Another favorite (if not prize winning) beer picture from 2007

New Year's Eve. Why did I think I would be able to come up with Idea of the Year and Beer of the Year on New Year's Eve. I have to make burritos and I have to amuse a ten month old and I have to watch B-grade bowl games and I also have to remember that this is, really, not New Year's Eve at all but Hogmanay - the second of the great three tartan winter holidays for we Scots, even we Scots abroad because there are none to Scots as the Scots Abroad. But here we go...

• Beer Idea of the Year: When I look back at my posts for the year, I see a trend. It is not just that there was a beer blog explosion but people are really thinking about what the heck beer means to them. We talked about whether we love the beer or the brewer, debated beer and value, considered a Beer Drinkers' Bill of Rights, invented CAMWA and even launched the pub games project. But for me the best idea in beer for 2007 was not an idea about what beer is or might be but, rather, an idea about how to share our thoughts about beer positively and creatively: The Session. I have been blogging in one form or another since well before 2000 and have been a web nerd yakking about drinks for over ten years now and, for me, the conviviality of The Session breaks both the isolation of the beer blog and the Borg that is the beer forum in a way that highlights individual expression while celebrating our shared interest in beer. I have no idea how many separate posts month after month there have been written on blogs and other internet media which have participated in or discussed the idea of The Session one degree or another but it has to be one of the better collective bodies of writing on the internet for the year. Stan came up with the idea eleven months ago today. Thank you, Stan. You have made us all richer for the invitation to get together and write something.
• Beer of the Year: This one is really hard. Not that there is anything wrong with keeping score but I have never kept track let alone count of the beers I have tried. I look forward to the next beer much more than I look back at the last. But that Mahr's Bamberger Ungespundet-hefetrüb I had last winter was up there, if only for the opportunity to say its name like Daffy Duck, and I am kicking myself that I did not buy more when I had the chance. And the saisons and bieres de garde of the shed in a summer rain were dandy as were the new discoveries from Michigan. In the end, however, I think I have to go with this one from last May:

  I love this beer. There I have said it. And, yes, I would marry it, seeing as you asked. Fresh pear juicy bright. There is a milkiness, a white pepperiness and cream of wheat. There is grain and there is toffee sweet. And there is green hop, arugula. Fabulous masses of thick lacing rich off-white foam over cloudy deep straw. Tea astringency in the end.

  That's Brise-BonBons from Fantome of Soy, Belgium. I mean if I am going to go all, you know, emo I might as well show some commitment afterwards.

Happy New Year and the best in 2008.