Beer Bloggers

So, I've become aware of Beer Bloggers lately.  It never really occurred to me that there was such a creature before.  If you look over at my "Blogs I Read" section on the right of this page, you'll see quite a few home brew related blogs that I have been following for some time ( The Screwy Brewer,  BeerSmith HB Blog,  BN Army Blog,  Bearded Brewing Blog,  Blog entries from Chris Colby,  Homebrewers Association).  So, I read beer-related blogs quite a bit.  I just did not know there were people out there who officially call themselves "Beer Bloggers". 

A beautiful beer.

I guess technically, you could call me a "Beer Blogger" because I blog quite a bit about beer.  I don't really consider myself a "Beer Blogger", though.  Maybe I should.  If you count mentioning SheppyBrew (and why wouldn't you?), I probably write more entries that mention beer on my blog more than do most of the "official" beer bloggers I've come across.  But then, this isn't really a beer blog.  It is a blog about Sheppy, who just happens to brew (and drink) beer.

Somewhat recently, I discovered "The Beer Wench" on a video that The Brewing Network took from the GABF.  She was on a panel talking about social media and how it is helping to promote craft beer today.  The name "Beer Wench" intrigued me, so I headed over to her website:  http://drinkwiththewench.com/.  You may have noticed I've mentioned articles on the Wench's site a couple times recently.  (BTW ... I'm going to keep mentioning The Beer Wench because every time I do, she comes by and leaves a comment ... it's like my readership on this blog doubles every time I mention The Wench).

Because of The Wench, I discovered that there was an official Beer Bloggers Conference that took place in Boulder this year.  The Wench has also been doing a series of articles profiling real live beer bloggers.  Because of her, I have come across some interestingly named blogs such as "BeerSnobchick" and "Brewgasm" .  I've also added some Colorado Beer Bloggers to the right side of my blog:   Starting a Brewery and  Jenn and Beer.  I've also looked at many other Beer Blogs that have either been featured on Drink with the Wench or linked from http://beerbloggersconference.org.  I think I've come across even more on my own since discovering the existence of "Beer Bloggers".

Long story short, there are a ton of people blogging about beer.  Tons and tons.

Of course, as a home brewer and beer geek, I think this is great.  Beer interests me.  Reading about beer is fun.  Writing about beer is fun.  Everyone should blog about beer from time to time.

One reason that I don't consider myself a beer blogger is that I am bad at describing flavors and aromas.  I'm probably getting better, but a lot of my descriptions come about because I can detect a specific ingredient that I have used in my own beer.  For instance, I know exactly what Munich malt tastes like in my beer, and if I taste a beer where I detect Munich malt, that is part of my description.  "This beer has a nice rich Munich malt flavor."  But, other than if I am talking to brewers ... is that a good description?  Maybe, but probably not.  Or, (and I do this a lot), when I detect a Belgium yeast, I will say it has a Belgium yeast flavor.  Or sometimes I'll just say it tastes "too Belgium" or has just the right "amount of Belgium character".  Most beer geeks, at least, know what I mean, but when someone asks what I mean by "Belgium", I really struggle to come up with something more descriptive.

Another reason I cannot call myself a "Beer Blogger" is that only my sister reads my blog, and she doesn't even drink beer.  Well, the Beer Wench will read this entry too, since I linked to her site above, but you can hardly count her as a regular reader.  Actually, I did notice today that I am up to 13 (yes, count them ... 13) followers.  Last time I noticed, I had 10.  I don't know which 3 are new.  One of the new ones is Ms. Hunter, and she is probably only following me because I starting following her.  She, also, does not drink beer.  Oh ... and I have quite a few Facebook friends who follow the blog through Facebook notes. Some of those people are actually beer drinkers.  If you are one of these people, you really should read from http://blog.ericshepard.com to get the full effect.  Good gosh, maybe this blog is more popular than I thought!

Beer Float

By the way, Sheppy Brew recently bottled up the highly experimental batch of Bluefield Chocolate Ale .  It is very chocolaty and not very "beer like", which was pretty much the point.  I am looking forward to giving it a try in a couple of weeks.  I do not know how much I'll like drinking it, but I do think if nothing else, it will make good Beer Floats.  If I hate it and have to get rid of it, I bet I can find enough people who are at least willing to try a bottle so none of it will go to waste.

Sheppy Brew is also finally moving to 5 gallon batches.  My first purchase was a nice big 8 gallon brew - pot.  This past weekend, I brewed up a double all-grain batch of Buckwheat's Belgium Pale Ale.  I split it into two of my small fermenters.  Just for the fun of it, I used the regular safbrew S-33 yeast for one and T-58 in the other.  T-58 should give a more "Belgium" flavor.  The brewing day went very smoothly with the larger boil.  My mash efficiency does seem to be much higher with the bigger mash, so both these beers will be higher in alcohol than I intended, but that is certainly ok.

This was going to be my 101st blog entry of 2010.  I have reached this number only because there were some months I tried to "keep up" with the number of posts in my sister's blog.  I was only successful a couple of months and at least one of those was because she "let me win" (not that it is a competition).  I've decided to go back and remove some.  There is just something about that over-100 post level I don't like, and I still have a month and a half left in the year.  I've already removed a couple so that this will look like the 99th post.  Sort of weird of me, right?