Phil Cook
banner
beerdiary.bsky.social
Phil Cook
@beerdiary.bsky.social
640 followers 610 following 240 posts
Beer diarist (at philcook.net), bartender, and various beer industry miscellany for a decade and counting. Continually disappointed optimist. He/him. From: Te Whanganui-a-Tara / Wellington Recently: Naarm / Melbourne Now: Nacotchtank land / Washington DC
Posts Media Videos Starter Packs
Pinned
It's officially¹ Shandy On A Rooftop Season.

1: I mean, I say so. An excellent day wandering around a warm Melbourne has put me in the mood to declare it, and I'm claiming the authority. Any objections? Didn't think so.
The Beta Band at the @930club.bsky.social last night were an absolute delight. The reunion tour was announced shortly after we moved to DC and it felt incredibly lucky to be able to catch them here. One of those dream gigs I'll be thinking about for ages.
Reposted by Phil Cook
Passengers eager for entertainment between trains could check their bags with a Red Cap and enjoy cartoons, short subject films, or newsreels in the 300-seat theater. A large illuminated clock above the screen helped people keep track of the time so they did not miss their trains.
Reposted by Phil Cook
43 years ago today, readers the world over opened their newspapers and gazed upon cow tools for the first time. happy birthday cow tools. you look great.
I pretty much always include cheese. And my hot take is that mayo works better than butter. These chips were delightfully mad: Thanksgiving stuffing flavour (sorry, "flavor") from Trader Joe's. Worked kind of like chicken chips (my usual fave) with extra herbiness.
Absolutely fine. I would be honoured.
#crispsandwichday observances are scattered throughout a *lot* of the calendar in my house, if I'm being completely honest about my eating habits. But I'm delighted to join in the official celebrations and see more people experimenting with the artform today.
Reposted by Phil Cook
Imagine if they made a beer taste like a ball of marzipan dunked in prune juice but it was literally the best thing ever.
Reposted by Phil Cook
Reposted by Phil Cook
I'm always stoked to say our dark lager is our biggest seller. The past six months it's been 42% of our volume.

It's a regional thing that not many people in NZ really think about, but NZers love dark lager, which is why we called it Kiwi Dark. 4% abv, 100% NZ ingredients
Reposted by Phil Cook
Green hop beers are like Oktoberfest beers. It's a mark on the calendar as the year passes. A reminder of the end of summer. A style that seems constrained.
However it's also a delightful celebration of a style of beer - like CAMRAs Mild May - that keeps things interesting & long may they prosper.
Reposted by Phil Cook
The first of seven collaborative beers between Northern Monk and myself, Extra Extra Special Bitter. 6.2% Golden Promise w/ crystal malts and crystal rye, hopped w/ Fuggles, Target, East Kent Goldings. Serious business. The whole series is based on pub beers. This out now, in pubs and bottle shops.
Reposted by Phil Cook
Here’s a Halloween treat from 1963, featuring Rowlf on THE JIMMY DEAN SHOW. Rowlf was Jim Henson’s first breakout character on a national scale, & it’s a joy to see how much fun Jimmy Dean seemed to always have in any of their interactions - most often just downright tickled…
Petty sidepoint: Melbournite is the better demonym. "Melburnian" is late-1800s private-school Latin-obsessed snobbish nonsense.
Melburnian - Wiktionary, the free dictionary
en.wiktionary.org
Speaking as a native Wellingtonian and adoptive Melbournite, this tracks.
Everyone loves the "Shitsville" wheel for Wellington seasons but let me now share with you the 12 seasons of Melbroune (courtesy of my colleagues there) pursuit.unimelb.edu.au/articles/don...
Reposted by Phil Cook
"New Far Side comics" was definitely not on my bingo card for this week. They're not bad!

www.thefarside.com/new-stuff/
Reposted by Phil Cook
Mad Enough to Blog It™️
Whenever there's an acquisition / merger it's worth saving a copy of the announcement press release to see how quickly they contradict its claims about preserving autonomy, or continuity in leadership, or other such soothing assurances. This one didn't quite make it to its first birthday.
Something I *will* share from Linkedin is that I've just seen that Sam McMeekin, co-founder of Gipsy Hill has stepped away from the business 12 months after it became part of the 'Sunrise Beverage Alliance' — GH's core production has also been moved to Curious Brewery in Kent.
That's pretty much it! I've done it with raspberry, boysenberry and cherry sours. All just with good straight plain ice cream. It's incredible. It works just as well as a stout does, but in a different way. Alice Galletly, a food / beer writer back home in NZ put me on to the idea.
I feel the same way about chips / crisps in sandwiches as I do about ice cream in beer (particularly stout or fruit sour): more people should try the combination more often.
Are your sandwiches too quiet!? I've got the fix for that. This is my jalapeno club crunch which brings all sorts of textures and flavors to the your next sandwich adventure. Click to get the recipe and read more.
Jalapeno club crunch
Let's make and eat a noisy sandwich. This is a crunchy, flavorful adventure where you're constantly looking toward the next loud bite.
boundedbybuns.com