Rhetoric

rhet·o·ric

noun /ˈretərik/ 


The art of effective or persuasive speaking or writing, esp. the use of figures of speech and other compositional techniques


Language designed to have a persuasive or impressive effect on its audience, but is often regarded as lacking in sincerity or meaningful content


There is a lot of nonsense said, and written, about beer. Sometimes it's just ill information spread around by well meaning people who have simply misunderstood what they have heard, or been told. Sometimes it is misinformation propagated innocently by enthusiastic beery folk in the name of good beer. On occasions it might be deformed truths, hidden behind suggestions of something that isn't, aimed at fuggling the brains of the poor beer consumer. Sometimes it can be downright lies spouted by brewery PR people who somehow manage to get away with deflecting the beer drinkers thought process away from some reality or other.

I'd like to think at Hardknott we are reasonably honest about our methods of promoting our beer. Yes, we jump the odd band wagon occasionally¹, and we might shout about something we don't like, or someone who has upset us, if we think it'll get us noticed. But, we do always act from our hearts, with honesty about what we do. We don't tend to use hollow rhetoric.

However, it seems to us that a little bit of rhetoric might help us out, so we brewed some.

Rhetoric is our "concept" beer range. The experimental stuff that might, or might not quite work. It might be more art than beer, although I think someone once tried to use that tag line, so perhaps I won't. It's certainly craft, mainly because the results will be one off, and largely unpredictable at the mercy of the whim of the head brewer. Me.

I was kind of gunning for 13% on this one. We threw lots of various sugars at the damn thing. Lots and lots, in fact. We used three different types of yeast and mucked around with rousing, but tentatively for fear of the danger of oxidisation. In the end it stopped at just a shade over 10%.

There are all sorts of things you can throw into beer, like yeast nutrients and, if you really want to go all Heston on the job, artificial enzymes to help the yeast get along with more troublesome to digest sugars. We didn't use them on this occasion, but we do have other projects on the go...

But, for this one, as usual, we bottle conditioned. It wasn't one of those pretend bottle conditioning activities where the beer is filtered, carbonated and then just a token bit of yeast dobbed in, an absence of any fermentables or oxygen rendering secondary fermentation, with any meaning, a complete myth.² No, this beer was flat when it went in the bottle and any sparkle is the result of what went on after we put the lid on our creation.

I'd like to make a quick note about reediness to drink. This beer has been in the bottle for the best part of 6 weeks now. It's about there, and we've decided to release it on the world. I expect the yeast might continue to improve the condition in the bottle, or perhaps not. We think the condition is a little on the soft side, but the beer is tasty, and worth drinking.

The point is, the Rhetoric range of beers, this is the first edition you see, are hopefully going to continue to age, if looked after, for a long time. Like any fine beverage, it will peak sometime after it leaves the primary producer. If you want to buy just one bottle to drink very soon then go ahead. We think you'd be better buying two, one for now and one for some time later. We will not make this beer ever again. The next one will be quite different. We want people to buy them, keep them, look at them and gloat at other people when our supply runs out, and occasionally drink them some time in the future. I think this one will be great in 3-5 years time.

It's great now, of course. "Bonkers" someone told me recently, and then continuing to assure me that this particular bonkers was a good thing "all sorts of flavours going on". Probably as opposed to the sort of bonkers that I am, which possibly isn't good.

The beer? It's a Star Anise ³ Infused, Quasi-Bombastic, Belgique Quad. The people who have been given a pre-release bottle are invited to join an OpenIt session on twitter, Saturday, around 7:30pm.

The rest of you will be able to buy it on our on-line shop very soon now.

-------------------

¹but normally very quickly fall off the wagon.

²For the sake of clarity, I'm not going to say I'll never do these things. Indeed, I know that for various commercial reasons true bottle conditioning may not be viable at scale. However, a little bit of yeast in any beer helps, in my view, to add to flavour and protect the beer from harmful oxygen. Yeast eats oxygen you see, improving the shelf life when done right. Indeed, when looking to age beers yeast can be very helpful indeed, even if the majority of the carbonation comes from a big heavy pressure cylinder.

Additionally, the effects of chill haze, and something that I believe might be termed "colloidal stability" or an insufficiency of said stability, can cause problems in a wider market where people seem to drink with their eyes. These reasons can necessitate the need for heavy filtering. We will try to avoid it if we can.

³Anyone who knows Kristy McCready will know she has a pathological hatred of fennel, celery and aniseed. I already had her in mind when we brewed this beer. But then she declared that despite not liking rhubarb either, she found it OK in at least one beer.

I'm not holding out too much hope for Kristy liking this one, however.

The Humanity of Craft Beer

The good old craft beer definition thing keeps rearing its head. There are people that don’t see the need to define it. Sometimes this seems to be because they feel comfortable with what they see as craft and wonder why there is a fuss at all. Some people, it seems, feel that beer is just beer and we shouldn’t try to differentiate.

I can find good reason to hook with these synergies; on the one hand I know what I class as craft and what I don’t, and on the other appreciate that the world of beer is broad, and even that which I dismiss as not craft still deserves a worthy place in the broader sense.
But still, the desire is still there to attempt a demarcation. We all have the need to assign to a club, a clan, our tribe that defines our inner sense of being. Our own individual need to say “this is who I am and these are the people with whom I belong”

Despite this obvious need to define ourselves it is unlikely that we will ever find the answer. What you feel is worthy, dear drinker, of being part of your craft world will always differ to mine. We should not be afraid to admit to this and remember that whilst we can discuss, argue and perhaps occasionally get annoyed with each other over what we feel is right, the fact that we all care about it is proof that it matters enough.

Momentarily I shall remove myself from the abstract and consider a practical point of view. I make and sell beer. I need a way to put across how the beer I sell differs from the other beer that customers could buy from other brewers.

To allow me to explain I will apologise in advance for in part being a little derogatory about beer that I don’t make, but could, at least in the eyes of some, still be classed as craft. I am, of course, referring to cask beer, made as inoffensive as possible, to appeal to as broad an audience as possible and brewed mainly to the cost constraints laid down by accountants. Made by people who might well be brewers, and may well be quite technically competent and indeed, far more competent than me, but have had all the flair and imagination knocked out of them by financial targets imposed by men in suits. It might be cask and it might be local, but it isn’t exactly what you would call inspirational.

I can hear a sigh “There you go again Dave” will come a comment “Why can’t you just say what is good about your beer, rather than condemn other beers” and the reason is quite simple; comparison. The people who like, and drink everyday the beers I am describing are content with what they drink. If they are happy then that is all good to me. Equally, it is important for me to say that this is not the sort of beer I wish to make. Partly by saying this it helps me to apologise to the people who don’t like what I brew, and to define what the people who like my beer might drink.

To this end one definition of craft beer is that which has flavours, strengths, aromas and presentation that steps far away from the criteria needed for the common man. Perhaps it is hopped to hell, or is 10%++ or has some crazy adjunct flavour that just shouldn’t be in beer. Perhaps, as I saw one commentator write, brewed in the American style.

You can say these things, and more. I would like to offer one other asset of craft beer. One that seems to ring through all others; Craft beers have a real story behind them. Real personalities. Real people. People who care about touching base with the drinker who buys the beer. People who’s inspiration shines through not only in the beer itself but also the fact that they take time to communicate what the beer is about. People who are not just influenced by accountants, and shareholders who care only about their dividend, but are also influenced by wanting to inspire the drinker.

John Keeling, me and The English Experiment at The Rake

I am writing this sat on a train to Euston Station. We have already sent a cask to The Rake Bar. John Keeling, Alex and I made a beer a few weeks back and we called it The English Experiment. One thing is for sure, after John’s expenses to travel up to Cumbria and my expenses for today are taken into account, this beer is making a substantial loss financially, at least for this batch. If we brew a lot more of it we might well make money. If so, can we still call it the same beer if John isn’t there to wave his Fullers’ magic?

Rhetorical, is the answer for now. Making money, directly at least, was not the point of the exercise. Obviously, we hope that the PR will be mutually beneficial to both our enterprises.

We hope that this transparent and public show of what the comradeship within inspirational UK brewers can mean will strengthen my point that in part, beer is about people. From the people who load the grist case, dig out the mash tun, scrub the copper, fill the casks, run the bottling line, analyse the results, sell the beer, buy the beer and of course, drink the beer, it’s about the people.

People, personalities, emotions, fun and fears, and many, many more human factors are what, in my mind, makes craft beer more than any other definable quality.

Because of that, we will never define craft beer, nor should we be able to. The people and the personalities who make it will, in themselves, continue to discuss for a very long time what it means. It is good that we do, I’m happy that we do, because it shows we are human.

Photo Competition

It occurs to me that some of the people who enjoy our beer very definitely buck the idea that beer drinkers are unhealthy podgy people who can't be bothered to get out and enjoy the great outdoors. I could list everyone who springs to mind, but it's too long a list to include here. There are a couple of people who have even taken the time to cart a bottle or two up a mountain and photograph it in all it's splendour. I can't think of a better backdrop for one of our beers than some majestic mountain view, be it from the pub beer garden or atop that hill you've just struggled up.

One such trouper is Yvan Seth who regularly drops by the brewery to pick up beer, or drop off empties, whilst visiting our area on a walking expedition.

He was here very recently and as he's been doing such a great job in getting beer around the country the least we could do was let him have some beer.

Off he went and took pictures of it in various great locations
.

It struck me that the best pictures of The English Experiment have actually been taken in Scotland. Alex Salmond, eat your heart out.

Yvan has also taken some on top of a New Zealand mountain, however, the record this end has been lost in my twitter timeline somewhere......

I'm sure Yvan will send it me again.

Another, more local walker/photographer is a guy called Adam, who has been partly responsible for getting our town a decent beer outlet. Tweeting as @BearOnThSquare he sent me a picture from the top of Pavey Ark in The Lake District.

I really like all these pictures and hope to build up a collection.

To help me find more pictures I have been thinking for a while of running a competition. So, today I'm doing something about it. If you would like to receive a mixed case of our beer and have, or would like to take some pictures of our beer in unusual locations, you can email them to dave at hardknott.com.

Get snapping!!

---------------------------------------

Rules, we don't really believe in rules, but best make some up anyway.

By sending us your picture you permit the use of your work by Hardknott. All credit will be given to the originator of the work. You will retain copyright and will be free to use the photography as you feel fit for any other purpose.
To enable us to assign credits please include all information regarding the originator of the work.
To enable us to send out any prizes full postal address must be included.
Although we encourage entries from all parts of the world, please note that we can only guarantee shipping beer prizes to UK mainland addresses.
Hardknott reserves the right to assign prizes as it sees fit, or to not issue any prizes should no entry be deemed suitable.
Winners will be announced on this blog and a selection of worthy mentions may also be included.

The English Experiment

John Keeling is one of those friends I have had the pleasure of being acquainted with as a direct result of this blog. It started one day back in October 2009 sat drinking a cup of coffee at Sheffield station. We were meeting several people from The British Guild of Beer Writers. Several people who I know had already arrived and I was introduced to John. I replied with my name and the response John gave will remain a warming memory for the rest of my years.

"I know, I read your blog"

The knowledge that at least one significant head brewer in the UK brewing scene reads my blog was an enormous boost.

I have met up with John on several occasions since. I've even written about his brewery after a visit. He has convinced me that he and his company should have a very rightful place amongst the hotly debated definition of Craft Brewers.

When John phoned me and suggested we should do a collaboration I was thrilled. Of course, there is the inevitable little bit of extra PR it will provide us, but also I am flattered to be considered as worthy enough to be approached by a significant and historic brewery. I felt a little bit of responsibility towards the process too. Clearly Fuller's have to gain something out of allowing their Brewing Director to travel up to Cumbria and spend time with us.

What I hope they have gained is assurance of credibility. At a time when just being a long standing family brewer is not enough. At a time when there is a swing towards a more contemporary and cutting edge approach to brewing there is a danger that by not evolving, and seeing to evolve, a historic brewery will end up extinct. If you look like a dinosaur, there is every chance you will end up suffering the same fate.

Of course, when a brewer has a solid and substantial brand following such as Fuller's, with their ever successful London Pride, care needs to be taken not to upset this. To that end I was aware that we had a responsibility to somehow take care not to upset Fuller's significant reputation, but also to not undermine our own principles.

To make a beer that both Fullers and Hardknott would be proud of is the main objective. For it to comply with our objectives it had to be different, somehow. A contemporary spin on using all English ingredients seemed to be a good thing to do.

Charles Faram came to the rescue with their hop breeding program. We got Archer, Baron, Bishop and Landlady hops which I believe are the first year of a very small comertial release. Will Rogers from Faram had this to say;

"These four varieties have come from the Charles Faram hop development program and we are delighted at their application in this collaboration brew. They are in the traditional English style but with fantastic disease resistance to facilitate a sustainable future for the English hop industry. They have been selected for their excellent brewing potential with new flavours and aromas whilst still being recognisably English in their nature."

There will be a cask at The Rake Bar on Monday 11th June from 5pm. I'll be there and so will John Keeling.

Meanwhile, we also shot some video of the fun we had. It has taken me hours to get the 1 hour 20 minutes of footage down to this, so please watch it.

SIBA North Council Rep

Bit of a canvassing post here. I'd write more, but I've got work to do.

There is a space on the SIBA council for a North region representative.

You may have seen Stringers comment on this blog. The man behind the persona is Jon Kyme and he's a mate, although you wouldn't have thought so by the way he baits me here.

He knows quite a lot of stuff about all sorts of things and is a witty and entertaining drinking companion. Although, that by itself is obviously not a good reason to vote for him.

I'm voting for him because I don't believe he would take any prisoners when it comes to defending the little guy. Want someone on council who knows the struggles facing little breweries? Jon's your man. Worried that SIBA might be too heavily biased with ambitious corporate empire building suites? Well, Jon is not that, trust me.

Please, if you are a SIBA North brewing member, vote for him too. Votes need to be in today; you should have had an email.

Thanks very much.

It's all Rhetorical

What a great response I got for my previous post, inviting bloggers who are attending The European Bloggers Conference this coming weekend to give me reasons why I should give them a bottle of our new Rhetoric MKI. I of course reserve the right to give away beer to whoever I choose, and having now chosen the 24 lucky winners, I must now announce it, and I feel that some sort of explanation for each is required.

I realised that I have set myself a difficult task. I'm not sure I've managed to capture everyone who responded and there is a nagging doubt in the back of my mind that I saw a really great response that I cannot now find. Putting in everyone's links got to be very time consuming. I hope I got them all right. If not, many apologies.

There are other people who aren't going to the bloggers conference who may have missed out. I may get to you in time, you never know your luck.

Alex has already set off for Leeds, if you are in the list just make yourself known to him.

With no further ado, *drum roll* the winners are......

1. The Ormskirk Barron Baron

Because he has always supported Hardknott. He might have already received free beer from me in the past, or perhaps not, I can't remember. He has paid for Hardknott beer, I know, I was there. But also because he tackled the issue of blogging for free beer in an honest and forthright audio podcast.

Also, he gets it for his tweet; "you can't give happiness to charity"

Hopefully he'll share his bottle with Christopher R.

2. Andy Mogg

Andy didn't respond to my post. Actually, that's a lie, he re-tweeted it. However, he is one of the bloggers that I feel has the up-most blogging integrity. Also, he has recently joined the ranks of the self employed. In this age of economic uncertainty everyone who risks personal finance on the uncertainty of enterprise deserves my support.

3. Mark Charlwood

An example of a blogger who believes in what he is doing. A great guy too.

And also for this comment  "If you love craft beer, brewing and the beer industry then invest your disposable income in it. You don't take up golf as a hobby and then go asking for free 7-irons do you?"

4. Mitch Adams

For blatant flattery; "A great PR idea, and I wholly approve of your marketing/sales strategy" and for being a very hard-working publican. We should value good publicans, they are the salt of the earth.

5. Chris Williams

For his involvement in a brewery that has been on my radar for more years than I care to remember, long before this whole concept of "Craft Beer" sprang up.Also, for offering to test the ABV of the beer. Well worth giving it away for that.

6. Claire and Sam

For their refreshing, friendly and honest approach.

7. Glyn Roberts

Because he's a *censored word*........ I mean, great bloke who buys way more Hardknott beer than the ordinary blogger (in his professional capacity, of course) and because I hope he'll continue to do so.

8. Gregg Irwin

For coming to see us at the brewery, buying beer, and being jolly good company when we went for a pint. And because I think Alison would like this beer.

Oh, and for promising to drink it "while sitting cross legged on a cushion made of groomed cat fur, wearing nothing but a who ate all the pies T-shirt, listening to Metallica and doing the Times crossword."

9. David Shipman

For this great post - 'nuff said

10. David Bascombe

Because of this post about Æther Blæc 2011 Epsilon - which I'd have missed if I hadn't run this competition. (I didn't send him a review bottle, by the way)

11. Dave Lozman

Because he's called Dave. And because he has bought quite a lot of Hardknott beer. He didn't join in, probably because he's in the middle of The North Sea, or planning for a wedding. I sometimes realise I have a good life when I hear what other people have to endure.

12. David Bishop

Because when I clicked on the large Hardknott Tag on his blog lots of great stuff came up.

13. Tandleman

Number 13, unlucky for some. I had to put Tandy, otherwise known as Peter Alexander, in somewhere. I thought about putting him last, or first, but he got in here instead.

I may not always agree with Tandy, but I am sure his integrity is beyond doubt. Also, he really genuinely doesn't want his free bottle. He's probably right, he won't like it. He can give it away if he likes to the blogger who most deserves it but didn't make the list.

That's probably Tyson, who does deserve it, but I couldn't think of a reason why. Hopefully he's more likely to like the beer. If not, he can give it to someone else.

14. Andy Parker

For occasional great comments on my blog and for posting about Æther Blæc 2011 Epsilon. And, for this gracious comment "If not, I'll probably buy it when it's released to the world anyway, so if they go to someone else, that's cool too."

15. Neil Walker

Well, for having a great blog, and for a great post about Infra Red He also promises to carry on buying Hardknott even if he doesn't get a free bottle.

16. Leigh Linley

Leigh didn't put in a submission, at least not to the best of my knowledge. He does write a great blog that deals a lot with beer and food matching and that is good enough for me.

17. Phil Hardy

Because he's been to our part of the world and blogged about it - and another example of a solid Hardknott supporter.

18. Reuben Gray

Because as part of a trip to England he visited us in our pub, when we had it. It was a hoot, especially the Tokyo Shandy.....

19. William Briggs

Ghostie to you and me. He sells Hardknott beer in BeerRitz. Needs no other excuse.

20. Zak Avery

Again, another who hasn't formally complied with the conditions of this competition. In fact, I sometimes wonder if he just isn't talking to me at all. But, he talks to Ann and orders beers for BeerParadise. So there.

You are right, I should have made Zak and Ghostie share, but you know, I think they both deserve a bottle each.

21. Des de Moor

As a serious writer who earns a living, at least in part, from beer writing and a thoroughly nice chap, Des had already made this list despite having not officially put forward a reason.

I make no pretence that if I give away beer the first port of call would be beer writers who will place in printed literature and those who have a solid track record of impartial and influential writing.

And then, at the last minute, up pops a splendid comment on my blog.

22. Adrian Tierney-Jones

As for Des, except he hasn't commented, or said anything about the matter at all. Perhaps he isn't talking to me either.

Actually, where is Sooty?

23. Steve Lamond

Again, another blogger who didn't join in, but when I saw his name on the delegates list, I knew I had to include him. Why? I'm not sure, but he's here and I'm the rule-maker and judge, so that's that.

24. Rob Derbyshire

Again, another who doesn't seem to have joined the request for beer. He has done some reviews of Hardknott beers in the past, although they seem a little difficult to find from his website

Blogging Integrity

I'm not going to be at the Beer Bloggers Conference that is happening this weekend. But Alex Routledge is.

We've just bottled, well actually, still bottling, a very special prototype beer. It night be about 12.5% but we're not sure. You see, we dropped in loads of glucose during fermentation and so have not got an original gravity. We also used three different yeast strains. We have a calculated guess at what we think it is, but there are too many variables to know.

It's been in a conditioning tank for about a month along with a couple of special, secret ingredients. I think it tastes great.

I talked in my last post about integrity of awards. This post concerns the integrity of Beer Bloggers. I know some bloggers take the activity very seriously and are mostly concerned with making a good job of writing about beer. Other bloggers, it seems to me, are much more interested in getting free beer than becoming great beer writers.

We don't generally give away beer to bloggers. This is partly because you guys are a significant part of our customer base. It's not a great business strategy to give away products willy nilly.

The other reason why we don't give away beer is because we have a firm conviction that if you want to write about our beer, then we don't want you biased by the fact you got it for free. Free beer always tastes better.

But, if I tried to pretend that I didn't think that some of you occasionally deserved a free beer off me I'd be lying. So, perhaps it's time to give some away, but you'll have to prove you deserve it.

The beer we are bottling is, like all our beers, bottle conditioned, so isn't ready to be drunk yet. It needs time to condition. However, if you are going to the European Beer Bloggers Conference this coming weekend, you could get a pre-release bottle to take home and wait for us to give the word that it's ready, and then we'll have a big inaugural opening with which you can join in.

I shall now introduce you to the ways in which you can win one of these bottles.

It's simple. Alex will take 24 bottles to the Conference. Between now and when Alex gets there you have to write something, on twitter, on your own blog, or in the comments on this blog, which will convince me you deserve a bottle. If you do write on twitter, please mention @Hardknott so we can find you. If on your own blog then either tweet the URL at me or post a link in the comments on this blog.

What do you have to write? Basically, a response to this post. It might be giving a reason why you like Hardknott, it might be a reason why you don't, but that is perhaps a more risky strategy. You might like to explain how you deal with getting free beer from breweries and then writing an honest blog without biting the hand that gave you the beer. It might be an example of your work, be it written, photography or video that you think especially shows off Hardknott beer. It might be some other response to this post, I'll leave it up to you.

Final word; my decision is final and I'll be making my mind up after Alex has left for Leeds. Talking nicely to Alex, bribing him or getting him completely drunk will not help you. However, do be nice to the chap, he's a good 'un. I may decide not to give away all 24 bottles if I don't think there are enough good entries and I may give more than one bottle to an entry who I think is exceptional.

And, if you do win, this beer should not be opened until we say it's ready to go. For a start, we're going to send it off to the lab so we can get the exact ABV. We also want everyone to open their bottles and tweet, blog or whatever on the same day, once we're sure it's got enough fizz.

Meanwhile, I hope you all enjoy your piss-up conference, and I'm really sorry I'm not going to be there.