Bite & Bottle

Yes, it is a real conference. No, I wasn’t permanently pissed. No, it wasn’t a room full of beer bellied bearded blokes wearing socks and sandals.

The European Beer Bloggers Conference, which took place in Leeds last weekend, was superbly organised & exceptionally informative. The event was put together by Zephyr Adventures, an American travel company, who run blogging conferences around the world in the Beer, Wine, Food & Fitness industries. Now in its second year, it wouldn’t have been possible without hefty support from many companies: brewing giants, microbreweries and other industry affiliated businesses. My particular thanks go to Pilsner Urquell, one of the major sponsors as they secured my ticket. Look out for the new Master Bartender website, I’ll be writing the blog for them, launching very soon.

I’m sure I’ll use aspects from the seminars as inspiration for here & for the Pilsner Urquell blog, currently whirring the cogs is the Spiegelau seminar on how the shape of the glass can have an effect on the flavour of the beer, the results were truly mind blowing! However, right now I’d like to sum the three days up using the medium of dance… just kidding, actually it’s a poem…

Thursday – The unofficial start, a beer tour of Leeds
A pint of Magic Rock Carnival to start the party
Birra Del Borgo to wash down something hearty
Some local brews in some local boozers
The Kernel Citra with a shot of yeast, at 6.9 percent, a beast
A rare Belgian seemed to be the evenings trend; I cracked mine open to share with friends

Friday – Registration 12:30pm
‘That’s not a conference, it’s a joke’ you say?
You should try the Joker Double IPA, a stunning beer, the best that was here.
Then a Generation from Kent, a St Stefanus from Ghent.
The conference starts, a Profanity Stout’s shared about.
A short while in, the magic begins, I don’t know how, ask Spiegelau.

Friday Night – The sociable part
Dinner is at 7, we open the doors, to tables full of beer from Molson Coors.
The beers were great, unfortunately overshadowing the plate.
After the meal it was the European’s turn to reveal
Another room full of beer they’d smuggled over here
Sour Ales, IPAs, I was all beered out so I called it a day.

Saturday – last day of the conference
A morning start, no beer for me, I’ll wait for a lunchtime pint with my BLT
Now it’s 5pm and people are flagging, last up it’s Live Beer Blogging
Ten beers with five minutes to meet the brewer & write a the snippets
The Thirsty Brewmaster was hosting dinner, everyone knew we were on to a winner
Stunning food and atmosphere, and best of all, unpasteurised yeast beer!

A rare attempt from me at a more creative writing style than usual. Many of the references might only seem relevant to the attendees, but follow the links and you’ll hopefully be able to understand what I’m talking about.

Part of my agenda for going to the conference was to expand my horizons and improve my blogging & writing. I might try something like this again, but then I guess that depends on the feedback I get!