Do you like the lawn furniture? The bit of gardening? Very pleasant early evening yesterday with a few staff from Beau's and friends talking about beer. It's become apparent that the ability to hold symposia is a bit problematic for me. I had to decline the very tempting call from Ohio Brew Week over the implications of an unplanned family vacation. I've also found it hard to find a venue that is acceptable under the law to give chats to the trade. But having people over works perfectly well as was the case two summers ago when the Hieronymi were here.

What did we discuss? Well, we started with Beau's Lugtread and talked about its properties: thickness, steely hops, bread crusty malt. Lugtread is styled upon a kolsch so we moved to Gaffel from Cologne and did the old compare and contrast. Lighter, more floral. Yet still structured in the same way with the arc of rusty spoon. Next, to illustrate that steely hop even more, I passed around DAB original, a Dortmunder. Lighter still, but for that hop. Not generally as enjoyed compared to the other two. Except when sausage and sauerkraut was considered. Then, to illustrate bigger malt in a similar beer, Creemore Kellerbier was shared. Happiness restored as the capacity of malt to reveal many things was discussed. The last illustration was provided by Steam Whistle pilsner to give a glimpse beyond steel. It also showed how beer can be softer or harder when the Slavic was compared to the Teutonic. Which led to the idea of beer reflecting locality through things like water quality and local hop preference. Which led to beer being from somewhere. Which is like Beau's.

As a reward, I opened an early, ridge bottled Local 1 which had the intended "wow" effect. We'll meet again in a month in the backyard. I may do wheat beers. Then in August maybe sours. Who knows?