Pivní Filosof - Beer Philosopher

It's Monday around noon. I've just got a text message from my student telling me that the lesson has to be cancelled. Great news, the lesson is already paid and now I've got some free time in my hands. A great chance to check out Kavárna Liberál . I'd spotted it a few weeks ago, while wandering the side streets between Veletržní Palác and Strossmajerovo Nám. It's located in a corner, opposite a small park, and it looked really nice from the outside. I was tempted to go in that day, but I refrained; something told me that this was not the sort of place where you can pop in for a quick pint and then move on. So here I am at last. A very nice place this one is. Barely decorated white walls, a part of the room has very worn out hardwood floors and the other part, very worn out small tiles. The furnishing is the café standard, in dark wood and it looks that the chairs and tables could tell a few stories. The frames of the windows and the door are also in dark wood, a...

Here we've got something with a rather label from Pivovar Antoš, Slaný . Let's see if the contents are prettier. I poured it in a glass, a glass made of glass, otherwise, it wouldn't be a glass. The consensus seems to be that a glass is better, so a glass was chosen. I reckon, however, that it would have been pretty neat in an earthenware mug, but I wouldn't have been able to make the mandatory picture. Anyway, the first photo came out crap and I didn't realise until the pint was almost finished, thus the picture you can see. It smells quite nice, really. Not nice enough to wear as perfume, but nice enough to say it smells quite nice; a tad nicer than your average beer of this sort, I'd say. It's got all those pleasantly aromatic things you'd expect from a beer of this sort, not because you've read it in a book, but because you've already had your fair share of beers of this sort; and all is very nicely arranged. If smell was like interior ...

Blame Oliver Gray, the host of this month's session for what is to follow. He wants us to review a beer without actually reviewing it. It's a tough job. I chose Permon Black IPA for it because... well, because it's black, but I will need to sit down and drink it quietly, hoping the beer will inspire me to write something that will speak about it without it being an evaluation thereof. Some music will help. I guess that after a couple of songs of Al Kooper's Super Session I will have got some inspiration. What a great piece of music this record is! Amazing black music by white people. Come to think of it, in a way it mirrors the beer, a Pale Ale that is Black, but I fear I might be getting too close to reviewing. Before getting too lost in my thoughts, I want to have a last look at my browser to see if there aren't any e-mails that need to be sorted out urgently. There aren't, but there's a tab open on an article I've been wanting to read sinc...

Before I start, I want to get this off my chest. Breweries don't “sell out”. They aren't indy rock bands singing about teenage angst and the struggle against The Man with cryptic lyrics, they are businesses; assets that can be bought and sold like any other. An owner that sells a brewery isn't betraying anything or anyone, is only accepting what they believe is a good enough offer for those assets. Now that we've made that clear, let's carry on. The sale of Blue Point Brewing to ABIB has been, and will be, much discussed, just like it happened with Goose Island a few years ago. Since neither of those breweries are part of my beer ecosystem, I would need to dig very deep to find a single fuck to give about their fortunes and I can't really be arsed with that. As far as I'm concerned, it was a good decision by the owners, and I congratulate them for that. There are other people, however, who naturally have a few fucks to give about this. One of them le...