Random thoughts

This time last year I struck out to keep track of the beers I drank and do a bit of writing on the subject of foamy brews. It went fairly well for a while. This site – much Twitter time with the beer community – meeting several great beer folks – and drinking many great beers.

The real world often gets in the way…

Mrs. Ohabeer and I decided on a major life change this year. No – not a child. A new business. Specifically a BBQ joint. The work of researching cooking BBQ for crowds, getting a location and setting that location up has pretty much consumed any time I would have for writing here. So I’m putting this into archive mode for now while I focus on my new job and passion. I still drink and brew a lot of great beer but I have to focus on the new life at The Cha Cha Hut.

I guess that could be easily the assumption concerning Oh..a beer of late. I have been quite lax in writing due mostly to a few projects at work keeping me busy plus the start of the summer BBQ season here at OAB HQ and our quest to open a BBQ joint next to our house. That means much smoke, meat and home brews with friends. Oh yes – and the foamybeer home brewing has also been keeping me away from writing.

I am hoping to change all of that (hopefully) soon. I have quite a few new beer reviews, a variety of thoughts on grilling and the process as we try to start a BBQ joint in the heart of the Catskills.. I’m not going to promise to get my crap together right away, but I’m definitely going to try to be a bit more regular in my writing.

We recently recevied an email at Ohabeer HQ with a certain beer mystery. In the email, Daniel relates the following:

I am trying to find out some information on a bottle of beer I found in a box of garage sale junk.

It is called Scum and is/was brewed by Scum Brewing Company in Cold Spring,MN.

There are two web sites on the label, www.scumbeer.com and www.scumclub.com. I have tried both on google and they bring me to you but, I can find nothing on your site about it. I get the same results if I google the company also.

The label is red, white and black and states it was Specially Created For Unworthy Men.

I am guessing he ended up at Ohabeer due to the Beer Collector Scum article from a while back. Nonetheless, I was intrigued…

Daniel is correct. Google searches reveal nothing about this beer. The websites come up as:
scumbeer.com – a GoDaddy placeholder with a WhoIs listing showing the owner located in Taiwan
scumclub.com – a snowmobile trinkets (whatever those are) sales site with a WhoIs listing showing the owner located in Petersburg, MI.

I asked Daniel to follow up with some photos and he replied he noticed a phone number – 1-888-901-SCUM – which when he called lead him to Nortel Investments.

So essentially, we have here a beer that obviously existed at one time with two websites addresses and a phone number that all belong to different companies now.

So I put the mystery out to you, readers. Anyone from the Minnesota area or with arcane U.S. beer knowledge have an answer to this mystery? Let us know in the comments or drop us a line.

As I spend another afternoon working up reviews of recent tastings, I encounter the same issue again and again…

Brewery sites completely done in Flash.

Why?

What purpose does this serve the brewery or the beer drinking public? Do you think it makes your site “cooler”? (It does not.) Do you think it somehow engages the visitor more to have things jumping around and making noise? (It does not.) Do you think it is somehow more impressive to have a well designed Flash site than it is to have a well designed non-Flash site? (It is not.)

Do you know the one major thing an all Flash sites does?

Keeps people like me from being able to actually link into your site when I write about your beer.

As the beer community grows and more folks are taking to the web to discuss beer, why on earth would you – as a craft brewery – want to make it more difficult to carry on that discussion to the fullest? Why would you NOT want us to deep link into your site – directly to the beer we’re discussing? Or be able to pull out some descriptive text to put into our review?

Before you accuse me of being some sort of luddite noob anti-flash radical, know this: I am a web designer by trade with a bit of an emphasis on Flash. (Blantant self promotion: foamy industries). Of late – however – I am been doing all I can to steer clients away from Flash and focus on clean simple mobile device ready sites. You can’t view a Flash site on mobile and I spend a lot of time surfing and Twittering on my iPod Touch.

So, those of you out there in Breweryland with massive Flash wankfest sites, please consider dropping the wankery and making it possible for folks like me to actually drive traffic to the actual beer I’m discussing – not just your “oooooh a cool animation and mystery meat navigation” front door.

Here are a few sites I believe grok the benefit of not having Flash wankery:
Sly Fox
Brewery Ommegang
Rogue
Southern Tier
Pisgah Brewing

Granted, some of the above may not win any prizes in the design department – more on that in a later random thought – but at least I can find their beers and actually link to them when discussing.

So, what are your thoughts on this. Brewery websites in Flash: thumbs up or down? Any non-Flash Brewery sites you dig? Any one willing to defend the Flash wankery?

During a recent happy hour with Mrs. Ohabeer, I was catching up on Twitter feeds when I ran into someone who was reviewing an extremely rare bottle of beer. (The haze of happy hour and failure to send myself the link has sent the name of the beer into the ether of history…)

Now, my first thought was:

“Why the hell is this douchebag pulling a “Neener neener I’m drinking this incredible beer you’ll never get to have and screwing up your happy hour!”

I said a much to Mrs. Ohabeer. She simply looked around the living room at the collection of CDs, LPs, 12″ 10″ and 7″ singles, cassettes and various music industry promo items filling the walls and shelves. Items I love to show anyone willing to listen to me prattle on about how on 10,000 copies were pressed or the that I.R.S. Xmas gift was smuggled out of Africa. (Really – it was!)

Oh…

In a former life, I was what is known as “record collector scum” (RCS). It’s actually a term of pride. Really. No – really it is. Google it and you’ll see. I referred to myself as such proudly. My goal was to find wonderful obscure limited items to add to my collection. I even started a website back in the prehistoric web days to catalog one small part of my obsession. Spreading the word about these finds was not only a bit of ego, but also a lot of historian. We record collector scum felt it was our duty – nay our calling – to create complete collections of every Lou Reed & Velvet Underground recording (legal, limited or otherwise) despite the issues our significant others might have. (Two RCS’ rarely if ever marry. I believe it would actually tear a hole in the vinyl universe.) I spent years trying to find the last Martin Denny album I needed – “Exotic Moog”. Reviews and discussions by those who had it or encountered it helped fuel my mission.

I did finally get better. I rarely shop for vinyl. I don’t attempt to complete collections or find obscure promo objects. I do, however, understand the passion collector’s bring to the community.

This rare beer review was not the work of someone trying to ruin my night. He was not attempting superiority. He was – like all good beer collector scum (BCS) – spreading the word. Reporting on a rare tasting. Giving hope and passion to other BCS (and those of us with only mild beer collecting tendencies [MBCT]) that they too might be able to encounter the elusive bottle.

To all those BCS out there, the MBCT raises a not so rare (though only available at the brewery) Keegan Joe Mama Milk Stout made with coffee from Muddy Cup and salutes you. I know where you are coming from.