Short of naming me The President of Beer, this is one office in the public service that I could take on with a clear conscience:

In Washington state, where the brewpub craze was launched two decades ago, craft brewers have created a new state-sanctioned commission to better market their beers to consumers. The group will represent licensed breweries that produce less than 100,000 barrels annually per location. With 84 microbreweries, Washington trails just California and Colorado. The commission may be the first state-sanctioned promotional group for craft brewers...

Good economics and good law. But maybe I need to think more about being President of Beer.

A busy Sunday here at Good Beer Blog headquarters. We've picked up another sponsor but for a time limited period for after the New Year. Very interesting but will tell more later. Do you have concerns about sponsors and advertising here? The goal is to have funding or support through which we can give you more.

These photos for the contest are interesting, too. Out first submission today is a set of four including the three below and the one above. They are from Stan Hieronymus, author of the book and blog Brew Like A Monk and also the blog Appellation Beer. They are grand photos each, entitled "Damnation at the Grand Canyon", "A Roundabout in Poperinge", "The Brewhouse at Rochefort", "Fermentation at Schneider" respectively. Classics all, the one of the roundabout reminding me of this great ale I had in the spring from that town. Note that there is another candidate for beer and snow category as well as another on the theme of yeast.

The other submission for the day is no less classic but sent from a student, Cameron, and it was taken at Mulligan's in Dublin. Pete Brown in his excellent book Three Sheets to the Wind, still needing a proper review around here, reckons that Mulligans pours the best Guinness in Dublin - right there at page 105. Cameron found himself one and had to take a picture of it after his first sip.

Saisons are one of best kept secrets in the world of beer. In the recent book What to Drink with What You Eat, awaiting my review, Garrett Oliver of Brooklyn Brewery names "Saison du Fond" - is that a typo of "Saison Dupont"? Yes it is - as his first beer in his fantasy desert island dozen. Early last month I reviewed a book entitled Farmhouse Ales which covers both the southern Belgian and their near neighbours the southern French saisons. In past posts, I have reviewed two Duponts and a Hennepin as well as a funkier form of the Fantome but this collection is one of the best. I am pretty sure I picked up all four at the ever excellent Finger Lake Beverage Center of Ithaca, NY and it speaks to their obvious commitment to quality. I will be particularly interested to note whether the seasonal Farmhouse Ale from Smuttynose of New Hampshire is anywhere near the quality of Ommegang of New York's Hennepin.

• Farmhouse Ale: from Smuttynose of New Hampshire. This beer is part of the their big beer series and comes with its own brewer's notes:

  Like almost every other brewer who read Phil Markowski's book "Farmhouse Ales" last year I decided that it was time for Smuttynose to try its hand at a saison...We decided that it was all about the yeast so we had White Labs send us a pitch of their saison yeast, which I believe is in the Dupont vein. Dr. White suggested that we ferment the beer without cooling and let the temperature rise to wherever it wants to go. Easier said than done, believe me.

  Smuttynose is one of the great brewers these days if only for these notes that set the plan and the background out so clearly. The beer does not disappoint. Glowing orange without the usual underlying amber when I see orange in the beer. Quite still with a slight white rim and a skim of foam. It is as full of fruit as any beer I have ever had - orange, apricot and peach - all coaxed out of the malt without addition. The brewer thinks it is a little too full, too sweet and that is a fair comment but this is in no way sickly. It is more that the fruit overpowers the grain, like a record player with the balance set to far to one speaker - further attenuation would help restore the equilibrium. The fullness has a thick glyceral quality and while there is a spice quality harkening of cumin is it more like the roughness of rye than anything you would have in a Christmas pud. Again, the plan for next year's version might resolve this. So bigger than Hennepin but well within the ballpark yet respectful of the show of finesse that is Ommegang's product. All BAers support the cause.
• Saison d'Epeautre: from the Brasserie de Blaugies, makers of the fig lambic I tried last June. 2004 marked on the cork. The beer pours a light straw with a white foamy head. On the nose, there is light melony tell-tale saison-ness. The taste is very dry and the body is lighter than I am used to for a saison. Grain huskiness with notes of cantelope, sultana raising and white pepper. Some cream in the dryness but not much. The dry is not an astringent hop-based dry. At the swirl, more milkiness and more white pepper spice. All the BAers like this 6% take on the style. The brewery says this:

  The german wheat is an unrefined yeast which contains a natural flavour enhancer, giving a good taste to the bread but also to the beer.

  I don't think that really makes any sense. Oh, for the lack of decent translation!
• Pissenlit: from Fantome of Soy, Belgium. Spring 2004. Once I realized this was dandelion beer I checked out some reviews and wondered what I was in for. Not to worry - at least for me. The beer poured an amber ale under tan frothy foam and rim. The core flavour is a little hard to put your finger on but it is both familiar and welcome: rich sweetness but biscuity; fresh apple, orange and fresh squeezed lime juices; a bit of white pepper and twigginess; and that tone which must be the dandelion - maybe I am thinking of sorrel in the spring when I go down onto the lawn to eat something growing. It is a mild greenness. The end is a mild bitter with a little huskiness moving into richish cider. Much more attractive to me than other brew reviewers suggest so perhaps beware. This may just particularly suit my tastes. On the swirl, there is cream but much more softly bitter green. At the end of the dregs it is almost like light drinkable cheese.

  A beer that reminds me of a white lirac wine I once had whose only accompaniment I could think of was fresh leaf lettuce. This is more robust but in the same range. A beer or a waldorf salad with apples, walnuts and celery. Maybe Thai food, too. BAers see the challenge yet take it on with only 2% saying no despite its thoughtful unconventionality. A beer that makes me wonder if Fantome is the best brewer in the world.

• Fantome Saison: also from Fantome of Soy, Belgium. Funnily, I did not like this quite as much as the Pissenlit but I still liked it a lot. Very active amber ale with a creamy white head. In the mouth pear and grape juice with white pepper, biscuit and a drying astringency across the tongue. Chalky notes under the herbal hoppiness not unlike Orval in a lavenderish sort of way. Well hidden strength at 8%. On the swirl, the astringency calms though the white pepper remains. Many BAers ask good questions but still rank it highly. A discomforting beer perhaps but still very attractive.

Swooping around for cheap and easy cut and paste stories for you the readers of the beer blog - in the guise of finding out more about global beer culture - I came upon reference to "the Chattanooga Beer Board." Apparently municipal governments in that state act as both licensing boards and regulatory tribunals for all matters relating to beer. The City of Athens in that good state describes their powers in this way:

The Beer Board has the power and is directed to regulate the selling, storing, distributing and manufacturing of beer within the City of Athens. Beer shall mean and include all beers, ales and other malt liquors having an alcoholic content of not more than five percent(5%) by weight pursuant to State law. It is unlawful for any person to sell, store for sale, distribute for sale or manufacture beer without first making application to and obtaining a permit from the beer board.

City Attorney Lewis Cobb said that if one of the establishments loses its beer permit, that doesn't necessarily mean that it will lose its liquor license because liquor is regulated by the Alcoholic Beverage Commission. Cobb said that he can't comment on whether the cited establishments will be fined or lose their licenses, but that each establishment will have a chance to explain why its license shouldn't be revoked.

More photos from the email. First we have a very attractive picture from North Coast Brewing of Fort Bragg California, a selection of beer testings which must have sat quite happily before Jonathon of the Beerinator - a great beer news information aggregator. You can find some of my North Coast Brewing comments under this link.

Next, below, we have two from Bob of stuffed animals and real ale. I am very jealous of him and his access to Freeminer's Waterloo and Trafalgar. You will recall Freeminer is the maker of the greatest stout that ever walked the planet, Deep Shaft Stout. For some reason I think Jonathon is in Michigan but I don't know why I think that. Sculler's IPA, illustrated in the classic "beer, hairy thing and snow" motif, is actually from Washington State made as it is by the Skagit River Brewery.

Last, under these comments we have six photos from England, whence Phil the taker thereof lives. Phil has got a very interesting beer related project on the planning table that I will not speak of now but when it comes about...well, just you wait. Phil has returned to the theme of hops we saw something of already but as they are so darn attractive - why not, says I. He also tackles the far more troublesome topic of yeast. Very interesting stuff.

Wow! Fabulous stuff and the fodder for a really good contest. Here are all the posts for the Photo Contest 2006. Send more in - we have a few days left until the 21st.

From the Saranac line from Matt Brewing of Utica or, as the chamber of commerce calls it, Beautica. A small growler picked up at a Wegmans somewhere in the North Country of New York. Surprisingly - but I don't know why - an attractive dark orange-amber with a billowy white lacy head. In the mouth, after a few days of IPAs, this one is a relief - a creamy, slightly sourish even perhaps smoky brew maybe from a touch of black malt. The hops is mostly twiggy and fairly recessed.

Plenty of malt with some graininess but a just little more cloy from the sweet than I prefer but just a bit. Some raisin and pear in the malt. Add just one more note of another hop in there balancing that sweet malt and I would be quite pleased. But I could be too snobby and for the price of maybe three bucks for 32 oz., this is great value.

Here is a very interesting article on the state of beer taxation in the state of Oregon and some of the...err...instruments of democracy that are involved in taxation determinations:

Seven state legislators - five Republicans and two Democrats - have acknowledged this fall that they accepted expense-paid trips to Hawaii in 2002 and 2004 for conferences sponsored by the Oregon Beer and Wine Distributors Association, and failed to report the gifts to the state ethics commission as required by law.