A Meta Moment

In the next 24 hours or so, I'm going to post a rather longish article about a recent visit to Raccoon Lodge to try Ron Gansberg's 2009 slate of beers (twice to the West Side in the same week!). Since I recently gave Gansberg's Apricot Ale the Satori Award, you may wonder, "why are you so biased toward certain breweries?"

The back story is this: Ron invited me. I blog in the margins of life, and so proximity dictates content. I write about Belmont Station rather than John's Market because it's 35 blocks from my house. I spend a lot of time at the Laurelwood because a) it's close and b) the TVs usually play Blazers games. I have somehow failed to get on the gravy train some bloggers ride (cough Jon cough) wherein beer regularly arrives at the house. In many ways I think that's fine. As a blogger, I'm just a citizen beer drinker. My experience is just like everyone else's. The downside is that my experience is just like everyone else's, if you see what I mean.

Recently, someone contacted me to ask if I talked to the brewers at Max's before doing the review. It raised this question because I'd just come back from the Rac Lodge. I'd love to promise to talk to brewers before writing about their beer, but so long as this remains an unpaid hobby, I'm not sure it's in the future. However, if brewers read this blog and want to have me out to the brewery, give me a holler. Thanks to Ron's initiative, I did make it out there--to the dogged go the spoils. (And meager spoils indeed are the reward of my visit.)

In the mean time, I'll try to pick up my game and do a little more investigation before I write reviews. Sorry for the navel gazing, but I've been feeling a bit like a slacker, so I thank you in advance for humoring me.