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• 

  Is This The Day The Beer Fan Pushes Back?

  Posted: November 17th, 2009, 1:57pm CET by Alan McLeod

  I must say that when Martyn and Ron both decide that enough is enough on one day, well, that is a day to be noted. First, Martyn:

  I paired Atlantic IPA with another beer I knew would be towards the hop bomb end of the shelf, Sierra Nevada Anniversary 2009. This year’s Sierra Nevada anniversary beer is in the style of an American IPA, with pocketfuls of American hops, Chinook and Cascade. It’s still strongly hoppy and bitter, with passionfruit and ginger coming through, but the complexity is subtler, the integration better – and the price barely a quarter of Brewdog’s Atlantic.

  Then Ron...

  I don't want innovative beer. I want tasty, refreshing beer. Beer I want to drink more than a mouthful of. Beer that's a joy to drink rather than an exercise in endurance. I don't want to think "what a clever brewer, how ever did he come up with adding a slight apricot flavour to a Pale Ale?". Or "I wonder what the 17th variety of hop is?". "That's so innovative, making a Mild you have to sip through an enamel straw." Worshipping at the alter of brewers' egos. It's not for me.

  When is enough enough? When is too much too much? As Pete notes, all we really want is an Easter bonnet parade in the pub.

• 

  The 2009 Yule Beer Blog Photo Contest Is Launched!

  Posted: November 17th, 2009, 2:33am CET by Alan McLeod

  It was 12 months today that I last wrote those words... except for the 2009 of course. Hard to believe that this is the fourth annual photo contest. Here are the 2008 winners, here are the best from 2007 and look way back here for the best of the first year in 2006. That is the 2009's Grand Champion from Matt Wiater of Portland Oregon to the right.

  There are a few changes. Mostly, there is not going to be an attempt to get a prize for every contestant. Last year's experiment in democratic egalitarianism just about killed me. No, this year it's going to be me as you, the beer pornographer. Pure beer blog Xmas photo contest authoritarianism. What does that mean?

  • More Prizes: we have prizes and will have more prizes. For a lucky winner or two in the UK, we have two cases of BrewDog beers offered by James Watt. We have a copy of "Brewing With Wheat" from Stan Hieronymus to a U.S. winner as well as the annual gift pack of Roland and Russell selections for a lucky Ontario winner. Over the next few weeks, I will let you know of more and more prizes offers which show up in the email in that bit of a frenzy that always surprises.
  • Better Photos: what could I mean by that? Well, this year you have to be more selective in your offerings. I am only accepting five photos from every entrant. Last year we had 524 entries. That will be fine again this year as long as we have 105 entrants. I am going to create one gallery on this here blog and skip the Flickr thing.
  • More Time For Me: you have no idea how much of my pre-Yule was taken up with figuring out how to manage all the entrants. There are four kids under 11 in the house now and family's coming over from the auld country. It's going to be busy but rather than skip this year I thought we'd give streamlining a go. I also happily worked with Jeff in London in years two and three but this year am going back to the solo contest to cut down the international jet set administrative work. I am going lean... err, leaner... compared to my actual level of leanness that is.
  • More Beer Porn For You: I am hoping that the idea of more limited entries brings out the best and makes it clear that this is a beer blog photo contest for the ages. I will have a better idea on the prize packages being offered as we go along but hopefully the opportunity for a big haul for those who have been very good will also attract some gems. Let's see what happens.
  • No Bad Art: No photos of dishes of food with a beer next to it. Nuff said. OK, more here but you get the idea.

  There you have it. The race is on. I am going to announce the prize winners soon after closing the contest on Saturday December 12 at 5:00 pm eastern time. Send in your five entries to beerblog@gmail.com with your name and address and I will start posting them. If you have a prize to offer, send word of that along as well.

• 

  Only One Thing Is Worse Than "Pairing" Beer And Food...

  Posted: November 17th, 2009, 12:50am CET by Alan McLeod

  

  ... and that is people writing about "pairing" beer and food. Normal folk eat food and drink beer along with it - but few who do that would recognize themselves in this description:

  "...beer is also great as a cleanser in the middle of a meal." A meeting with the makers of his cleanser of choice — Red Hill's Golden Ale, which he served topped with a kaffir lime foam — at an earlier Taste event, led to a joint venture in which he created a degustation menu matched with their beers. Taking the flavours of the beers as his starting point, he came up with dishes a world away from the humble meat pie... Among the fare was the aforementioned smoked trout appetiser along with pairings of Red Hill's heavier Hop Harvest and Scotch ales with slow-cooked Sher wagyu, smoked ox tongue, skordalia and grains, a wheat beer with Locheilan brie, banana bread and plum jam, and a powerful Imperial Stout with a treacle tart served with an impossibly rich sticky toffee pudding ice-cream.

  MY EYES! MY EYES!!!

  Is there anything less appealing? Is there writing more unctuous? The sweaty anticipation that someone might feel waiting for the perfect moment when first facing "a wheat beer with Locheilan brie, banana bread and plum jam" is only made worse by recording the event for posterity through the written form. Look, people enjoy many things in private that we are too polite to share. Can't we admit that we would all be better off by keeping hypomanic food pairing tendencies to oneself? Can't we?

  Hey - I never mentioned snobbery once.