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Friday, December 11, 2009

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!

7 comments:

  1. Beer Journal - Kinda cool. Nice idea Dave!

    Bumper Stickers - Please! What are we really advertising here? Ego or info?

    Dr Wort - He just calls it as he see's it... Herb Caen style. He needs no extra ego stroking from selling bumper stickers.

    Jeff, Stay on top of your honest pint project. That will be your legacy. Others legacy will be scraped off a bumper in a few years time...

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  2. Good and interesting developments, all. A blogger-hosted tasting is very cool, and I think someday these things may lead to someone becoming a full-time beer blogger. To shamelessly toot my own horn, myself and another blogger are brewing collaboration beers with Ska Brewing in Durango, CO - to my knowledge the first blogger-brewer collaboration beers in the nation: http://beerat6512.blogspot.com/2009/12/ska-brewing-co-to-release-my-beer.html

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  3. Referring to yourself in third person is a telltale sign of egomaniacism. Always feeling the need to hurt others or be critical is not "telling it like it is" it is a telltale sign of low self esteem. Using a pseudonym to criticize others is a telltale sign of being chicken shit.

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  4. @dr wort:

    I think your redundant blog comments function as a bumper sticker.

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  5. thanks to you, stockings nationwide are soon to be stuffed. thanks for the link.

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  6. That 33 beers needs to be a smart phone app that could sync with your home PC.

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  7. Thank you for this . . . It is getting to the point of last minute shopping and is greatly appreciated. Yet another thing that I wish I had thought of!

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