The next edition of The Session is coming up next week, the day when beer bloggers post on a common topic. I am looking forward to it as the host, David over at Musings Over A Pint has either buckled under or showed exemplary good taste in determining that The Session is to actually about beer - in this case about those beers called tripels. I am looking forward to a robust set of observations around the very apex of deep mid-winter brews, the beer that reminds me more of ice than any other...not ice cold, just crystalline frozen goodness. Don't know why that is. Maybe that will be what I figure out on the day when I post.

But another idea has struck me that I will throw out there: can we also add a Twitter element to The Session. A few weeks ago I took part in a beery evening with Twitter Taste Live. It was well planned and a lot of fun for those who participated. It even raised a lot of interesting questions. I am wanting to do something a lot less formal, however, so it will be easy peasy for anyone who wants to take part:

• Wake up on 6 February 2009.
• Get a twitter account if you don't have one.
• Get yourself one or more tripels.
• Stake out the likely blogs you will follows for The Session.
• At some point in the day or evening, post your thoughts in staccato observations about the tripels before you as you sip.
• Also post your thoughts about the blog posts you are reading.
• Also post your thoughts about the other thoughts of others posting their twitter posts about about the blog posts being read and the tripels being sipped.
• Here is the critical part: at the end of every post write #thesession.
• Follow all twitter posts containing the #thesession can be followed at http://search.twitter.com by putting in the word "#thesession" in the search engine.
• Hit refresh and watch the flow of thoughts about The Session flow by like a river of tripel laced ideas.
• Maybe even post a comment noting your participation over Musings Over A Pint to keep track of who participated one way or another.

I may have the process incorrect and so am happy for better input. And unlike Twitter Taste Live, I am not suggesting we have any set schedule or any moderators or even any particular tripel in common. TTL does a great job at that more organized approach and I am not suggesting replacing their valuable periodic forays into craft beer. I am just wondering what mob tippley tripely twittering would look like - whether it will look like one big crowded floor at a beer fest or feel like that bit in 2001: A Space Odyssey when HAL 9000 says “my mind is going. I can feel it.” I dunno but I figure that The Session is as good a time as any to try. More importantly, it would also allow beer fans without a blog of their own to put their two cents worth on the table as part of the global beery extravaganza that is The Session. Democratization of digitialization without the artificial construct of blogger and comment maker.

I see asynchronous global chatter about a beer style backed up by posts featuring aspects of the style from many points of view. A real tripel-palooza. Any interest?