The newest issue of Mutineer Magazine arrived at my doorstep yesterday and in it (on page 36) is an article entitled Beverage 2.0: Beer Blogs with a list of blogs worth reading. The story highlights and recommends a handful of beer-themed blogs, including niche giants hop-talk.com, Lyke 2 Drink, and yours truly: BlogAboutBeer.com! Each highlight features “three recent posts”, a brief interview of the site’s creator(s) and some meta information, like where the site is written from and when it was founded.

Many thanks to Mutineer Magazine and publisher JJ Bagley for this very special honor! Mutineer Magazine is a — soon to be nationally-syndicated (congrats, guys!) “fine beverage publication unlike any other you’ve ever read. Founded by Sommelier Alan Kropf and beer expert JJ Bagley, Mutineer Magazine covers all things fine beverage with an emphasis on wine, beer and spirits. As informative as it is approachable, Mutineer Magazine will change the way you read about fine beverages.” Get your copy of Mutineer Magazine — complete with BlogAboutBeer.com profile — today!

This is the second year in a row I’ve received a press release about the Guinness/Diageo marketing campaign called Proposition 3-17 (I’m not supplying a backlink, just Google it if you want to find out more) in which the brand is trying to “make St. Patrick’s Day an officially-recognized holiday in the United States”. While I love a good marketing gimmick as much as — if not more than — the next guy, there are several reasons this particular gimmick (and yes, it is a gimmick) really annoys me.

First off, the modern day St. Patrick’s Day celebration is almost a completely secular cultural holiday celebrated by Irish Americans (in this country anyway). And while I am the biggest proponent of celebrating cultural significance, if you’re going to reward one cultural holiday with national recognition, you must recognize all major cultural holidays that way. You cannot just pick and choose (its bad enough that only major Christian holidays are celebrated in America, but that’s a much larger argument for a much larger platform) which ones to recognize.

Secondly, it should absolutely never be up to a private company to try and dictate national holidays. Especially an English company (Diageo; which is headquartered in neither the U.S. nor Ireland). Valentine’s Day is bad enough, as its now an almost entirely commercial holiday (even Christmas is borderline but again, another argument for another platform), but at least it started out as something more. Yes, St. Patrick’s day is “something more” but if it were to become a nationalized holiday at the urging of a commercial brand, it would take any remaining true cultural legitimacy out of the holiday completely, and turn it entirely into the marketing gimmick Guinness is trying to make it (understandably, as I’m sure it’s the brand’s most profitable season). the recognition of a holiday should be up to the people and the government of the country recognizing it and at their own discretion; not at the gentle prodding of a major multinational corporation.

Lastly, while drinking beer is obviously a large facit of the celebration of St Patrick’s Day — and of the Irish culture itself — drinking alone is no reason for a national holiday. And believe me, I’m the biggest advocate of safe, responsible alcohol consumption (duh!), but when Guinness is trying to make an Irish holiday an American national holiday solely because of drinking, something has gone terribly wrong.

Saint Patrick’s Day is already a national holiday in Ireland, where it should be. And, while it is widely celebrated across the U.S. by Irish and non-Irish Americans alike, there is absolutely no legitimate reason to make it (and not every other major cultural holiday) a national holiday.

Those are my two cents, what are yours?

The first quarterly meeting of 2009 — we moved to quarterly meetings after monthly meetings proved just too problematic — of the Maine Beer Writers Guild was held this past Friday evening at the condo of Jan (of BeerBloggers.com) and his wife Sally here in Portland. The theme of the evening was aged beers and the lineup was one which I don’t think will ever be matched again.

I really should have taken notes on the specific ages of many of the bottles (since, needless to say, my mind got to be a little cloudy towards the end of the evening) but, as you might be able to tell from the photo (click on it for a larger version), we enjoyed three years (1990, 1994 and 2005, I think) of Chimay Blue; some Samiclause, a few years of Rochefort 10, a twelve or thirteen year old Westvleteren 8 and Westvleteren 12; three Thomas Hardy Ales, one from 1994(ish), one from 2005 and one from 1979 (yes, my first time trying a beer which was older than I am. It was delicious!); a 2008 bottle of Sierra Nevada Bigfoot (and a 2009 to compare it to); two bottles of Anchor Christmas Ale from the early 90s; all three years of the Sam Adams Triple Bock (including the Millennium from 1997); and a few others I’m sure I’m forgetting. I was, however, able to sneak the remainder of the bottle of Millennium — one of my favorite beers of the evening (the other 2 years of the Triple Bock were closer to soy sauce than beer and very unappealing, but the Millennium was incredible) — home with me to take further tasting notes.

A million thank-yous go out to our hosts Jan and Sally for the amazing spread of beer and dinner they provided us; it really was a once-in-a-lifetime event! Not that it (or any future event) will ever top this, but keep your eyes on MaineBeerWriters.org for the announcment of our second quarter meeting soon. Cheers.

It appears that a pretty ingenious group of folks in the Windy City have combined two of my favorite things: pub crawls and Snuggies. On Saturday April 18th, the nearly 21oo people who have signed up (so far!) through SnuggiePubCrawl.com will trek across Chicago in their sleeved blankets to multiple bars, each with live entertainment and drink specials. And the best part is, if you pass out at the final stop, at least you’ll be warm and comfortable!

But get this, the event has grown so large that the date has been changed from March 21st to allow for additional time for guests to acquire their Snuggies and for the bars to prepare for the group’s volume. It’s not all fun and games, however. It appears that the event’s organizers are doing some good with all the proceeds, too. According to the website,

The SnuggiePubCrawl.com team is donating proceeds from the event to the AC-Orphanage in Arusha, Tanzania. AC-Orphanage rescues orphans from the streets of Tanzania whose parents have been victims of HIV and TB. Your donations will go directly to providing food, clean water, clothing and schooling for these children.

The group is also hoping to build on the success of the first Chicago stop and is already planning Snuggie Pub Crawls in other major cities, including Atlanta, Austin, Boston, Cleveland, Columbus, Dallas, Denver, Los Angeles, New York, San Fransisco, Seattle and Washington D.C. As the SPC team explains,

Even though it’s just a blanket with sleeves, we’re sure that you’ll enjoy a winter evening spent drinking with friends and the Snuggie.

Amen. Anyone in Portland want to create our own version? I’m game!

Remember last August when Jessica Simpson started pimping out beer? Yeah, me either. But one Michigan brewery is hoping that celebs, regardless of level of celeb-dom, will still drive sales. Enter the Michigan Brewing Co. and none other than Kid Rock. The difference, though, between the Kid Rock deal and the Jessica Simpson deal is, however, it sounds like Rock’s beer could at least have some potential. The beer to be made in his honor is at least from a reputable craft brewery; Simpson’s beer is called “Stampede Light Plus” — you get the idea. According to the Chicago Tribune:

The Michigan Brewing Co. plans to invest $7 million in the new product line, which it said will add jobs. On Tuesday, the Michigan Economic Growth Authority approved a nearly $723,00 tax credit over seven years for the company. The village of Webberville also is considering a tax abatement.

No word yet on what the Kid Rock brew is going to be called or when it will hit store shelves — the Michigan Brewing Co. was started in 1995 and its beer is available in Michigan, Illinois, Ohio, New York, Texas, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Virginia, Indiana, and Minnesota — but this will certainly be one to keep your eyes peeled for. If even for no other reason than a good chuckle. Do medicore celebrities really make you want to buy more beer? Or simply weep into the one you’re currently drinking?