This Saturday January 17th will mark a great day in the growing emergance of craft beer on the popular microblogging & social networking platform Twitter. At five o’clock PST (that’s 8:00pm for those of us here on the East Coast), beer and Twitter enthusiasts the world-over will gather at Twitter Taste Live — a site originally launched to do real-time sampling of wine via Twitter, which has since expanded to include tastings of cigars and beer — for the first of what TTL regulars hope will be many beer tastings to come.
The tasting is being co-hosted by Jay Brooks of the Brookston Beer Bulletin, who will be “on hand” Tweeting about the tasting and answering any questions that arise. The tasting is called an Introduction to Trappist Ales and will feature four beers from two Belgian Trappist breweries, Chimay and Westmalle. The two Chimays will be Chimay Red and the Tripel; the two Westmalle beers are the Dubbel and the Tripel.
Participation in the tasting is quite simple. Most importantly you’ll need to get yourself your own Twitter account (which is free and easy to do by signing up at twitter.com) first, and then sign up for the event at twittertastelive.com. Next, pick up the four beers being tasted (of course you don’t have to have all four; you can taste any combination you choose, it’s up to you). Then, at the designated time, log into Twitter Taste Live; drink; Tweet your thoughts about the beer you’re drinking (including the hash tag #TTL); repeat until the beers are gone. It’s really that simple.
The tasting can be done by yourself from your home office, with a group of friends gathered around your living room (each with your own laptop), or even from a nearby bar awesome enough to be serving Chimay and Westmalle (using your favorite blackberry or iPhone Twitter app).
Do yourself a favor and be there! And if you’re not following me on Twitter yet, please do so (by following @LivingstonMedia); see you on Saturday, only at #TTL.
