the session

Jon Abernathy has posted the roundup for The Session #54: Sour Beer.

I must confess I was absent. (I only managed a post for #IPADay because I wrote it before hitting the road.)

But I enjoyed the roundup and plan to further investigate the links when I’m back on U.S. soil. Meanwhile I will be considering if you really can drink any beer, even one that is less than 3.5% abv, “all day by the pool without over indulging.” This evening, wandering round this lovely town of Wolnzach, I discovered that some people in Bavaria have swimming pools in their backyards. Something you don’t think about. But I didn’t spot any Berliner weisse, even though there’s a biergartedn about every three blocks.

Jon Abernathy has announced the topic for The Session #54: Sour Beer.

A little hard to believe that this many rounds into The Session that the theme of the month has not focused specifically on sour beers, isn’t it?

I’ll leave the implementation up to you, but here are some suggestions: seek out and review a sour beer of some kind; write about your experiences with brewing a sour beer; talk about your first sour beer experience; who’s brewing the better sours—Belgians or Americans (or somebody else)?; perhaps a contrary approach—what you don’t like about sour beers. Or if you have the perfect sour beer idea you want to write about, I can’t wait to read it!

It could be a busy couple of days for those planning to participate in #IPADay on Aug. 4 and The Session on Aug. 5. (Please don’t anybody even whisper the words Sour IPA.)

Both are open to anybody who wants to write on the topic, and for those who don’t have a blog Jon will post what you want to write about sour beers. Scroll to the bottom of his post for details.

John Holl has posted the roundup for The Session #53: Beer Redemption. Head over and hit a few links, because one idea behind starting The Session in 2007 was to see what those of us who already knew each other might have to say about the same topic.

Another was to make sure we listened for new voices. Now there are something like 982,434 982,437 “citizen beer bloggers” out there (and just think if we gave the illegal beer immigrants a vote). And it’s still good to go look at blogs you might not every day.

The fact is I subscribe the Beer PHXation rss feed, but I missed this because when we got back from a few days of camping I marked all the latest feeds as read (shame on me). I’m glad the roundup put Ron’s closing paragraphs back on my radar:

The American craft beer community is small, in Phoenix it is smaller still. If you are a Beer Evangelist, then you have to believe in Beer Redemption. I’m of the mind that you need to work with everyone in that community if they are attentive to the quality of the beer and beer culture. Redemption requires two parties and there is no fixed timetable. The sign reads that Old World has closed its Taproom for the summer and is, “concentrating it’s efforts on brewing more beer and growing draft and retail accounts.” I’d much rather that they focus on surviving and growing than half-assing it, so their redemption with me is a work in progress.

The sign’s comic sans serif font. That’s going to take awhile to forgive.

And you really want to read Craig’s 12-Steps to Beer Snob Redemption.

I’m pretty sure host John Holl did not have what follows in mind when he ask us to write about “Beer Redemption” for the 53rd gathering of The Session. But sometimes the hyperlinks in my brain get crossed. I went from thinking about how a beer might redeem itself (not making a connection) to how giving somebody a beer might be an act of redemption to what a joy it can be to put a refreshing beer in somebody’s hand.

Connection made. I thought of “The Shawshank Redemption.” Not because redemption is in the title, but because of the grin on Andy Dufresne’s face in the scene above, and the joy on his friends’ faces, as they drink “Bohemian-style beer” on the freshly tarred roof.

Red provides the commentary: “We sat and drank with the sun on our shoulders and felt like free men.”

It’s then that we see Andy enjoying the moment, even though he’s not drinking himself.

Back to Red: “You could argue he’d done it to curry favor with the guards. Or, maybe make a few friends among us cons. Me, I think he did it just to feel normal again, if only for a short while.”

******

My apologies for wandering of course this month. You’ll find more focused takes on the topic in The Session roundup at John Holl’s Beer Briefing.

John Holl has announced the topic for The Session #53: Beer Redemption.

No, he not suggesting everybody track down a bottle of Russian River Brewing’s Redemption.

Holl explains by offering a story about why refused to drink beer from Smuttynose Brewing for nine years, and ultimately how silly that decision was. It his story of redemption and he’d like participants to tell their own July 1.