Then this week I saw Clay Risen's post on The Atlantic Food Channel, When Bad Beers Happen to Good Breweries: The Case of Infinium. Unfortunately most of Risen's readers, or at least the ones who left comments, were too busy barking at his use of literary devices and nitpicking small factual errors to get the point of the post. After reporting on Infinium's icy reception by beer reviewers and users of popular beer-rating sites, and then expressing his own distaste for the beer, Risen states that a brewery that creates a beer that is not liked by its customers has failed.

Craft brewers willingness to experiment (making the beers they want to make regardless of how the general public or even a niche fan base responds) is a quality that has propelled American craft beer to where it is today. Not every beer is unanimously lauded, and some miss the mark by a long shot, but without the freedom to take those risks, brewers would cease innovating. And the rest of us would live in a world without Kolsch, Black IPAs, or any other beer style birthed from a little creativity.

I happened to like Infinium, but my interest in it, and as a result my writing on it, was more about the story behind the beer. For me, Infinium's significance lies in the collaboration between one of the first and largest craft breweries in the U.S. and one of the oldest and most traditional breweries in Germany, and the method the two unlikely partners developed to make it. By approaching American craft brewers for help thinking outside the box, beer makers in Germany are beginning to break away from centuries-old practice. That's pretty exciting considering the rich, robust brewing culture that exists there and the potential for a German brewing revolution that could transform beer in Germany and beyond.

I don't believe Infinium was made with hard-core craft beer fans in mind–a group that includes most beer writers and users of sites like RateBeer.com and BeerAdvocate.com. So it is no surprise that a beer created as much to appeal to fans of champagne as to craft beer nuts would be received somewhat coldly by the latter group. Infinium is no Led Zeppelin of beers, but like Infinium and many new things, those now-legends of rock were also not well received in their early days.

Luckily most of Zep's adversaries eventually came around. My question is, will craft beer drinkers' palates be more accepting of an experimental beer like Infinium with time, or does Infinium deserve to be slammed (in the negative, non-chugging sense) as a failed effort in experimentation?

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Starting Friday, Y&H will be on vacation, far from computers and their crack-like ability to keep me addicted to them. No, I'll be sleeping late, eating well, and trying to hide my spare tire with beach towels.

This is not the news.

The news is Greg Engert, beer director for the Neighborhood Restaurant Group, including Birch & Barley/ChurchKey, will be guest blogging on Y&H while I'm gone. He'll be returning to his roots to a certain degree. Before he took a swan dive into beer, Engert studied English literature, with an eye on the professorial path.

Next week, his lectern will be the Y&H blog. He has an ambitious syllabus planned for you.

"I will shed light on what it is like to be a Beer Director, the job people seem to incessantly covet," Engert e-mails. "And I plan on one post being a sort of day-in-the-life of a Beer Director. The blog will offer behind-the-scenes looks at the beer industry, new products, craft beer trends, highlights and lowlights from service, beer and food pairing ideas."

He has many other topics he may touch upon as well, he writes, including:

• What is in my refrigerator
• Why I don't sleep
• Why beer styles are ridiculous
• What Twitter has and hasn't taught me about brevity
• The notion of vintage brews
• Lessons of beer & food: trust cork dorks, be wary of beer nerds
• Best beer blogs
• Cask ales
• New keg techniques
• Rate Beer vs. Beer Advocate
• Glassware and temperature
• Defining craft brewing

Damn, I almost wish I was going to be around to read all this.

Photo by Darrow Montgomery

• Beer Wars: Brewed in America - The beverage-focused documentary film showed just how nasty Big Beer (Anheuser-Busch InBev and MillerCoors, predominantly) can be. We  saw the film's April screening and live broadcast in Friendship Heights; our friend Tom Cizauskas saw it in Arlington. He posted a fair review.  Rent the DVD and decide for yourself.
• Allagash Makes True American Lambic – Who says you have to be in Brussels to pull yeast out of the air and make beer? At SAVOR in June Rob Tod described his discovery of a wild yeast in Maine, and he debuted his first Spontaneous lambic in Philadelphia in December. Clay Risen at The Atlantic has the details.
• The Tax Saga – Thanks to the recession, Congress was ready to go hogwild when it came to raising those sin taxes and there was much discussion and debate about it this year. In the end it seems the beer industry has more or less prevailed...for now.
• Obama's Beer Summit – The People pleaded, they chastised, and then finally got over Obama, Gates, and Crowley's beverage choices and recognized the event for what it was. Still, beer was on everyone's mind, and we mean everyone, about as viral as an inaugural puppy.
• Collaboration, Collaboration, Collaboration – Americans with Germans, hopheads with hopheads, aforementioned hophead with homebrewing web brothers . Spring, summer, fall, winter–last year was all about brewers cross-pollinating their recipes and ingredients (a part of the movement).
• Light Beer Reaches New Low: Select 55 – This summer a new winner took the prize, clearly oblivious to how ludicrous that prize was. 'Nuff said. (In case you haven't noticed, a certain Y&H blogger is tired of talking about it.)

Stayed tuned for the last batch...

The Extreme Beer Fest to be held in Boston this February 19 and 20 will feature a new, as-yet unnamed brew–a collaboration between Dogfish Head's Sam Calagione and Jason and Todd Alstrom, editors of Beer Advocate magazine, which is sponsoring the festival. The beer is scheduled to be brewed this month at Dogfish Head's facility in Milton, Delaware.

As collaborations go, we'll just have to wait and see how this one turns out. The duo (if you count the brothers as one, as most do) partnered to create a beer for last year's Extreme Beer Fest. The video features a jovial extreme beer drinker asking Sam Calagione about the beer. We're not sure about the hat...but the beer sounds wacky enough to be a Dogfish Head concoction.

Both Dogfish Head and Beer Advocate have opened a window into Calagione's creative process–not to mention his affinity for the word "dude." They posted an extended email thread between Calagione and the Alstrom brothers, allowing us the voyeuristic pleasure of reading along as the beer's recipe is decided.

These guys seem to have have everything figured out except the name for the beer. Hence, the naming contest. You have to register on Beer Advocate's website to enter. Click here for rules. Have a brilliant idea? Better hurry and submit because the deadline is this Friday. If you win, you get plenty of free schwag–meaning beer-related stuff, not "low-grade pot" as defined by the Urban Dictionary.

We consider ourselves humble students of beer, always looking for a good new book or website, and frequently checking the ones we have grown to trust. Yesterday during a panel at the Women Chef and Restaurateurs National Conference, Tammy and several other regional beeries were asked for some good sources on beer.

It got us thinking: out of the non-blog resources out there about beer, what bubbles to the top? Below are our top five, in no particular order (and probably no surprise, since we mention these often). We'd love to hear what yours are, so cite those references in the comments section...APA format optional.

1. Anything by Michael Jackson, the end all, be all beer guru, is a must. Ask someone you consider to be a beer expert what they have read and MJ's books are on their list. We guarantee it.

2. Beertown.org is the Brewers' Association website and has a great beer info and education page, as well as tons of nitty-gritty info about homebrewing and the craft beer industry.

3. Beer Advocate has a very thorough set of Beer 101 pages in their education section and tons of descriptions and ratings for almost every beer known to man by regular old joes and janes just like you.

4. All About Beer magazine doesn't have the sexiest or most up-to-date website, but we look forward to getting the actual magazine every two months. It's always full of good stuff...all about beer (duh).

5. The Naked Pint came out earlier this year and is a very informative, witty, and thorough book by Hallie Beaune and queen of the popular blog Beer for Chicks, Christina Perozzi. Tammy's reading the book now and we're going to have the chance to meet the L.A. women beer expert authors later this month. (Sorry folks-it's a media-only event, but we'll write about meeting them and plenty more about the book soon.) The Lagerheads have Sam Chapple-Sokol of Humble Gourmand and Inkwell fame to thank for turning us on to it. We'll get your copy back to you unscathed, buddy!

A sixer of Dale's to go — on your desert island

I've had, and still do have, a proclivity toward lists and the ranking of favorites. High Fidelity inspires desert island-record discussions. Fantasy football drafts are a drug. And as tykes, my brother and I would sit cross-legged in the living room, surrounded by sorted mounds of Halloween candy or Pogs (depending on the season) and conduct elaborate trades and negotiations based on our arbitrarily prized possessions. (Should I be confessing this in print? If I ever run for public office, let's pretend this didn't happen.)

The point being: I'm no different today. So when I see the Alström brothers of Beer Advocate fame enumerating their top five desert island beers alongside a profile in The Boston Globe, I start getting ideas. Building a desert island list is a delicate task. With records, you need to take into account all the different styles, eras, and at least one sentimental favorite. You probably want some reggae in there, being on an island. So while ranking Pogs may be less nuanced, picking just five beers to drink for all of sand-locked eternity seems unfair, if not impossible. Or in other words, fun.

Like records, my favorite beers change frequently — probably every time I walk into a beer store. But here's my outline, the prototypical desert island beer list. And despite the urge to apply a beach theme, I have one rule: nothing with a lime in it. Ever.

1. The go-to quaff. You need one lighter beer, a refreshing lager you can drink by the case while watching the game (better believe my desert island gets NFL Sunday Ticket). This beer is also necessary for pairing with the fresh seafood your monkey butlers bring in off the trawler every morning. My go-to here is Victory Prima Pils, or in fantasy land, I'd take Pilsner Urquell, unfiltered and fresh from Plzeň. But no, if I really have to pick just one, it's Terrapin Rye Pale Ale from Athens, Ga. It's as light as Tahitian sand and bristling with dry rye flavor. Terrapin doesn't ship to D.C. yet, but I'm on their case about it.
2. IPA, at least one. What's a man without hops? Sad and alone on a desert island, that's what. But if there's a Bells Two-Hearted Ale or a Dale's Pale Ale in my coconut shell, I'm doing all right.
3. Sentimental favorite #1: big and hoppy. As with Jason Alström, I have to have some Bear Republic Hop Rod Rye. It's a dark, spicy beast with enough hops to put your average IPA to shame.
4. Something for the palate.You're going to want to invite guests over to the desert island, and you'll need something classy to pair with a fine cheese plate. Something in the Belgian style seems in order; I'd go with a trappist like Rochefort 8, St. Bernardus Abt 12, or a saison like Dupont.
5. Sentimental favorite #2: mellow and complex.I'm still lacking in slow-sipping beers, so I'm leaning toward a double IPA or barleywine. My choice here at the moment is Head Knocker from the Vintage 50 restaurant and brewpub in Leesburg. It's a lighter, golden take on an English barleywine, with a honey aroma and a sweetly smooth finish. The beer is now retired, but brewer Bill Madden will open brewpub Mad Fox in the fall. On my fantasy island, it's delivered in fresh casks via helicopter.
6. The cheating sixth beer. Come on, you knew it was coming. Who can pick just five beers? My cheating sixth: Fullers London Pride, the ultimate English bitter, in all its quaffable, buttery glory.

So fellow Beerspotters, let's hear it. What are your top five (okay six) desert island beers?