The Beer Blog Search Engine ( http://www.google.com/coop/cse?cx=014442266660532934150%3Am3fjxw40urk ) has a bit over 200.

The Open Directory Project ( http://www.dmoz.org/Recreation/Food/Drink/Beer/Weblogs/ ) lists over a hundred, and I know there’s at least another hundred waiting to be reviewed.

And I know that there are many more than that. More than enough to support a conference, I’d say.

An intriguing idea for sure.

I LOVE the idea of having a beer get together. I’d do whatever I could to make it. But….

I don’t want anyone to take this the wrong way, but whenever I hear the term “family friendly”, I cringe. My husband and I are both childless by choice, adult brewers. At our brewpub, it is not uncommon to see little children running around at 10 or 11 (or later) at night. On New Years Eve, one woman, in just the epitome of class, put her baby ON THE BAR and kind of left him there for a few. The brewpub tried to be “family friendly”, and it turned into kids screaming and pulling shit down in the beer garden. When they put up signs prohibiting this and asked kids to be out by 9pm, parents threw a fit–and I mean a yelling, screaming, stinking FIT–on the blog, saying that they never get to see their kids otherwise (??), they can’t afford babysitters, etc. It was a mess.

This is not to say that this would happen at a beer get together, but I think the major problem is that the kids get bored. I teach middle school special ed, and I know that kids get bored easily and I can’t blame them for getting bored at a brewpub if there’s nothing for them to do and the parents are off drinking. Many times, I find myself getting into “teacher” mode (and believe me, I really hate being in “teacher” mode at the bar!!) and watching the kids to make sure they don’t crack their heads open.

So, this longwinded post is just to say that I love the “hybrid” idea–adults-only stuff and all ages stuff, but I think that we would need to make sure there is something for the wives (and husbands) and kids to do when the rest of us were at the adults-only events.

Again, I’m not trying to turn this into a childfree vs. parent debate. I’m just thinking ahead….

PS: Before I was a teacher, I practiced law for seven years. I never made more money than I do as a teacher–honest. We are a union state though, so the money is pretty good.

How about making these regional? More than one location?

Portland’s a great choice, but it’s expensive to get to. Denver’s a good choice, but they have GABF. Chicago isn’t a bad idea, but it’s expensive. San Diego maybe? Milwaukee? Detroit? Philly? The National Brewery Museum?

Madison, WI anyone? Bah. Didn’t think so.

I hope this discussion continues (maybe Monday, when more people are around).

Jonathan is right, Alan is right. There are a lot of way this could work, shake out. It’s worth looking at the way the Wine Bloggers event is structured while realizing a beer event would be much different. And better, of course.

So if you have ideas please comment here. Or write a whole blog post of your own. Alan has. Just leave the URL as a comment.