#BeerSaturday 244
Source: https://www.pinterest.pt/goldensaintbeer/ with a little Zeke design on top.
I became a beer blogger naturally due to years I have spent brewing for myself, working with breweries on their technology and marketing, and the decades spent imbibing. Hence, the self-decreed title of the #Blockchain #Beerologist and am cranking up the Beerology game this year.
For week 244, I am a bit late to the party but I have a good beery excuse!
Pint of the week
The Pint of the Week is generally special because it is a great beer enjoyed on the town, with friends and supporting local breweries and bars. This week, it is a salute to the Ukrainian people and the breweries helping them resist. I understand why this hasn't been stopped yet but I feel for those experiencing the pain and fear while the world deliberates. Thoughts and prayers are so meaningless when you are going through what you are now and I will tip a pint to your strength while I wait for an opportunity to help beyond Ukrainian Hive curation.
LANfest
The reason I was unable to buy my round on the weekend is that, for the first time in years, the gang threw a LANfest. This is the party we have been throwing once or twice a year for 3 decades where we gather, build our computers, and get loaded for 48 hours while playing computer games. At this one, there was beer as usual.
For the casks, we customarily pick someone who hasn't hammered the tap into a cask before. Like a right of passage.
There really is a lot of pressure...not just in the cask of beer. If you miss, you get laughed at. If you half miss, the tap goes half way in then comes our in an unstoppable geyser. If you beast mode it, you can screw the whole deal up and make a big mess. You have to get it right.
Was this the coup de gras? Will the next picture be a frantic shot of a bunch of drunk nerds scrambling to contain the fountain of beer? You can see we have coolers of craft beer on the floor so we are covered but this could be come entertainment.
Here we are popping the spike through the valve on the top so you will have to assume that there wasn't any chaos to share, otherwise you would be watching it now.
With the great reveal, here is the first pint. It is a cask-aged extra special bitter. What a nice treat to return to one of my all time favourite styles of beer when I have been backing in IPAs for so many years. Sure I would have loved a hoppy surprise. A well-done bitter is the beer that probably made me ready to enjoy my first IPA and I drank this baby the whole weekend from the first pint to the last road soda on my ride home. Don't tell anyone. ;)
There Was Other Beer!
When you manage to carry on a tradition since the 80s and add people along the way, the phone tends to stay stowed and the awesome moments remain undocumented. Even a pandemic couldn't stop us as an unconsulted left would have cried foul over our congregation and a frothing baseless right would have thrown scorn as we each tested ourselves for covid before entering. When you get to gather with old friends and celebrate like in the before time, it is made even better when you are handed a new beer. When that beer is a one-off IPA with Citra from https://www.bloodbrothersbrewing.com/ (which is just down the road from the music studio we had for 10 years) that is some sorta awesome.
LANfest the LANfest as they say.
#BEERSaturday!
I could play on a team with these guys.
243 consecutive weeks of #Beersaturday?!? You know we have one of the longest running group of drinkin' buddies across the globe and any blockchain. Talk about consistency and a good reason to pull up a beer and warm up the winter? Hit up @detlev/244-weeks-of-the-beersaturday-challenge-feel-invited-to-show-your-beer for the weekly #beersaturday post, grab a pint, and join in the fun with a beer story of your own.
This week, I am again inviting my brand new friend but old skool veteran 
Cheers to our global family of beer-drinkers!!
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