Last week's FTBB post served up a beer and politics cocktail courtesy of Facebook.  In the post you were introduced to Ward III councilman from Aurora, CO, Larry Beer.  Also buried within the post was a fleeting mention of Sigrid Beer, who had a Facebook page supporting her candidacy for Burgermeisterin - essentially the mayor - of Paderborn, Germany.

Hours after the post hit the blog, we received a comment from Sigrid's daughter, Kristina, who was delighted to see that we had mentioned her "mum."  Kristina also noted that the election was to be held on Sunday, August 30.

Sigrid, whose current political office title translates to "member of the federal state parliament, and spokeswoman for education, petitions, and church politics" (It's been 25 years since I last took college German, so please feel free to offer a better translation) was a candidate on the Bündnis 90/Die Greünen, or Green Party ticket.

Well, the results are in and unfortunately, Sigrid did not win.  However, in an email received the day after the election, she was incredibly upbeat and optimistic about the outcome.

"It's a beautiful morning!  I'm happy and proud.  It is the best result for a Green candidate we ever had, with 13.5%.  That's a very good increase in votes, compared with the last elections - 7.2% in 2004."

I'm sure that Paderborn has not heard the last from Sigrid.  And neither have you.  That's because she has offered to send some of the town's Paderborner Pilsener for Rob and me to review. Those results will be coming your way soon.

 

 

 

Posted by Steve Sullivan at 7:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Beer blogs
        

A good social media strategy is an important tool in anybody's kit these days.  Back in June I posted about beer bloggers who using Twitter to promote their blogs and/or brews.  A couple of days ago, I wanted to see what sort of beery things I could find on another popular social medium, Facebook.

I've been on Facebook for a couple of years and have found it a great way to connect, reconnect and stay in touch with friends, and a terrific way to promote and link to my own blog posts and to point out other items of interest. I've discovered that many of my favorite local beer bloggers and breweries are similarly using the site.

But just how widespread is beer culture on Facebook?  I logged on and searched on the word "beer."  The search returned "about 34,000" people results, among them two - Eugene Beer of Columbus, Ohio and Cathy Beers of parts unknown - with whom I share mutual friends.  Small world.

The search also came back with "about 1,800" results among Facebook pages.  I decided to drill down into the pages results using the filtering tool. When I pulled down the menu with the filtering options, one of them jumped out at me - politician.  I took the bait.

The politician filter (doesn't that term have promise!) narrowed the list down to 7 pages, primarily for office seekers or holders, including Sigrid Beer, who's running for Burgermeisterin in Paderborn, Germany; Ruth Beer, a candidate for city councillor (her spelling, not mine) in Headington Hill and Northway, Oxford, England; and Larry Beer, a member of the the Aurora, Co. city council, representing Ward III.

I decided to contact Aurora's Mr. Beer to see how his Facebook experience has been.  I sent him a couple of questions in an email and was pleased to promptly hear back from him. 

It turns out that Mr. Beer is well represented on Facebook. In addition to the Larry Beer-the-politician page which has 24 supporters, he also has a "Larry Beer for Aurora" political organization page with 337 followers, and a personal page with more than 1,500 friends.

He said his organization page, "has been a good tool - among the many others I use - for both constituent and campaign outreach.  Plus my personal Facebook page has more than 1,500 friends, and I think about 20% are Aurora citizens if not Ward III constituents."

I was particularly impressed with his "Larry Beer for Aurora" page.  His profile photo on the page shows him standing next to a sign reading, "BEER IS YOUR FRIEND."  It was apparent that this is a politician who understands that his last name can be an advantage if used with the proper attitude.

"On balance, I'm pretty sure being a Beer is more positive than negative.  It's all about having a reasonable sense of humor about it, which by this point in life would be pretty sad if I didn't. My phone number ends in 2337 (spells BEER) and my campaign material points out that 'good things are brewing for Aurora.'

"I should mention that my wife is also an elected official, and by choice, she is definitely not a Beer (she's Karen Middleton, a Colorado state representative)."  But, Mr. Beer adds, "she let me keep my maiden name when we got married."

A prompt reply, a well-reasoned social media strategy and a sense of humor?  Here's one politician who would certainly get my vote.

Posted by Steve Sullivan at 1:30 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Categories: Beer blogs
        

Often, what you find on a beer bottle is as interesting as what you find in it. I'm talking about labels, little squares or ovals of artistic expression that can convey the personality of the brew or brewer. Or at least give you something pretty to look at while you drink.

Years ago, when I was a novice drinker in Chicago, my beer of choice was Heileman's Old Style, a lager that was as easy on the wallet as it was on the tongue. One of the first things an Old Style drinker learns is how to decode the label on the cans, which is a rambling scene from a Bavarian village. The line art is a bit crude, but if you look hard enough and let your imagination run free, you can find a frog on a rock and a urinating monk. Believe me, it's a great bar-conversation starter if you're a 20-something.

Continue reading "From the beer blogs: Labels" »

Posted by Steve Sullivan at 11:08 AM | Permalink | Comments (4)
Categories: Beer blogs
        

Today's entry is one of my occasional meanderings off the beer-blog trail.  I was searching the other day for posts about extinct brands of American beer and stumbled upon a fun, time-wasting game called Beer Barrel USA.  Remember Billy Beer?  Falls City?  Oertel's?  Remember where they were brewed? If so, you'll enjoy this game.

The game consists of a map with 36 points plotted throughout the US, Canada and Mexico (I guess they should consider changing that USA thing in the title).  There's a window above the map into which the names of beers - some extinct, some still with us - appear. You have to click on the point marking the beer's hometown.  The score is determined by a combination of correct answers and the amount of time it takes you to solve the puzzle.  That means that even once you've memorized all the correct answers, you can keep playing over and over trying to go faster and faster.

Have fun!

Posted by Steve Sullivan at 6:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Beer blogs
        

Tom Cizauskas writes that the phrase "Yours for Good Fermentables" was a valediction he used at the end of letters, one with "beery poetic license." And he chose the phrase as the name for his blog because it implies "a responsibility for honest communication from me about beer (and wine, whisky, and other good fermentables)" to his readers. 

Cizauskas has been in the beer business since 1992, serving as a brewpub owner, brewer, brewery manager and brewmaster.  He currently works for Select Wines, a beverage distributor in Northern Virginia.  

"When I began blogging (in September 2002) I didn’t really know what a blog was for and what you could do with it.  At first I fell into the trap of thinking you had to write essays, and if you fall into that trap, you’re not going to blog very often.  Eventually it grew into more of a beer travelogue.  At the time I started I was working for Legend Distributing in Maryland, and I would talk about beer dinners I would help arrange.  Then I began at Clipper City in 2004 and I was their Southeast U.S. Territory Manager and I was constantly on the road.  That's when it really became a travelogue."

While more than 300 of Cizauskas's posts have chronicled his travels in the U.S. and abroad (the vast majority pegged to the mid-Atlantic region), the blog has evolved through the years and also pays due dilligence to other topics, most notably the beer business and culture.

"Over time, the blog evolved into what it is now, not just about what I’m doing personally, but what I can extrapolate about what I’m observing about beer and occasionally wine and distilled spirits.  The name is “Yours for Good Fermentables,” so I have to include the others as well.  So now I would say it’s more a look at the business and the art of beer and of brewing, rather than just personal opinions and a travelogue."

Continue reading "From the beer blogs: Yours for Good Fermentables" »

Posted by Steve Sullivan at 6:50 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)
Categories: Beer blogs
        

As I cruised the blogosphere this week looking for inspiration for this post, I found a list of the Top 25 Country Drinking Songs. It was great fun, although wide open to debate as to whether they're the best out there. I soon discovered that lists of favorite or best drinking songs exist for almost every musical genre.

Another discovery involved the mere definition of a drinking song. Is it a song about drinking or is it a song to be belted out while drinking? Or does it matter? The following lists include both.

Continue reading "From the beer blogs: Drinking songs" »

Posted by Steve Sullivan at 12:54 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)
Categories: Beer blogs
        

When I first typed the phrase "Twittering beer bloggers," it reminded me of Spiro Agnew's invective about the media, "Nattering nabobs of negativism." I didn't intend it to be an indictment against Twitter and certainly not against beer bloggers.  But I must admit that I've had a hard time figuring out the ultimate value of this microblogging social medium.

Twitter first landed on my radar about two years ago and I began playing with it about this time last year.  I mostly found it littered by mundane and inane posts about dinner plans and links to viral videos. The first time I saw any real value was last year during Hurricane Gustav when Gulf Coast residents and journalists filed tweets that had real news and public safety value.  And in recent days during the post-election turmoil in Iran, the power and potential of Twitter and other social media have become evident in what may be a watershed moment in the history of journalism.

Many of you savvy beer bloggers have been way ahead of me when it comes to finding utility in your Twitter accounts.  Recently I posted about Flying Dog, which is using Twitter to reach pockets of followers to let them know about relevant events and news.  I've included links below to the Twitter accounts of several of our favorite beer bloggers so that you can start stalking - uh, following - them if you're not doing so already.

For those of you who haven't started tweeting yet, here are some useful things you can do:

-  Instant reviews of beers, pubs - Having a good beer in a good bar?  You can tell your friends about it and maybe they'll join you for a pint before you head home.

-  Sharing interesting things with others - See something good on another blog or Website?  Point your readers to it so they can enjoy it, too.

-  Alerting readers of your blog posts - Use your tweets to alert followers that you've got something new on your main blog or site.

-  Alerting readers of events - Let your followers know about events of interest, or you can even do "Tweet Ups," events where you invite your followers to gather in a particular place so you can all meet face to face.

-  Following issues - You can use the search tool on Twitter or go to hashtags.org where you can search for kindred spirits Twittering on issues of interest to you.

Here are links to some of our "Twittering beer blogger" friends.  If you're not on the list, please send us a link to your account in the comments.

Rob Kasper

Steve Sullivan

Beer in Baltimore

Yours for Good Fermentables

Flying Dog

Musings Over a Pint

So Yeah, Dood

Posted by Steve Sullivan at 10:21 AM | Permalink | Comments (17)
Categories: Beer blogs
        

 Is it a sin or merely a sin tax?  I'm talking about the Senate's proposed excise tax on alcoholic beverages.  If you take a spin through some of our favorite beer blogs, it's no surprise which interpretation you'll find.

Here's the background.   In a recent closed-door meeting of the Senate Finance Committe, Senators Max Baucus (D - Montana) and Chuck Grassley (R - Iowa) pitched a tax on alcoholic beverages and soft drinks as a way to help fund the growing cost of providing health care coverage for the uninsured, a cost estimated at $1.5 trillion over the next decade.

What would that mean for beer, wine and liquor drinkers? The excise tax on a case of beer would rise 145 percent, to nearly $3 per case.  It's worse for a case of wine, which would go up 233 percent, or about $7 per case.  And hard liquor taxes would jump 20 percent.

Here's a sampling of what some of our favorite bloggers have to say...

Alexander Mitchell at Beer in Baltimore provides a link to an argument against the taxes, including a link to a map showing state excise tax rates on beer.

Tom Cizauskas on Yours for Good Fermentables in his Clamps and Gaskets post for week 22 has links to a couple of items about current state excise taxes.

Hugh Sisson, on his Clipper City Beer Blog, posts a protest letter that you can copy and send to your state legislator to voice your opposition to the tax.

In the interest of balance, if you want to find out about the history of alcohol taxes and the reasons behind them, the Center for Science in the Public Interest offers a page of resources about alcohol policy and a white-paper report about state beer taxes.

If you're concerned about what the impact of the tax could mean to your pocketbook or to your neighborhood pub or craft brewer, take a few moments to study the issue. 

Posted by Steve Sullivan at 5:59 AM | Permalink | Comments (4)
Categories: Beer blogs
        

The name "So Yeah, Dood" doesn't exactly tip you off that it's a beer blog.  But, if you're a novice brewer or just beginning your indoctrination into the world of beer geekery, this is a pretty good place to spend some time.

The blogger, Ryan Boddy, is a web content specialist who lives in Baltimore's Mount Vernon neighborhood.  He had done some freelance writing for City Paper and was contributing posts to his friend Neal Shaffer's sports blog, The Loss Column.  Shaffer suggested that now and then Boddy should write about beer and also proposed the, "So Yeah, Dood" title, which was a phrase Boddy used to segue' from sports into his brew posts.

"Last fall, Neal suggestd I take the column to its own site in order to increase the frequency of my posts.  Both his site and my column had outgrown their initial focus, so it made perfect sense."

Continue reading "From the beer blogs: So Yeah, Dood" »

Posted by Steve Sullivan at 6:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)
Categories: Beer blogs