Today is the day of The Session, the international beer blogging chatfest that is held the first Friday of every month. This always takes some thinking. We have had stouts, dubbels, milds and your local brew and today we have atmosphere, as chosen and hosted by Al and Ron at Hop Talk:

Beer is about more than flavor, IBUs, and the debate over what is a craft beer and what isn’t. It’s about Life. It’s the proverbial icing on the cake. So, we want to know about the "Atmosphere" in which you enjoy beer. Where is your favorite place to have a beer? When? With whom? Most importantly:

Why?

Because while life isn’t all about beer, beer is all about life.

That's a a big one. I am going to have to think about this. Stan at Appellation Beer posted some thoughts earlier this week and mentioned the back porch before describing how making picking up fresh beer as part of his market rounds is part of his life. I sort of jumped the gun a bit by describing my favorite local pub more than my local beer last time. So I am going to think about this and make some notes throughout the day. Because, as much as anything, the problem is I am wondering what atmosphere could there be where I would not like a great craft brew.

While I am doing all that thinking, you keep an eye on Hop Talk and their post for the day where they are keeping track of what everyone is saying.

First Thoughts: When I get right down to it, I believe more than anything that fine beer and me is all about me and the fine beer. If I translate that to atmosphere, I may have had my perfect moment a few weeks ago, after the BBQ and after the kids are in bed. Sun has set but the satellites are still reflecting its rays as they move west to east way up there in the late twilight. Sitting back in a lawn chair, the cool of a June night creeping up, listening to a minor league baseball game floating in on my AM radio from somewhere to the west of me, near another one of the Great Lakes. In the glass a great Belgian ale, the large bottle leaning up against something growing in the garden. Quiet contemplation of the play between yeast spice, the texture of the malt and the burlappy hop.

Next Thoughts: Conviviality. The ability for things and people to live with each other. Pete Brown in his 2006 book Three Sheets to the Wind makes the point that beer is all about sociability. Consider this BBC story about traditional communal pot drinking in Uganda:

But even inside police stations, prisons and army barracks organised groups of men and their long home-made straws can be found sucking from the pot under a makeshift shelter. There will always be some music with huge speakers powered by a car battery and the appetising smell of roasting meat. Village chiefs and local MPs also have their own drinking clubs. "As a legislator I will never succumb to the wishes of those born-again pastors," said an MP who asked to remain anonymous. "They should know that ajono is a very hygienically brewed home beer that generates good income for the millet growers and the poor families brewing it," he said.

It also generates being together. I spent my lunch money at my favorite pub and, even thought I had no beer, I was with people - soldiers, tourists, families, office-workers - who were and just being in each other's presence is different than being in a restaurant. A public house. A house filled with the public. Where else are we the public together and not being told what to do or think or buy?

Last Thoughts: So I spent this evening in a backyard with slightly distant relatives, some pizza, some burgers, a few brews including one I made and sat and talked. We talked about how one generation had passed to the next a few years ago, about the different kids running around us, how we would face the larger, even more distant group that was going to be with us tomorrow at the reunion. Beer was a topic, a balm and a bridge. No crutch or excuse or snobbery or excess. Just chat and a summer evening and family.

Now, later with the quieter house settling around, sitting here with a Kwak at the keyboard, remembering and also thinking it a reasonable but not really challenging Belgian brown (notes of fig and date in alspiced cream yeast soft water, the deepish orange-amber colour of many a DIPA, a clingy oranged cream toned fine foam froth), I wonder what it all means. Does an atmosphere improve the beer or does beer frame the moment as it provides refreshment or relaxation, a new taste sensation or a familiar comfort?

Does it create the atmosphere?