The Beer Babe has announced the topic of The Session #43 (Sept. 3) and “Welcoming The New Kids” challenges bloggers “to seek out a new brewery and think about ways in which they could be welcomed into the existing beer community.” How does their beer compare to the craft beer scene in your area? Are [...]

Derrick Peterman has posted the roundup for The Session #42. Once again, the beer blogosphere provided many unique, memorable personal perspectives, this time, about how beer connects us to places. In many cases, the “special” beers associated with special places where rather ordinary, even substandard, as most posters readily acknowledged. And as I anticipated, “place” [...]

For the 42nd gathering of The Session Derrick Peterman asks we write about “A Special Place, A Special Beer.” Visit his blog for a recap of all the posts. I told this story in Brew Like a Monk. This is the condensed version. Inside the brewery café at the monastery of the Saint Benedictus Abbey [...]

The Wallace Brothers have posted the recap for Session #41: Craft Beer Inpsired by Homebrewing. And Derrick Peterman, who these days is calling his blog “Ramblings of a Beer Runner,” has issued marching orders for #42: “A Special Place, A Special Beer.” I ask that you write about a special place in your life, and [...]

In the words of the immortal Alan McLeod, “Holy Frig – it’s already time for the 41st edition of The Session.” The topic for discussion is “Craft Beers Inspired By Homebrewing,” Lug Wrench Brewing is hosting and it appears a coyote (we don’t have a dog; coyotes live nearby) ate my homework. But I can [...]

Erik Myers has posted the recap for The Session #40: Session Beer, and it seems to have produced a lot more than a few tasting notes. The July Session, #41, provides an opportunity to focus on specific beers. Jeff and Tom Wallace from Lugwrench Brewing ask us to write about “craft beers inspired by homebrewing.” [...]

Have you heard the one about an Englishman, a Belgian and a Czech who walk into a drinking establishment, whereupon the Englishman orders a round of “session” beers? There is no punchline. Instead another question. What do you think the Czech is drinking? The topic for the 40th gathering of The Session is Session Beer. [...]

You do have to live within the Greater London area to apply for this position, but what better reason to move? London’s historic Old Spitalfields Market has announced it’s looking for a candidate to resurrect the ancient role of Ale Taster. Entries are due by May 23. From the website: In medieval times, ordinary citizens [...]

Mario Rubio has recapped The Session #39: Collaboration, and Erik Myers has issued marching orders for #40 on June 4: Session Beer. There are a thousand ways to approach this. What is your definition of a session beer? Is it, as Dr. Lewis suggested at the Craft Brewers Conference this year, “a pint of British [...]

Kelly Ryan spoke with a surprising sense of purpose considering this April evening had just turned into tomorrow in a Chicago hotel room, and lord knows what day it was 8,000 miles away in Auckland, New Zealand, where Epic Thornbridge Stout was still conditioning. “I think it needs more time in the tank,” Ryan told [...]