Gripes

What is the spirit of homebrewing? Isn't it about sharing the knowledge, and the love of such a great hobby? Where one can go into their kitchen, their garage, or their back yard and fire up the burners with their friends and neighbors and create something amazing tasty and, well, magical.

Today, at a community festival, I ran into the local homebrew club who were making something for the spirit of May. This was not the first time I have run into them, there have been several festivals over the past 5 years that I've attended and they have had a tent brewing and chatting it up with folks. That is everyone but me. I truly don't know what their issue is--every time I see them I get the cold shoulder, which is a crock! Today it was so bad, that the folks who were with me commented how rude the homebrewing club president was to me. What the hell did I ever do to him? Well, let me tell you: I have visited their webpage, thereby supporting them; I have talked about them to colleagues and friends saying, "hey, guess what? My town has a homebrew club;" I have read their newsletters that they publish several times a year online; I offered my condolences when one of their members passed away; and when I asked about joining their club, I was treated as if I were a second-class citizen.

I have been upset before--who hasn't? But, I have never been so incensed as I was today. I will not give them another shred of a another second of my time, and this blog entry will be the last thought that I invest in discussing anything about them--and I will not divulge the name of the club--why bother?

I'm all about supporting your local brewery/brewclub/homebrew supply store. But, when you treat people like their time and business are unwanted, then you have serious social flaws, and you should take a hard and serious look at yourself and re-evaluate your philosophy.

I'll start my own club. I'll call it, "this club is for anyone who enjoys beer and is not an asshole." All are welcome to join, even those who will remain unnamed.

Living Social

I have to say, I have really become accustomed to the Living Social: Beer application available through Facebook.com and LivingSocial.com. It's a pretty cool place to enter in all of the beers you may have sampled over the years and post a simple review, flag your favorites, and check out photos of different containers, etc. It is a more organized version of something I was trying to do myself a couple of years ago through Flickr.com. I like LS:Beer for it's ease of use. I know there are several other review sites--and they have their positives as well as their negatives--but LS:Beer just plugs into my toolkit seamlessly. I suggest you check it out.

http://beer.livingsocial.com

'Tis the start of the season

And on with the fall beer festival season!

Today, in Bel Air, Maryland, DuClaw is holding their real ale festival. There is a limited number of tickets available for those who didn't buy them ahead of time.

Real ale is defined as a beer brewed from traditional ingredients (malted barley, hops water, and yeast), matured by secondary fermentation in the container from which it is dispensed, and served without the use of extraneous carbon dioxide. Typically the beer is served by hand-pump or dispensed by gravity, where the cask is above ground and is tapped at the bottom. Some really extraordinary beer is made and served this way.

Unfortunately, we won't be able to attend, but I would love to hear from some folks who do! Just drop us a line by clicking contact at the right hand side of our page.

Saranac Brewery's New Blog

The Matt brothers at Saranac Brewery just turned on a redesigned blog. It has some pretty spiffy information regarding the history of the brewery and events that are going on in, and around, Utica, NY. Go ahead and check it out by following the link on the right-hand side of the page, under "Blogs We Like."