Update: more prizes are being arranged already. And, yes, the photos need to relate to beer and brewing.

Yes, the mother of all beer blog contests is here again! Last year, tens if not dozens of entries were sent to A Good Beer Blog and many of them were actually legitimate submissions from people with the right to post them. It was exciting, educational and nobody lost an eye so that was good. And the winner was apparently controversial to a tiny fringe group and that spiced things up even more.

This year we go one step beyond and make this a big Christmas gift for a bunch of lucky winners. Here is deal. First, this is going to be a joint contest with a mystery blog yet to be announced. It is an exciting partnership that needs to be worked out between the legal teams involved but the announcement is going to be huge news. Second, the rules of beer are so weird that you can only get it shipped to certain places (where you are) from certain other places (where the people of the beer are). So we are giving a load of prizes:

• For the best photo from Ontario, a gift basket of fine beer will be sent from our pals at Roland and Russell, importers to the stars or at least the stars of Ontario. These guys are so keen they called me a couple of weekends ago telling me they had a prize so I needed to start a contest. That is excellent.
• For the United states a gift pack yet to be determined pack of stuff will be sent from Flying Dog of Colorado. Flying Dog sponsored our summer contest and put together a great package of a swell limited edition beer and some beer garmentry for wearing as the winner drank the brimming cup.
• For the UK, we are working on a selection of ales to be sent from a shop of distinction to be announced. This is really exciting news that we hope to make as exciting as the local laws of beer allow...meaning we are still begging.
• For the overall winner, the best of the best, a copy of Beer & Philosophy, collected essays on thought and brew, will be sent out, signed by the only author in the bunch who is neither a university philosopher or brewer...me. I know, I know - who needs beer when you can have my words on paper in your hands.

Pure excitement. This is meant to be big...and fun...and about beer. Plus, we are going to beat the bushes to add more prizes as the contest goes along and hopefully by the end of the whole thing there will be plenty more winners with plenty more beer related stuff under the Christmas tree.

Sound good? So start emailing the photos to me at beerblog-at-gmail-dot-com and the announcements should start flying with entries, new prizes and, most excitingly, identity that mystery compadre of the gift giving blogs. The deadline is Monday 17 December 2007 at 4:00:00 pm eastern Lake Ontario time. And in the meantime, if you are a brewer, pub, author or purveyor of any other beer related stuff, join in an pledge a prize for the winners. It's wonderful life.