{"id":19284,"date":"2017-09-26T23:19:25","date_gmt":"2017-09-26T10:19:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/?p=19284"},"modified":"2017-09-28T13:04:30","modified_gmt":"2017-09-28T00:04:30","slug":"this-thing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/2017\/09\/26\/this-thing\/","title":{"rendered":"This thing, and other things"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Bucketlamps,<\/a>
Vaguely-related things (a metaphor, and the design scheme at work)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Seven years ago, I first hit Publish<\/em> on this thing. The frequency at which I’ve done so, since, has oscillated wildly<\/span>1<\/sup><\/a><\/span> \u2015 as have\u00a0my\u00a0reasons for doing so. \u00a0After burning out a bit at university, writing about beer was originally a distraction from “more serious” topics \u2015 but that only lasts as long as it takes you to notice how all your favourite “big things” in philosophy more-generally just show up in beer, anyway: the fact that bullshit<\/span>2<\/sup><\/a><\/span> and hypocrisy are everywhere, that most bright lines of classification fall apart on closer inspection, etc<\/em>., etc<\/em>.. The parallels\u00a0are inevitable: our species has been making this stuff for thousands of years, so everything weird or wonderful or woeful about\u00a0us is reflected in it, and vice versa.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

But then, gradually, the world seems increasingly incomprehensible and writing about beer<\/em> \u2015 even when you’re trying to do it thoughtfully \u2015 just seems so tragically trivial set against (for example) two madmen goading each other towards a missile-measuring contest and a brutally bleak general election here in New Zealand, where beating up on society’s most vulnerable and shameless lying may just have carried the day.<\/span>3<\/sup><\/a><\/span> My brain serves me up a buffet of nonsense even on the best of days \u2014 world-class procrastination, a weird kind of completionism that makes me want to turn every little observation into a grand theory of everything, and the standard-issue imposter-y feeling that creeps up on pretty much everyone who garners any kind of ‘recognition’<\/span>4<\/sup><\/a><\/span> \u2014\u00a0magnifying the demotivational effect of everything else.<\/p>\n

I’ve never lost my love of the subject matter, though. I do have a mostly-deserved reputation of being a curmudgeonly bastard about the beer business \u2014 but it comes from the fact I’m a frequently-disappointed optimist<\/a>,<\/span>5<\/sup><\/a><\/span> rather than\u00a0someone who wallows in negativity. Criticism does stir me to write more-readily than cheerleading, and that’s fine. I’m comfortable with that being a fact about myself, and I honestly think some of my best work has come from that. But I am resolved to try to share, here, more of the unambiguously\u00a0good<\/em>, as well as the relatively-neutral stuff you notice from a peculiar vantage point on the industry such as mine.<\/p>\n

This thing<\/em> has been part of my life for nearly a fifth of its duration,<\/span>6<\/sup><\/a><\/span> and it’s a great hobby, outlet, and side-project for me. But \u2014 and this is me recommending my approach, presumptuously, to the rest of you \u2014 I also do have a (perhaps na\u00efvely hopeful) notion that beer, as a little part of our lives that ties nicely into many other aspects of it, could do us good in unexpected ways. Thinking more clearly about it and acting more ethically where it is concerned might just give us\u00a0practice for doing so with\u00a0all the other things<\/em>.<\/p>\n

\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Seven years ago, I first hit Publish on this thing. The frequency at which I’ve done so, since, has oscillated wildly \u2015 as have\u00a0my\u00a0reasons for doing so. \u00a0After burning out a bit at university, writing about beer was originally a distraction from “more serious” topics \u2015 but that only lasts as long as it takes … Continue reading This thing, and other things<\/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-19284","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":20244,"url":"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/2022\/07\/21\/medals-and-math-iii\/","url_meta":{"origin":19284,"position":0},"title":"Medals and math III \u2014 a bonanza of BGONZAs","author":"Phil","date":"July 21, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"It's beer awards night back home in New Zealand. I'll be tuning in as best I can from over here in Melbourne and doubtless obsessing over various weird little details and patterns once I've got the full results. As I've tried to make the case here before, I think there\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Beer awards"","block_context":{"text":"Beer awards","link":"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/category\/beer-awards\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/wp-content\/uploads\/Awards-night.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/wp-content\/uploads\/Awards-night.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/wp-content\/uploads\/Awards-night.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/wp-content\/uploads\/Awards-night.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/wp-content\/uploads\/Awards-night.jpg?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":18857,"url":"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/2017\/02\/24\/will-it-gaff\/","url_meta":{"origin":19284,"position":1},"title":"Will It Gaff..?","author":"Phil","date":"February 24, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"Continuing in the strange experimental spirit we started with our 'Will It Shandy..?' investigation, Dylan \u2015 of The Bottleneck blog, and my comrade \/ direct superior at Golding's Free Dive \u2015 and I ask the yet-more-nonsensical question: Will It Gaff? We realise that's probably not really a noun, nevermind a\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Podcast episodes"","block_context":{"text":"Podcast episodes","link":"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/category\/podcast-episodes\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":24498,"url":"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/2024\/08\/09\/medals-and-math-nzba-2024\/","url_meta":{"origin":19284,"position":2},"title":"Medals and math VII \u2014 returns, reshuffles, and rarely used rules","author":"Phil","date":"August 9, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"The 2024 New Zealand Beer Awards \u2014 formerly (and affectionately) known as the BGONZAs \u2014 were announced over the weekend, which means it's time again to dive into the results and seek out whatever curious details lurk under the surface.\u00a0This year saw a few breweries return to form, some interesting\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Beer awards"","block_context":{"text":"Beer awards","link":"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/category\/beer-awards\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/wp-content\/uploads\/Tropical-Cyclone-not-pictured.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/wp-content\/uploads\/Tropical-Cyclone-not-pictured.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/wp-content\/uploads\/Tropical-Cyclone-not-pictured.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/wp-content\/uploads\/Tropical-Cyclone-not-pictured.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/wp-content\/uploads\/Tropical-Cyclone-not-pictured.jpg?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":18249,"url":"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/2016\/07\/10\/hats\/","url_meta":{"origin":19284,"position":3},"title":"Full disclosure: one free hat, etc.","author":"Phil","date":"July 10, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"I've just got the one actual beer hat \u2014 which does stand in stark contrast to my predictably-overstuffed t-shirt drawer.\u00a0My Dogfish Head cap is a beloved and battered souvenir of a ridiculously enjoyable afternoon spent bartending at Beervana 2010, relatively early in my full-time-beer-person career. As I was doing my\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Metablogging"","block_context":{"text":"Metablogging","link":"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/category\/meta\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"My Dogfish Head hat, on Mount Tongariro (14 February 2016)","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/wp-content\/uploads\/Dogfish-Head-hat-Tongariro.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/wp-content\/uploads\/Dogfish-Head-hat-Tongariro.jpg?resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/wp-content\/uploads\/Dogfish-Head-hat-Tongariro.jpg?resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/wp-content\/uploads\/Dogfish-Head-hat-Tongariro.jpg?resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/wp-content\/uploads\/Dogfish-Head-hat-Tongariro.jpg?resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":17892,"url":"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/2016\/04\/22\/reinheitsgebot\/","url_meta":{"origin":19284,"position":4},"title":"Reinheitsgebot’s last birthday","author":"Phil","date":"April 22, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"Here's my contribution to the teetering pile of Reinheitsgebot-related reckons that are surfacing around the thing's putative 500th birthday \u2015 which is being celebrated despite the old law no longer being in force, the new law not being so old (obviously) nor so simple, and the whole thing being colossally\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Rambles and rants"","block_context":{"text":"Rambles and rants","link":"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/category\/blahblah\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Screenshot from www.deutschesbier.com, a marketing effort from the Radeberger Gruppe","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/wp-content\/uploads\/Radeberger-ad.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/wp-content\/uploads\/Radeberger-ad.jpg?resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/wp-content\/uploads\/Radeberger-ad.jpg?resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/wp-content\/uploads\/Radeberger-ad.jpg?resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/wp-content\/uploads\/Radeberger-ad.jpg?resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":17436,"url":"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/2015\/09\/16\/trophies-and-truth-telling\/","url_meta":{"origin":19284,"position":5},"title":"Trophies and truth-telling","author":"Phil","date":"September 16, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"Last\u00a0weekend, a small army of judges assembled in Christchurch to assess a considerably-larger army of entries in the annual round of the local Brewers' Guild Awards. We won't know the results until\u00a0next weekend\u00a0but \u2015 SPOILER ALERT \u2015 Tui will\u00a0not\u00a0win the trophy for New Zealand styles. I don't say this because\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Observations"","block_context":{"text":"Observations","link":"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/category\/reports\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Brewers Guild of New Zealand 2015 Awards Guide","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/wp-content\/uploads\/BGNZA-2015-Trophy-criteria-blur.jpeg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/wp-content\/uploads\/BGNZA-2015-Trophy-criteria-blur.jpeg?resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/wp-content\/uploads\/BGNZA-2015-Trophy-criteria-blur.jpeg?resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/wp-content\/uploads\/BGNZA-2015-Trophy-criteria-blur.jpeg?resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19284","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19284"}],"version-history":[{"count":29,"href":"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19284\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19315,"href":"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19284\/revisions\/19315"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19284"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19284"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19284"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}