Beer is a highly contextual beverage.  Our taste impressions and flavour memories can be strongly influenced by whatever else was happening when we drank a particular beer. 

As New Zealand inches towards a hospitality environment regulated by the whim and fancy of Sir Geoffrey Palmer, it is worth considering the situation in the United Kingdom which, if anything, might be even worse.

We may well have just seen the biggest influx of Americans into New Zealand since the Second World War. 

It has begun.

The 176th Oktoberfest opened in Munich on 19 September and will run through to October 4. 

Any mention of the United States these days polarises people.  It does not seem to matter whether the discussion relates to foreign policy, hip-hop music or beer.

It seems there is a day, a month or even a year for every good cause at the moment.  The United Nations alone has already declared 2009 to be Year of Astronomy, Year of Natural Fibres and the Year of the Gorilla.