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Pumpkin Ale on the Hop Press
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New Wednesday, new column on Ratebeer.com’s Hop Press. This week I take a look at pumpkin ale, a style that’s starting to make it’s yearly appearance as we head into fall.

If you’re looking for an all-American style of beer, the best example on the shelves might be the pumpkin ales that show up in Autumn. When the first European settlers came to America centuries ago, they brewed what were likely the first pumpkin ales. The pumpkin wasn’t there to distinguish an ale as a fall seasonal like it is these days. Instead, it was a cheap and local fermentable, used for beer in a country where malt was scarce. These original pumpkin ales weren’t spiced or gussied-up like the beers of today – no sir, the pumpkin (or sometimes parsnips, molasses, or cornstalks) was simply there as fermento-fuel for hungry yeast. Reportedly, none other than George Washington – that’s right, the dude on the quarter – brewed a mean pumpkin porter.

Check out the full column - and some of my suggestions for atypical pumpkin beers - over at RateBeer.com.
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Bookrageous Episode 3; Genre Fiction, Literary Fiction and Space Camp
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Episode three of the Bookrageous Podcast is live! This time, Jenn (of JennIRL fame) and I were joined by podcaster extraordinaire Paul Montgomery, host of the Fuzzy Typewriter podcast and staff writer for iFanboy. In the extra-double-super-duper-sized episode, Jenn, Paul and I chat about what we’ve been reading and discuss genre and literary fiction, and Rebecca and Christina (author of Stacked) pop by to talk about space camp and space books. Enjoy, subscribe, and let us know what you’d like to see in future episodes!

Show notes and an embedded player are below.

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Episode Three; Genre Fiction, Literary Fiction and Space Camp

Intro Music; Iron Boots – Rustic Overtones

What We’re Reading

Paul

[1:30] Mr Peanut by Adam Ross

[2:10] The Long Ships by Frans G. Bengtsson

[4:00] Heroes of the Valley by Jonathan Stroud

[4:28] Odd and the Frost Giants by Neil Gaiman

Josh

[5:35] The Snow Tourist by Charlie English

[8:10] Hella Nation by Evan Wright

[9:58] K Blows Top by Peter Carlson

Jenn

[11:40] Liberation by Brian Francis Slattery

[14:30] Small Favor by Jim Butcher

[20:00] In the Valley of the Kings by Terrance Holt

Break Music; Rocket Man – Jason Mraz

SPACE CAMP with Christina and Rebecca

[21:54] Why’d Christina go to Space Camp?

[24:36] The Right Stuff by Tom Wolfe

[25:50] Space Camp Highlights

[28:18] About Christina’s blog, Stacked

[32:25] Do panties float in space?

[33:00] More Miles Than Money by Garth Cartwright

[34:20] Bet Me by Jennifer Crusie

Break Music; Rocket Man – Jason Mraz

Discussion Time! Genre Fiction and Literary Fiction

[36:06] Discussing this brouhaha, this io9 article and this comment

[38:43] Defining “literary fiction.”

[44:17] How do we classify books?

[48:17] Are classics “genre” or “lit” fic?

[49:50] Michael Chabon on genre

[53:30] Good storytelling vs. good writing

[57:54] Junot Diaz on genre

[1:02:50] The Children’s Book by AS Byatt

[1:04:22] Kraken by China Mieville and The Magicians by Lev Grossman

[1:05:00] The City and The City by China Mieville

[1:06:44] Johannes Cabal the Necromancer by Jonathan Howard

[1:07:01] World War Z by Max Brooks

[1:07:10] The Gone-Away World by Nick Harkaway

[1:07:41] Quicksilver by Neal Stephenson

[1:08:41] How to Live Safely in a Science Fictional Universe by Charles Yu

[1:10:33] Super Sad True Love Story by Gary Shteyngart

[1:11:13] Dark Places by Gillian Flynn

[1:13:10] Chew by Rob Guillory and John Layman

[1:14:50] The Unwritten by Mike Carey and Peter Gross

Find Us!

[1:16:35] The Bookrageous Calendar

[1:17:30] Call our voicemail line! | (347) 855-7323

[1:18:27] Find Bookrageous, Paul, Jenn and Josh online

Outro Music; Iron Boots – Rustic Overtones

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Win a Copy of the New HOWL Graphic Novel
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Time for another giveaway!

This time, I’m giving away Harpercollins’ brand-spankin’-new graphic novel version of Allen Ginsberg’s Howl, “animated” by Eric Drooker.

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First published in 1956, Allen Ginsberg’s Howl is a prophetic masterpiece—an epic raging against dehumanizing society that overcame censorship trials and obscenity charges to become one of the most widely read poems of the century.

Allen Ginsburg’s legendary and groundbreaking epic poem, Howl, is now a graphic novel—a tie-in to the major motion picture starring James Franco. Featuring graphics by acclaimed New Yorker cover artist Eric Drooker, Howl is a magnificent visual interpretation of a classic work by a seminal Beat writer and contemporary of Jack Kerouac and William S. Burroughs.

To enter the contest, all you need to do is “like” Brews And Books on the site’s new Facebook page. If you’ve already become a fan, don’t worry - you’re grandfathered into this giveaway. The contest is open to residents of the US and Canada.

You’ve got until midnight of September 9th to enter, and I’ll announce a winner on the morning of Friday, September 10th.

Good luck!
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