EBBC13: The debriefing begins

When you put 90-odd beer bloggers into a room for two days and feed them a steady diet of beer and haggis you’re guaranteed around 1,000 blog posts on the event. In-depth investigation of said beers and haggis ultimately left me feeling like a bag of human soup by Sunday (one sharp poke and my insides would have leaked out onto the hot Edinburgh pavement). So, after a highly educational weekend, I’m still trying to re-establish normality and catch up on the other articles that are now emerging, as well as shape my own thoughts.

For now, I can happily recommend Chris Hall’s general overview (day 1 and day 2) and Gavin Frost’s concise round-up or, if you prefer it a bit more visceral, there’s the collaborative blow-by-blow live blog coverage written by Sam Parker (the Lord of the Beers) and Chris Hall again (the Beer Diary); that’s available on John Read’s site. For those pressed for time, you may enjoy the luscious photography of Rob Gale over at Beer Lens; there are a handful of photos there and I look forward to seeing more emerge. I spent a little time with him and I admire his brass: I struggle to summon the moxy required to go into places and whip out a camera. Let it be said he always asks for permission with every shot.

There’ll be plenty said on the event by others, so instead I’m keen to dig into specific topics, particularly the role of the beer sommelier here in Britain, following Sophie Atherton’s talk, and the state of beers aged in wood, as well as my own general thoughts on Edinburgh as a beer city and the potential location for next year’s European Beer Bloggers Conference.

In the meantime, I’m going to leave you with a little something. It was new to most of us at the conference, and was kindly shared by John Martin, the President of the Scottish Brewing Archive Association. I’m not even going to say anything, I think it provides its own rope.

Tennent’s Lager Lovelies: Launched in 1962 and discontinued in 1991.