– Localism + Beer.
Read it all for the complete thought. If you need more encouraging, consider this this snippet: “. . . beer is less a destination than a journey, and you make the road signs yourself.”
– Foaming at the mouth about craft beer.
This vitriol against this rant jammed my Twitter feed Saturday a.m. Perhaps I’m just paranoid, but my first thought was, “Do my friends think I sound like the people he is describing?”
– Beer geeks, let the guessing begin.
Greg Kitsock muses on the spices in Anchor Our Special Ale (Washington Post)
– Oskar Blues’ Dale Katechis talks about beer and brewing in North Carolina.
– The resurrection of Baderbräu, “Chicago first craft beer.”
Raising a few questions, like a) What was Chicago’s first “craft” beer? and b) Isn’t a little early to get nostalgic about beers first brewed in the 1980s?
I dunno if it was Chicago’s first “craft beer,” but i’ve been nostalgic for Baderbrau for some time — even as i know full well I have little to no memory of what it tastes like. I just know i enjoyed it immensely.
I think i would have pulled a different snippet from the rambling collection of thoughts that was “Localism +Beer” — probably it would have been “The author reserves the right to change his mind. Frequently.”
I’m pretty sure I can remember the flavor of the original Baderbrau, or at least be able to remember if the new incarnation is the same or similar.
As I recall, the original was very similar to Boston Lager with a slightly spicier hop character.
What an odd but familiar set of ideas in that cocktail blogging post. I recall the experience of thinking I was writing something important but that was the old political blogging me, the me that actually got offers with cheques attached for the right to have me blog at the paying news service. That ended when the reality of the content quality became apparent, that the two arguing voices were more argue and less voice. You would have to tell me if I am wrong but one thing I have never encountered is the idea that “[m]uch of the low hanging fruit has been plucked off the blogging tree and to retain a readership one must constantly raise the bar.” Maybe its because there is more cultural and historical content to explore but I have never felt beer blogging as a genre has gotten tired.
PS: I would love for some retro malt focused craft beers to make a come back.
I think you do find a lot of repetition of “already covered” topics on blogs – whether it is somebody discovering Sierra Nevada’s green practices, or the debate about the definition of “craft” beer, or (heaven forbid) the future of beer blogging – because they are new to somebody.
But I totally agree that there appear to be an endless number of topics to explore.
That is true but I find these re-visitations often add a new layer and are not solely derivative… well, maybe except for the definition of “craft” as it’s a hollow shell of an idea to begin with.
Presses delete on his post about definition of “craft” beer.
That cocktail post was interesting and similar to how I feel about my blogging. My blog was more review then anything else and after a few years became tiresome writing about pine and grapefruit flavors. I still do the occasional post but other things have come into my life that r significantly more enjoyable then writing beer reviews. Having written that I believe there is still much to mine with beer blogging and Alan shows that (you too Stan but you are a published author so not sure to include you as a blogger :-).