Tasters – A New Series in Blogtography

This post starts a new semi-regular series dedicated to blogtography, in which I will share photos I’ve taken, but never used in one of my posts.  It’s a series idea that I shamelessly admit to stealing from other bloggers, that I hope will become a regular feature here at tDoB.  How regular? To be honest, I don’t know.  I’m going free form on this one.  Maybe it will come down to when I think I have enough pictures to share.

You’ll notice it’s blogtography and not beertography, there’s a reason behind that.  Although a lot of my photographs center around activities concerning the main focus of my blog, some do not.  So from time to time some non-beer stuff will sneak in here as well.  After all, when I started this blog it wasn’t supposed to be just about beer, it just sorta…turned out that way.

That means photos of me right?

No Buddy, that does not mean photos of you.

Oh come on!  I think as photo editor I should appear in at least one photo in every post about photography.

We’re not turning this into Buddytography.  Now back off.  I got this.

Oh, you mean like you “got” the clogged toilet the other day.

Hey, I don’t want to know what the hell someone put down there, but that flood was not my fault!  Now if you don’t mind…

So why is it called “Tasters”?  Well, craft beer bars will sometimes have little pours of beer that your can buy, 6oz, 8oz, big enough to really experience the beer, but not so big that you end up drinking more beer than you want.  In several of the bars I go to, these are referred to as tasters.  And that’s what most of these pictures will be; photos I took for reviews that I never wrote, or ideas for posts that never coalesced, events that never got their own write up, or simply photos I shared on Facebook and Twitter (yes even with the new camera some of these with be phonetographs), but never used in on my blog.  Little ideas that never became big ones, but are still worthy of a sentence or two.

I think that’s all you need to know.  So let’s do this…

A glass of Stumbling Monk at Stewart’s Brewery.  If you’re ever in Delaware and it’s on tap, I highly recommend you stopping by.  It took me a few tries to get the refractions in focus.

 

Swing into Spring.

 

Not a great photo with the focus point at the pile of empty glasses on the bar.  But I love the clutter and the blur of motion.  I think it captures the commotion of Max’s Belgian Fest pretty well.

How come I’ve never been there?

Because dogs aren’t allowed.

What?!?! There are places like that? Don’t people know?  Why isn’t something being done about this!?

 

I wish the edges of the mug were a little sharper in this one. Still, I like the composition of this picture I took at Two Stones Pub.

 

I love “down the bar” shots, and thought this one was nice.  I would have liked the head of the beer to be a little more in focus however.  I always find that I like pictures of beer better if the head is sharp. Tria’s in Philly.

 

Not a really good picture, but one with a good lesson.  If you’re going to take wine photos, remember to remove the price label first.

BAH !!!!!!!!! You left the price tag on!  Slick move, Ansel Adams!

Shut up.

Champagne on Sunday.

 

We had homemade egg rolls the other night and when we were done, we had two wrappers left. So Tracey mixed bananas, peanut butter and a little chocolate sauce; froze the mixture a bit, wrapped, and deep fried it. Scary good.

 

Sabon Estate’s Zinfandel Port. Sharon at Total Wine recommended it to us for a wine dinner when we were asked to bring something that would go good with chocolate cake. Sharon says that Sabon pairs well with anything chocolate, and in a pinch, Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups. Highly recommended.

 

Flying Dog teamed up with CAO cigars to release a “Pairing Pack“, four cigars that are each paired with a different Flying Dog beer.  And although I couldn’t get a hold of the pack, my cigar store does sell CAO.  This is CAO’s “Gold” which they suggest pairing with Raging Bitch.  Although I’m not an expert on cigar/beer pairings, I will say that cigar was really good, and didn’t fight with the beer at all.

 

The required editor photo.

And the best picture of the bunch if I must say.

Shocking.  You’re just lucky I didn’t Photoshop a price sticker on your forehead.

Well that’s a good start I think.  Like I said, a majority of these are from “posts that could have been”, while others are just things I felt like taking a photo of.

He takes a lot of pictures of his food.

Shut up.

It’s REALLY embarrassing.

Go play.

Delaware Beer News – Four DE Brewers to Join Sierra Nevada’s Beer Camp

Four breweries from Delaware will participate in the Mid-Atlantic edition of Sierra Nevada’s Beer Camp being held on August 2nd at Penn Treaty Park, Philadelphia.  I’d like to thank Chris Crabb for sending this information my way.

PRESS RELEASE:

Beer Camp Across America Update!

Four Delaware breweries have signed on to join fellow brewers and beer lovers at Sierra Nevada’s Beer Camp Across America, an unprecedented traveling beer festival that will take place later this summer. Nearly 700 craft brewers from around the country have already signed on for the multi-weekend event; anticipating more than 1,300 total craft beers on tap, collectively representing almost every state in the union, Beer Camp Across America promises to be the largest craft beer celebration in history.Delaware’s own Stewart’s, Dominion, Twin Lakes & Argilla are all making the trek to the Mid-Atlantic edition, taking place August 2 at Penn Treaty Park in Philadelphia.

We’re hoping you’ll share Beer Camp Across America with your readers so that even more people will know about this monumental adventure and start making travel plans! 

Beer fans are snatching up tickets for each of the seven events at www.SierraNevada.com/BeerCamp (see schedule below). Each festival will feature up to two beers per brewery, food vendors, and live music by the MarchFourth Marching Band spectacle.

Let me know if you have any questions or if I can provide further information. Cheers!

Chris

Chris Crabb
503-314-7583
#beercamptour

Beer Camp Across America Schedule

• Sat, July 19th: Northwest Edition at Sierra Nevada Hop Field in Chico, CA, 12-5 p.m.

• Sun, July 20th: Southwest Edition at Embarcadero North in San Diego, CA, 1-6 p.m.

• Fri, July 25th: Rocky Mountain Edition at Civic Center Park in Denver, CO, 5-10 p.m.

• Sun, July 27th: Midwest Edition at Navy Pier in Chicago, IL, 12-5 p.m.

• Fri, August 1st: New England Edition at Thompson Point in Portland, ME, 5-10 p.m.

• Sat, August 2nd: Mid-Atlantic Edition at Penn Treaty Park in Philadelphia, PA, 12-5 p.m.

• Sun, August 3rd: Southeast Edition in Mills River, NC, 1-6 p.m.

Delaware Bars Weigh in on Mug Club Issue.

As me and a ton of others posted last week, Pennsylvennia regulators have asked Iron Hill Brewery to amend its mug club practices to conform with state regulations.  And even though PA is so far the only state asking for changes, Iron Hill has decided to realign its mug club in all locations, including those in Delaware.

I sent emails to two prominent establishments in the Delaware craft beer scene to ask for their input on this change, keeping in mind that this is at the moment, squarely a PA issue and not a Delaware one.

Michael Stiglitz from Two Stones Pub was the first to weight in with the following

“Certainly if DE goes the route of PA we will adhere to any regulation changes.”

I recently received an email from Al Stewart from Stewart’s Brewing who echoed

“I am unaware of any PA or DE pressure to change mug club requirements but I will be meeting with the Iron Hill folks later this month.”

I am one to believe that our local establishments did their due diligence when setting up their mug clubs, so I don’t fear any involvement from Delaware regulators.  If anything I hope that this issue with Iron Hill does nothing more than to affirm that our Delaware watering holes have their ducks in a row.  Because I can’t say anything better than what Al said himself,

“We originally started the mug club to reward the local, frequent diner/drinker for their loyal support. It is a fun group of folks that feel that they are a great part of the atmosphere of Stewarts and I would hate to see the government take a stand for no good reason.”

Thanks to both Michael and Al for taking the time to respond to my email and weighing in on this topic.