The Sessions

session_logo_all_text_300

What is The Session?

 
The Session, a.k.a. Beer Blogging Friday, is an opportunity once a month for beer bloggers from around the world to get together and write from their own unique perspective on a single topic. Each month, a different beer blogger hosts the Session, chooses a topic and creates a round-up listing all of the participants, along with a short pithy critique of each entry. Over time, it is the hope — of me, at least — that a record will be created with much useful information about various topics on the subject of beer. The idea for the Sessions began with fellow beer writer Stan Hieronymus, who noticed similar group endeavors in other blogospheres and suggested those of us in the beer world create our own project. Here is Stan’s original thought process to start up the Session.

How to Participate in a Session

 
If you write a beer or beer-related blog, please consider joining us on the Session project. It couldn’t be easier. The topic for each month is announced shortly after the previous month’s Session, meaning you have about three weeks to consider what you want to write about within the topic. And as long as it has something to do with the theme, you can pretty much do whatever you feel is appropriate for you. Then on the first Friday of the month, write your post. Usually, you then just let the host know what the URL (the specific web address or permalink to your post, not your home page) is so he can include it in his or her roundup. Each host does it slightly differently, but usually it’s just by sending an e-mail or posting a comment.

I would encourage each participant to use the Session logo for your Session posts because it lends consistency to all of our efforts and makes it easy for readers to know and understand that your post is part of a larger project. But it’s by no means mandatory. I made a version both with and without the subtitle “Beer Blogging Friday.” They’re free to use, of course, but please don’t hotlink to them. Please download them and host them on your server or use a photo hosting website like Photobucket.

Past Sessions

 
Here is a list of all the announcements, roundups and my own contributions for all The Sessions to date:

Volunteer to Host The Session

 
Do you own a beer related blog and want to host a Session? To host one of the monthly Sessions, you’ll need to do the following:

  1. Reserve the next free month or any specific month not yet taken. To do this, please contact me via Jay (.) Brooks (@) gmail (.) com or Stan Hieronymus of Appellation Beer. His e-mail is stan (@) appellationbeer (.) com.
  2. Choose your beer-related topic or theme. See the list above of past Sessions both for ideas and also to insure you pick something we haven’t already done.
  3. Announce your theme by posting about it. This should be done right after the roundup of the previous Session. Also, please send Stan and/or myself an e-mail to let us know it’s up so we can help spread the word.
  4. Do a reminder post about a week before the first Friday of your month.
  5. Post your own entry on your topic.
  6. Post a roundup. Some hosts run updates all day. Some hosts wait until the end before posting their roundup.
  7. Announce who the next host will be. Usually, you can do this in your roundup.

54 thoughts on “The Sessions”

  1. Pingback: Beer At Joe’s mentioned in the NY Times!

  2. Pingback: The Next “Session” Heads East | Brookston Beer Bulletin

  3. Hey Jay,

    I love this list and refer to it routinely.

    One suggestion though: You might consider flipping the past/future Sessions list so oldest ones are at the bottom. This would keep the most relevant items up top and the scrolling to a minimum.

    Keep up the good work!

    Reply ↓

    • Thanks Brad, the only problem with doing it that way is keeping track of upcoming months and open ones, too. You’d have Sessions that haven’t been done yet, in some cases several months ahead on top along with open months. It’s for that reason that I work chronologically from earliest to latest.

      Reply ↓

  4. Pingback: Three-Year Session Anniversary To Features A Cask Of Characters | Brookston Beer Bulletin

  5. Pingback: Session #36: Cask-Conditioned Beer – Beer Engines | Top Fermented

  6. Pingback: Beer In Ads #38: Gangloff « Global Posts

  7. Pingback: Beer In Ads #38: Gangloff | Brookston Beer Bulletin

  8. Pingback: Session #36: Cask-Conditioned Beer | Brookston Beer Bulletin

  9. Pingback: The Display Shelf | Make Mine Potato

  10. Pingback: The Display Shelf | WNYmedia.net

  11. Pingback: Session # 38 – Announcement

  12. Pingback: Session #37: Drinking The Good Stuff | Brookston Beer Bulletin

  13. Pingback: The Session #37: When to Drink the Good Stuff |

  14. Pingback: The Session: Joining The Cult « Beer, Beats & Bites

  15. Pingback: Beer and Butter Tarts — A Canadian Food & Drink Blog Aggregator » The Session: Joining The Cult

  16. Pingback: Session #23: The New Year of Beer | Brookston Beer Bulletin

  17. Pingback: Session #23: The New Year of Beer « Global Posts

  18. Pingback: Mario Rubio » The Session #39: A Collabortive Effort

  19. Pingback: Session #39: Collaborations. | Top Fermented

  20. Pingback: Announcing Session #40 | Top Fermented

  21. Pingback: Session #39: Collaboration Beers | Brookston Beer Bulletin

  22. Pingback: lootcorp – a brewing blog | Session 16: Musings on Beer Festivals

  23. Pingback: lootcorp – a brewing blog | Lootcorp.com to Host Fermentation Friday…in 2009

  24. Pingback: This week: Session #40 | Top Fermented

  25. Pingback: Session #40: Session Beers | Top Fermented

  26. Pingback: Beer Blog Pack? - Home Brew Forums

  27. Pingback: Carla Companion » Join me in writing for “The Session” #43

  28. Pingback: Drink With The Wench » Blog Archive » Announcing Session #44 — “Frankenstein Beers”

  29. Pingback: The Session #42: A Special Place, a Special Beer « I'll Have a Beer

  30. Pingback: Drink With The Wench » Blog Archive » Session #44: The Frankenstein Beers of BrewDog

  31. Pingback: Next Session To Clear Up Wheat Beers | Brookston Beer Bulletin

  32. Pingback: The Session #45 - Stewart Brewing Hefeweizen | The BeerCast

  33. Pingback: The Session #47: Cooking with Beer: The Brew Site

  34. Pingback: Announcing Session #51: The Great Online Beer & Cheese-Off | Brookston Beer Bulletin

  35. Pingback: The Session #51: Beer and Cheese Pairing (Part 1): The Brew Site

  36. Pingback: Announcing Session #52: Beer Collectibles & Breweriana | All Over Beer

  37. Pingback: I am NOT obsessed with beer!?! | Beersay

  38. Pingback: The Session #55: Label, Coaster, and Cap Art: The Brew Site

  39. Pingback: The next Session: Beery Confessions: The Brew Site

  40. Pingback: Session 57: Of Vom And Corn, More And Waugh | beer and spirits

  41. Pingback: #TheSession – A Dickens of a topic for December 2011 | Beersay

  42. Pingback: Session #58 A Christmas Carol – An interim round up | Beersay

  43. Pingback: The Session #58 - A Christmas Carol: It could do with a few more hops...

  44. Pingback: The Session #64: Pale in Comparison

  45. Pingback: Appellation Beer: Beer From a Good Home » Blog Archive » The Session #64: Woohoo! A return to style

  46. Pingback: Don’t Believe The Hype | Good Morning…

  47. Pingback: Mood Beer and world domination #TheSession66 | Beersay

  48. Pingback: 99 Pours » Blog Archive » The Session #68 Round-Up: Novelty Beers

  49. Pingback: Beer Bar Band Resolutions 2013 | beer bar band

  50. Pingback: The Sessions No 72: How we love beer « Beer is your friend

  51. Pingback: How We Love Beer (The Session no.72) | beer bar band

  52. Pingback: The Sessions No 72: How we love beer – Zen Man | idreamofbrewery

  53. Pingback: Growlers and Growler Laws Across the US

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

You may use these HTML tags and attributes: <a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <cite> <code> <del datetime=""> <em> <i> <q cite=""> <strike> <strong>