The next Session is the 50th edition of the group beer blogging event, and it’s being hosted by Alan over at the venerable A Good Beer Blog. Alan’s always lifting the edges of the curtains to see what’s behind them and dropping thought-provoking posts over on his blog, and his topic for the 50th Session is suitably philosophic:

So, based on all of that, here is where I am going: what makes you buy someone’s beer? Elemental. Multi-faceted. Maybe even interesting.

• Buying beer. I mean takeaway. From the shelf to you glass. What rules are dumb? Who gives the best service? What does good service mean to you? Please avoid “my favorite bar references” however wonderful. I am not talking about taverns as the third space. Unless you really really need to and contextualize it into the moment of transaction at the bar. If you can crystallize that moment of “yes” when the bartender is, in fact, tender go for it.
• What doesn’t work? What fad or ad turned you off what had previously been turned on about some beer’s appeal? When does a beer jump the shark? When does a beer store fail or soar? When does a brewery lose your pennies or earn your dimes?
• Go micro rather than macro. You may want to explore when you got tired of “extreme” or “lite” or “Belgian-style” but think about it in terms of your relationship with one brewery rather than some sort of internet wave of slag… like that ever happens.
• What is the most you paid for a great beer? More importantly – because this is not about being negative – what is the least? I don’t mean a gift. What compels you you to say this is the quality price ratio (“QPR”) that works best for you? When does a beer scream “you would have paid 27% more for me but you didn’t need to!”?

Just ideas. I hope you see what I am suggesting.

I have no idea what I’m going to write about.

The 50th Session is Friday, April 1st—also fitting!