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. Rebecca, of the great blog The Bake and Brew, hosted the 83rd session which was a spirited discussion on popular beer and community hype. You should check it out!
Watch follows is a terrifying journey into the world of writing a beer review without actually reviewing the beer. And Goblins, OK, fine, no goblins… sit back, relax and have a fish stick..
Oh Miller light… if it’s 4:30 is the morning and you just pissed on a dumpster, accept no substitute.. Said Robin Williams or Samuel L Jackson, or both of them for all I know.
On the streets of New York’s Lower East Side in the early 00’s – Just north of Houston Street, where one can find some of the best, and cheapest dumplings, but that is another review.
It was a Friday or Saturday day and we were going to the Annex I think it was the Annex it could have been or maybe this is me remembering several places all lumped into one random though bubble. It matters not - don’t bother looking for it, or any other place, as I somehow doubt that they are still there, but if they are, more power to them.
You have to remember that back in those days craft beer or micro beer as we still called it, was only getting it going in a big – i.e. find non local stuff easy in NYC – sort of way. Only a few years earlier we were happy to have been able to find Magic Hat #9 in the state it should well and fast. Not to a heady scale, but then again you could actually find it in a store for more than 20 seconds.
Of course, There were places you could go and find some great stuff on tap or bottle, The Peculiar Pub, or Iron Monkey (ed note IM is still alive and going strong #NJCB) or what have you, but this was not one of those places.
Back to the Annex: If I remember correctly the place did not even have a sign just a bounce standing by a door. – Show your idea walk inside a long hall and pay the lady at the other end to get in.
I am waiting in queue with a group of people, and one of them starts poking fun at the bouncer.. probably not the brightest of ideas, but this is also a person who knowingly got the Chinese characters for vomit on his arm. As an artistic statement at least.
He supposed that he could out run the bouncer push come to shove. That is as long as he dodged the first punch. Being a smoker and not much of a fitness person, Unless the bouncer got winded or bored after a block, he may have troubles.
We manage to get inside with no issues. But the vibe was getting dark. Not sure why but it felt like it was going to be one of those nights. I was ready to just say screw it and head over to San Loco and grab some wonderful tacos.. But no I stayed.. figured there were enough other people there I at least somewhat knew that I could go sit in a booth chill and listen to some loud but good music.
Inside was nice spacious and well thought out, given the exterior and entry way bottle neck you would not expect it to be the same place.
Now normally at a place like this I would just stick with a Captain and coke or Goose and club soda. But no tonight would be different – they wanted a bucket of beer.
Yes beer served in a bucket of ice, all the bottle caps popped, you know to let it get some air like you would with a fine wine or not. They may or may not have been those plastic bottles.. Ican not remember.
Yes I know they don’t want to take it home with you.. why would you though the Bodega next door sold it for less and even gave you a bag if you wanted.
So back to the delivery method. Beer in bucket.. with ice.. Maybe at the beach? Even then sand would stick to everything, and can you even drink on the beach these days?
I guess if you have enough people drinking, say one for each in the bucket, this is not the worst delivery method, no actually it is still the worse, maybe only having a draft beer poured frozen beer mugs are worse
At that point you are arguing between the 6 and 7th circles of hell, so better is hardly an important point.
Was there ever a fight? no there never where, as much as people may or may not have wanted one. Were there tacos? I believe so.
