Catching up with a few of my recommended reads (aka a little click-love for The Brew Lounge)

I've heard you guys tell me that you'd check out more often the stuff I put up over at The Washington Times if I'd only just help point you in that direction.

Let's see if this works. Here are links to the last three things I've done over there and, as always, your "click-throughs" are much appreciated, particular since the bean-counters like to count that sort of thing to determine how "valuable" a writer's contributions are.

York County beer-trippin' (not sure if you all know some of the good stuff that is somewhat quietly popping up around the State's bible belt)

Conclusion of Philly Beer Week (because no one gets tired of reading about Philly Beer Week, right?!)

Father's Day recommendations (sure, it's a bit dated now a month later, but check it out anyway as I pander for your clicks ;-)

Simi Wine Dinner at Viviano in King of Prussia (because I know a whole bunch of you, including some that won't admit it, like the grape-y stuff as much as the barley beverage. Plus, there's good food happening there too and I know you all like that.)

Recipes from Simi Winery (because I know many of you like to cook as well as brew. Here are a couple of challenges as well as a relatively easier one. Mushrooms, pizza, risotto, and peaches. Check it out.)

Thanks for your continued support!

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Time to help out your favorite (only) Brew Lounge guy

A while back, many of you answered a survey by telling me to do a better job of promoting my pieces that I have over in the Communities section of The Washington Times.

Here are links to some recent pieces.

Even if you don't read them, please hit each of the links below to register your support of my writing. The bean counters over there like to see those kind of things; I can't buy them off with beer alone :)

Further, as if I haven't already asked enough, don't be afraid to hit those little "social" buttons above the articles too. The ones like Facebook, Google+, etc. Those count in my favor as well.

If you want to weigh in with your own thoughts on the topics, of course feel very free to do that as well. It'll break up the political monotony over there!

As always, Thanks and Cheers!

Pumpkin Beers

Drinking great beer in 2013

A look back on 2012, part one

A look back on 2012, part two

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Need a couple of clicks from you good folk

Things-a-little slow for traffic over at ye olde Washington Times. Seems all they want to talk about is Tim Tebow and the Republicans.

I contributed to an article that wove beer into a political (of sorts) story. Check it out. Read it if you like (it's extremely light), but most importantly as I always say, click the link here to let 'em know that you like reading about beer - if nothing else - on The Washington Times ;-) It's the old, helping-me-to-help-you kind of thing. Thank you in advance.

[Link to The Washington Times Communities section]

Then, San Francisco Beer Week. I won't be attending this year, but I will be conducting an event. Pretty cool gig, eh? I'll do some better promoting in the weeks to come.

Until then, check out the event over here through this link and if you or someone you know are in the Bay Area and want to get your run and drink on, this will be the event for you at the Golden Gate Park on Sunday, February 12.

Getting through the past two weeks

I'll begin by getting right to the point; our dog Logan died very unexpectedly in her sleep almost two weeks ago. While she was around 13 1/2 years young, it's hard to imagine that it was "her time". She was just too active, too alert, too happy and had just received a clean bill of health from the vet the night before.

I wrote an article loosely about dogs and beer, and more specifically (and therapeutically for me), that I thought you might like to read over at The Washington Times.

It became more clear to me this weekend that our ability to be social and use "social web tools" is ever-more imperfect partly due to the numerous ways in which we can be social without seeing each other face-to-face.

Make sense? Maybe not. Allow me to explain.

I've been writing here at The Brew Lounge (more informally) since 2005 and The Washington Times (more formally) since 2010. During the past 6 years, email has become much less reliable as texting, facebooking, and tweeting have become much more prevalent.

I've actually begun to learn how to best find someone based on their preferences. Some people are still exclusively phone people, eschewing most Internet-based communication tools. There aren't a bunch of them, but yet still some where that is the only way I can find them.

There are others who still cling to email, but a growing many others who look to Facebook first (status changes, messaging, etc). Twitter has its own loyal following, though I confess that I "get" this vehicle much less than any other.

I've seen, and been part of, text messages that turn into text conversations that nearly turn into textbooks.

So when our Logan died two weeks ago, I knew that my writing would take a back seat for a while.

But, how to communicate it? I wasn't going to issue a press release. And I wasn't going to waste a lot of time on it. Yet I know a lot of people who are interested in knowing about such things, particularly those that have been a part of our - and Logan's - life for a long time.

I figured that the most personal approach would be via my personal page on Facebook. In this era, trying to figure how to get to the most people most easily is not all that easy.


Then, at The Drafting Room yesterday, I learned that by not covering off Twitter and The Brew Lounge (here), there were plenty that felt badly that they weren't aware of what had happened. I also learned of Facebook's recent default news feed presentation that likely obscured my status update from many people's views.

Anyway, enough kvetching about all this techie stuff. It's a learning process how best to communicate in these changing times.

This note today was my last effort to bring everyone up-to-speed with what I've been up to and to provide a link to the article at The Washington Times Communities section that I published yesterday.

Also, posted more pictures in my public Picasa gallery if you care to see more.

And...to give your dog (or cat, or whatever) a little extra treat today in honor of Logan's good life.

Happy 30th Birthday to Sierra Nevada

Tonight's the night. Sierra Nevada blows out the candles on their 30th Anniversary cake. BeerAdvocate lists no less than 16 events taking place across the country--the list is likely much larger--tonight at bars celebrating one of the American craft brewing industry's older success stories. Locally, Fergie's Pub in Philly, Flanigan's Boathouse in Conshohocken, Hulmeville Inn in Hulmeville, the Iron Abbey in Horsham, and London Grill in Philly are all planning anniversary-themed events tonight. Also, recently around the area, The Drafting Room conducted a dinner two weeks ago and featured a whole lineup of beers, including three of the four anniversary beers. The fourth, Brewers Reserve or Grand Cru, showed up in time for TJs celebration this past weekend. The Estate and the Brewers Reserve have both since kicked; all other beers from the Saturday Night Special still remain as of this afternoon. Later this month, Teresa's Next Door in Wayne plans to do an event much in the same spirit as many of these others. Rattle 'n' Hum in NYC might, though, have the granddaddy of all Sierra events later this month on November 30th when they will reportedly feature at least 40 different Sierra beers...some, I'm betting that even the brewery has forgotten about. My challenge is still open for the SNBC distribution guys and local bars and distributors to try and match the Rattle 'n' Hum event. But, the real head on the celebration (like those two little word plays?) comes tonight in Chico at their home base where dining, drinking, and dancing will be the order of the night. If you need a little extra primer on Sierra Nevada, I've got two things for you: ~ Check out a longer piece that I wrote over in The Washington Times Communities section. ~ Check out a nice video compilation on the official Sierra30.com website. Complete with back stories and interviews with the guest brewers.

The Brew Lounge extends its hours

If I had my act more together, you would have heard yesterday from me that my inaugural column submission was included on the homepage of The Washington Times yesterday. In fact, it may still be there today when/if you hop over there. It's in the Communities section and that's where my new column, After Hours at The Brew Lounge, will regularly be housed. In the first few weeks, my goal will be to have a new column written roughly twice a week. Unfortunately, I don't have the time to go into a lot more detail about it right now (see, this is one posting that I really did not--and probably should have--pre-stage), so I will leave you with a couple of snippets that you can find over at After Hours. You can trust there will be more on this topic in the days and weeks to come.

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After Hours at The Brew Lounge: Exploring the people, places, sights, sounds, and stories behind the passionate pursuit of great beer. "...The Brew Lounge will carry some exclusive stories, as will After Hours at The Brew Lounge here at The Communities. There will be some cross-posting where the same story will show up in both places, and yet in other cases I will likely use the opportunity to begin a story in one spot and pick it up in the other..." Read more over at The Washington Times...