Ok, so that’s an in-joke, probably, or not- the title refers to Chris Smith’s lamented column at WNYMedia.net, The Morning Grumpy.  Like him, I spend probably a little too much time scanning news & views, and it seems perfectly squibbish to rack a few from the fermenter, so to speak, from time to time.  Look, I even used a sensible Category AND tag here.  Watchout!

This has nothing to do with beer, really

1) The beer-blog-o-verse is all atwitter today about this WaPo article reporting on the illegal sale, via eBay at least, of rare beers.  Look for some serious self-loathing to follow, as we/beer bloggers/beer-enthusiasts accuse one another of “wine-ifying” beer and bringing it to this level, food-pairing is evil, “it’s just beer”, &c.  Meh.  As far as the practice itself goes, well… First, I think beer traders are doing it right- quid pro quo. As well, I know real friendships start to spring up though trading circles, which is such a part of beer anyway- it is a very friendly industry as a whole.  I suppose it might yet be illegal, but profiteering it most certainly is not.  Secondly, to me the big appeal of beer is as a pretext for–or at least an accompaniment to–travel.  (e.g., See Rudy’s post of last week, and also point 1.)  So while Russian River release events might seem absurd to some, if it is the kind of beer-geekery you go for (I do!), at least you could roll your 2012 Dark Lord Day into… seeing a show & some great breweries in Chicago, or a longer road trip visiting relatives in Nebraska, or… some kind of travel, exploration, horizon-busting.  Go, enjoy the beer on-site or in the intended context, and then be done with it.  And the reverse for us: CBW hopes people come to our awesome ci-tay and drink the beer here, by and large.

2) Searching for a shared-file solution, with automatic updating and security plug-ins as well?  Community Beer Works endorses Dropbox!  That is all, but no, we don’t work for them or anything.

You should see what I didn't choose from the Google Image Search

3) Speaking of the Washington Post, actually… If you know me, you know I’m not likely to be a huge fan of anything George Will writes, but you know what?  When a man’s right, he’s right.  So it was a pleasant surprise to get this link from my Dad and to actually pretty much dig the article.  John Hickenlooper For President, 2016?  I like the idea quite a bit, frankly.  Brewers as politicians might not always work, but at the very least, they’ll always bring beer and excellent facial hair, so how bad can that be?  Note to local people: Our very own Pearl Street Brewery was initially an offshoot of the Pearl Street brewpub Hickenlooper started in Colorado, iirc, though he was also bought-out so long ago now as to be no more than wee footnote to the whole story.  Unless he runs, I add cynically; Hickenlooper on one of those wrought-iron railings would make a great photo-op.  NB: The Franklin quotation will not die, but it should.

4) In ridiculous label news, Funkwerks (of, in fact, Colorado) had to change a beer name/label–nice of them, but seriously?–and Clown Shoes (Of Massachusetts) stayed very far from risque on their latest release, the awesomely-themed Blaecorn Unidragon Russian Imperial Stout.  I will check that out, but sadly, Funkwerks is not in our distribution area, alas.

5) The Morning Grumpy often included a Youtube clip of one sort or another so The Afternoon “Cheerio!” will thus present: searches for “beer” plus a random word.  Today, it was squirrel.  You really can’t go wrong with Andrew W.K., ever, but the squirrel doesn’t really drink the beer, which is a bit disappointing.  To the extent that he does, though, he’s getting Harpoon, it seems to me- good call.