A Special Linux Delivery At Valve Software

BAVARIAN BIER!

Beer... There's also a bag of some of the Linux hardware to be announced on Kickstarter next week...

Arriving to Valve on Friday I was in lederhosen, toe shoes, and had around a dozen of some of my most favorite Bavarian beers -- also my most favorite beers in the world. For those that know me personally or have read enough Phoronix content over the past eight years, this gift should not come as a surprise: my key passions in life come down to technology, the Bavarian culture, capitalism, and flying interesting aircraft. Over the course of the few hours between Plugable and Valve, it was a quick shopping experience to discover the Bellevue beer store scene and try to find as many of my favorite Bavarian beers as possible. Overall, it was a fairly successful shopping trip around Bellevue in between Microsoft, Oracle, and other companies with offices scattered throughout the Washington city.

When coming up with this plan, the first bier I sought to find was the Aecht Schlenkerla Rauchbier... When thinking of "Steam" and beer, the "Rauchbier" is the closest I could come up with... However, there is already Steamworks beer on Linux. For the non-Germans, this is smoked beer. Schklenkerla is delicious and one of the few breweries left in the world producing a real smoked beer. What makes a smoked beer is when the barley is dried over an open flame and creates a distinct taste. Aecht Schlenkerla Rauchbier comes from Bamberg (upper Bavaria) and is really a unique beer worth trying. Fortunately, for Americans, it can be found in major cities at many boutique beer stores.

Sadly, I do not have any openSUSE beer left until I am out at LinuxTag next month in Berlin, assuming their supply has been replenished... So without a Bavarian beer from a Linux distribution, next on the shopping list was something from Ayinger for another nice Bavarian beer that is still modestly easy to procure in America. Ayinger is one of my favorite beers to drink when in America and fortunately was successful in finding a few different varieties for the Valve Linux developers. Ayinger is located in Aying, just a short way outside of Munich.

Franziskaner is one of the easiest Munich beers to find in America yet still delicious. Augustiner remains my favorite Munich brewery, but was unable to find any Augustiner in Washington. (When the Valve Linux client is debuted, I will be sure to send Gabe and the Linux developers some Augustiner Hell thanks to my innovative beer transport system).