You take one down and pass it around........
By Declan O'Reilly and Tracy MacBride
Technical Research by Jayson and Taylor, Photographs by Peckhammer
Beer, the awesome frontier, these are the voyages of the Austin Beer Meetup
To boldly go where no beer drinker has gone before.......Blue Flavor and 97 bottles want to take you there!
Seriously, beer is not a bevie that many "civilized" people drink. You think of beer and sweaty football fans at a game getting face down drunk, with the beer gut and all or stupid college kids at a frat party comes to mind. That's what I used to think before I made my trek over to Europe. To the people of the middle ages beer was the one thing they could drink that would not kill them because the water would. I spent time in the city of Ghent, Belgium to start my love affair with beer. Growing up in California I, like many of my pack drank Sierra Nevada or Henry Weinhard's Private Reserve both good beers in their own rights, easy to come by in either a keg (for those unexpected frat parties) case or 6-pack at a very reasonable cost. Like Shiner or Lone Star these beers were made popular by the collegiate of California and to this day (well Sierra Nevada more than Henry's) are the staples of many college kids.
Back to Belgium and the city of Ghent. Due to the fact that I only drank pale and pilsner beer I was not at all prepared for the complexity of Belgian beers and the alcohol level that these beers possessed. I had just finished culinary school and at the time was a huge wine snob (not that I had anything to snobby about) and just did not give beer a second glance. So when I came across beers like Chimay, Corsendonk, and Duvel I was so completely blown away by these that I knew that I would never just drink "regular" beer ever again! Upon my return to the US armed with several specimens for my friends to try I was met with much disdain and refusal to drink the beers. Questions like what does it compare to here? Why does it have stuff at the bottom? Where can I get something like that here? How much does it cost were presented and I had no answers for them! If only I had a site like 97 Bottles from the people of Blue Flavor I might have made some converts then!
Blue Flavor was at SX 2009 and I had a chance to sit down and talk to Kenny of Blue Flavor to find out what 97 bottles is doing about educating people about beer. Hosting one of the first happy hours of SX 2009 Interactive conference at the Gingerman people were allowed
to come there and drink beer on them providing that they had the
special 97 button from a Blue Flavor team member acquired from the
trade show center. Armed with the newly launched 97 Bottles website
and a video camera Kenny went on his quest to find out what people
liked and disliked about beer. He asked people questions like "why do
you drink beer", "what is your favorite beer" and have you heard of 97
bottles. I have not seen any video footage but I am sure it will be on
the blog sooner
rather than later. When asked why start a site like this I was told
that "We love Beer....friends + beer = good time! The site provided
real descriptions of beers all over the world. After all if I had
something like this when I came back from Europe people could had taken
someone else's word instead of just mine. Once you create a profile and
start reviewing beers a truly wonderful thing happens.....based upon
what you have reviewed the site recommends other beers for you on your
profile. We have used other sites like Beer Hunter, and About Beer
to educate people about the intricacies of barley pop but when the
Austin Socialites and Austin Beer Meet Up found out about 97 Bottles we
found it to be not only a good tool to learn about beer it also gave us
an outlet to socialize with other beer lovers all over the world. This
is a good thing for one of our Socialites that is planning a move to
the Seattle area in May, now she will be able to connect to other beer
lovers in the area! For those of you with the ability to support apps
on your phone, a mobile "97 Bottles to go" has just been launched so you can check out the beers before you plop down $6 bucks at the pub on a new beer!
A few notables for those of you who can't get yourself over to Europe to try some of the Belgians you might want to try:
Technical Research by Jayson and Taylor, Photographs by Peckhammer
Beer, the awesome frontier, these are the voyages of the Austin Beer Meetup
PJ, 007 and Carlos, Organizers of the Austin Beer Meetup
To boldly go where no beer drinker has gone before.......Blue Flavor and 97 bottles want to take you there!
Seriously, beer is not a bevie that many "civilized" people drink. You think of beer and sweaty football fans at a game getting face down drunk, with the beer gut and all or stupid college kids at a frat party comes to mind. That's what I used to think before I made my trek over to Europe. To the people of the middle ages beer was the one thing they could drink that would not kill them because the water would. I spent time in the city of Ghent, Belgium to start my love affair with beer. Growing up in California I, like many of my pack drank Sierra Nevada or Henry Weinhard's Private Reserve both good beers in their own rights, easy to come by in either a keg (for those unexpected frat parties) case or 6-pack at a very reasonable cost. Like Shiner or Lone Star these beers were made popular by the collegiate of California and to this day (well Sierra Nevada more than Henry's) are the staples of many college kids.
Back to Belgium and the city of Ghent. Due to the fact that I only drank pale and pilsner beer I was not at all prepared for the complexity of Belgian beers and the alcohol level that these beers possessed. I had just finished culinary school and at the time was a huge wine snob (not that I had anything to snobby about) and just did not give beer a second glance. So when I came across beers like Chimay, Corsendonk, and Duvel I was so completely blown away by these that I knew that I would never just drink "regular" beer ever again! Upon my return to the US armed with several specimens for my friends to try I was met with much disdain and refusal to drink the beers. Questions like what does it compare to here? Why does it have stuff at the bottom? Where can I get something like that here? How much does it cost were presented and I had no answers for them! If only I had a site like 97 Bottles from the people of Blue Flavor I might have made some converts then!
Blue Flavor was at SX 2009 and I had a chance to sit down and talk to Kenny of Blue Flavor to find out what 97 bottles is doing about educating people about beer. Hosting one of the first happy hours of SX 2009 Interactive conference at the Gingerman
A few notables for those of you who can't get yourself over to Europe to try some of the Belgians you might want to try:
Three Philosophers or Brother Thelonious from the North Coast Brewing company.
Beer + Friends = Good Time!
Posted by World Blog Team at 3/31/2009 11:34 AM 
Categories: Industry Information
Tags: Gingerman Happy Hour 97 bottles Austin Socialites SXSW Blue Flavor
Categories: Industry Information
Tags: Gingerman Happy Hour 97 bottles Austin Socialites SXSW Blue Flavor
Comments