beers, a love story

"11 - beer festival" by Dave Morris
“11 – beer festival” by Dave Morris

I drink beer because I’m a librarian. Or, more accurately, I started drinking beers with my library school classmates in grad school. Mainly because bars in Lexington (Kentucky) didn’t carry wine coolers or Zima. Yeah. It was that bad.

I remember my first NASIG conference in 2002. We were staying in dorm rooms and meeting in classrooms at the College of William & Mary. Back then, NASIG had a tradition of having an evening social with snack food and buckets of iced beer (and probably wine, too, but I definitely wasn’t drinking that then). One of my sharpest memories from the conference is of fishing out a Corona Light because it was all that was left by the last night of the conference. And discovering Purple Haze with Bonnie at the Green Leafe Cafe.

The next year we were in Portland, Oregon. I was introduced to many craft beers, and my journey towards becoming a beer snob was set.

Three years in Washington state taught me to appreciate well-balanced hoppy beer, which was hard to find my first year back on the East Coast. But I soon discovered Mekong, and began my now four-year romance with Belgian beers.

Most recently, I’ve discovered that I do like sour beers, and I suspect that is part of the reason why I’m incorporating more wine into my beverage consumption. That, and maybe the semi-regular meetups with a friend (also a librarian) at Virginia wineries.

Librarians. Who knew they were such lushes?

beer & food

My review of Bob Skilnik’s book was published yesterday, and the first comment that I received was a snarky commentary on a misspelled word. Sheesh. I have written many reviews over the past year, and most of them have at most received a comment from the editor that published them. Not the most pleasant way to wake up in the morning, let me tell you.

Anyway, the book was interesting, albeit not exactly an exciting read. I’d recommend it if you are interested in beer, food, and history, as well as old recipes.

I’m about half-way through a book on the history of Guinness, and I hope to write the review of that this week.

Oh, and for those who are keeping score, this is #25, which means I’ve read half of my annual goal.

caribbean beer

It’s a tough job to write a guide to regional beers, but thankfully Mark McKenna’s ten years in the Caribbean gave him the opportunity to sample all 75 local brands. His experience is chronicled in his new book, McKenna’s Guide to Caribbean Beers: All the Islands, All the Brews published by Parrot. In the book, … Continue reading “caribbean beer”

It’s a tough job to write a guide to regional beers, but thankfully Mark McKenna’s ten years in the Caribbean gave him the opportunity to sample all 75 local brands. His experience is chronicled in his new book, McKenna’s Guide to Caribbean Beers: All the Islands, All the Brews published by Parrot. In the book, he goes through each of the 22 islands alphabetically, including Bermuda and the Bahamas because of their proximity and beer offerings.

Continue reading “caribbean beer”

blogging, linking, and Guinness

No dumpster diving in dmoz today, just a few things that I ran across while surfing around. Doonesbury has been doing a bit on weblogs this week. [the homeless guy] Google is removing links from search results in it’s French and German search sites. Lis Harvey finished up her 50 State Tour last week and … Continue reading “blogging, linking, and Guinness”

No dumpster diving in dmoz today, just a few things that I ran across while surfing around.

I was very sad to hear of Sen. Paul Wellstone’s tragic death today. I don’t think he had even been a blip on my radar before today, which is strange since he is exactly the kind of politician I would want representing me. After hearing the NPR’s All Things Considered reports about him and his work in the Senate, I nearly cried at the loss. His family and friends are in my prayers.

Beer Node

Jeff sent me some copies of pictures he took of the group of us at NASIG in June, and I finally got some scanned in and uploaded to my website. Here’s another shot of a bunch of us with the “Beer Node” sign. Ahh… good times. I should (or perhaps shouldn’t?) note that the new … Continue reading “Beer Node”

Jeff sent me some copies of pictures he took of the group of us at NASIG in June, and I finally got some scanned in and uploaded to my website. Here’s another shot of a bunch of us with the “Beer Node” sign. Ahh… good times. I should (or perhaps shouldn’t?) note that the new President of NASIG is one of the women in the “Beer Node” line-up…

Continue reading “Beer Node”

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