When we stay in hotels, we spend most of our time visiting with friends in coffee shops, breweries, or restaurants.

But when we stay in places we find on AirBnB, we have many more options. Like visiting a nice local bottle shop, and deciding to buy several ciders (and one beer!),… Continue reading →

Thinking about Beer Blogging

As I mentioned a couple posts back, I recently attended a conference for beer bloggers (aptly, if uninspiringly, named “Beer Bloggers Conference”). It was my first time attending, and not long after, I was trying to assess if I wanted to go back, and if it’d been what I’d expected.

I have still not figured it out, but I realized that the answers to four questions might have been useful back when I was trying to decide to attend in the first place or not. So, I emailed thirteen other bloggers and asked those questions after this year’s con. Ten folks’ answers are fairly short, so I’ve included all of those in this post. For the three bloggers who answered one or more questions with greater depth there will be a post each in November (while I work on NaNoWriMo again).… Continue reading →