Not So Deep Thoughts

     A whole day without rain. I'm almost in shock. Kinda like my readers and fancy schmancy blog ratings. Yeah, it's tough trying to put things together for a festival, not to mention 2 Twitter accounts, 2 blogs, 2 Facebook accounts. A trip to the mother country of Belgium for 35 people and an occasional foray into work. Then the constant e-mails, text messages, the out of the blue phone calls, yada, yada, yada. You get the drift. All good intentions go straight to hades after I do all the fest stuff. But I still love you. And I will try every now and then to reward you with my expertise of the written word. Or what my English teacher would probably say " A exquisite piece of drivel"

     I am trying out this map/fest gadget thingamajig on the side here to see how it works. So far I noticed my local time is different, but that is because I live on Kepler Mountain, where there are polar ice caps, volcano's and some type of magnetic fields that makes people drink large amounts of beer. I noticed through all my deep undercover work that a lot of people still check this blog out for some fest info. So, here is some fest info.

                              Craft Beer Bus and Don "Joe Sixpack" Russell. Perfect together.
That's right, you heard me. Mr. Sixpack is teaming up with the CBB and Bridgewater's Pub to come to Beersgiving. Why hell, CBB is teaming up with the Blue Dog Pub out of Lansdale too. Why I hear that they will have a bus coming out of Reading. Damn! Now that's what I am talking about. Let's see if we can get Jack and Lew on one of those buses too. Now all I got to do is get those nice brewer folk and high falutin distributor's to finish dotting the i's and crossing the t's. Then I will be half way there.....

Session Summer Of Love Part 2?

    It's awful hard to believe that on this very date, 4 long years ago, I, along with the world famous Mr. Lew Bryson, took part in sheer beer insanity, by having not one, not two, but a three day festival celebrating session beers. I remember it like it was, uh, 4 years ago. The sun was shining, the air was crisp and clear. (For some strange reason, all my beer events ended up with great weather) And the session beer was flowing into our mouths like a thirsty camel in the dessert. I also do recall some bad ideas of mine during that time. Like trying to pour 30 plus beers on Saturday instead of 10 or 12 and having a session beer dinner on Thursday night that only 12 or so people showed up.  Ahh, hindsight, ain't it grand?

Friday's night cask event went pretty well, hell, it even made the NYT. Still get a chuckle out of that. Saturday's event went alright for a first time event. There was up to 70 people total during the day and a record crowd that showed up Sunday, abliet after the fest. And I still believe in all my tattered and torn heart that it would have become one of those fine drinking institutions that everybody makes plans for every year.
But that's just living in the past. It is time to move forward or figure out which is my best foot and put it forward. So, I put it out to you, the drinking public, and the brewers, would anybody be in for:

The Session Summer Of Love Part 2, How Low Can You Go?

A battle of the brewers making the best styles of low abv  beer

A limbo contest
 
And a little BBQ
 
Maybe some time in August after BCTC, when everybody will need a palate refresher.
Or not....

A Picture.....

Is worth?

It's Your Birthday And You Can Relax If You Want Too

A very Happy Birthday to Mr. Lew. I will not divulge his age here, however I heard a rumour, that he may have a new blog going soon at this wonderful site. Or not. This picture is from a lovely party at his humble home from a couple of years ago. Wasn't there an old proverb about journalists who lay down with dogs?

Are You Down With SBP?

Just about two years ago, I contacted a young journalist who was pushing a radical idea. Session beer was his name and session drinking was his game. So I bit hard and talked the fine folks at Ortino's into a couple of events. The food at the two dinners was great as always, but the attendance wasn't that great. Then came the big cheese, my baby, The Session Summer Of Love. Lots of buzz from near and far. The brewers were pumped to prove that they could make a session beer worthy of a beer geeks passion. A right smart crowd turned up on a Friday for firkin night and a not too shabby crowd was there for a hot Saturday afternoon on Memorial Day weekend. But alas, nobody wanted to continue what I saw, as well as others saw, as a right smart event. Now maybe it will all come down to 2009 as the year of Session Fest. The question is, will I raise that banner somewhere else before Kennett? Or will Kennett kick off a fine fall season of session beers? Only the beer gods know for sure.

Brunch With Bryson

Since NOBODY wrote about this event, I'll shall break down and help Mr. B and Mark out. On July 27 the kickoff for theses fine gents new book, New Jersey Breweries took place at every body's favorite place in the great northeast, the Grey Lodge. So myself and the treacherous three hopped in the car and strolled on down for some breakfast. We were greeted by these two guys who for some reason were standing like that all day, kinda practicing for a Borders display I guess. We went upstairs where Scoates greeted us with open arms. We had a fine meal and of course had some right smart beer to go with it. River Horse Double White was a fine choice to start the day but of course we didn't stop there. We had the rest of the NJ lineup, Ramstein Munich Lager, Climax IPA, Flying Fish Bourbon Dubbel and of course Farmhouse Ale. After all that fun, we decided to go downstairs and spend some hard earned money on that book those two were hawking. While we were down there spending money on books, why not spend some more money on beers? With every body's arm twisted we went through a couple more before we decided to hit the Memphis Taproom. But alas, mother nature was beginning to interfere as was Pookie De Hand, so we took the big gamble and went instead to Teresa's Next Door. The rain clouds open up like a muther as soon as we got into the car. But being the brave souls that we were, the rain would surely be over by the time we got in Wayne. The gamble paid off as the rain was done and the bar was a little slow. A cheese tray and frites would put us back on the right track and a good beer or two could always help too. All in all, a great day and a great way to start the final countdown to B.C.T.C.