Let me be the first second to admit it: I’ve fallen off the beer blogging bandwagon. I’ve been missing Session deadlines left and right. Heck, the last time I participated was way back in August. Why the lack of posts?

I guess I had just gotten a bit bored with my pedestrian style of reviewing beers. After all, beer is one of my greatest passions. Can you really define your passion by deconstructing it and judging its value by assigning a grade based on a 50 point scale?

Jesus, what was I thinking?

Talk about taking all the fun out of something. So from here on out, I plan to leave all the heavy duty classification and grading to the fine folks at Beer Advocate and Rate Beer.

Thanks to friends and other assorted beer bloggers, I’ve been reminded not to neglect the most important source of creativity, the Muse. You can’t take the time to write about every half-decent beer that enters your glass, you’ve gotta wait for the one that makes you want to go out and buy it by the case. You’ve gotta find a beer that makes you rush to your computer and bang out a loving ode while your glass is still half full. You’ve gotta find the one that makes you phone in sick for work, just so you can spend one or two more hours of half-lucid bliss, snuggled up under the covers, wrapped in their embrace. You need to find the beer that’s so incredible, you can’t think of anything better to name your monthly beer news magazine after. Or for that matter, your beer blog. Hey, meta humor!

Ayinger Celebrator is at the pinnacle of those special beers. It doesn’t matter if you’ve been saving it in your fridge for 6 months, waiting for a special occasion to crack it open. The very occasion of opening an Ayinger Celebrator is special enough on it’s own.

Cracking the cap is enough to start your mouth watering. Dark dark brown beer, almost black, with a sudsy tan head that stays for the duration. Celebrator has a perfectly thin and bready maltiness. It doesn’t hammer you on the head with over-the-top complexity and brilliant flavors bursting left and right, it’s more subtle and refined than that. Balanced and delicate. I’ve only had it by itself, but if I could choose any meal to have accompany it, a great pairing would be braised lamb shanks and mashed potatoes.

I’m curious, have any of the Session writers out there NOT tried Ayinger Celebrator? With this post I am declaring my fervent and undying zealotry for this beer. Much like a Ron Paul supporter standing on a freeway overpass in the rain, waving a hand-stenciled “REVOLUTION 2008″ poster, I want to share this beer with you.

Now let’s go check out some of the doppelbocks that you guys have been drinking.

A special thank you to Wilson at Brewvana for hosting today’s Doppelbock Session.