Can you believe it has been over a week since we last posted to the site? Well, you can rest assured we are working hard to come up with our next review.

From an editorial standpoint, we are going to mix things up a bit. Instead of just reviewing beers via a Podcast, we’re going to do it the old fashion way - by typing some of them up. We’ll still give you all the witty, dry (err. drunk) humor that you have to come to expect from our first two Podcasts, but in written format.

In any case, we have updated to Reviews page to identify the beers we have already reviewed, and the ones coming.

P.S., Many of our visitors may not know that we also have an online forum for your hops pleasure. There really isn’t much content as of yet, but we hope to get some people excited about participating. How does free beer sound? Oh wait, that must violate some sort of interstate law; how about the enternal gratitude and admiration of your fellow beer man?

Filed by Kevin at 8:02 pm under Site Related
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On a whim, I decided to upgrade the publishing system of TheHopsReview.com to a freshly released version of Wordpress 2.0. It really turned out to be a potential nightmare.

All I can say to anyone wanting to do this procedure, is to be sure you backup everything prior to upgrading (like it says in the instructions.) Especially, if you have custom themes in place, as it seems the install wipes them out. When I first went to the homepage, only a blank screen appeared, because our theme had disappeared. OH NO! I just about had a stroke. But, In the end, all I had to do was copy back our custom themes and javascript files and the crisis was averted…

How does it work? The new version of Wordpress is spectacular. The enhanced posting mechinism (WYSIWYG) is certainly welcome. And the AJAX functionality is a nice bonus.

CHEERS!

Filed by Kevin at 8:57 pm under Site Related
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During this time of celebration and the welcoming in of the New Year, enjoy and have fun, just do it safely!

Remember these helpful hints:

• Don’t drink if you are under the age of 21.
• Offer to be the designated driver, and drink only non-alcoholic beverages.
• Eat foods that are high in protein or carbohydrates if you are drinking alcohol.
• If another guest is having too much to drink, engage them in conversation to help slow their rate of drinking.
• Stop drinking alcoholic beverages about two hours before the party is over. Your body will then have time to absorb the alcohol you have consumed.
• Be a friend. If another guest has had too much to drink, help your host not let them drive. Offer to drive them home. Whatever you do, don’t give in. Friends don’t let friends drink and drive!

From TheHopsReview.com: HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Filed by Kevin at 12:45 pm under Site Related
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Interesting product for the Mac user: BeerAlchemy

“BeerAlchemy is designed to help homebrewers create great beer. It takes the drudgery out of recipe formulation and looks after all your recipes too”

Filed by Kevin at 10:08 am under Site Related
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It really is hard to believe that in just a week’s time, we have gone from a simple idea, to a full fledged web site. From what Paul tells me, he should have recording equipment available within the next few days. This means we’ll be able to create our first Podcast, where we will be reviewing our first selection: Gordon Biersch (of course we still have to find it first).

We also have a new member to the staff. Another good friend of ours, Jason McArtor. Welcome aboard Jason!

A couple other items to note:

1. The forum is now active. Please take a look at the categories available and post something relative. We really hope to use the forum to help facilitate a connection between our readers. If there is anything that seems to be missing, as far as categories go, please don’t hesitate to let us know.
2. Design and functionality of the site is basically complete. After some struggles with CSS, I believe we really have something worthy to look at. We hope you agree.
3. I have also implemented the structured blogging plug-in for Wordpress. Basically, through this nifty plug-in, we have the ability to quickly and easily write what is classified as microcontent. In a nutshell, it is very easy for us to write reviews, post about events, write audio/video posts, as well as showcase groups and people. It really is a cool thing, that anyone running a Wordpress blog should look in to.

We’re off to do a hops review! It is our namesake after all.

Filed by Kevin at 8:36 pm under Site Related
1 Comment

Do you have a favorite beer that isn’t mainstream? Submit your frosty favorite and we’ll do a review.

Filed by Kevin at 7:00 pm under Site Related
5 Comments

Welcome to the inaugural first post of theHopsReview.com.

This site was started because we have a passion about good quality beer. With this site, we hope to provide our readers with the best information possible concerning our favorite beverage.

Please feel free to browse the site and comment on how we are doing.

Thank you,
Kevin & Paul

Filed by Kevin at 4:44 pm under Site Related
2 Comments