The Session #39 announced: Collaborations

The SessionMario Rubio has announced the topic for The Session #39. Collaborations. That simple. But not necessarily that simple.

Feel free to have fun with the topic. Drink a collaborative beer. Who’s brewed some of your favorite collaborations? Who have been some of your favorite collaborators? Who would you like to see in a future collaboration?

As the topic is collaborations, working with each other is encouraged. Look forward to seeing what everyone comes up with.

A collaborative post about collaborations?

An interesting idea.

5April2010: Beer linkorama

Love this lead from the Indianapolis Star: “The rinsed aluminum cans met their destiny on a vibrating gravity slide, where they took a hit of carbon dioxide, got filled with foaming pale ale five at a time, then were sealed with a pop top.”

Sun King in Indianapolis began canning beer last week. Just a few days more than a year after used fermentation tanks were still on their sides and construction workers were putting in drain trenches. That’s when I took the picture at the top. We were there because, here comes the disclaimer, my cousin, Clay, is one of the founders, with the help of my aunt and uncle, Judi and Omar Robinson. So am [insert your favorite obsencity]-ing excited.

  • I already pointed to the long version, but now Martyn Cornell offers the “the executive summary on what we know, what we don’t know, what we can justifiably assume and what we can’t assume about the history of India Pale Ale.” Read it, memorize it, and if anybody ever asks you about the history of IPA, suggests you write a neck label or a description for a beer menu or, heaven forbid a book (yes, Mitch, I’m looking at you) . . . don’t screw it up.
  • Porter’s last hurrah. More history to examine before you type something stupid.
  • Why is it necessary to find a definition of craft beer, and what might that definition be? Yes it feels that we’ve already talked that to death. But this time the questions are asked outside the Brewers Association guidelines because they are delivered with an Italian accent.
  • The Malt Manifesto, intended to help “real ale to appeal to a broader range of people.” Alan McLeod seems to approve, but Pete Brown might be skeptical about the “Guardian’s latest attempt at beer coverage.”
  • Why beer doesn’t matter. Of course it does, or there wouldn’t be 29 comments.
  • The Oregon Economics Blog examines beer often enough I have it filed under “beer” in my reader. Patrick Emerson gets to several key issues in a visit to Upright Brewing, including price. I think he’s wrong that “many” other places wouldn’t support Upright like Portland and Oregon do, but give it a read and think about time as ingredient in beer. And how it adds to the cost of every glass.
  • Sam Adams as the little guy.
  • Nick Matt explains whey the fire at F.X. Matt turned out to be a good thing.
  • It’s not beer (although DUI is mentioned) but we live in the land of “Breaking Bad” — awaiting the episode shot in the bar down the road — so just for fun Better Call Saul.

    • More beer links, but first I digress

    beer Log LogoIt doesn’t take much to encourage me, so a couple of comments following last week’s list of links means a linkorama this week. However, when I started this post I took a quick detour so the buncholinks will have to wait until tomorrow or the next day.

    This is where I started, with this absolutely brilliant sentence from Alan McLeod: “I hate running myself due mainly in its distinction from sitting on a sofa.” I read a lot, beer stuff, wine stuff, tech stuff, political stuff, journalist stuff, music stuff, popular culture . . . and this was my favorite sentence of the week. Just because.

    The day before, Alan celebrated his 2,000th post. At the rate Jay Brooks is going he’ll surely pass him soon, or perhaps already has. But Alan has been at it since 2003, although the Good Beer Blog posts begin in 2004, which is the noteworthy part.

    That got me looking around. I started this blog late in 2005 after I’d used WordPress for a while on our (not currently updated) Beer Travelers blog and on the Real Beer blog. When we began using WordPress at Real Beer we had to leave behind four-plus years of archives generated by entirely different blogging software. OK, we didn’t exactly have to – but looking over several hundred posts it was shocking how many links out had died and it seemed better to let them rest.

    I’ve still got all the posts in an archive, so as an excuse to re-use one of several rotating illustrations (at the top) here’s the first post (and the links still work):

    Monday, March 19, 2001

    Drinking poses: Do you grasp your pint glass like a weapon or do you stare intently into a pint? A new study identifies six basic drinking poses and what they reveal about the drinkers.

    Microbrews, microprofits: The Seattle Times takes a look at “an industry crowded with too much product and way too many companies.” It’s a reminder about how competitive the beer business remains.

    Gary McGrath of Pyramid sums it up nicely: “There’s certainly still some romance in brewing craft beers. We continue to have some very passionate brewers, but we needed a balance. To survive, you’ve got to care about both – the beer and the business.”

    Gee, didn’t this same topic just come up?

    Craft beer sales increased 1.7 percent in 2001. Business is much stronger these days. And there are a lot more beer blogs. Which is the cause? Which the effect?

    The Session #38: 1 beer or 1001?

    The SessionWere Mr. Sixpack (otherwise known as Don Russell) to participate today in our monthly session then he might quote liberally from his entry in 1001 Beers You Must Taste Before You Die Three Floyds Dark Lord Russian Imperial Stout.

    “The Dark Lord exists mainly by reputation. His power is rumored, his character praised with cultlike obsession, yet he is rarely seen. Until, that is, Dark Lord Day, a holiday ritual for the devoted who flock from around the world to Three Floyds Brewing in Munster, Indiana, for his annual appearance.”

    I don’t have such a description or such a beer to offer for this session, for which you’ll recall, Sean Inman provides these guidelines:

    What beer have you tasted recently (say, the last six months or so) that is worthy of their own day in the media sun?

    And to add a little extra to it, how does “great” expectations affect your beer drinking enjoyment?

    AND If you have attended one of these release parties, stories and anecdotes of your experience will be welcomed too.

    I’m not opposed to standing in line, literally as well a figuratively. On the first day of March I spent four straight hours calling a number in Colorado with hopes of getting through to book two nights in Jersey Jim, a former Forest Service lookout tower can you rent, and then I did the same the next day. Some years we get lucky and some years (like this) we don’t. I can drive to Mancos (where reservations are taken) in four hours and probably would if they accepted in-person applications.

    Anyway, back to The Session. I’ve had a beer or two in the last six months as worthy as Dark Lord, but I wouldn’t exert as much effort to acquire any of them as I would for another night in Jersey Jim. Still one of these years I might try to make it to Dark Lord Day for the experience.

    I promise to write about it.

    (Head on over to Beer Search Party for more Session entries.)

    What would you ask a hop queen?

    Mona EuringerNo, seriously.

    Next week judges stream into Chicago to taste their way through 3,500 or so entrants in the World Beer Cup and soon they will be joined by thousands of brewing industry members for the Craft Brewers Conference.

    I expect only the toughest will make it up Saturday morning for “Brewing Belgian White and Wit Beers,” the panel I’ll be moderating. Fortunately there will be many more exciting moments. First up, Wednesday afternoon is a chance to meet the Hallertau hop queen, Mona Euringer. She’ll be in Chicago along with members of the German Hop Growers Association.

    She’ll give a brief talk about life on a hop farm and also be around for the trade show Thursday and Friday. Last year the hop growers caught some grief when it was suggested Nicol Frankl, the previous hop queen, was invited along only because she has a pretty face.

    Not true. “To be elected hop queen, you have to have grown up and helped work on a hop farm all of your life, you have to know hops, hop farming, and all the machinery involved,” said Eric Toft, brewmaster at Private Landbrauerei Schönram, who doubles as a representative of the hop growers.

    I promise to find out just how much she knows. So if you have a question you want asked please leave it as a comment. As long as it’s not rude I’ll ask her.

    The hop growers will also be serving a variety of beers. Toft wrote the recipes and Victory Brewing in Pennsylvania made the beers. They will include three different Belgian-style pale ales — each brewed with a single German aroma hop varieties: Hallertauer Mittelfruh, Smaragd, Hersbrucker — a new Bavarian-style pale ale, and a tripel hopped with Saphir.

    I promise to ask questions first and drink beers later.