Today is the first Friday of the month, which means it’s time once again for The Session. This month’s “Beer Blogging Friday” is hosted by Stonch of Stonch’s Beer Blog. The topic – beer people. According to Stonch himself:

Choose someone you know personally. That person might be a brewer, a publican, someone who sups at your local, or maybe just a friend who is passionate about beer. Let’s read some pen portraits of your companions on the path to fermented enlightenment.

The person I chose had a great deal to do with my coming into beer appreciation. My brother Mike — who is coincidentally celebrating both his first wedding anniversary and a birth day this week, so please raise a glass to him — instilled a respect for better beer in me from the moment I was (legally) allowed to drink. For my 21st birthday he gave me money for my first homebrew kit and his own weathered copy of Charlie Papazian’s The New Complete Joy of Home Brewing (the book widely considered THE homebrewer’s bible).

Mike also played host for my first trip to The Brickskeller – a monumental event in any beer-drinker’s life and one which is only heightened by the accompaniment of a good guide.

He continuously reads, critiques and comments on my posts here at A Blog About Beer (especially in the early going when I thought no one else was listening) and encourages all he knows to visit the site. As sappy as this post has turned out to be — but with a Session topic like Stonch’s it comes as no surprise — Mike is a great beer enthusiast (as well as brother and friend) and beer mentor, and I certainly wouldn’t be in the position I am in today without his guidance. Cheers!

First, for any new readers unfamiliar with The Session, an explanation:

“The Session, a.k.a. Beer Blogging Friday, is an opportunity once a month for beer bloggers from around the world to get together and write from their own unique perspective on a single topic. Each month, a different beer blogger hosts the Session, chooses a topic and creates a round-up listing all of the participants, along with a short pithy critique of each entry… The idea for the Sessions began with fellow beer writer Stan Hieronymus, who noticed similar group endeavors in other blogospheres and suggested those of us in the beer world create our own project.”

[tags]beer, beer blog, The Session[/tags]

First, for any new readers unfamiliar with The Session, an explanation:

“The Session, a.k.a. Beer Blogging Friday, is an opportunity once a month for beer bloggers from around the world to get together and write from their own unique perspective on a single topic. Each month, a different beer blogger hosts the Session, chooses a topic and creates a round-up listing all of the participants, along with a short pithy critique of each entry… The idea for the Sessions began with fellow beer writer Stan Hieronymus, who noticed similar group endeavors in other blogospheres and suggested those of us in the beer world create our own project.”

Okay, so I’ve been trying to think of an Organic Beer-related post for the March Session since it was announced nearly a month ago and was completely drawing a blank. I didn’t want to do just another Peak Organic review but nothing was coming to mind. So, when I got an email from Peter Egelston – the owner of Smuttynose Brewery in Portsmouth, NH – yesterday with details about their long-rumored new facility, I decided I could stretch the topic a wee-bit and include the Green Beer Movement (no, not the St. Patty’s Day kind).

Smuttynose has reached a P&S agreement on a beautiful fourteen-acre site located on Towle Farm Road, and are working their way through the design and permitting process. If all goes according to plan, a shovel will be in the ground in early 2009 and they will move into the new brewery in 2010.

What does this have to do with Organic Beer and The Session, you ask? Well, the reason for the move, Peter stressed, is that their present building is extremely inefficient in terms of energy usage, and Smuttynose would like to create a more sustainable facility. So that’s exactly what they’ve decided to do:

The Towle Farm site is an old farmstead which has many beautiful, natural features that we’re committed to preserving. We’ve registered our project for LEED certification and plan to incorporate as many innovative technologies as we can, including geothermal heating and cooling, co-generation, gray water recovery systems and a low impact development site design.

To read more about the amazing changes happening at Smuttynose, read this article from The Wire or this from the Portsmouth Herald. Great news for a great brewery and a great group of people – what better way to celebrate The Session? Thanks to Chris O’Brien at the Beer Activist Blog for hosting!

Just a few briefs to get you through the painstakingly slow hours between now and the game tonight. For starters, Jay Brooks at the Brookston Beer Bulletin has posted a link to a map of the USA made from beer labels, each representing the state of its origin. While some of them are hard to decipher, it’s fun to try. How many can you name? (click the photo for a larger version and the answers)

Next, just in time for Valentine’s Day – a recipe for decedent cream cheese & dark chocolate marble brownies with a secret ingredient to set them apart from any other brownie you might whip up in the coming weeks – 1 1/4 cups of stout beer! Click here for the full recipe, from the Northwest Herald in Illinois.

And lastly – just as soon as the February Session (my entry) wraps up (the complete overview), the topic for March’s Session has been posted. Next month’s entries are sponsored by Chris O’Brien over at The Beer Activist and the topic – Organic Beer. According to Chris,

Lots of brewers use Certified Organic malt and/or hops but have not had their facilities and processes certified. Legally and in practical fact these beers are not organic and are prohibited from being marketed as organic. But for this Session, it’s up to you to decide what to count as organic.

If the announcement alone is any indication, March is going to be a great month for The Session (and will see my 2nd entry ever). Be sure and check back on March 7th for more.

Enjoy the game (and some beers to go with it) everyone; Go Pats!

(image by jackncokewithlime)
[tags]Super Bowl, stout beer, Valentine’s day, brownie recipe, beer[/tags]

Today is the day of the February Session (round 12 if you’re keeping track at home) – I made it one of my (blogging) New Year’s Resolutions to be better about taking part in The Session this year so, although I missed out on January, I’m going to try and do my part from here on out. Since I’ve never participated before, I’ll give you a run-down of what exactly The Session is:

“The Session, a.k.a. Beer Blogging Friday, is an opportunity once a month for beer bloggers from around the world to get together and write from their own unique perspective on a single topic. Each month, a different beer blogger hosts the Session, chooses a topic and creates a round-up listing all of the participants, along with a short pithy critique of each entry… The idea for the Sessions began with fellow beer writer Stan Hieronymus, who noticed similar group endeavors in other blogospheres and suggested those of us in the beer world create our own project.”

This month’s topic is Barleywine (or Barley Wine, whichever you prefer), as chosen and hosted by Jon at The Brew Site. Unfortunately (for me) this is a style I don’t yet have too, too much experience with — but I hope that changes sooner rather than later, and I’m sure the rest of The Session posts will help motivate me — so I’m going to cheat a wee-bit (I know, great way to start off my Session participation, eh?) and re-post a past review I did of the Smuttynose Barleywine-style Ale from the Smuttynose Brewery in Portsmouth, NH:

This is one of the tastiest Barleywines I’ve had (again, there haven’t been many); it features a nice, modest 7% ABV — unusually tame for a Barleywine — so you can have plenty. There is a gorgeous off-white pillowing thick head when poured, which quickly disappears. There are very strong fruit esters with a touch of caramelizing, grain and a pinch of hop on the nose. A tad on the sweet side, the mouthfeel — which is both creamy and chewy — boats a fantastic cocktail of esters (pear & date, maybe? I’m not great at differentiating the flavors) and citrusy hop flavours which end with a dry, grain aftertaste. With an overall rating of B+, plenty of BAers agree that this is a truly fantastic brew.

[tags]Barleywine, beer, The Session, Beer Blog[/tags]