This bit above is a detail from a picture received today from Germany. What to call it? "I Wish I Had A Cell Phone, Too" or maybe "I Really Should Leave These Two Alone"? Sums it all up really, this 21st century. Click for a larger revelation of the facial expression. I wish I had a yellow tie.

Now, more entries. For starters, John H Lewington fo somewhere in England and winner of the 2007 grand prize offers this one photo to the right and takes the lead in the so far one man BrewDog beer race for best UK entry. In other Euro-land news, Barry Masterson of Muenster, Germany provides us with these views below - including one of maybe the same bottles I think we saw from Joe Stange in 2008:

Mike Stich of Toronto has forwarded these entries:

Timothy Cox of Hampton New Brunswick offered these photos up:

Keep them coming...

Let's start with an entry. An entry from another man who cannot count. Thomas Cizauskas of Yours for Good Fermentables sent in six pictures with the message "one, two, three, four, six" which just goes to show you. It really does. I like them and I like Tom so six it is. One's up top there and here are the rest. Hey ain't getting an extra prize, though:

There are more entries down below and more in the cue still but let's catch up on on the prizes. It has been a bit nuts lately but, thankfully, I seem to not have to really drum up prizes as the pledges are coming through the email nicely on their own. Here is what we have so far:

• A one year subscription to TAPS magazine, Canada's beer quarterly.
• A hardcover first edition of Ambitious Brew direct from the author Maureen Ogle.
• the upcoming brand spanking new book on wheat beers also direct from Stan Hieronymus,
• a prize basket from Roland and Russell for a lucky winner in Ontario
• a group of prizes from Maine's Shipyard which I will further define.
• beer from BrewDog which can only be won in the UK. But we have no UK entries so it may go begging,
• a signed copy of Hops and Glory from Pete Brown, last week's winner of the UK Beer Writer of the Year 2009, as well as a few unsigned copies of his books,
• a bottle of Yule Tide, the Christmas release tripel from Clipper City
• two shirt from craftbeerclothing.com which also offers a 15% discount to beer blog readers who use the a special coupon code called "holidaybeer",
• some swag from Creemore Springs including a hockey jersey in it, a "prairie shirt" as well as a hat or some glassware depending on distance to be shipped.
• and last but not least a great gift pack from Deschutes Brewing The gift pack includes a Jubelale ornament, Jubelale long-sleeve T-shirt, Jubelale pint glass and a Jubelale poster signed by the artist

Wow. And I get none of it. That is the problem. I should just do all this for me, me, me. But that would not be nice at Yule. Summertime? Watch out for the man in the mirror, that's all I am saying. Entries next. Andrew Bartle of Toronto Ontario sent some verse ("The eyes of the beholder/Just the tip of the iceberg/nothing wrong with a scuffy glass/it's enough to see) and got all experimental with his entries:

Nate of no last name and no postal address but of the blog Bier Adventures sent these five. Notice his attention to one requirement for Yuletide photo context mastery, snow:

That is it for now. Still days to go before I rest. Keep them coming...

Information UpNate: Got the skinny on our entrant Nate - he is Nate Howe of Lausanne, Switzerland. Who knew?

I was checking out Amazon to see what beer books I missed this year. Huge sale on so, being the canny Yuletide 2009 beer photo context administrator I am, I picked up a few extra copies on the cheap of Pete Brown's books for you US readers who have been frozen out by some insane publishers who refuse to place it into your bookstores. Never fear. Canada is here. Entries are getting backed up and I don't know if I have enough to give away. Remember to get your entries in this week as next week is too late. Contest closes 12 December. Rules: 5 photos (unless you can't count), no flash photos of beer next to a plate of food, snow shots get a bonus, remember to include your postal address. I think those are all the rules. Oh, and not 19,476 KB photos. I don't like spending my evenings reducing the scale of digital photos on a 2003 era computer. You can hear the cogs creaking when I do.

Also, heading off into the northern reaches of upstate New York today for Christmas shopping and hopefully a dip into Bessette's stock in Canton NY. Taking a six of McAuslan oatmeal stout as a gift for the hosts of the NCPR volunteer Christmas party - I answer volunteer phones in another country. Who ever thought it would come to that? More later.

Update post haul: Got the tiniest lecturette at Canada Customs, the guard eager to point out that half my taxes and duties were "due to that beer" - like I ought to know better, like I shouldn't. Too bad he was unaware that $4.99 a bomber for Stone is pretty sweet as is $5.99 for Sly Fox Route 113 IPA so far from home. The larder is well padded now. Found one six of Troeg's porter just sitting there, 17 miles from the Canadian border. Other stuff as well. I am giddy as a schoolgirl. Well, maybe as a 46 year old who is totally Dad.

I have to say that the topic "Stumbling Home" is hardly inspirational as it has nothing to do with craft beer - but as I have posted a post for every edition of The Session, well, I didn't want to break my streak.

The real reason, however, is that I have a little something in the can on this one, the story of a pal who made it home alive after falling asleep in the snow. It was over 20 years ago and it was in Halifax, Nova Scotia. And he was saved by the donair wrapped in foil he had tucked in his jacket over his heart. True story. In celebration of his salvation by savory snack, years later we held a small poetry contest recalling the event:

#1

Dark. Snow. Ale fun hours.
Young man prone, alone, drift-hid,
Blood thanks meaty warmth.

#2

Just a cone wrapped up in foil,
Oozing whitish sauce and oil,
Gave the world one doctor's toil.
Fate's foe played a spicy foil!

#3

Look...there, quite by the fence,
Dark, laying in the drift:
Too full of Keiths his head to lift.
Not near the home he rents -
Heedless now of consequence

The snowfall lays upon his head

And gathers by his arm.
Jon is slipping nearer harm
and a frosty final bed!
How can Jon not be dead?

Ah...one small patch...the snow melts there.
Above his chest of sweaty hair,
Upon his heart, the guardian fare,
Within his coat, a large donair.

#4

Snow stings my forehead.
My footprints slowly fill in.
The taste of last night's donair.

If I could do an ABC Wide World of Sports 1970s video retrospective on the man's career to date I would. Brown wins! Pete Brown wins!!!

What to call these beers? For the last few years, brewers have been getting together to make something new together. This one has a deeper back story than most but the point is the same. In the end they are joint projects, opportunities to get together, to share and learn. And no doubt to have a lot of fun. But what do they offer us, the consumer? They are the specials of the specials. The seasonals with only one season. Yet surely they have to stand up for themselves as beer and not be the wall hanging commemorative china plate of the beer world. What can I learn from just this bottle?

Blended three years ago, it pours a lovely light cola colour with a frothy deep cream head. The aroma (aka smell) is dandy - date and sharp apple.with a floral thing that is almost rose. On the sip and swish, there is plenty of rich pumpernickel malt but with that Avery drying hard water. Dark chocolate, dark plum and a nod to cinnamon with an interesting juiciness that nods to pear or white grape. It is styled as a Belgian strong dark ale and that makes sense. Yet there is an the underlying tone. The hard water for me is not working but that is a personal thing for me that I have noticed since I tried a line up from Colorado's Great Divide. I am a soft water man. Yet there is a rich plum dark sugar finish. Solid if, for me, slightly sub-moreish.

Plenty o' BAer respect. Take their advice.

Nothing deep or profound this evening. Just a thanks to the readers and, tonight, especially those on Google Reader. After six years of beer blogging, it has become harder to figure out how many people actually follow a blog given those followers on various aggregating services. But one, Google Reader, hit 5,000 followers recently. 5,011 today. I think I'm also glad that you are not all sending in photos to the beer blog Xmas photo contest. Thanks for that, too.

This 2009 Yuletide Beer Photo Extravaganza and Gift-a-thon is a little different. It's a little quieter than recent years. It's a little lonely. I was wondering why that was so I wrote a poem to express myself in the style of a certain salty 1800s epic:

The Rime of the Ancient Beer Blogger

There was an ancient beer blogger,
With contests one, two, three.
"By thy coffee cup and dressing gown,
Now wherefore stopp'st thou me ?

The Gunmaker's doors are opened wide,
And I am going in;
My friends are met, the feast is set:
May'st hear the merry din."

He holds him with his pudgy hand,
"There was a contest..." quoth he.
"Hold off ! unhand me, blogging fool !"
Eftsoons a tale dropt he...

[An interjection here to shortcut and avoid 53 more stanzas about the smelly old beer blogger outside The Gunmaker's Pub. Seems that there was a blog of good omen that brought luck to beer bloggers which was treated unspeakably ...]

...On trips to Rome, or brew at home;
This blogger we did follow,
And every day, for food or play,
Came to the ancient's hollo !

In London's mist, in tavern loud,
He perched the barstool fine;
Whiles all the night with cask ale bright,
And drank the white Moon-shine."

"God save thee, ancient beer blogger!
From the fiends, that plague thee thus !--
Thou look'st so lost?' "...He mumbled out:
"I forsook Stonch, such great loss!!!"

There! The poetic arts have been the balm that have brought it all into view, made it all so clear. See, when I decided to slim down the photo contest, I figured Jeff was far too busy to even be bothered. But lo and behold, we have not had a single entry from the UK so far and only two from outside of North America. And we have one UK-only prize, two boxes of assorted BrewDog. This is what vanity leads to, you know. This is what you get for rushing. Make me think of another poem...

No beer blogger is an Island...

But, on second thought, I'll save that one for another day. Here are more entries in the photo contest. Ed Gittines of Southbury, Connecticut sends in these five including a very good view at Fenway Park:

Scott Grenier of Clinton, NY sent these three photos of hops from an abandoned 1860's hop farm here in Central New York. He says the hops are an old variety of Cluster and are pretty tasty in an English style bitter or brown ale but that they can have a pretty intense grapefruit flavor when the beer is young.

I got this further update from Scott in an email just now:

Each fall I harvest around 3lbs of hops from the property, dry them, and brew with them a few times a year. Historically, the hops grown here were English Cluster and the ones I harvest are essentially the same variety, but have gone feral. I have brewed a number of beers with these hops, including a brown ale that I brewed according to a 1870's recipe from the Oneida Brewery? (Utica) that used hops grown from this area. I am pretty sure it is the first time someone had used these hops to brew a beer in around 140 years - And the beer tastes great! It is pretty amazing how much beer history is located here in CNY - though most people have no idea. All around this area you can find old hop barns, kilns, and hedgerows full of hops waiting to be picked.

Prizes? So far we are looking at the new book from Stan Hieronymus, a prize basket from Roland and Russell, stuff from Shipyard, beer from BrewDog, the new book from Pete Brown, a tripel from Clipper City, a shirt from craftbeerclothing.com, some swag from Creemore Springs and a not yet defined something from Deschutes Brewing. Great stuff... yet I need to work on more prizes. I know it. You know it.

I got a great gift in the mail today. Copy 8 of 10 of Ron Pattinson's new book, WAR! He wrote about the book's release this very morning from his home in The Netherlands and by suppertime a copy was in my mailbox here in Canada. Compiling his studies to date on the years of World War I and World War II, it is a great example of the work he is doing to bringing actual detailed primary research to the question of the history of beer.

One wishes all beer writers were so concerned with the facts as we witnessed today from Roger Protz who went all freaky handbags over BrewDog's new and insanely strong beer. He's received a number of head shaking responses, deservedly so given his use of language like "over-inflated egos and naked ambition" and "the wild buckeroos" and "what were you smoking last night, chaps?" and "this bunch of ego-maniacs" and "anxious to give beer a bad name." The oddest thing is that he goes off on his own ice flow all the while misunderstanding the technical process used for actually making the beer, baldly claiming it had wine yeast in it... not that wine yeast would get you a 32% beer. One wonders what Protz was thinking or, in fact, had been smoking himself when he wrote such a blurt. He has certainly gone a long way to discredit his own opinions on experimental beer generally. For a more measured response, you may want to read Pete Brown's post on the new and insanely strong beer from last Thursday...you know, when it was news.

Now with the Xmas 2009 Beer Blog Yuletide Photo Contest Extravaganza. First, a couple of solo entries from Canada.

Chris Berry of Kanata, Ontario sent this one picture to the left which sorta looks normal... until you have a good look at the baby's face. Frank MacDonald of Torbay Newfoundland kept the kids out of the photo to the right. It was taken at the Grizzly Paw Brewpub in Canmore Alberta.

Next, Jeff Alworth of Portland, Oregon has sent in some photos from the scene there. I have no idea how he got to put in 8 entries but never having been to Oregon I can't be sure this is not some sort of cultural thing, some sort of secret message to us all. Maybe he can't count. Better not mess with the photo set just in case:

Finally Tim Connelly of Cambridge Massachusetts sent in these pictures which are entitled "Inside Cantillon," "In a Galway pub," "Outside of a Galway pub," "The Franciscan Well Brewery Pub, Cork' and "Brooklyn Brewery":

Four more great entries. I better starting beating the bush for more prizes. Here I go. Off to email brewers until all I have are bloody stumps for hands. Why? I don't do it for you. I do it for Santa.