The Year in Pictures

A look back at my perambulations over the past year. This may or may not be the final year-end post--even though we're trotting merrily into 2017. (Click any photo to enlarge and get an (uncaptioned) slide show.)

When AAB's John Holl visited last year, we
toured Cascade. Ron Gansberg started pulling
out treasures from the cellar--and even the
brewers were impressed.

A cold, wet night in January--from inside
the warmth of Pints Brewing.

The dog of the pod making a homebrew
appearance. (He's Patrick's.)

Junket #1 in 2016 was a trip to Ireland to meet
Michael Ash, the man who invented
nitrogenation at St. James Gate. (Mr. Ash
died six weeks after this photo was taken.)

One of the many Irish pubs I visited.
Locals call these "boozers."

The Beer Bible picked up an IACP award
in April. (Yay!)

The Year in Pixels

Below I offer a year in beer, filtered through the particular lens of my perambulations. There's an unexpectedly large number of All About Beer editor John Holl in here. With CBC in Portland, OBF, GABF, and me visiting the East Coast, I got to see him more often than usual. There is a more national theme this year, as I wandered about on my book tour travels. But also shots of brewers in lederhosen, brewers playing banjo, and very small brewers in skirts. There are technology shots, bar shots, people shots, and even one art shot. All in all, a very good year.

They're mostly chronological, so have a look.

How my year, and 47th birthday, started out.

Early last year, Alex Ganum captured Willamette Week's Beeer
of the Year with Engelberg Pilsner.

The release of Pliny the Younger at Roscoe's.

Niki Ganong released her book.

Espied at FH Steinbart, my local homebrewing shop.

Oregon brewing royalty at CBC: Rogue's John Meier (l)
and Pelican's Darron Welch (r)

Area Man Takes Pictures, Week of April 13

Craft Brewers Conference pics, in the Convention Center and around Portland.

The Hallertau Hop Queen.

New German hop varieties.

Rogue's John Maier (l) and Pelican's Darron Welch (r) at Saraveza
They were toasting Yorkshire's Samuel Smith's.

The Year in Pictures

Over the course of a year, we mobile modern humans often range far and wide across this sapphire planet of ours, and our travels offer a tiny window into the currents and trends stippling the beer world.  At least among those of us who direct our gaze toward things beery.  As I ramble about, I take snaps on my wheezing iPhone 4 and post them to Twitter.  Below are a selection of the choicest cuts.  See what trends you can divine.  (Yes, cider looms large.)

My year started in Salem, as I joined EZ Orchard's Kevin Zielinski
as he milled and pressed apples.

 

It was then off to Europe on research for Cider
Made Simple.  First stop--Tom Oliver in Herefordshire.

Photos of the Year

Each year since 1978, Alan McLeod has hosted a beer photo contest for the holidays.  The past two years I had scads of European brewery photos and cashed in for the win in 2011 with a Cantillon/koelschip pic.  Totally unfair.  I would have disqualified myself.  Fortunately, Alan did not, and I will go on my merry way for the next few decades as a happy loser.  (Unless I snag the "worst photo" some lucky year.)  You should totally enter the contest.

This year, Alan's only letting us send five pics.  Five!  Impossible.  I pulled out the bone saw and tore into the patient, but even unimaginable gore could not take me down to five.  So here are the three I couldn't exclude but also couldn't exclude.  My other entries will appear at some point in the next month over at The Good Beer Blog.  I wouldn't call them better, just more likely to appeal to the judge (purely speculatively).

Mt. Angel Abbey, which is adding a brewery, with hop
fields in the background.

Willamette Valley hop fields.

Jim Bicklein, the master brewer at Anheuser-Busch's
St. Louis brewery.  Gorgeous facility.

Pictures

I've been loading a selection of pictures onto my Flickr page. Here are some slideshows:

Samuel Smith's


Thornbridge


Adnams


Greene King


Fuller's