{"id":18326,"date":"2016-08-08T15:12:21","date_gmt":"2016-08-08T03:12:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/?p=18326"},"modified":"2016-08-08T15:27:53","modified_gmt":"2016-08-08T03:27:53","slug":"hope-and-dread","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/2016\/08\/08\/hope-and-dread\/","title":{"rendered":"Equal parts hope and dread"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Mount<\/a>
Big Friendly Geology<\/figcaption><\/figure>The days are just packed.<\/span>1<\/sup><\/a><\/span> This is always a weird time of year to be a beer geek who works in the beer business; the combination of so much going on<\/em> and so much to do<\/em> warrants one of those legendary compound German words. I\u00a0am\u00a0exhaustixhilarated. This\u00a0is\u00a0terrificifying. So, naturally, Emma and I nicked off for a fifteen-hour one-day road-trip to see the final days of an exhibition<\/a> and\u00a0that<\/em> freakin’ gorgeous mountain. There wasn’t even any beer involved.\u00a0It was great. Bring on the week ahead, I say.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

The ‘Road to Beervana’<\/a> has matured \/ metastasized impressively. It’s on\u00a0right now<\/em> (he says, Monday afternoon) and includes frankly too many things to even attempt a Best Of. Work will keep me busy most evenings, but Golding’s being Golding’s, that’ll include a little fun anyhow: we’re hosting a Junk Food Degustation<\/a> tomorrow night and a Cocktail Night<\/a> on Wednesday. For the latter, comrade Dylan<\/a> and I were flown up to Hallertau<\/span>2<\/sup><\/a><\/span> last week and I can attest to the cleverness of their beer-and-cocktails person; it should be an interesting mix of two domains of nerdiness that really should get together more often. (I was already convinced of the soundness of the marriage between beer and junk food, unsurprisingly.)<\/p>\n

\"Galbraith's<\/a>
Brown ale break<\/figcaption><\/figure>On Thursday, we’ve got the Great Beer Debate<\/a>. Megan from The Thirsty Bitches<\/a><\/span>3<\/sup><\/a><\/span> and I have assembled a panel of people from various corners of the beer business to dissect the question of ownership in the beer business: never an out-of-date topic given the never-ending parade of headlines and murmurings about buyouts and mergers.\u00a0We’ll hear from\u00a0some die-hard independents and some from the… integrated side of things (he says, searching for a suitable non-pejorative), and it should be a fun airing-out of a contentious and complicated issue about which there’s no shortage of Give A Damn. Tickets for this one are limited, but super cheap (just enough to cover the venue cost) \u2014\u00a0and the theatre\u00a0sells good beer from breweries of various ownership models, so you can drink your politics and be a happy non-hypocrite in the audience.<\/p>\n

Friday and Saturday are Beervana Itself At Last<\/a>. We’re at the edge of weather-forecasting feasibility, and it looks somewhat grim. But that’s just a return to tradition, right? And you all own a jacket, yeah? Be not afraid<\/em>. There’ll be beer. And food. Plenty of both, I swear. This year, we’ve rejigged the seminar-stuff I helped host last year<\/a>\u00a0and we’ll instead be staging small rambles \/ tours on the festival floor itself. So you can hear about sour beer at the Pucker-Up Bar or about or be introduced to the visiting international brewers\u00a0right at their stands. There’s a different theme each hour, and they’re running in every session<\/a>. Come along, or send your more-bewildered friends. We’ll look after them.<\/p>\n

On Sunday, I sleep.<\/span>4<\/sup><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

I hope y’all have a great week. If you’re a) in Wellington, and b) even moderately fond of beer, it’ll frankly be difficult not to. Just pace yourself and be nice to your\u00a0(exhaustixhilarated) service staff. They’re probably knee-deep in FOMO from being stuck at work and watching you all enjoy yourselves. And (speaking of FOMO) if you’re out of town, remember to recalibrate your\u00a0f<\/em>-word<\/a>, and contemplate coming next year. The weather’s crap, but everything else is pretty neat.<\/p>\n

\"Len<\/a>
Wibbly architecture<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The days are just packed. This is always a weird time of year to be a beer geek who works in the beer business; the combination of so much going on and so much to do warrants one of those legendary compound German words. I\u00a0am\u00a0exhaustixhilarated. This\u00a0is\u00a0terrificifying. So, naturally, Emma and I nicked off for a … Continue reading Equal parts hope and dread<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[35],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-18326","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-meta"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":17491,"url":"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/2015\/09\/21\/beer-media-baseline\/","url_meta":{"origin":18326,"position":0},"title":"The beer-media baseline","author":"Phil","date":"September 21, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"I spent a few hours on Saturday in the beer-bunker that is Hashigo Zake, in the company of two-dozen-or-so like-minded folks and enjoying the Brewers Guild Awards beaming at us from Auckland over a mercifully-dependable livestream. It was a properly marvellous occasion,\u00a0and the Guild (with new host, Hilary Barry) put\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Mediawatch"","block_context":{"text":"Mediawatch","link":"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/category\/interesting-finds\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Screenshot from tv3.co.nz","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/wp-content\/uploads\/Story-taste-test-300x218.png?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":26266,"url":"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/2025\/03\/21\/beer-nytxw-2024\/","url_meta":{"origin":18326,"position":1},"title":"99 clues about beer in the Times \u2014 a 2024 crossword survey","author":"Phil","date":"March 21, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"Since noticing a reference to modern hazy IPA in the New York Times crossword, and wondering what that \"meant\" in terms of beer's currency in the popular culture, I've been keeping a tally of what else comes up. I recently realised I had a full calendar year worth of such\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Mediawatch"","block_context":{"text":"Mediawatch","link":"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/category\/interesting-finds\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/wp-content\/uploads\/NYTXW-2024.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/wp-content\/uploads\/NYTXW-2024.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/wp-content\/uploads\/NYTXW-2024.png?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/wp-content\/uploads\/NYTXW-2024.png?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/wp-content\/uploads\/NYTXW-2024.png?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":17965,"url":"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/2016\/03\/16\/will-it-shandy\/","url_meta":{"origin":18326,"position":2},"title":"Will It Shandy..?","author":"Phil","date":"March 16, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"At Golding's, where I work with Dylan of The Bottleneck blog, it's not uncommon to see us indulging in a little game we call 'Will It Shandy?' when we're trying out new arrivals to the taps. A shandy \u2014 that's a beer mixed with lemonade, on the remote chance the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Podcast episodes"","block_context":{"text":"Podcast episodes","link":"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/category\/podcast-episodes\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Garage Project 'Beer' (My house, 6 September 2015)","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/wp-content\/uploads\/Garage-Project-Beer-tall-226x300.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":18356,"url":"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/2016\/08\/29\/yall\/","url_meta":{"origin":18326,"position":3},"title":"A festival for the rest of y’all","author":"Phil","date":"August 29, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"So that was the week that was. The week that was a while ago, now. How time flies when you're quietly recuperating. Weirdly, given the work I gravitate towards, I'm a natural introvert and crowds of lovely beer nerds are still, you know, crowds. I think exhaustixhilirated just about covers\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Observations"","block_context":{"text":"Observations","link":"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/category\/reports\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Light-up signage at Beervana 2016 (Wellington Stadium, 12 August 2016)","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/wp-content\/uploads\/Blow-your-bulbs-at-Beervana.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/wp-content\/uploads\/Blow-your-bulbs-at-Beervana.jpg?resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/wp-content\/uploads\/Blow-your-bulbs-at-Beervana.jpg?resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/wp-content\/uploads\/Blow-your-bulbs-at-Beervana.jpg?resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":17373,"url":"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/2015\/08\/31\/chimay-grand-reserve\/","url_meta":{"origin":18326,"position":4},"title":"The end of August, Michael Jackson, Chimay Grande R\u00e9serve, and me","author":"Phil","date":"August 31, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"On our roughly spherical planet, yesterday is still today for a good while into tomorrow. Which is convenient, given my topic. But then, whenever you're late to talk about an annual conjunction of timing, you're also just\u00a0really early. Anyway, the 30th of August is my birthday, and also the anniversary\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Actual Diary entries"","block_context":{"text":"Actual Diary entries","link":"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/category\/diary\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Michael Jackson in the pub (credit unknown)","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/wp-content\/uploads\/MJ-in-the-pub-300x276.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":17208,"url":"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/2015\/08\/21\/beer-writing-caution\/","url_meta":{"origin":18326,"position":5},"title":"Beer writing: a word of caution","author":"Phil","date":"August 21, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"Most beer writing is crap. This should be unsurprising and uncontroversial for the simple reason that\u00a0most of everything is crap. Enshrined as\u00a0Sturgeon's law, this isn't a cynical or depressing conclusion; just a sound observation and call for better mental hygiene. 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