‘Tis the season for the Yuletide Photo Contest

Sunset in Bavaria

Alan McLeod begins taking entries today for the 2011 Yuletide (or Xmas) Photo Contest. I’m not sure I have a photo worth entering this year. But perhaps it will snow between now and the deadline, in which case I’ll round up some guys with faces full of character, we’ll set up pub chairs and a table out in the elements and I’ll snap the grand prize shot.

Looking through my archives I find plenty of pictures of hops, growing in the field, up close, drying in kilns, mostly green. The best would be the view in Tettnang you can download to use a wallpaper on your computer screen.

The photo at the top had potential. It was taken on a Saturday evening in small-town town festival in the south of Bavaria. I like the sun shining through the half-liter glass, but the beer photo would have shown families sitting around tables, enjoying fresh pretzels and plates full of chicken. The beer is Schonrämer Hell from Private Landbrauere Schonräm. Last week it won gold in the European Beer Star awards. That’s why I was more focused on getting to my beer than framing another photo.

Six beery years ago . . .

The archives indicate that on Nov. 17, 2005 I posted this:

Does it matter where beer is brewed?

Yes. At least that’s one of the premises behind Appellation Beer. Some of the others:

– It matters what the ingredients are and where they come from.

– Wines and cheeses aren’t the only products that can claim terroir.

– Beer should be considered in context. That context might be the food it’s served with. That context might be where the beer is enjoyed and the company it is shared with.

Basically a link to the “About” (or “Mission”) page. There were no comments.

There seem to be seven posts in December, and one comment (a grammatical note from Stephen Beaumont). Three posts in January, seven in February.

I might have had more common sense when I was younger.

If you want to hear Lew Bryson laugh . . .

First the disclaimer. Lew Bryson is a friend. He didn’t send out a press release or otherwise suggest a blog post about “American Beer Blogger.” I post it here because next time I mention Lew’s laugh you’ll know what I’m talking about. Plus I have an observation.


The KickStarter information is here and Lew’s explanation is here.

I promise you that this is going to be the real thing, not infomercial, or silly-scripted, or “oh, look who I just happened upon today!” It’s going to be me, calling a brewer, or bar owner, or beer store owner/manager, and setting up a visit — just like I do all the time — going to their place and looking around and asking questions and tasting some beers and having some fun — like I always do. The only thing I may do differently is some of the stuff they had me doing in the teaser: actually working, if only for a little bit, because that’s fun, and it’s something I’d like to do anyway. But we’ll talk beer, we’ll get our facts straight, and it won’t be boring.

I’m pretty sure it will be more interesting than following me around.

The observation. Interesting that Green Leaf chose to call this “American Beer Blogger.” Does this mean being a beer blogger is cool?

Sesson #58 announced: A Christmas Carol

The SessionHost Phil Hardy at Beersay has chosen a timely topic for The Session #58: A Christmas Carol.

The idea for me was based loosely around the visits of three ghosts to Ebenezer Scrooge, but relayed in a post about the beers of Christmas past, present and future.

What did you drink during Christmas holidays of old, have you plans for anything exciting this year and is there something you’d really like to do one day, perhaps when the kids have flown the nest?

Do you have your own interpretation, was Scrooge perhaps a beer geek?

Or maybe it’s all one day. What will you drink Christmas morning, Christmas afternoon and what will you top off the holiday with that evening?

Just a few examples there, but the idea was to keep the topic as open as possible to allow you free rein to write about a subject with a seasonal twist in whatever way the title grabs you.

As the headline on the announcement post suggests, it’s a “Dickens of a topic.”

One sign of a craft brewery

Last week Boak & Bailey offered a list of Ten signs of a craft brewery, interesting in itself and also because of the comments that followed. It got me thinking that “craft beer” can be one of those “you know it when you see it” things. Which is why a snapped this photo Saturday.

2nd Sift Brewing taps - sign of a craft brewery

I don’t know if this is a one-time feature or there will be more.

The makeshift tap markers belong to 2nd Shift Brewing in New Haven, about an hour west of St. Louis. They were pouring beer at the STL Hops 4th Anniversary Party, held at Perennial Artisan Ales.