Why beer CAN be the new wine

Pete Brown wrote an interesting post about his experience holding a house party. The basic summary is that the vast majority of people do not choose their drink based on taste but on what they perceive as being an intelligent choice. Beer, for many, is not a choice they would make over wine. They may know nothing about wine either and are not interested in knowing. These people would also not care about quality beer. It's just beer. If they don't get what we love about beer then we should not worry about it.

Now appreciation of anything extraordinary can be something of a personal thing. I like mountains for instance. I like climbing them when I get a chance. Many people don't get the answer to the question "why?" which of course, all mountain climbers know, is simply "Because it is there"

I dislike football. I dislike it quite a lot if the truth be known. I don't begrudge anybody else their passion for the game, but I find the playing and watching of the sport completely pointless.

I do appreciate, in a casual sort of way, objet d'art, ancient monuments, architecture, theatre, poetry, literature, a wide range of music and other such pointless subjects. I would not expect the vast majority of the population to share my appreciation of the same things. However, sometimes it can happen that you enthuse about something to somebody and the next thing you find they have become a greater fan than you could ever imagine.

Beer can be the same. Sure, there is the argument that beer should be treated with the irreverence it deserves, after all it is a social drink first and a connoisseurs drink second. But there are people who are interested in exploring the hidden depths of the beer world, not many, and we should be careful not to get too excited, too flamboyant and become complete bores; it's working out who might be receptive that is the key.

I wish to illustrate this with my own story:

Yesterday we had a visit from a nice couple who are seriously thinking of holding their wedding here. We discussed many things like timings and the menu, flowers and accommodation. Eventually we got onto the subject of drinks on the table during the meal. We discussed the price verses quality issues of wine, carefully explaining that our wine list might not be the cheapest, but that for the price they could be sure they were getting quality for their money. I apologised that we didn't hold a large stock of champagne so they would have to confirm in advance the amount we needed to order. "We don't really care for champagne" came the reply "We're actually more interested in your beers"

Well, you could have knocked me over with a feather. How could I be so stupid not to have mentioned beer up to this point? So proceeded a tasting session which concluded with a Chimay Blue and a Mort Subite Gueuze. I even, sin of sins, got them to taste them in wine glasses. They declared the beers to be very nice indeed, especially the gueuze. They seemed impressed by the idea of tasting small amounts of lots of different beers in small glasses. They then went on to suggest a beer tasting session as part of their happy day. They thought it would be great fun in lieu of wine on the table. Of course, there would be a plentiful supply of cask beers available too.

This sort of experience with customers is not unique. I feel that it is happening with increasing frequency. The reason for this might be due to my improved awareness, or an improvement in the number of people coming to my pub because they have heard I have interesting beers, but I don't think that is all of it. I believe there is a growing market, if still very small, for specalist beer and that market still has an opportunity to grow still further.

So yes, there is a danger of becoming too evangelical about beer. Most people just want to go down to the pub and have a pint with their mates, the actual beer is not as relevant as some of us would like to think. But we also need to just keep an eye on the opportunities and grab them when they arise.

Since I first wrote this I've gone back and read the increasing number of comments on Pete's blog, including his own comment which balances out the original post. And that's the point isn't it? Balance.

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¹I'm sure somebody once wrote that they wanted beer to be treated with the irreverence it deserves. My dictionary says irreverence means "Lack of due respect or veneration, disrespect" and I've always had trouble with that. I would like to think, in the context I've seen it written with respect to beer, it is meant to be an opposite to "over-reverence"

The Meaning of Beer

I've changed the header in my blog, I hope you like it. I'm attempting to rationalise why I write this blog, focused by the upcoming deadline for the British Guild of Beer Writers¹ Annual Awards. Apparently, at least one blogger has been "prepping" for it. "Oh" I thought "Better do some myself". The problem is, apart from looking through some past posts and being embarrassed about appalling punctuation errors and the like, the only thing I've done so far is rewrite the header. Better get my act together. Luckily my transatlantic advisory service has come up with a short-list of good posts, thanks Ted. This one no doubt will be confined to the "flirting with drivel" category.

Readers may question why I'm setting myself up for a fall. Clearly there are many good beer writers out there and my chances of winning anything are slim, but I live in hope. The point is that the Guild's purpose is "To improve standards of beer writing and extend the public knowledge of beer." There are many members of the Guild working hard to achieve this, but I feel one of the key attributes of the Guild which could benefit from further exposure is the Guild's awards. If I can stimulate a little bit of anticipation ahead of the announcement on the 3rd December then so much the better. Hopefully, adding a little to the profile of beer writing and so improving the profile of beer at the same time, well that's the theory anyway.

All this has made me wonder why we like beer. This seems to be the natural progression of Marks question which hinges, for me, around the need for alcohol in drinks. We would not drink beer if it did not contain alcohol, and indeed I'm curious about the value of a 1.1% beer². Why drink something that is little more than hop flavoured water fizzed up? Beer, and every other socialising drink needs alcohol, it's part of it's function. Alcohol free beer? A bit like dehydrated water, no point. I commented on Mark's post about the issue of alcohol, and why it is so important. I've got little more to add.

Meanwhile Tandleman has been awarded the honour of announcing this months Wikio wine and beer blog rankings. There are some movers for sure, some new entries and for me a nice jump of 6 places. Chuffed? you bet. But as Tandleman points out, most of the blogs in top of the category are beer, and yet it's called the wine and beer rankings. Something is not right.

Wikio ranks partly by cross linking of blogs. I'm helping those bloggers whom I've linked to here in improving or maintaining their next months ratings. Hopefully there might also be some less easy to define benefits in the friendliness I'm trying to promote. This brings me to my main point. Beer is mainly about friendliness. Having a pint³ is more than just drinking, it's about socialising. There may well be some strange people about in the beer world but generally we're all very sociable people. We are drawn together by more than just a malty, hoppy, perhaps a little fizzy alcoholic beverage. It's a social drink that is just right for promoting the best convivial environment we could wish for.

It's been said before, but it certainly seems that beer bloggers, like beer drinkers, are much more sociable people than the wine buffs. Why else would we support each others blogs? Who are the sad sacks and losers again?

I haven't managed to find the meaning of beer, what really is it that makes the beer world revolve? I've read Three Sheets to the Wind by Pete Brown and still can't answer the question, despite the book being about the author's own quest to answer the same query. Why should a liquor made from the extract of malted barley be so important? Why is the interest in a more diverse range of beers becoming a growing trend in a climate of decline? Why does beer gel people more than any other drink? And, in the interests of trying to tie this disjointed article into some sort of coherence, why is there so little positive news in the main stream press about beer when it is such an important part of our culture?

The alcohol is part of that; it's positive socialising benefits negated by its minority negative effects on society attacked as an easy chink in our armour. But there is far more to it than just the intoxicating effect, there is something extra to beer that cuts through social divides where wine, whisky, gin or rum can't. So it continues to frustrate me that main stream journalism fails to cover the huge amount of good news around in the beer world, we as beer writers have a responsibility to try and change that if we can.

The Guild Awards are part of that, a major event in the Beer Writers diary. If my writing about the Awards risks my chances by more potential candidates⁴ entering then it is worth it. If I also raise maybe only by a small degree, the profile of the Awards. After all, I'd prefer to enter and loose a worthy competition than scoop awards at something meaningless.

If beer means anything to you as a reader, take an interest in the Guild Awards and watch my twitter account on the 3rd December. Assuming I won't be too busy scooping awards, I'll be sulkily twittering about the ones that are.

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¹The Guild can be acronymed to BGBW which could also stand for Beautiful Great Big Women, make of that what you will. I think this observation can be attributed to Barm.

²Now before you all knock me down for even daring to criticise the mighty BrewDog, I think they have done exactly the right thing in releasing the low alcohol beer. I'm just not going to buy it. I would happily review it were Martin and James to send me a sample, but I'm not paying for it. You never know guys, I might even be convinced. Either way, giving the nanny state the finger is excellent.

³Or a half litre, or even 330ml if it's something stronger from a bottle, or a twofer or whatever. I worry about people who have hangups over size.

⁴It is not necessary to be a member of the Guild to enter the awards.

Wikio

Interesting, I've just been ranked by Wikio for the first time. Only 17th in the wine and beer category, but still, up there with the best. I'm chuffed.

Interesting, in a wine and beer category beer bloggers seem to have the edge, or so it would seem. It's all to do with how blogs link to each other, apparently. So, we're a sociable lot and no doubt, that's beer for you.

Right, I'm off to find more bloggers to make friends with. That can't be a bad thing, can it?

Interstingly, blogger spell check does recognise blog and blogger, but not bloggers. Obviously the system that provides this medium thinks we all act singularly and therefore there can't be a plural of the noun.