bierkergaard

I am heading to New Jersey for a Writer's Conference....blogging will resume on Monday!

Back on April 7, 1933, Prohibition was repealed. Look at the happy picture of revelers in Washington, D.C. on that night. I did my part to celebrate its ending tonight by going to the Lancaster Liederkranz and quaffed a couple of in-house beers...a Winter Ale and a Pale Ale...both quite fine. Oh yeah, I also had Schweinshaxe (pig's knuckle) with some red cabbage. That did my Teutonic soul good. When I conducted my 40 day/40 Pennsylvania Microbrewery Tour last summer, I learned there were two forces merging into Prohibition. One was the moralistic efforts of the Temperance movement and the other was a lesser, but very much real, anti-German backlash as a consequence of World War I. C'mon, what is more German than beer? Stick it to the Krauts here in the U.S. Prohibition was well-intentioned. Drunkenness was a real social problem. The anti-German sentiment was also understandable. Yet, both of these strains erred by concluding too much. Example # 1: Since drinking alcohol in ...

Solomon wrote in Proverbs 6:6 " Consider the ant, you lazy bum. Watch its ways, and become wise." We have been considering the ant a lot recently in the Bierker household since it is the time for the spring infestation. The hard-working insects move right in around this time every year. I am thinking about getting an Anteater to patrol the interior. I swear, the ants are sent by God to chastise me. My wife can leave out a greasy spoon on the counter for hours and nary an ant anywhere. Me, I drop a bread crumb, and I have an ant orgy. It sickens me. Their marching in a line like goose-stepping Nazis. It doesn't help the our granite counters are dark, providing an ideal camouflage cover for their campaigns. One sweep of a wet paper towel, and one is likely to have 25 ants in hand... So, we had to go out and buy some traps. We were at the all organic food store on Saturday, Kimberton Whole Foods in Downingtown , and thought maybe I could find an organic version of a...

I have a friend who is well on his way to becoming a successful screenwriter and film-maker out in Los Angeles. The competition is fierce, the talent formidable. Almost everyone has a dream and thinks they're next (or should be). He shared with me a story about how he was invited to a private event of up-and-comers in the movie business where individuals sat around a table and talked about their work and latest projects. He said that he had to be prepared to believe in his work unabashedly...for if he did not believe in what he is doing, there is very little chance that anyone else would. Hence the dilemma. How do we defend and even promote our work without the stench of self setting-off peoples' olfactory-like ego-detectors? I think the best way is to make the work really about a cause bigger than self...one that has a natural amount of audience already, but to do it in an interesting and provoking way. I have a beer blog that really is about a lot more than beer. Beer is mer...

I'm down at Lake Grubb running the trail this afternoon and I see a young woman pushing a stroller with presumably her baby in it through the mud and slop. I thought it was a little unusual...never seen someone take a baby carriage four wheeling. After I passed her, I kept up my torching pace and came across a stuffed bunny rabbit alone by the side of trail. I am no super sleuth but I figured it must have fallen out so I turned around and ran the bunny back to her. She was happy to have it back. I don't know, it isn't like I did anything heroic or valiant. But, maybe in a small way it made her day that someone took the time to track her down and give her back her baby's bunny. Never underestimate small acts of kindness...what may seem insignificant from our point of view might look a lot different on the receiving end. Rather than being random, make it intentional. Jesus was kind. The word for kindness in the Greek New Testament is Chresteuomai. It means to show onese...