Nora McGunnigle

(Most of) the BBC15 Attendees Photo courtesy of Ryan Jansen First of all, thanks so much for everyone's support and encouragement for my renewed efforts to update my blog. I've gotten a lot of great feedback, and it helps knowing that people actually do read what I write here. Today's post is the second of my contractually obligated posts in exchange for attending the Beer Blogger's and Writer's Conference for a deeply reduced rate. Last week, I discussed two breweries in Asheville that made a great impression on my during my visit. This week, I wanted to talk about two events that I was involved in during the conference itself.

Preparing for the speed drinking madness that awaited us The Beer Blogger's Conference, held this year in San Diego, is a heady, um, brew of beer geeks, beer geek enablers, free beer, lots of information, and then also some beer. While I will be providing a more complete overview, I wanted to start out with the most intense (and my favorite) event of the conference, Live Beer Blogging. I recapped last year's  here , and used a lot of tweets to capture it. And I'm doing it again!

Putting the "blogger" in the educational content, the last day of the conference kicked off with 10 different blogger attendees sharing five-minute presentations on the work they do, be it with a specific audience, using a special tool, or working with public or private partner organizations. Louisiana's own Jay Ducote of Bite & Booze fame presented on his work with the state travel authority, LouisianaTravel.com, by providing the content for their LA Beer Trail page and filming a video of Louisiana's breweries. There were also presentations on generating revenue from blogging (hint: really not so much) and one I was super excited about, an introduction to a new beer app called Brewhorn . Brewhorn is an app that helps beer drinkers figure out what they would like to drink based on their preferences and location. I think it will really help people new to craft beer or curious in expanding their craft beer horizons in a way that is respectful to the consumer's...

Speed blogging is pretty much what it sounds like - think speed dating but between brewers and bloggers. And the brewers have beer. And the bloggers write about it. Quickly, though, 'cause you only have 5 minutes with each brewer/beer before the bell tolls and they move on, and a new one moves in. We arrive via bus at the warehouse run by Burke Distributing, a member of the MA Beverage Alliance  and sat at one of 14 tables, and waited for the process to begin. I think that the gist of the tasting is best provided via tweets, just to get a feel for it.

Breaking news: Bayou Teche will be providing a sneak peek of their upcoming beer, Miel Savage. It's a high abv (9%) honey braggot. It will be at dba on Frenchmen on Wednesday night. This beer won't be released for another several months, so go get you some!

I am in heaven.  Got some amazing Zwanze 2010 before they ran out and I love the Zwanze 2012. Rhubarb is amazing, it's balanced, clean-finishing, and refreshing. Really loving it. Other star of the day is the Augullons Setembre, in my opinion. Great day, great beer, great friends. Thanks to Cantillon and The Avenue Pub. Hooray! (Photos to come, my phone is being stupid.) (Also, I may be sort of drunk, so it may be me who is stupid!)

I take terrible pictures of food! Trust me, the food looked much better than my pictures may have led you to believe. Man, I wish dinner had started at 7 instead of 8.

Butterscotch pudding! Bacon ice cream! Bourbon ... bubbles? OK, roll with it. Cocktail is a flip style called the Flip Wilson with Evil Twin Imperial Biscotti Break stout, bourbon, egg (of course) and pecan syrup. Well, dang. What a way to end this meal. Gonna need another spoon for all this puddin'. Whoa. That is some decadent shit right there. Both the dessert and cocktail. Daaaaaaaaaamn.

Four year manchego cheese, cracklin,smoked pork. Cocktail... oof. Some sort of bloody mary variation with tomato juice, mezcal (!!)  Tiliquin Geueze (!!!!!!!!) OK, from the description I did not get what it is. It is the "cheese course" described as their version of nachos. This course is pretty crazy. Everyone loves the nachos, but the cocktail is controversial! Some people like it, some people hate it, some people kind of think it's sort of OK with the chicharrone nachos-slash-cheese-course but pretty out there. I am that last one. Tom hates tomato juice, mezcal, and Geueze,  so this drink was not a winner for him. Loved them nachos though. Man! Best. Nachos. Ever. NACHOS BUILT ON CRACKLINS, PEOPLE.

Because the beer and shot course has MANY SPECIAL PICTURES THAT ARE NOT AT ALL BLURRY OR BORING.

Roast pork loin, smoked field peas, sunchoke. Cocktail: Kopstootje with a shot of Bols Genever. Beer and a shot! Come at me, bro. Brewer sez: "sooooo, this is where the night will take a turn." Fun fact: Belgian tripels were created after genever was banned in Belgium because of excessive drunkenness. Brewers responded to the demand for getting drunker faster. Cannot load all pictures I want to in one post; stay tuned!

Scallops, blood sausage, sweet corn, chantarelles. Cocktail: Rob Base. A crazy looking list of ingredients including a syrup made from Monk Suffers Serious Sugar Rush on Barbados beer (brewed by Evil Twin) Cocktail also has sherry vinegar. Surprisingly, it works. Never tried this beer before, less sweet than I thought it would be. Cocktail pairing more successful than beer. Scallops- perfectly cooked. Blood sausage and sweet corn puree, excellent contrast. Have been mocked soundly for my blogging. Such good food and drinks, I may die of happiness. Or hangover tomorrow.

Pied de Cochon, foie grass, pickled radish greens. Cocktail: Godot- Stillwater Existant, and other awesome stuff. Garnished with a fig. Again, as with the previous course, the chef made a somewhat questionable pig part- foot, ear- and made it amazingly delicious. We're at a table with Polly from the Avenue Pub and other Avenue denizens. Table talk is fun, and I'm being super rude blogging! Yay me. This may not be the best idea for my blogging audience or my dining companions. Hmm. But seriously, the contrast between the foie torchon and the pig foot croquette was amazing. Opinion at the table is that while the cocktails are fantastic, the beer seems to complement the food better. We'll see if that holds.

Local vegetables, pigs ear, and burrata. Cocktail pairing: "Imperial 75" (a take on the French 75, natch) Stillwater Cellar Door, Bonal Gentiane-Quina, lemon, simple syrup, orange bitters. Excellent,  both aspects.

Been a while since I liveblogged and I have a feeling that I will be too drunk tonight and too hungover tomorrow! Enjoy.

Judges waiting, kickass judge RV,  the beer cart, and the brewers' field. Liveblogging! Breaking MS law! Stay tuned!

JustInteresting on draft- NOLA Blonde and Abita SOS, of all things. Taceaux are excellent, even though they only have the Seoul Man, a chicken taco with pickled vegetables and sirachi aioli. Really tasty. Tom is sticking happily to the Blonde (just like a man) while I started with the Blonde and have moved to an LA31.  Nothing fancy, but we're gonna listen to some music and it's all good.

Ok all ticket holders have gotten their beers and the Cantillon pours are open to anyone with $6. As of around 3:30, there are still Zwanze 2010 pours are still available. Which is bananas in its awesomeness. Go get you some!

Well, we came, we waited, we drank a lot of sour beer. Cantillon FTW- Zwanze 2010, Zwanze 2011, and Iris were all home run winners. Really excellent. Better pictures and full writeup to come. For now, we are enjoying an Ommegang BPA and the Pub Pils out on the back patio. Next: lunch.