1st Annual Twin Cities Beer Blogger Summit

Kris and I had a chance to attend a get-together of folks from around the metro that blog/write about beer. The event, the 1st Annual Twin Cities Beer Blogger Summit, was hosted by Stub & Herbs and they did a fantastic job in making us feel welcome. Here's a link Stuart's photo of the event (and no, I don't believe my wife is fondling...no...wait...yeah, she is...). I've come away from the event with a few observations, ideas, etc. after sharing a few beers and words with this fine group of folks.

• I don't think I have enough time to keep up with all the blogs I'd like to and don't spend enough time working on mine. Google Reader helps address one of these issues and the other can simply be fixed with a riding crop applied generously to my ass. Blogspot has been very good to Kris and I, as novice bloggers, but I've been toying with making a change that would give us a bit more flexibility and more tools to help us add garish, poorly executed graphics and images. Now I've got a sizeable pool of folks to hit up for advice on blog administration.

• The commercial craft brewing industry is dominated by brewers who have backgrounds in engineering, technology and science. Makes sense, I guess. I'm stoked about guys like Derek and Eric taking pains to move into craft brewing from their careers in banking and accounting, mostly because that's my background as well. I'm curious to learn about the unique challenges they might face or the advantages they might have over others given their backgrounds. In any event, it's good day-dream fodder for me...well, this and my Sports Illustrated swimsuit issue, that is.

• An observation I've made many times after spending time with craft beer drinkers is that I'm continuously pleased at how much I enjoy their company. The common ground of the love for craft beer helps build instant rapport that very often breaks through social barriers that might exist due to any number of factors. I hate to use the "c" word...no, the other "c" word...community, but that seems the perfect word to describe the atmosphere when you get craft beer drinkers together. Yeah, there are tools, snobs, etc. who can be divisive, but they appear to be in the minority. Or maybe I'm being "romantic" and my thoughts on community building are bullshit and, instead, it's simply the fact any time you get a few tipsy folks together, they tend to get along because of the beer, "the friend-maker." Probably a bit of both. Meh, whatever works.

• Notwithstanding my previous point, it would be nice to have a bar-clearing brawl break out every now and again at craft beer get-togethers. You know the kind I'm talking about, right, where chairs get broken on backs, some guy gets his head stuffed in a juke box, a waitress gets to use a tray to clock the biggest guy in the fight and, at the end, everyone laughs, puts their arms around one anothers' shoulders and they go knuckle-down at the bar for another drink. Yeah...that'd be cool.

Anyway, looks like I've got a bit of work to do in updating our blog with links, events, etc. I didn't get a chance to chat with all the folks at the Summit, but I guess I'll rectify that next time. Thanks to Stuart for leading the charge on this event. I think we need to drop "Annual" from the name of this event and replace it with something like "Quarterly."