It's our anniversary,
Made for you and me and
I've only made plans
To hold your little hand
It's our anniversary (anniversary)
Happy Four Year Blog-a-versary to us, little blog & me. The official 4th anniversary suggestions are fruit or flowers. The only fruit beers we can stomach here at a beer sort of blog are Magic Hat #9, and Dogfish Head's Punkin Ale. I'm ordering some of each.
I got an email a little over a week ago titled, "Wanna be in Ink?" I said, "Well, yeah, why not?" So I had an interview and photo shoot today. It turns out that they are doing a spotlight on local bloggers, and I am the most sporadic blogger on the list. I was a little sheepish.
So in order to make myself feel a little better, I pulled up some stats on this mess:
Blog Age: 4 years old
Published Posts: 303
Kansas City Related Posts: 86
Beer Reviews: 72
Beer-Related Posts: 161
Non-Beer Related Posts: 70
(So I stay on topic about 77% of the time. That's probably higher than in real life, right?)
Monthly traffic averages a little over 2,000 unique visitors, with about 88% of them being NEW visitors. Thank you, Google Search. You are a strange friend.
With all those newbies visiting, one wonders how they get here.
50% find me by name, blog name, or type it in direct (which makes me think they aren't all NEW visitors)
25% found my WW points for beer post (also the most emailed post, by far)
10% come from feed engines, like the beerinator or alltop.
The remaining 20% are a hodgepodge of sources. Some click from one of the other bloggers who are kind enough to link here, some are searching for one of the hundred actual beer brands/labels included in this blog, some find pictures I have posted here via image searches, or are lead astray by my BeerAdvocate profile. Very rarely do I get the random searches for "beer girls," but when I do, they don't stay long.
So, new visitors, welcome to the world of a beer sort of girl. It's a bit lazy, a little random, and a lot about beer. Drinking it, enjoying it, contemplating it, marketing it, and sometimes even attempting to brew it. Here are a few posts I would recommend, ever so humbly, if you don't want to wade thru the tags on the left:
ATTN BEER BREWERS! Great comment feedback from brewers on how to start homebrewing.
Irish brew breakdown Recommendations for celebrating St. Pat's day without green beer.
Dark Beer 101 Don't be afraid of the dark side, I'll show you the way.
I am in the middle of closing out my company's fiscal year, so I've been a little caught up. (I know, it doesn't even sound cool. It isn't. Imagine spreadsheets and accounting software and budget projections and nail biting. I fear the tax man. I really do. Did you ever see Stranger Than Fiction? I wanna pull a Maggie Gyllenhaal and scream, "Get BENT, Tax Man!") Soooo, anyway...I haven't been doing the old blogging thing well. There are reviews a-brewin, I promise, so hang in there with me until October. There's a silver lining, and it happens to be good beer.
I wanted to say thanks to Jules Crittenden. His apparently QUITE popular blog put me & my silly little blog in a post, and he's been sending me traffic. Muchas gracias! I hope he sees this, because WordPress doesn't like me today, and I couldn't comment. Boo.
I've been extolling the virtues of the Milk Stout quite heavily lately. I think I've sold a few 6 packs. You're welcome, Left Hand!
Men's Journal has an article in their Oct issue that contains the Best Beers of 2008. I haven't read it. And they haven't posted it online. But I will find it, and share what I can, whenever that is. In the meantime, let me know if it is worth the "newsstand price."
My blog traffic is back up to the levels I had in 2005. Who says blogging is dead? It is just now part of a family of things like twitter, plurk, brightkite and the ever present spaces & books. My little beer blog even appears on AllTop's site, under BEER. Which is why we got the glassware giveaway. Yay. This week I was contacted by a PR person, on behalf of the Buckbean Brewing Company, located in Reno, NV. Right now their beers are really only available in Nevada, and not even widely available at that. But they are beating their drums well, and getting good reviews, so who knows what will happen in the future. The best part is that they are going to SEND ME SOME BEER! Whee! I've been at this for 4 years now. This is my first freebie. I'm so excited.
Part of the email I received from Constance, on behalf of the brewer:
Buckbean Brewing Company
We specialize in microbrews, two in particular, The Original Orange Blossom Ale and Black Noddy Larger. Our company prides themselves in being environmentally friendly by packing the beer only in cans. Beer in cans brings a positive spin on the environment because:
Locally, we're featured in over a hundred bars and stores, and we're quickly expanding into other regions.
Permit me a non-beer post for a moment. It's rare, so let is pass.
Old people forward email jokes.
Middle-aged people put them on their blog.
Young people post them on their friends' walls.
And kids? I have no idea what they do, except maybe recite jokes for which they can't remember the punchlines while surfing around Club Penguin or something.
My Dad forwarded me this. He thinks it is quite funny, I assume. I don't see it as all that funny. Because anyone who knows anything knows that you take your blackberry into the restroom at work, not a laptop. Now I can't decide what part of that whole thing is more pathetic.
Employee of the Month
This is the level of dedication we expect from all staff!
From,
Management
Funny blog I lifted from Average Jane - Stuff White People Like
#23 Microbeweries
"White people don’t like stuff that’s easy to acquire. Beer is no exception.
They generally try to avoid beers like Budweiser, Labatt’s, Molson, Coors, and Heineken because if it’s mass produced it is bad. No exceptions.
So when they need a beer, they turn to microbrews who seem to be located almost exclusively in New England, Ontario, Quebec and Colorado. Being able to walk into a bar and order a beer that no one has heard of makes white people feel good about their alcohol drinking palate.
A friend of mine once met a white guy who brought a notebook with him to every bar. He would then keep a record of all the beers he drank and his experience with them. He called it his ‘beer journal.’
Also of note: most white people want to open a microbrewery at some point. One that uses organic hops."
YES, they totally forgot about the Pacific Northwest as a source of microbrew snobbery. Some commenters on the blog believe it is because the bloggers aren't white enough, but it could possibly be that they are Canadian. Either way, an oversight that I am sure was not done on purpose. :)
Lee from Austin is going to be in town for the holidaze. We were going to try for a beer meet here in KC. Probably over this weekend. You in? Where should we go? What day/night?
I took this beer personality quiz, and this was my real result:
You Are Bud Light |
 You're not fussy when it comes to beer. If someone hands it to you, you'll drink it. In fact, you don't understand beer snobbery at all. It all tastes the same once you're drunk! You're an enthusiastic drinker, and you can often be found at your neighborhood bar. You're pretty good at holding your liquor too - you've had lots of experience. |
You Are Heineken |
 You appreciate a good beer, but you're not a snob about it. You like your beer mild and easy to drink, so you can concentrate on being drunk. Overall, you're a friendly drunk who's likely to buy a whole round for your friends... many times. Sometimes you can be a bit boring when you drink. You may be prone to go on about topics no one cares about. |
You Are Guinness |
 You know beer well, and you'll only drink the best beers in the world. Watered down beers disgust you, as do the people who drink them. When you drink, you tend to become a bit of a know it all - especially about subjects you don't know well. But your friends tolerate your drunken ways, because you introduce them to the best beers around. |
Hey! You know what would be awesome? Cram a full 5 day work week into 2.5 days, add one new employee, 2 million additional time-suck projects, a few impossible deadlines, drop long-term planning off the table, and then shake until fully pressurized. Whee! Poppin' the cork on that one tomorrow afternoon, fo' sho'. I think the IPA, the Sixth Glass, and something completely different will be consumed on this upcoming 4 day.
Oh, and? Completely out of character, I was awake at 5 am this morning. FIVE. A. M. Run errands, do stuff, get Starbucks, and STILL get to work a full 30 minutes early. I mean, I know some people get up that early everyday, but those people are not me. Those people are farmers.
Last item. I saw this on the KC Beer Blog. Apparently, after all my not-really-holiday-hints, I actually DO need this item as a gift. 
Clearly, we aren't talking debutante balls , or even Junior League. Not me. But Dustin forwarded an email today from the Brewmaster Society, and I thought hey, that's a society I might like. Too bad it was not to be. This is the image I received when I visited the site.
Ahhh! An effort by our friends at Anheuser Busch. Dustin is now an insider. And they didn't even invite me. Sigh. I am a lazy blogger, and don't link back to other blogs. I only update when I feel like it. My Technorati ranking is low, among other things, and no one ever sends me free stuff. Sad. ~sniff~ I'll make it up to myself with the sick amounts of traffic I get from my friend Google.
I owe Lee so much. This guy is one of the coolest beer bloggers ever, and you have no idea how shamefully I’ve treated him. Because I am self-absorbed. And lazy. Which is hurtful to others. And whatever else it was that my second grade teacher said I didn’t want to grow up to become. Actually, I was sick as a dog, and had just started my new gig, so time-strapped and exhausted doesn’t even begin to cover it. We met in the parking lot of Boulevard, where they were about to begin a tour. Because I couldn’t make it to hang out with them at Grinders. I, being me, made them late for the start of the tour. God, don’t you want to be friends with me?!
Lee is this most amazing person. He lives in
The beer poured golden-red into a room temperature pint glass, with a thin head of lacy froth. It smelled familiar, a little like the Shiner Bock I drank too much of at a conference in
The taste is slightly dry, and the hops really aren’t as aggressive as a hop-fearing light beer drinker might think. The carbonation is higher than I expected, with the low level of head it poured out of the bottle, but I liked it. Still has that "thick" beer mouthfeel. Better than Shiner Bock. Some of the Beer Advocate peeps thought it was not as nice as previous years’ releases, but this being my first, I thought it was quite nice. I had absolutely NO problem drinking the rest that were in the fridge, after beating the husband away from that shelf with a broom.
Lee, I owe you more reviews. I promise that they will come. Hopefully before Boulevard releases that new Belgian saisson farmhouse ale you got to try. Because you had better believe that I will make good on at least that promise.
The new job, setting up our next house projects, vacation dreaming & booking, birthday party planning and piles of social events stacking up across my outlook calendar, combined with the thick hazy air of summertime demand me to sloooooow it all down. I have notes on beers, and owe reviews, especially to Lee. I'm just so darn lazy that the nagging guilt hasn't eaten away at me yet. So until I am appropriately ashamed and come back to be responsible, or feel a spark of inspiration, I am on beer sabbatical.
It is Friday and I've got this in my head. I can't explain everything, sometimes I can only report the news. (But whoa, Busta looks so young!)
So I was purusing some other beer blogs, and came across Hail the Ale. (Hey looky, they have sponsors!) I saw this post about Michelob's flavored beers coming out soon. And I remember writing a post that was similar, but I forgot that it was NOT about Michelob, but rather about Anheuser-Busch, and apparently I had saved it as a draft for a while, and never published it. Curious. Am I losing my mind already?
So read about A-B's fruit beer here, and Michelob's there, and get ready for a summer filled with girly beers.
The new Blogger is ok, but now that we have the ability to tag posts (hey! welcome to 2003!) I am compelled to go back thru my archives and tag content. Ugh. It's like less of a present and more of a to-do list. I know how my evenings this week will be spent.
We had a birthday party to attend this weekend, at The Bulldog. I love The Bulldog for the following reasons:
1) It is across the street from the office.
2) They serve excellent beers on tap.
3) The piano player in the evenings can switch from John Mayer and Snow Patrol-esque tunes to Ice Cube's "Today Was a Good Day."
4) The people watching is fabulous, what with a strip club located right next door.
Anyway, this was a birthday party, and they had reseved the back room. The birthday boy's wife warned the staff that they would need more than one bartender, as they expected a large group. They only supplied one bartender for the party, and while I hope that his tips were good, I bet he wished that he had some help! When I got up to the bar and ordered a Bass & a Harp, he informed me that the group were great drinkers - he hadn't served a domestic beer yet, and the pace was astounding.
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