Win free beer by tapping on your keyboard (competition announcement)

Drink beer. Write about beer. Win beer. Drink more beer. It's that simple. This is the second competition on Stonch's Beer Blog. There were over 100 entries to the Visions of Beer photography contest back in December. This time, you don't even need a camera.

I'm asking you to write, using no more than 175 words, about any beer you've tasted. It's up to you whether you opt for a relatively formal tasting note, or try to evoke a sense of place or capture a particular moment in time. Unusual angles on the subject are more than welcome. Entries that catch my eye will be published on the blog as we go along.

The prize? Site sponsor Beer-Ritz will send the winner a case containing 24 classic bottled beers from Britain, Belgium and elsewhere. In case you're in any doubt - that's a hell of a good prize. Beer-Ritz is Britain's leading online beer retailer, having been in the business for ten years.

Email your entries to me at stonchblog@gmail.com before midnight on Friday 18th July. Include your full name and address with your entry. The competition is open to all, but the prize can only be sent to addresses in the UK.

If you're looking for inspiration, remind yourself of this famous passage from Thomas Hardy's Trumpet Major:

"It was of the most beautiful colour that the eye of an artist in beer could desire; full in body, yet brisk as a volcano; piquant, yet without a twang; luminous as an autumn sunset; free from streakiness of taste, but, finally, rather heady".