All the best ideas end up with beer.
Food bloggers have their own cooking day once a month. Wine bloggers have Wine Blogging Wednesday.
It seems that beer bloggers around the world should have something similar. So let’s start one, an event that will occur on the first Friday of every month. It doesn’t have to have a name (yet) or a logo (like wine), just participants who want to have a little fun and don’t mind learning a little along the way.
Appellation Beer will host the first tasting March 2 (giving us time to get out the word), and the theme will be “Not your father’s Irish stout.”
There aren’t many rules. Simply pour yourself a stout (or stouts) and post on the topic March 2, looking ahead to St. Patrick’s Day or not and writing about any stout that isn’t Guinness, Murphy’s or Beamish (the Irish old guard – good beers but we’re writing about others). Should you worry about style? About getting the opinion of friends, about writing an official tasting note, about food? About the history of the beer or how its made? All optional.
After we do this a couple of months different bloggers will likely find different approaches we are comfortable with.
If you think you might participate please leave a comment or drop me an e-mail. Then invite a friend to participate too. After you post on March 2 send me the URL and I’ll write a wrap up with links to all the posts.
Alan McLeod of A Good Beer Blog will host the April gathering, announcing the theme shortly after March 2. If you have an idea for a monthly tasting, and particularly if you want to volunteer to be a host, send me an e-mail.
Great idea, Stan. I’ll likely participate.
Cool idea, I’m in!
Stan, THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU!!!
I have been hoping that something like this would start. I will definetely participate, and I wouldn’t mind hosting an event as well.
Thanks again.
Tedo
This is a great idea! Can’t wait to participate.
Yep, I’m there. I just blogged about it, too.
How about “Beer Blogging Friday”? (Yeah, I know, real original…) 🙂
Sounds good. I’m in. Now, which stout to taste…?
Count me in! Great idea.
Hey, now that I’ve got a blog…and you’re doing session beers…I’m in!
Great idea…I’m in.
I’ve got to drink some beers anyway for my New Year’s Resolution – so this sounds like a grand idea to me. I’m all ’bout it.
Count me in.
Great idea! However I’d take issue with the assertion that Guinness, Murphy’s and Beamish are good beers…
Sounds like a great idea. You can count on Hop Talk to participate. We’ll even volunteer to host.
Great idea! i was looking for something like this for a while: i think that it also makes sense to announce this event on Is My Blog Burning – i bet many of food bloggers would be happy to participate.
Stan:
Count me in. After all, I Lyke2Drink and this as the best excuse I’ve heard today!
Rick
I’ll bet we can scare up a good stout or two ….Count us in!
My first blog will be! Bells Expedition Stout!
I am very much up for this one! I am so making stout ice cream to eat while blogging about the actual beer.
I don’t really have a beer blog. Just a blog where I write about beer a lot. But I’d still like to participate.
And FYI, in the blogging world, what you’re trying to do is often called a “carnival”.
Matt – We’ll be happy to have you.
I know I’ve sent you an e-mail off line, but I figured I add my participation here, too. I’m in.
For a name, what about:
1. Fermentation Friday
2. First Friday Fermentation
3. Firkin Friday
4. Frickin’ Firkin Friday
5. Frothy Friday
6. Monthly Malty Musings
7. Monthly Mash-In
I am a newbie to beer blogging. My site has been up for about a month now. This sounds like a great idea. I am in.
Sounds like a plan. I’d be glad to participate.
Oh, I am SO in. Just started a beer blog last month, but the few readers that we have will know of your glory. Blogged about the idea today as well. Yeah, pretty timely, I know.
I’m in. Cheers to “friday fermentations”!
Sounds like a plan…now to find a good one I haven’t already had!
I just started a blog for our beer tasting club. I’ll participate.
You might consider entering the pertinent details at http://blogcarnival.com/
Wine Blogging Wednesday is listed in the food category, for instance.
Thanks, Al. I plugged it in.
Sounds great!
[…] Blue Fin Stout has a taste that meets the style with a mouthfeel that doesn’t. The beer was very drinkable although probably not a great example of the style. […]
Here’s my effort – a review of Shoreditch Stout from Pitfield – http://stonch.blogspot.com/2007/03/pitfield-shoreditch-stout.html
Is the current thinking that this will always be a “tasting” type of event? Because I’ve an idea for an edition and it really has nothing to do with tasting.
Al – I don’t think are are any rules.
Other than beer should be involved.
I thought as much. I’ve just noticed that a lot of participating blogs today were defining “The Session” as a monthly beer tasting event.
Here is mine – I reviewed Brooklyn Black Chocolate Stout 2006-07.
http://bostonbeerman.blogspot.com/
Thanks for hosting the event Stan.
This minte, I’m taking part in a national stout tasting. Beer bloggers across the country are tasting a stout of their own choice today (March 2) and posting a link on Stan Hieronymus’s blog site. It’s been quite a day and the choice of stouts is amazing. Check it out here.
By my clock, it’s 11:47 p.m., so it’s still March 2 in the Pacific Time Zone, at least, if not in New Mexico where I’m posting this.
My stout for the tasting is Drake’s Imperial Stout, a dark, lucious, 8.75 percent alcohol by volumene beauty of a stout. It’s brewed in San Leandro, CA. at Drake’s Brewing Co. by head brewer Rodger Davis and his assistant, Melissa Myers.
They’re more famous for their uber-IPA beers like Denogganizer. But they also make a range of dark beers that are quite special.
Drake’s Imperial Stout, which comes in stubby, 17 oz. bottles with a swingtop like a Grolsch bottle, pours an opague brown with a moderate head of rocky tan foam. The aroma’s enticing, a bit like sherry, intense, a tang of alcohol and roast malt and a bit of fruit.
The taste is full and malty, but not overly sweet. It’s balanced by Chinook hops and the finish is drying with quite a bit of heat from the alcohol.
Really, a damn good stout. Eat your heart out Guinness. — William Brand.
Stan,
We’ll do our part! Although we’re more a verbal blog, aka podcast, we are pretty consistent. This past show, number 67, was all about Stouts. We reviewed about six of them including a warmup from Dogfish Head and a homebrewed Kentucky Breakfast Stout.
We have promoted this idea of yours on a couple of shows so far, and will continue to promote you and the other bloggers who participate. There is not enough education about beer and beer styles – we all can learn more and share with others.
Thanks for getting this started and count us in.
Is there a schedule yet?
Dick – The next one is April 6 and Alan will announce the theme any day.
Also, we’re happy to have podcasts, so please e-mail Alan with a link if you participate in April. I’ll get you added to the March roundup.
I agree with tarelki. This event should be announced on IMBB or any of the other meme event sites. I almost completely missed this post and started my own event a month ago.
I would love to be a part!
I would love to get in on this. Is there a schedule or something that I can find out about the next one?