A NIGHT WITH THE HOPS

Brace yourself for another one of those posts where I am thinking out loud quite a bit.  Welcome again to some of the inner workings of my mind.

As I have mentioned numerous times before, this site started as a beer journal of sorts for me.  With that I think I can make the site a better overall reference for all things beer, both for myself and for everyone else who stops by.  I do not always enjoy searching around on the web or through the books on my shelves to double check one detail I am curious about so it is time for me to transition some of that information onto this site for easier access.

Doesn't it seem to have a glow?

I have no idea how long it will take to get all of what I want to do finished, but here is what I am thinking of starting with.  Not that I am at all bored and looking for extra things to do, but I think these few additions will make a great difference over time.

One thing I want to do is to tackle documenting my glassware and give it a page all to itself.  I am thinking of maybe having pictures of each type that I have and discuss what styles go in each and why.  I could also discuss which types I have not added to my collection yet, though I do not think I am missing many.  Just maybe I will even do a few pouring videos to show how I do it and perhaps also to make it possible for someone out there to tell me why they think I am not doing it correctly.

If nothing else it would help me document exactly what glassware I own before I have to move any of it to a closet somewhere to make room for the new stuff.  It will also be a good way to revisit some of the My Tasting Ways posts that I did so long ago.

Not a great photo, but a beautiful sight.

The other thing I would like to do is give descriptions of all the beer styles a permanent home on a page here.  I have to assume that many if not most people who visit this site do not have a copy of the BJCP Style Guidelines or even as many beer books lying around as I do.  I can usually just spin around in my office chair and get my hands on the answer to the beer question I am looking for.

Of course it would make no sense at all for me to merely transfer information directly from the BJCP Style Guidelines (for example).  What I would like to do is a kind of simplified summary based on what I understand from reading various references along the way.  On top of becoming a good reference here it will help me study up as I have to actually write that stuff down on my own.

This is, however, a far more daunting task than tackling a glassware rundown if only because of the numbers.  If you break down the 23 main styles of beer into all of the sub-styles, that would be 80 different styles to cover (by my count).  That is even without eventually getting to the meads (3 main, 9 total) and ciders (2 main, 9 total).  No matter how I break the task up it will take some serious time to get through.  Maybe I will draw numbers out of a hat to keep it interesting for me?

Also a beautiful sight.

On top of those two things I think I will be moving some pages and other things around to make the site easier to use and to give me more flexibility in the future.  I try to plan out my attack here, but it is often a case of making it up as I go so a few renovations now and again become necessary to keep things moving ahead smoothly.

I am not sure exactly when I will get started on those tasks, but it should be sooner than later.  Stay tuned!

Is there anything else or any other information that you would like to eventually see on this site?