{"id":5166,"date":"2012-10-12T09:13:51","date_gmt":"2012-10-11T20:13:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/?p=5166"},"modified":"2012-10-12T09:15:57","modified_gmt":"2012-10-11T20:15:57","slug":"on-blogging","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/2012\/10\/12\/on-blogging\/","title":{"rendered":"On blogging, and not blogging, and such"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"James<\/a>
Mad Brewers (a.k.a. James Squires) ‘Ginger Chops’; a recent nightcap<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Well now. It\u00a0has<\/em> been a while.<\/p>\n

I’ve said that kind of thing more than a few times in the course of this ongoing\u00a0Beer Diary<\/em> project, and here I am again. I was probably due a bit<\/em> of a break, but I’ve been meaning to get back to hacking away at my keyboard again for a few weeks now. I just haven’t found the time \u2014 by which I mean not just the amount<\/em>, but also the right kind<\/em> of time with the right mood and everything else that goes with it. It seems just to be a brute genetic oddity that my most-productive writing hours are those between midnight and four a.m.. Perfect when you’re bartending; not quite so convenient when you have beer to sell, to keg, and to move around during daylight hours.1<\/sup> So there’s that. Plus, it’s belatedly occurred to me that writing \u2014 anywhere<\/em> on the spectrum from Effusive Praise to Heapful Scorn \u2014 became a\u00a0way to pfftrp<\/em> a little pressure out of the Work Stress Valve. A change of scene, a bunch of new things to learn, fresh ponderings to ponder, and a whole swag of interesting new tasks with which to fill my working hours has pushed me more toward being one of those contended souls who comes home to mooch and relax and settle into some state halfway-between vegging out and geeking out<\/a>.2<\/sup><\/p>\n

\"Sprig<\/a>
Sprig & Fern (Thorndon) tasting paddle<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

But never entirely. I do love to write, and I’m delighted that a not-at-all insignificant number of people ask me why I’m\u00a0not<\/em>, when I’m not. And there’s been a bunch to talk about, since I was last here \u2014 in roughly equal doses of things that inspire Praise and Scorn, as is always the case. I’ve had some utterly marvellous beer-related experiences in the past few weeks, and it’s with continual regret and wishes for\u00a0more writing time<\/em> that I condemn them to the perpetual pile of things to be written about\u00a0later<\/em>. Though with the way my memory works \u2014 i.e., alarmingly poorly \u2014 I always, at least, get to look forward to discovering these things almost-anew through my own notes and photographs before sharing them with the rest of you. Then, oh yes, the Scorn<\/em>. I was dead keen to rant about the multiply-confused clusterfuck that is the approximately-annual “Am I getting a proper<\/em> pint?” Misguided Consumer Whingefest & Misinformed ‘Did You Know’ Piece In The Paper, which re-appeared recently<\/a> and in a few different ways<\/a>. Then there were the multiple contemptible elements wrapped into John Key’s appearance at the official launch of the new Tuatara Brewery H.Q. \u2014 him, of the pseudo-craft necked from the bottle<\/a>, taking the chance to continue the Usual Denigration of beer (as opposed to classy and\u00a0not ever problematic at all<\/em> wine, of course) and to swing a needless swipe at his opposite ideology and promote the myth of the entirely self-starting business (in a country where our gorgeously distinctive hops, used to\u00a0fantastic\u00a0<\/em>effect by the brewery at which he stood, were developed by publicly-funded science). I’ll come back to those, I’m sure.<\/p>\n

\"8<\/a>
8 Wired ‘C4 Double Brown’, from a jar<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

On introspection,3<\/sup> an element of my ‘holiday’ has also been a hesitation about opening up the rant valve while I’m also settling into my new job. It was never an issue in my\u00a0former<\/em> gig, so I suppose I’m being overly change-wary, but I can get over that, and it’s time to. I’m a fanatical stickler\u00a0for disclosures of merely-potential conflicts of interest \u2014 and I\u00a0thought<\/em> things were improving in this little writing-about-beer niche of ours, but I’ve seen things slipping again in too-many quarters; I’ll have to make another fuss (he says, putting another rant on the To Rant Pile) \u2014 so I’ll always be sure to do so early and often. This is\u00a0me<\/em>; my name’s in the freakin’ URL. If anyone was endorsing this or \u2014 heaven forbid \u2014\u00a0funding<\/em> it, they’d tell you (and so would I). Inevitably, though, it’s a rant that’ll get me back into the swing of things. A little high-amplitude warm-up for the vocal chords (or, I suppose, whatever the relevant keyboard-striking muscles of the fingers are called) to blow out the cobwebs. Moa, arch-peddler of brandwank and perpetually-disappointing habitual engine of bland and obnoxious stereotypes that they are, are at it again. So we have them to thank for knocking me out of my slumber, I suppose. I just wanted to say Hello again before I took a run-up and threw myself bodily at their multiply-depressing IPO document<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Hello<\/em>!<\/p>\n

\n

1:<\/strong> Not that I have any grounds to <\/span>complain<\/em>; I’m not\u00a0<\/span>brewing<\/em> \u2014 they seem to all (including Garage Project’s Pete) start at Truly Absurd O’clock in the morning. My hours are still mercifully gentle, given my Genetic Nocturnality. There are very-occasional pre-10-a.m. meetings, but mostly I can still time-shift by a few hours.<\/span>
\n2:<\/strong> I’m a Big Nerd, after all; I don’t often properly\u00a0veg<\/em>, in Stephenson’s sense. Re-watching the West Wing in its entirety while poring over minutiae of the upcoming U.S. Presidential Election has accounted for a chunk of my leisure time, lately. And if you needed three words and a number to sum up a bunch of the rest of it, you could do a lot worse than \u201cSkyrim\u201d<\/a>\u00a0and \u201cMass Effect 3\u201d<\/a>.<\/span>
\n3:<\/strong> I did a Philosophy degree, after all. Introspection<\/a> is one of the few things we’re actually qualified for.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Well now. It\u00a0has been a while. I’ve said that kind of thing more than a few times in the course of this ongoing\u00a0Beer Diary project, and here I am again. I was probably due a bit of a break, but I’ve been meaning to get back to hacking away at my keyboard again for a … Continue reading On blogging, and not blogging, and such<\/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":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[35],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5166","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":3849,"url":"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/2011\/08\/30\/overdue-housekeeping\/","url_meta":{"origin":5166,"position":0},"title":"Overdue Housekeeping","author":"Phil","date":"August 30, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"It's been an absurdly long time since I last posted, and for several reasons -- ranging widely from the rather-lovely to the tooth-pullingly-annoying. Time, certainly, for a bit of a catch-up (in the Hello-Again \/ Long Time No See sense) before the proper catch-up can start to happen in the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Metablogging"","block_context":{"text":"Metablogging","link":"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/category\/meta\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Catching up on a backlog of scrap-paper 'Diary' entries","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/wp-content\/uploads\/Beer-Diary-catch-up-2-300x225.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":4476,"url":"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/2012\/07\/03\/funk-estate-launch-black-ipa\/","url_meta":{"origin":5166,"position":1},"title":"Funk Estate Launch \/ Black IPA","author":"Phil","date":"July 3, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"Tuesday, for the vast majority of four long years at the Malthouse, was my standing night off. Which is the kind of predictable-planning luxury that, in the bartending business, is quite a rarity indeed. They were originally granted so that I could go to pub trivia and eventually grew to\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Actual Diary entries"","block_context":{"text":"Actual Diary entries","link":"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/category\/diary\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Funk Estate Black IPA","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/wp-content\/uploads\/Funk-Estate-Black-IPA-225x300.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":20594,"url":"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/2025\/03\/18\/ramble\/","url_meta":{"origin":5166,"position":2},"title":"Better to write a ramble than to curse the darkness","author":"Phil","date":"March 18, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"Given that I built this place and can visit any time, it's a little strange to say \"I miss being here\" \u2014 but I do. I know why I haven't been around more often; a mix of factors internal and external that'd be familiar-enough to anyone else who does this\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Metablogging"","block_context":{"text":"Metablogging","link":"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/category\/meta\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Alt","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/wp-content\/uploads\/GFD-Craft-Beer-Bar-wide.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/wp-content\/uploads\/GFD-Craft-Beer-Bar-wide.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/wp-content\/uploads\/GFD-Craft-Beer-Bar-wide.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/wp-content\/uploads\/GFD-Craft-Beer-Bar-wide.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/wp-content\/uploads\/GFD-Craft-Beer-Bar-wide.jpg?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":23280,"url":"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/2024\/06\/28\/brut-ipa-missing-link\/","url_meta":{"origin":5166,"position":3},"title":"A nearly missing link \u2014 ‘Brut IPA’ as an important transitional fossil","author":"Phil","date":"June 28, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"Last week, as I was helping out on a canning run at the brewery, I was listening to the 'Why Brut IPA Never Hit It Big' episode of the Taplines podcast, and it's had me thinking and reminiscing and pondering ever since. That conversation (between journalist Dave Infante and brewer\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "From the front line"","block_context":{"text":"From the front line","link":"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/category\/bartending\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/wp-content\/uploads\/Probably-Base-Camp-Empire-Apple-Brut.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/wp-content\/uploads\/Probably-Base-Camp-Empire-Apple-Brut.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/wp-content\/uploads\/Probably-Base-Camp-Empire-Apple-Brut.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/wp-content\/uploads\/Probably-Base-Camp-Empire-Apple-Brut.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/wp-content\/uploads\/Probably-Base-Camp-Empire-Apple-Brut.jpg?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":26945,"url":"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/2025\/04\/26\/the-session-146-value\/","url_meta":{"origin":5166,"position":4},"title":"Interesting singles in your area \u2014 and other thoughts on ‘value’","author":"Phil","date":"April 26, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"For the April edition of The Session, we're asked where we find the greatest value in beer. I think overall I want choice, because I believe in context and the many moods of beer \u2014 in a given moment, I might be anywhere on spectrum from risk aversion to adventurousness,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "From the front line"","block_context":{"text":"From the front line","link":"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/category\/bartending\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/wp-content\/uploads\/Orphan-shelf.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/wp-content\/uploads\/Orphan-shelf.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/wp-content\/uploads\/Orphan-shelf.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/wp-content\/uploads\/Orphan-shelf.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/wp-content\/uploads\/Orphan-shelf.jpg?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":295,"url":"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/2007\/11\/18\/ivanhoe\/","url_meta":{"origin":5166,"position":5},"title":"Ivanhoe","author":"Phil","date":"November 18, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"Verbatim: Ivanhoe (A very English pale ale). 18\/11\/07, $7ish, 5.2%, 500ml. Note sure why I started a new page. Watching Dr Who. Nice reddy-brown. Say it's well-balanced, and it is. Geat beery beer. Proper stuff. Nice round hoppy and malty note. Afterthoughts, October 2010: Every now and then, I'll mess\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Actual Diary entries"","block_context":{"text":"Actual Diary entries","link":"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/category\/diary\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Ivanhoe","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/wp-content\/uploads\/Diary-1041-Ivanhoe-300x175.png?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5166","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=5166"}],"version-history":[{"count":22,"href":"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5166\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5194,"href":"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5166\/revisions\/5194"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5166"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5166"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5166"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}