Tempus fugit, amigos: Beer Culture has been live for eleven and a half weeks and we’re now serving 6,500 page views per month, spreading the word about beer culture in the Czech Republic and Central Europe to 65 countries so far. As a means of promoting Czech brewing and saying thanks, we’re announcing a big beer-themed giveaway, by which we mean a reader contest.
But first, it is time for haiku.
That is to say the art form known as beer haiku. I first encountered the beast on the beermats (above) created by David Wheatley for the excellent Whalebone brewpub up in Hull. David is a friend, so when the mats were published he sent along a set; the poems were also included in his latest collection, Mocker. A favorite:
A pub is a boat.
It sails on froth. Each pint pulled
helps keep it afloat.
As it turns out, beer and haiku go along so well that some people even write beer haiku daily. Thus, our first reader contest: write a haiku with a beer theme and send it to the email address of Good Beer Guide Prague and the Czech Republic (also known as GBGPrague@gmail.com). If it’s good enough, your entry could win one of the excellent prizes donated by some of our favorite Czech breweries and pubs, including shirts, glassware and more.
Herewith the rules.
• Entries must follow the traditional form of haiku in the West: seventeen syllables total, written in three lines with a first line of five syllables, a second line of seven syllables and a third line of five syllables.
• The haiku must have a beer or pub theme.
• It is not necessary to rhyme the first and third lines. (However, nicely rhymed entries will receive extra credit.)
• The first well-rhymed entry automatically wins a prize.
• The entry with the most remote mailing address (i.e., greatest distance from Prague) automatically wins a prize.
• Just as with the ratings of the beers in Good Beer Guide Prague and the Czech Republic, the haiku will be judged with a dash of our own subjective, capricious whimsy.
• Haiku may be submitted in English, Czech, Slovak, French or German.
• By entering, you agree to let us publish your haiku and your name on Beer Culture.
• Entries will be accepted through March 31.
That’s just about it. We’re still receiving more prizes from donors, so we can’t give you a complete list of what you can pick up yet. But here’s what we’ve got so far:
A polo shirt from Prague’s newest brewpub, Pivovar Bašta!
A polo shirt from Budweiser Budvar!
A mouse pad from Budweiser Budvar!
A bottle opener from Budweiser Budvar that goes “Yeahhh!” when you open your bottle!
A bar of beer soap!
Bottles of beer shampoo and beer shower gel!
A copy of Good Beer Guide Prague and the Czech Republic!
More prizes are forthcoming; we’ll announce them here as we receive them. For now, all you have to do is turn over a beermat the next time you’re in the pub, work up a decent haiku (5-7-5) between pints and email that little guy in to GBGPrague@gmail.com. For example, something like:
It is not so hard
to write a beery haiku—
pivo fills my heart.
We’ll be announcing the winners and the prizes in new posts throughout the month of March, so stay tuned and be sure to tell your friends, as we’ve honestly got more prizes coming in than we know what to do with. When you think about it, a decent haiku is a small price to pay for a Budweiser Budvar bottle opener — especially one that goes “Yeahhh!”
Stephen Hammerstone
How the feelings flow
When I am under your spell
Hail! King Gambrinus!
Stephen Hammerstone
Let’s go have a beer
We will watch the world go by
Friends until the end