Phil Cook

@beerdiary.bsky.social

736 Followers 714 Following

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

A person in a pink t-shirt is standing at a podium with two laptops and a huge bottle of water (or possibly wine) making a presentation, gesticulating enough to blur their hand. Their slide reads: "The amount of energy necessary to refute bullshit is an order of magnitude bigger than to produce it"
A clear plastic container of Idaho 7 hops, their dried green flowers stacked to the top. It's sitting on a table near a computer with conference attendees vaguely visible in the background
Screenshot from Merlin, the Cornell University backed birding app. It shows the results of a minute listening to birdsong in suburban DC (terminally Maryland), listing House and Song Sparrows, a Mockingbird, Cardinal, Catbird, Wren, Robin, Flycatcher — and my first Chimney Swift
Screenshot of Untappd's 2024 April Fools "joke" as posted on Facebook. It announces the launch of "Tappd" an app like Untappd, but for water.
Survey question asks: "Do you appreciate bitterness in your IPA? Considering most IPAs you encounter these days..." Options are: "I wish they were more bitter. A lot more bitter." "I wish they were more bitter, within reason. Balanced." "I think IPAs these days are perfectly bitter." "Too many are already too bitter. I do not want my IPA to have any bitterness." And "I don't understand the question or I have no opinion." I've selected the final statement.
Survey question asks: "Which of the following IPA descriptors appeal to you? [...] Select your top four." Beneath all the options are ticked — namely Hazy, Juicy, Crisp, Bright, Aromatic, Hop Forward, Tropical, Citrusy, Dank, Piney, Resinous, Bitter, and Balanced. Just one, "Soft/Fluffy (mouthfeel)" is left blank.
A December 2022 Facebook post by Mountain Culture brewery, part of their first campaign for the Hottest 100 Beers survey in Australia. The text reads "There's a New CANdidate" alongside an image of their Status Quo beer, with the slogan "A vote for Status Quo is a vote for CHANGE!" written along the bottom in text that deserves to be way bigger than it is, because that's a brilliant gag
A still from a recent Liquorland ad campaign. Pat Cummins is in the centre, holding a can of Mountain Culture's Status Quo pale ale. He's at a lawn bowls club, sitting next to another man as they both look into the camera while two other people walk by — all in bowling whites. A scoreboard shows he's been beaten badly.
The Beta Band at the 930 Club in Washington DC. It's a wide angle shot from the front row, the stage washed in blue and pink, with a mirrorball lit by a dozen spotlights above.
A chippie sandwich (white bread, American cheese, a few layers of crisps) on a wooden chopping board with a can of National Bohemian in the background (its ridiculous one-eyed mascot seeming to smile approvingly at it) and a can of Dovetail wet hop lager blurrily visible behind it.
A Snallygaster branded taster glass of reddish-orange beer (a mixed ferment from Allagash) on the road on Pennsylvania Avenue in front of a large square Snallygaster sign, blurrily visible in the background
On a wooden coffee table, a brown bottle of Guinness Foreign Extra Stout with a dark yellow label is laying on its side beside a short glass, into which the beer has been poured. In the tan foam float two white blobs of plain ice cream.
An almost irresponsible array of Elder Pine beers on the tasting bar at work. Seven are mostly-black cans with gorgeous etching-style artwork, the eighth is in a cute bulbous half-litre brown glass bottle.
Two glasses of beer, one full size and one taster, side by side on the bar top at Red Bear in DC. T-shirts are blurrily visible in the background, and the beers themselves are a bright (if slightly hazy) gold. A few sips are obviously missing from each already
Two packets of biscuits on my coffee table — Arnotts Tim Tams (all the way from Australia) in a brown plastic pack and Trader Joe's "Australian-style chocolate crème sandwich cookies coated in chocolate" in a white and light blue box.
A glass mug of beer with dark lager layered under pale golden lager and a nice thick white foam in top — outside at Wildflower in Sydney, Australia. It's sitting on a wooden table with a dark wall behind it, plants, hanging lights and a few people out of focus in the background.
Heurich House entrance hall. It's a Gilded Age mansion in DC, hugely ornamented with decorations on basically every surface, a suit of armor stands beside a marble staircase with a tall electric-and-gas lamppost on its banister. There's a huge vase on a stand, a pendulum clock, and a mezzanine where musicians could set up. It's a lot.
Three cans of beer — Senate (mostly white, with blue and red), Marzen (orange and red), and Bock (teal with dark blue and gold) — on the ornate stone entranceway, with arches and a hanging lamp, outside Heurich House near Dupont Circle in Washington DC
A pint of pale yellow beer with a small white head of foam (I'd already taken a sip before the photo) in front of an artfully rusted industrial wall. It's Other Half Riwaka Snaps at their DC location
Two two yellow cans of beer side by side. Both are La Chouffe Blonde, with old and new designs. On the updated version the font is now modern block letter san serif, and the red cap wearing gnome in the artwork is no longer awkwardly riding a unicycle but now striding purposefully forward.
Screenshot of Peter Philip's 26 March 2025 Facebook post. "The recent budget has done nothing for small locally owned breweries in spite of regular meetings with PM Anthony Albanese's office. Albo claims to support locally owned beer in his Inner West electorate but remember the adage "Watch what leaders do, not what they say".
Promotional image from Cassels Brewery's Facebook page, featuring a hand holding a mostly-black can of 'Fogged up' hazy pale ale against a yellow-gold background, with two bright yellow World Beer Awards icons beside it, proclaiming it as "New Zealand Winner" and "New Zealand Gold"
A person in a pink t-shirt is standing at a podium with two laptops and a huge bottle of water (or possibly wine) making a presentation, gesticulating enough to blur their hand. Their slide reads: "The amount of energy necessary to refute bullshit is an order of magnitude bigger than to produce it"
A cheesesteak from Woodrows in Philadelphia: a long white bread roll oozing with gooey yellow cheese and bits of steak and onions falling out, sitting on unwrapped foil beside a serving of skin-on fries in one of those 1990s-looking cups with the weird abstract design of bus upholstery
Signage for the takeaway fridge at Human Robot in Philadelphia, illustrated in stained glass style and depicting an adorably long sausage dog with HUMAN ROBOT written on its side
The logo for The Session group beer-blogging exercise, modified by crossing out "Friday" so the tagline now reads "Beer Blogging WHENEVER"
Screenshot from the game Hardspace: Shipbreaker, depicting a corner the player's residence in orbit, featuring a poster for Over The Moon Brewery among others, alongside their yellow spacesuit
An illustration of a neon sign against a brick wall, in the style of an old beer ad in a dive bar, with text that reads Ice Cold Takes Served Here
A photo of a Scrabble rack, with the funny-but-useless combination of EIEIO (plus another I and a blank)
Screenshot of a partially-completed Connections puzzle, with Bitter, Bock, Sour and Stout grouped as "Styles of Beer"
Screenshot from the Saturday Quiz. The question is "Berliner Weissr, Gose and Lambic are all examples of what beer style?" and the answer — "Sour beer" — was apparently only given correctly by 24% of players (including myself)
Screenshot of the New York Times' puzzle page, showing my crossword-solving statistics and the cheery gold stars congratulating me for a "1 day streak"
A brown tabby cat yawning widely, her head poking out from under a blue blanket
A meme from @oat_kream on Instagram featuring Elmo as "Australian craft brewers" choosing a pile of cocaine labelled "blame the ATO" over fresh fruit labelled "honest reflection on fundamental mistakes"
A glowing golden pint of shandy on the rooftop terrace at The Local, with a bright sky behind and a lamppost looming in the background
Screenshot of the Congratulations screen from the New York Times puzzle app, noting I've done three hundred days of crosswords in a row
A Carlton Draught billboard in a grimy highway overpass. Bedside a glamour shot of a pint are the slogans "Long Live The Keg" and "Made From Beer".
Several half-kilo tubs of Mascarpone stacked on a supermarket shelf, $3 each
Screenshot of the Congratulations screen from the New York Times crossword, noting that I've hit a two hundred day streak
A meme made from an old Nancy cartoon. Nancy goes to cover an unsightly hole in the wall with artwork from Behemoth brewery, but decides "the hole looked better".
Excerpt from the New York Times Crossword, highlighting the clue "pucker precipitators at a pub"