On July 18, while Yukoners were probably enjoying Dustball and the Dawson City Music Festival, there was one other thing to celebrate: International Brewers Day.
The idea for the makeshift holiday came from a well-established beer blogger who, not long ago, saw a sticker on a San Francisco brew pub’s door asking, “Have you hugged a brewmaster today?”
From that one simple slogan, an idea of International proportions was spawned and now, on July 18, International Brewers Day will be celebrated.
Now, the plan supplied by the blogger known simply as “J” (who writes for the Brookston Beer Bulletin; it is a great blog, check it out at www.brookstonbeerbulletin.com) is for beer bloggers of the world to unite on July 18 by profiling a local brewmaster or brewer on their sites.
Although he did not expect much else for the first or so, the plan for years down the road is for restaurants and bars to hold brewers events where they profile local beers for the day.
Thirdly, his idea is to give any brewer you see a hug in the tradition of the sticker that started this whole idea.
Here at Yukon Brewing, there are definitely a few brewers who could use a hug or two to brighten their dispositions, if only for one day (just kidding guys, you are all veritable rays of sunshine).
In case you are wondering why July 18, the date comes from the feast day of the most notable patron saint of brewing, Saint Arnulf of Metz or, more commonly, Saint Arnold. It seems old Arnie liked to enjoy his feast at the height of summer to coincide with the sunny drinking season.
This is the kind of holiday we could really get behind so we look forward to the event gaining some steam … and some hugs for our valued brewers.
Eventually, when this day inevitably becomes a stat holiday, we can thank J and the Brookston Beer Bulletin for doing us all a great public service.
This column is courtesy of the Yukon Brewing Company, an organization that asks, “What does Queen Victoria, veterans, Jesus and brewmasters have in common?”.
