Bloggers Doing Big Things

Some bloggers are merely word jockeys. Some, it appears, have bigger aspirations. Dave Selden, who is a renaissance man and who (too) infrequently blogs at Champagne of Blogs, has recently launched an impressive venture called 33 Beers, which is a very groovy beer journal. Given my own attempts at designing things like the Honest Pint logo, I know that amateurs don't just throw things together that look professional. Dave's book looks professional.

It's a groovy, printed-on-recycled paper affair that is designed for field research. It's big enough to hold, but small enough to fit in a pocket, stiff enough to write on while holding in your hand, and contains enough prompts so that even late in the fest, you'll still gather the salient info. It also includes a "flavor wheel," that is way easier to wrap your brain around than this one, and also visual. Perhaps if we adjust our brains to the way diagrams work here, we could begin to understand beers by rohrshach. They're four bucks each (or three four ten bucks) and would make ideal stocking stuffers. [Full disclosure: Dave gave me two samples, but he's a cool guy and a Red Sox fan and even if they were lame and he hadn't given me any, I would have spoken kindly of them out of blogger brotherhood. But don't let that dissuade you; they're cool.]

Also busting a move are Angelo and Margaret at Brewpublic. I recognized this fact when I was in the County Cork earlier in the year and saw their bumper stickers on the tchotchke table near the door. "Bumper stickers," said I to Sally, "well this just makes me look bad."

But that was just a preview of coming attractions. Now they have branched out into video and events. For example, on Monday, December 21st, they are cohosting Gosefest 2009 at the Victory Bar. ("Gosefest" was my contribution--I thought "gose tasting" could use a little punching up.) This is a harmonic convergence of reasons why Portland is Beervana: 1) blogger-hosted beer tastings; 2) cool beer bars hosting beer tastings, 3) gose tastings. I tasted my first gose back in March (long write-up and treatment of the style here), and now there are enough breweries making them locally to support a gose tasting. Extremely cool. Good job, Brewpublic.

Gose Tasting (aka Gosefest 2009)
Victory Bar, 3652 SE Division St.
Monday, December 21, 6-9pm
Three goses from Cascade and one from Upright

Bloggers of the world, unite!