The Session: Quarantine Edition — So once more, the band got back together— some new players, some old favorites—to discuss our beer drinking new normal during this pandemic era of stay-at-home sequestration, work, play, and drinking.
Read moreThe Beers of Our Life
Pick a beer for the end of a life, an end of a meal, an end of a day, an end of a relationship. So happy or sad, or something between.
Read moreBeer Talk
If you find yourself at a great brewpub with a good friend, discussing the finer points of Pete Brown's Miracle Brew, you have reached the pinnacle of Maslow's hierarchy of needs.
Read moreThe Good in Wood: The Round Up
Wood has been used for millennia to store, transport and flavor beer, wine and spirits. Today, the relationship between wood and beer has regained its popularity with brewers and drinkers as observed in the prevalence of bourbon-barrel-aged beer and sours. This topic is deep and wide and meandering, romantic and historic, personal and professional.
Read moreBourbon Barrel Genius
I love to read, write and drink on the theme of barrels and beer, and thank whatever genius that brought this alchemy into being.
Read moreThe Session #138 The Good in Wood
The Session is an opportunity once a month for beer bloggers from around the world to get together and write from their own unique perspective on a single topic. The August 2018 topic is “The Good in Wood”.
Read moreFarmhouse Beers
Farmhouse beers are now a sought after beer style for me. Living on the Eastern Shore of Maryland USA means steamed crabs in the summer, oysters and clams in the winter. And no other beer quite matches the delicate flavors of fresh seafood as a saison or other farmhouse. So, make mine a saison or Bière de Garde please and be sure to throw in a dozen crabs.
Read moreGerman Wheat Beer
I traveled to Bavaria in 2011 and was able to experience Germany's highest peak. The fact that there was a beer garden there serving white sausage and Franziskaner hefeweizen made the views and trip that much more memorable.
Read moreSepia Tones: Baltimore Beer Lost
There is nothing more iconic about beer and Baltimore than National Bohemian Beer and the one-eyed, handlebar-mustachioed Boh man.
Read moreBeer Gardens
Maybe, just maybe, if you buy Silvia a beer or schnapps she will serenade your table for a while. What could be better on a sunny day in the biergarten with a fine German beer in hand?
Read moreHometown Beer
My brother and I were standing in the back of the bar looking across the room when a young man with a hard hat walked through the brightness of the door and then up to the bar. The helmet on his head shined from the lamp above the brim. I told my brother, I don't know what, but that is a great scene for a joke.
Read moreHomebrewing: Why But Why Not
Homebrewing? Why would I when I have a fridge (plus several boxes in the cellar) full of excellent beer. But still, the call of the kettle is alluring.
Read moreThree Beer Things In 2018
Three Things — three questions for you to ponder and consider extemporaneously from your perspective, as we look ahead to what this year, and beyond, will bring to the world of beer.
Read moreMaryland Oud Bruin
Oud bruin is an “old ale” tradition, indigenous to East Flanders, typified by the products of the Liefman brewery, which has roots back to the 1600s. Historically brewed as a “provision beer” that would develop some sourness as it aged.
Read moreBottle Shops: The Round Up
This episode of The Session again takes us all around the world — Burma, Bend OR, San Francisco via Portland OR, Belgium, San Jose CA, into many ventures and experiences of the Bottle Shop: Good, Bad & The Ugly.
Read moreTen Years in a Bottle Shop
As I read and study and practice all things beer, I've come to have a more keen awareness of bottle shops. Not only the one where I work but those that I've added to my network of stops along the way.
Read moreBottle Shops: Good, Bad & the Ugly
THE SESSION #128— BEER BLOGGING FRIDAY The Session, a.k.a. Beer Blogging Friday, is an opportunity once a month for beer bloggers from around the world to get together and write from their own unique perspective on a single topic. Each month, a different beer blogger hosts the Session, chooses a topic and creates a round-up listing all of the participants, along with a short pithy critique of each entry.
Deep Beer will be hosting The Session #128 — Beer Blogging Friday for October 2017. The theme chosen is Bottle Shops: Good, Bad & The Ugly. I find bottle shops interesting and would like to learn other perspectives on these places many of us purchase our favorite quaffs. We love our beer and have a variety of options in acquiring it. Some home brew, others like to visit their local pubs, beer tourism and beer destinations have become a trend, but the ever popular bottle shop is often the best and most reliable means for finding our next beer.
Of course, not all bottle shops are the same.
Themes to Consider
Below, I offer a few topics for your consideration and to perhaps spark your imagination, but of course, you can choose your own.
- What defines a great bottle shop —selection, knowledgeable staff, location, prices, other factors
- Iconic bottle shops — Like to share your favorite shops, surprising stories of discovery
- Discovering great bottle shops — have successful methods for finding great bottle shops
- Being a great bottle shop — If you own or work in a shop, do you have tips for success or precautions against failure
- Hacking the bottle shop — secrets to getting what you want or How to Win Friends and Influence People
- Bottle shop travel preparation — do you have a reconnaissance plan when you travel for finding good beer away from home or other beer travel tips
- Other topics of bottle shop curiosity — you choose
Round Up
Our deadline is October 6. Put a link to your post on our bottle shop theme in a comment to this announcement and shortly after our Friday rendezvous I will write a wrap up summary of all of the articles. I'm looking forward to reading your posts. Cheers!
First, I want to thank all of this month's contributors. I thoroughly enjoyed reading your bottle shop adventures. This episode of The Session again takes us all around the world — Burma, Bend OR, San Francisco via Portland OR, Belgium, San Jose CA, into many ventures and experiences of the Bottle Shop: Good, Bad & The Ugly.
Oktober Too Soon
I hear it every year, "What, Oktoberfest beers in August? It's too soon!"
Read moreHazy, Cloudy, Juicy
My first encounter with a New England IPA was a gift from a friend. It was like a drug deal from the back of a mini van.
Read moreSMaSH Beer
THE SESSION #125— BEER BLOGGING FRIDAY The Session, a.k.a. Beer Blogging Friday, is an opportunity once a month for beer bloggers from around the world to get together and write from their own unique perspective on a single topic. Each month, a different beer blogger hosts the Session, chooses a topic and creates a round-up listing all of the participants, along with a short pithy critique of each entry.
This month's theme is SMaSH Beers and is hosted by Mark Linders at Bend Beer Librarian. The question posted by Mark is SMaSH beers (single malt, single hop).
“I jokingly asked myself if single malt and single hop beers can be considered a “thing” (trendy, etc.) until we have coffee-infused, barrel-aged, and fruit SMaSH beers.”
Really, There is a SMASH Beer
I enjoy the topics that people come up with for these BEER BLOGGING FRIDAY themes. Sometimes the strike a familiar cord and I can't wait to jump in and begin sharing my thoughts on whatever the topic chosen. Then other times, I have to admit, I simply let the theme go, like a gentle breeze that was here and it's gone. Then there are even some times I'll begin writing with some clever — I think it's clever — take on the chosen topic, never to finish it. I hate that, but it happens all to often.
But SMASH beer? I thought I'd heard of everything under the beery sun but that... is it a term, a style, a joke? Mark obviously is a home brewer and SMASH beers seem to be a style that is popular among that group. So I had to do a bit of research beyond what Mark had provided in is introduction.
Rate Beer
Rate Beer knows that SMASH is a real thing! They list 50 beers under the label of SMASH beers.
I can say I haven't had any of these beers noted as SMaSH beers. Nor do I think I could find any at my local beery shops. That isn't to say that I haven't had a single malt, single hop beer, it's just that it wasn't identified as such. Honestly, I've seen brewers promote the fact that they were multi-malt and multi-hop more often. Southern Tier is an excellent example.
Draft Magazine
Draft Magazine declares the perfect SMASH six-pack in their Sixer: SMaSH beers piece. Of these six, three were ID of SMASH and three did not. So perhaps I have had a SMASH beer and didn't know it.
Reviewing my list of unique beers tasted on my Untappd account, I didn't find anything referencing a SMASH beer. Entering "smash" into the Search and scrolling through that list, I didn't I'd any that I've had nor would have easy access to.
Conclusion
So, my conclusion is this:
- I didn't know SMaSH beer was a style — formal or otherwise — but I do now it is
- I do know that when I see one, I will very intentionally try it
- And perhaps I will update my notes for this writing when I have this new expanded thinking of SMASH
