by Luke on August 31, 2009
As I’m sure many of you know, these days I reside in the beautiful Pine Tree State. But what you might not know is that I actually grew up in Washington D.C. (and still have a good deal of family in the D.C. Metro). And, having grown up in the Nation’s Capital in a big baseball-loving family at a time before there were such things as the Nationals, I went to a lot of Orioles games and am well familiar with the name Boog Powell.
Therefore I was pretty excited to discover a little writeup this morning on the upcoming first ever Baltimore Beer Week. According to The Baltimore Sun,
Boog Powell, one of baseball’s historic sluggers and a longtime friend of beer, will start Baltimore Beer Week with a mighty blow.Powell, who socked 339 home runs in his 17- year career, will crack open a cask of beer aboard the USS Constellation in Baltimore’s Inner Harbor.
The ticketed event, set for the evening of October 8th will inaugurate the first Baltimore Beer Week — a 10-day celebration from October 8-18th of the region’s strong brewing culture.
It sounds like the folks behind Baltimore Beer Week have some awesome events lined up for the inaugural event. For instance, The Brewers Association of Maryland will hold an Oktoberfest celebration on the 10th which will feature twelve Maryland breweries pouring nearly 75 beers (event to be held at the Timonium Fairgrounds); an event entitled the Wood Chesapeake Real Ale Festival, hosted by the aptly named Society for Preservation of Beers on October 17th, where 30-odd cask-conditioned ales will be tapped, and a Baltimore beer pioneer’s lunch on October 12th at Baltimore’s famous Bertha’s (you’ve probably seen the “Eat Bertha’s Muscles” bumper stickers) where the city’s rich beer history will be discussed.
And just in case there was any doubt as to Powell’s credentials for kicking off such a beer-filled week of festivities (in case Boog’s Barbecue at Camden Yards wasn’t enough to qualify him) he told the Baltimore Sun,
Powell played for the Orioles during the period when the team’s owner, Jerold C. Hoffberger, also owned Baltimore’s National Brewing Company. ”At the start of a home stand every player would get a case of National beer,” Powell recalled. “Some players didn’t drink so, as a good teammate, I volunteered to relieve them of their beer.”
For more information on and tickets to any Baltimore Beer Week events, check out baltimorebeerweek.com.
by Luke on August 26, 2009
It was exactly two years ago that I started BlogAboutBeer.com. At the time I knew almost nothing about beer and even 
less about blogging – since then my love for both has grown by leaps & bounds. I am still amazed on a nearly daily basis at all of the truly awesome opportunities writing this blog has afforded me — free beer, press passes, insider tours, interviews, helping to found a writers’ guild, multiple freelance writing opportunities and best of all: countless new friends and acquaintances.
Perhaps the most surprising, however, is that 515 posts later — some fun, some groundbreaking, most absolutely terrible — people are not only still reading what it is I have to say, but more and more people seem to be reading BlogAboutBeer.com on a daily basis. The RSS subscribers are up to nearly 400 and the number of unique visitors who come directly to the site every day is increasing each month, too.
What I began 2 years ago today on a wing and a prayer has definitely grown into a great hobby and I’ve had more fun doing it than I ever thought possible. Thank you so much to everyone who reads BlogAboutBeer.com and obviously tells your friends about it, because they seem to be stopping by, too. Keep reading, keep emailing me, keep commenting and keep telling your friends and I’ll keep writing. Here’s to two great years gone by and the many more yet to come. Cheers!
by Luke on August 21, 2009
A close friend of mine Russ Phillips — who locals might remember from ilovemainebeer.com and Maine Beer Writers Guild fame a little while back — and his identical twin brother Kelly have launched a new beer blog and beer review engine at TwinBeer.com (get it?) and they’ve been blogging at a mind-boggling pace to get some great information and reviews up of beer, literally from around the world.
And to really kick the new site into high gear, they’re throwing their first ever contest on the site. All you need to do is head over to the contest and guess how many bottle caps are in the two beer glasses in the picture. The person with the correct guess wins an awesome and highly unique Twin Beer iPA t-shirt, designed exclusively for the site by Kelly. It’s a pretty sweet reward for a pretty easy contest – go check it out. Good luck! And be sure to follow TwinBeer.com on Twitter @twinbeer.
by Luke on August 19, 2009
I saw this photo on Mashable.com late last night and couldn’t help but pass it along. Looks like Mashable author Ben Parr was invited on an unofficial tour of the Twitter offices in San Fransisco, CA. The post of the tour features lots of neat photos and insights into what goes into the day-to-day operations of one of the Web’s largest social networks. One of the better photos is this one below and the description that follows it. It’s great to see some homebrew carboys popping up in random places and getting some “airtime” on one of the Internet’s largest blogs. Hopefully it helps raise more awareness of the hobby we all love. Well done Twitterati!
This was maybe the second or third thing I noticed after walking into Twitter’s spacious offices. The story is that some of the Twitter team is trying to brew and ferment their own beer. You can see the yeast doing its magic. When I asked Biz and others about what type of beer they were making, or what grain they used, they had no answer.
PS – If you’re not yet following me on Twitter, please do so! Check me out @livingstonmedia.
[image via Mashable.com]
by Luke on August 18, 2009
A great beer quote to lighten the mood on this hellishly hot August afternoon (and because, quite frankly, it’s just too damn hot to write anything else):
One afternoon at Cheers, Cliff Clavin was explaining the Buffalo Theory to his buddy Norm. Here’s how it went:
“Well ya see, Norm, it’s like this… A herd of buffalo can only move as fast as the slowest buffalo. And when the herd is hunted, it is the slowest and weakest ones at the back that are killed first. This natural selection is good for the herd as a whole, because the general speed and health of the whole group keeps improving by the regular killing of the weakest members. In much the same way, the human brain can only operate as fast as the slowest brain cells. Excessive intake of alcohol, as we know, kills brain cells. But naturally, it attacks the slowest and weakest brain cells first. In this way, regular consumption of beer eliminates the weaker brain cells, making the brain a faster and more efficient machine. That’s why you always feel smarter after a few beers.”
Hi and welcome to Blog About Beer. My name is Logan and I live just north of Portland, Oregon, a city that has more craft breweries than any other in the US. I'm a full time marketer, blogger, and dad to the most beautiful girl in the world. I'm also a homebrewing and craft beer fanatic.