How's About Some Outtakes?

Hey, the Great American Beer Festival starts tomorrow. My beer buddies are arriving in Denver even as I type this. They are; I'm not. But how 'bout I mark the occasion anyway?

Last January, Daniel Bradford, the publisher of All About Beer magazine, asked me to write an essay for the magazine's 30th anniversary issue. He wanted me to look back at the past thirty years of American beer and writing something "controversial," as he put it. Something that would get people talking.

Frankly, I wasn't sure I had new or novel to say, but I thought about it. Realized that, yes, I did want to say something. So I agreed, and cranked out my 4,000 words.

Daniel was taken aback; it was a bit . . . too, ummm, out in left field.

So he decided run it with a companion essay by AAB's editor, Julie Johnson. In order to fit both essays into the allotted pages, I sliced my essay by half.

Which means --- you guessed it --- outtakes! So I'm going to post a chunk of what got deleted, running it in three parts (it's long). Just in time for the start of the fun in Denver.

Oh: almost forgot. The magazine is now on sale, at newstands. (Sorry, it's not online, so if you want to read the whole thing, you'll have to, ya know, plunk down some dough.) So, next up at the blog: three easy pieces.