There's a bunch of things going on out there as I get ready to leave Easlakia and head west to the Big Smoke for the Southern Tier dinner Greg is talking about today. I am bringing a long a pal I first had a beer with in 1981 and will be interested to hear his take on all this craft beer stuff.

• The Beer Philosopher is asking whether he is a beer writer and, given he posts over 1700 good words on the subject, I'd say he is.
• Boak and Bailey celebrate their first blogoversary! Tomorrow is my fifth anniversary - one reason I am celebrating - of the blog out of which this one was born; the All In The Family to this my version of The Jeffersons.
• I was really surprised by the article this week by Joe Sixpack about the lack refillable bottles in the US as up here in Canada I have only known through my whole life a world in which most beer and certainly the vast majority of domestic beer comes in refillable and largely standardized bottle, starting with the delightful stubbie one of the great Canadian icons along with, you know, the canoe and, frankly, most of American TV and movie comedy.
• I love the obvious characterization in David's post of "factory beer". That is what it is, of course. Way better than saying "macro-" anything. Hmmm...and it reminds me of the old ladies at church when I was a kid dissing "store bought bread"...even that odd one who used to say "milk or cow's milk?" when you were getting your tea. Milk, of course, came in a can to her.
• Knut notes a nice bit on beer on the wood by Greg Kitsock in the Washington Post - though I am shocked by the waste of the "one and done" policy described. Wouldn't a more sustainable brewer create a number beers to work through the cask successively as its character changes?