See you when the summer’s through*

Remember “Where in the beer world?” Time to play again. The answer will be posted in this month’s Hop Queries. Consider that a hint.

Almost every link I saved during the past week to post here you will find at a Good Beer Blog or from Boak & Bailey. That gives me an excuse to jump the gun on my plan to put That Was The Beer Week That Was (TWTBWTW) on pause beginning Memorial Day and instead start now. Monday transmissions may resume the Monday after Labor Day.

But please drop by once in a while so see if there are random posts. Here is an example.

Two stories from last week:

A) Goose Island Brewing put a million dollars worth of NFTs (non-fungible tokens) up for sale. Read it in the Chicago Tribune if you know the way around its paywall, or at Eater.

B) NFTs and building a community around a beer brand.

Now highlights from a story from the New York Post two-plus years ago about Brooklyn hops hipsters, an average-looking guy from the Midwest and White Claw:

Chaos erupted outside [Other Half Brewing in Brooklyn] when an apparently annoyed craft-beer hater pulled a gun on a long line of people who were waiting to buy the latest designer IPA, according to cops and online reports.

The gun-slinging skeptic struck around the corner from the brewery, where beer lovers with camp chairs and hand trucks regularly line up overnight to buy limited-run, $18 four-packs in collectible cans, sold when the doors open Saturday mornings.

It was at around 9 p.m. when the gunman and a woman he was with allegedly confronted the long line of hops hipsters.

The pair began mocking the beer-lovers for standing online overnight for the release of 10 beers, with names like Bourbon Barrel Aged Bananaversary Imperial Stout, and All 6th Anniversary Everything Chocolate Peanut Butter Crunchee Imperial Stout.

Later . . .

[The man] began drinking a can of White Claw hard seltzer — which may have been just another taunt — and “just talking a bunch of s–t,” one witness said.

“He looked average, honestly. He just looked like a regular white guy with a beard,” another witness said, guessing his age was around 30, and that he was from somewhere in the Midwest.

Although he did eventually show up with a gun, no shots were fired and eventually police showed up to take him away.

As you know, just a bit has happened since February 2020. A lot of attention has been paid to making the “craft” beer “community” more welcoming. Is that community more inclusive? Some places. It is more exclusive? Some places.

Is that progress?

OH, YEAH. AND THIS

When I wrote my Broad Spectrum of Joy philosophy for Modern British Beer I posed that all beer is valid. But I've come to the conclusion that BrewDog beer cannot possibly exist upon it. There is no joy to be taken from beer that has caused so many people such misery.

— Matthew Curtis (@totalcurtis) May 12, 2022

*This week’s headline is a nod to the song “See You in September. It was written by Sid Wayne and Sherman Edwards. It was first recorded by the Pittsburgh vocal group The Tempos. This first version peaked at #23 in the summer of 1959. The most popular take on “See You In September” was by The Happenings in 1966, which reached #3.

I’ll be alone each and every night
While you’re away, don’t forget to write

Bye-bye, so long, farewell
Bye-bye, so long

See you in September
See you when the summer’s through
Here we are (bye, baby, goodbye)
Saying goodbye at the station (bye, baby, goodbye)
Summer vacation (bye, baby bye, baby)
Is taking you away (bye, baby, goodbye)

Have a good time but remember
There is danger in the summer moon above
Will I see you in September
Or lose you to a summer love
(Counting the days ’till I’ll be with you)
(Counting the hours and the minutes, too)

Bye, baby, goodbye
Bye, baby, goodbye
Bye, baby, goodbye (bye-bye, so long, farewell)
Bye, baby, goodbye (bye-bye, so long)

Have a good time but remember
There is danger in the summer moon above
Will I see you in September
Or lose you to a summer love
(I’ll be alone each and every night)
(While you’re away, don’t forget to write)

See you (bye-bye, so long, farewell)
In September (bye-bye, so long, farewell)
I’m hopin’ I’ll
See you (bye-bye, so long, farewell)
In September (bye-bye, so long, farewell)
Well, maybe I’ll
See you (bye-bye, so long, farewell)
In September (bye-bye, so long, farewell)