Dirty Granny

Here's a link to my latest article published in Australian Brews News.

Don't say that I don't make it easy for you, huh?

http://www.brewsnews.com.au/2011/07/granny-gets-a-hipster-replacement/

Cheers,
Prof Pilsner

So, what’s doin’?

“What’s been happening, Prof?”

It’s a question I’ve been getting asked a bit of late in various quarters and the answer is invariably the same; “Yeah, busy. But it’s a good busy.”

I know I’ve been neglecting the blog a bit but I haven’t had an idle pen. Or typing finger. I’ve been busy writing is what I’m saying.

For those who don’t know I have been a regular contributor to Australian Brews News, an online initiative of Matt Kirkegaard, formerly known as Beer Matt and still known as a top beer bloke who is not afraid to speak his mind when it comes to a controversial issue. If there are fences at Matt’s house, he ain’t sittin’ on ‘em.

Aus Brews News has given me the opportunity to have my random (and often rubbish thoughts) heard by a wider audience. A very, very wide audience. I don’t know how these things are measured, nor do I know what a search engine looks like nor how Google spiders rank content. To be perfectly Francis I don’t even really know what that last sentence means but I DO know that lots of people are reading my stuff for entertainment and a bit of edumacation during their journey with beer.

If you haven’t read my contributions to Australia’s most popular and fastest growing web-based on-line internet-only magazine about beer and called Australian Brews News – well what’s wrong with you? It really is a cracking good read and the best place to get all the news, views and reviews about brews in this country since about whenever.

As if that was not enough on its own a new initiative has been launched from this new frontier of beer journalism. Radio Brews News is a series of Podcasts (just learned what those things are) in which a couple of very talented, knowledgeable and easy-to-listen-to blokes get together and chat wittily and interestingly with the finest minds in the brewing world. It’s even on iTunes (had an idea what that was already) and you can download it and listen to it on the train. That’s better than wasting time ‘tweeting’ (learned what that was the hard way) that you are, in fact, on the train.

Don’t panic though. I’m not planning on deserting the blog as I can see by the little counter thingy that plenty of people are still reading it. Either that or it’s back to the old days of 2007 when people accidentally stumbled upon it when mis-typing boobies. I intend to keep it as updated as possible and keep the content relevant and informative while also keeping the humour that so often invades my thoughts on beery issues.

What I hope to be doing in future is posting an ‘alert’ when each of my hotly anticipated releases is published over at Australian Brews News and also when each new episode of Radio Brews News is available on iTunes. You should have a listen, really, as it is the (arguably) greatest thing to happen to radio since the adjustable frequency dial.

After a week in which everything from an Ale Stars session, three Beer Dinner hostings and a tasting for Dads at a kinder along with arranging and recording two episodes of Radio Brews News (see above if you have forgotten how good it is) have been completed, I reckon I need a break. The eldest Pilsner is away on school camp for a couple of weeks it seems a good time to head for warmer climes for a bit. In the meantime I might arrange for some of my favourite pieces to get a second airing so those new to the blog can see what it used to be like.

Cheers,

Prof Pilsner

Busy-ness

I've been a little slack lately. Actually, I've been flat out like a lizard drinking, truth be known but I've been slack as well.

I haven't been posting on the blog as much as I would like or need but that is not to say I haven't been giving the keyboard a thourough thrashing either. It seems like I am writing something all the time and then I look at the blog and wonder where it all went.

To keep (or put) you all in the loop here's the short version of what Beer Blokes is up to.

I have been writing pretty frequently for Australian Brews News which is a very fine online publication managed by good beer bloke and friend Matt Kirkegaard (Beer Matt). Matt is a proper journalist with years of real experience and he is certainly taking a huge risk allowing my drivel to pollute the webosphere, but that's the kind of mate he is. We are always talking about our writings and he also kindly provides editing and feedback on my stuff you might even see an improvement in the crap that reaches these pages in the future.

I'll try to be more proactive and run a post here when Matt publishes my pieces on ABN but for now, here is a link to his very good beer site.

Also sharing some of the time-and-written-word activity of the Prof is James Smith over at The Crafty Pint. Another fine friend and proper journalist (what is it me suddenly attracting journo mates? Still, if I had to pick a couple, these Word Merchants would be top of the list!) Crafty is as busy as a Benghazi bricklayer at the minute making sure the site is promoting everything to do with craft beer in Australia. And that's no small job in itself. He is also part of the steering commitee organising Good Beer Week which will take place in Melbourne from May 16 to 22 and centres around the AIBA Awards.

We have been working on a few specific projects together including some Beer Dinners and The Great Beer Debate and a couple of other little projects which should allow us to make an absolute shedload of cash and retire by the end of the week. Or not. I'll let you know.

So, between that and more than a handful of Beer Dinners I've been hosting at various venues and the new venues wanting to get on board and do dinners I've been writing menus and trivia questions and tasting notes and matching suggestions and whatever else. No excuse for not writing heaps here, but there's your reason! I think that's about it. What else ...? Hmmm?

Oh, I remember! The Book!! The Critcs' Choice ... it is a lovely little book which hits the shops on April 1st and attempts to gather together the cream of Australia's finest beer experts to put together Australia's best beers of 2010 and sort them into order from one to one hundred. No mean feat, let me tell you.

I have been fortunate enough to be involved from the start and have been busily assembling the Voting Panel and sorting the Criteria and then sorting it all into some sort of legible format. It's harder than you think to sit down and sort beers into any order and harder still to write comments on some of the beers to express your admiration for them. I'll keep you informed about the various goings on of the book and the controversy it is bound to generate. Keep an eye out for it in newsagents and bookshops from next Friday.

Back to work now.

Cheers
Prof Pilsner