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.

Three years on

It was cold, wet and dark when I woke this morning; it turns out that this might be something to do with the fact that summer has well and truly gone. Already the advantages of longer days in northern climes at June's solstice have been negated and those southerners already have about 6 minutes more daylight¹ than us. As yet another year moves into the final quarter it has suddenly made me realise how much has changed for me in the last 3 years.

It was on this day 3 years ago that I started Dave's Beer Blog. I was reminded by the author of this blog's twin, Pencil and Spoon, of the anniversary, and without Mark prodding me I'd have certainly forgotten this important date. Although there are many influences that have got me to this point in my life I, this blog is the most significant catalyst to have made it happen. It is perhaps perverse that the main reason for starting to write this blog was a frustration in having insufficient control over my own destiny. At that time I was running a pub in a remote corner of the country and had simply run out of ideas for making the business sustainable. Moreover, there was a real risk of a nervous breakdown, a relationship failure or even my physical health being severely compromised. I am now happily in the position that, although these risks are still present, far more control is achievable and I have a business that is developing without the constraints imposed by a 16th century building in an inaccessible part of Cumbria. However, I now write much less, and when I do it feels less creative which is a fact that upsets me quite a lot.

More than all of that, this blog has put me in touch with many great people. This blog has won me a nice tankard that sits on my mantle piece. I now sit on the committee of The British Guild of Beer Writers giving me an excuse to visit London far more often than I'd otherwise have reason to. Probably most importantly it has given me a significantly broader knowledge of beer, through those many people I have met, than I would otherwise have gained.

I now run a growing brewing business that is exploring new and diverse areas of the beer market. These developing and exciting prospects are unnerving many, but for us we know it is the right tack to follow. To us, to make beer that is no different to the many hundreds of others that are out there makes little sense.

8 years ago I loved good food, good pubs, drank Guinness, had a reasonably well paid job with holidays and everything. I sought to remove myself from the humdrum and pension certainty by looking for a business. I chose to buy a pub, which as it happened served a lot of cask beer. I changed from Guinness drinker to cask beer drinker to brewer and finally, mainly as a result of this blog, to fully confirmed beer geek.

The combined effect of being a little more contented about my fate, and being really quite absorbed with the task of building this brewery, reduces my time and inclination to write. Despite this I do like writing, so here's to another year of this blog and me finding the temporal flexibility and cerebral stimulus to punch the keyboard a little more often.

Meanwhile, I do hope we have a white winter again. I know you guys in the south hate the snow but up here we love it. A bright snow laden fellside is a perfect offset for the slightly shorter days compared to the grey-brown slush that clogs up the capital. Besides, the sledges just don't get out often enough.

Cheers

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¹In the summer we get about 45 minutes more daytime than Londoners. In the middle of winter it goes the other way. Whether or not that is a good thing is a matter of perspective.

Hoppy Blog Day

It is apparently two years today since I started this blog. Mark Dredge also started blogging about beer on the same day. We both won awards for our blogs in last years British Guild of Beer Writers annual competition and I was pleased that it was Mark that beat me, he's a good writer. It was Mark who alerted me yesterday about the anniversary and I'm pleased because with everything I have going on at the moment I'd have forgotten otherwise. He also suggested that I should be doing a post to mark¹ the occasion.

I can't sleep as it happens, perhaps I'm feeling guilty about my lack of postings. Still, over the two years I seem to have notched up over 350 posts, which is nearly one every other day, and several hundred thousand words. At this time of the day I would normally be asleep, but I believe Mark gets up early especially to write. Today something has me here in front of the keyboard, perhaps my blogging twin has kicked my subconscious somewhere.

Starting this blog on 12 October 2008 started something of a life's revolution for me. At that time I was a lover of real ale, a lover of good food, chef, brewer and a committed but somewhat frustrated licensee of our own pub. I started this blog because I couldn't see how I could make my pub a financially viable business without it completely sending me potty².

We never really did find the answers. I did seem to be quite good at communicating my frustrations and in turn that helped me to cope, but ultimately, for many reasons associated with the location of the building, and arguably our outlook on life, the pub was never going to be a sustainable lifestyle for us. I hope to return to that subject in time, with a more dispassionate, detached and analytical viewpoint. Running a pub is not in anyway as simple as people would like to think it is; it is incredibly easy to get wrong occasionally and terribly hard to get right all the time.

Looking back, without the pub I would not have started writing. Without the pub I would not have started brewing beer. Without the pub and the subsequent blog creation I might not even have become the beer enthusiast that I now am. Beer seems to have taken over my life, and that of Ann's, who doesn't even drink much and suffers this obsession with much more tolerance than she ought.

I have not only joined the British Guild of Beer Writers but also seem to have found myself on the committee. I want to do more to promote the world of beer, to see it featured more on T.V. and to see wider acceptance of beer as a quality drink rather than the current mainstream view of it's somewhat unglamorous status.

I also want to write more; I have ideas for books and shorter articles, but currently am finding it difficult to put aside time. I am getting frustrated at the lack of blog posts I manage to write. Perhaps this is the reason I couldn't sleep these early hours of the morn. I am quite busy with the brewery at the moment, and this is something that I'm enjoying.

And so here I am, two blog years on, we've sold the pub and now we are growing, it would seem with some success, a brewery that is consuming ever more of my time. It's good, it's rewarding and satisfying.

I've met many good people through this blog and associated Twitter. Much beer has been drunk in many interesting places. My horizons have widened so far that I doubt I can ever reach all of the beery land masses that peek ahoy in the distance. I have discovered new beers and new breweries from which to try their beers and found that there is much more to beer than the pint quaffing norm of the pub, although I still enjoy a good quaff much of the time.

So here's to the next year, let's hope I can get back up to an average of 3 or 4 posts a week sometime soon, just as soon as this brewery is properly up and running.

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¹I'm already wondering if the word "mark" appears too often in this post.

²At least, more potty than I already am.

How important is the Beer Blogosphere?

Pete Brown is encouraging us to be more controversial. Beer blogs are getting very boring it would seem; talking about great beer we've drunk is all well and good, but he thinks we should discuss issues that are more pressing. There are plenty of issues to discuss, so let's get on and do it. But is there any point if we are just a few lonely souls huddled over our keyboards because we have little else to do? There certainly would be little point if it is just a closed loop of beer enthusiasts sounding off at each other completely detached from the real world. I don't think this is the case. OK, perhaps it is partly, but I do still think there is relevance to a greater audience.

There would be no point in blogging if nobody read blogs. It might be that some people only blog for their own fun and it's a nice bonus if there are others who read them. Not me, I am competitive and seek attention, if I knew nobody read this blog I would stop, it's as simple as that. However, how do I know my blog has any influence at all? Perhaps it would be useful to know how representative the collective views of the beer blogosphere are compared to a wider beer enthusiasts perspective.

In reality, I think that measuring this is a little difficult. I know that my blog gets around 75 unique visitors per day, I have no way of knowing, reliably, how long each visitor spends reading because if only one page is down-loaded then my stats counts this as "less than 5 seconds", you can read quite a lot with only one page load.

It can be estimated, because I post, on average, about once every three days, that each post is read by more than 200 or so people. 75 x 3 = 225. The bloggers who post more often seem to get proportionally more hits, based on the comments on my last post. So I expect Tandleman, Curmudgeon, Mark Dredge and Pete Brown have several hundred people read each of their posts.

I estimate that around 50% of the hits on my blog are repeat visitors. Again, this is hard to be sure about because it relies on a cookie being placed on your hard disk, and presumably you need to resisting the urge to eat it before you visit again, otherwise you look like a new visitor. Also, the same people might be reading the blog on different computers, my stats have no way of knowing this. The numbers of repeat visitors seems to be greater than the number of commenters by a reasonable factor. Additional anecdotal evidence of silent readers comes from the number of people I meet who have read my blog, but don't comment on-line. These are not an insignificant number. Again, I expect more prolific and popular bloggers than myself will correspondingly have greater readership.

I suspect that beer blogging does have a reasonable influence and more importantly an influence with a younger, more internet savvy population, the future beer drinkers.

The more pressing issue of whether or not the beer blogosphere accurately represents the view of a wider beer drinking audience is perhaps a little more difficult to be sure of. However, as bloggers are the more internet savvy proportion of beer enthusiasts it would be reasonable to suggest we might also represent part of the future of craft beer in this country.

I'm still here

It is just possible that there are people out there that have noticed a lack of activity from me. I even have this concept in my head that a subset of this group of people might even have missed me, but I'm not willing to put that hypothesis to any sort of rigourous test just in case the conclusion is disappointing. However, if you are reading this pointless post with a sense of relief that I'm not actually dead, or perhaps just lost interest, then rest assured that more will appear soon.

I'm currently sat on a train using my tethered BlackBerry as a modem for my MacBook whilst on-route to London. You see at home I have yet to get a broadband connection after moving out of the pub, and in the brewery's new location I'm just too busy getting my act together. This is the first time in over a week I've had the combined time, inclination and connectivity to write anything.

My reason for travelling to London? Partly for a break; It's nice to be able to go away without worrying about the pub - that is now somebody else's problem. But of course beer is involved. Tonight I am promised a great lager experience at the White Horse. I know I need to stop treating lager with suspicion and if Pete Brown is right the Budvar I will taste might well create a defining moment. It should create a blog post at the very least.

Blog Comments

OK, you win, I'm back.

I think every blogger realises how important it is to have comments. It makes the whole job of writing blog posts worthwhile. I've said before that the only thing that makes this pass-time more fulfilling are direct face-to-face mentions. Best of all when I meet a complete stranger and they say that they read this blog. It's a little bit of minor fame, a realisation of a minor media success perhaps. More likely vanity, it's true, but whatever, it gives me a level of satisfaction that makes this worthwhile.

There have been times when I've been perplexed by some comments from worthy bloggers. Often, after a period of reflection, the more challenging comments generate a useful thought process that often provokes a new post. This, to me, is blogging at its best; a truly interactive media that explores various issues. Whether it be the validity of the definition of real ale or the relative morality of stealing glasses from pubs, the best bloggers can agree to disagree so that at least next time they meet they can enjoy a pint together, even if one might insist on it being Lout. It is important to recognise that constructive disagreement should never create a problem.

When I first started blogging I put all the checks and controls on to prevent unpleasant comments. I activated that irritating "word verification" thing that is occasionally amusing but often stifles the interactivity of this medium. I also set the comment moderation to "always".

After a while it dawned on me that these things are counter productive. I eventually decided to remove them all and simply monitor for problems. Surprisingly, very few problems appeared, until recently. Over the past few weeks I've noticed an increase of spam comments from various sources, all advertising irrelevant services. Just occasionally there will be a stupid anonymous comment, probably from some mischievous local intent on annoying me. I don't like to delete comments and try and deal with them by intelligent interaction. However, somethings are simply off-side.

Yesterday I had a comment on my blog that was effectively local gossip about my business and was inappropriate and completely unrelated to the blog. I deleted it. Today the exact same comment appeared. Some people just can't take a hint.

So, apologies for taking away liberties of the many sound people who comment here. I apologise especially to those who feel they should not have to sign up to a blogger account to be able to comment. Why should they have to? Sadly, the actions of a very small minority spoil it for everybody else, something of a parallel to my overall experience here. Hopefully I'll remove these controls again in time, I don't want to have to be tied to the PC to approve comments.

Finally, thank you to all my twitter followers who have chivvied me along today. Although Tandleman has a point about twitter possibly detracting from blogging, it does have its good side too.

A New Year

We've had a few days relaxation since the New Year came in, it's been nice. We opened the bar for a couple of days for New Year itself, I'm still wondering if it was financially useful but we had nice people in for drinks and New Year's Eve was busy during the day with walkers coming off the fells thirsty for ale. Sadly, it seems the icy roads put people off paying us a visit in the evenings and the snow was not sufficient to get anybody snowed in here. Once we closed again at the end of a very quiet New Year's Day we scurried off for a little break taking advantage of post holiday hotel cheapness. Now we're back into it, like I suspect everyone else is, and I need to think about the year ahead in many ways. In a month's time we'll be opening up again at weekends and the winter sojourn will be over. I started on my jobs today by plumbing in a new WC - it's only been sitting in the shed for about a year, I must be improving at getting jobs done.

Turning towards this blog I should think about subject matter. Tandleman has made me feel slightly guilty with his recent post; there are a few interesting points made about beer bloggers not getting out much and concentrating on beer drinking at home. I realise that the last year has seen my beer horizons shift from pub orientated cask beer to a more eclectic outlook on this blog and consequently I have had little to say about cask beer and pubs recently. I decided that the only course of action was to take myself to one side and have a quiet but firm word. I now believe we both understand me and as the subject of beer has to be inclusive I'm going to make an attempt to ensure I don't leave cask or pubs behind. I did agree with myself however, that forays into the world of interesting beer could be permitted, but warned myself to avoid overdoing it. 

Mark has also written a thought provoking piece about the year to come, which in someways provides a parallel counterpoise for my thought process above. To me Mark is an example of a growing number of young beer enthusiasts that will shape the beer world in the next decade and probably beyond. Forward thinking, receptive and enthusiastic about all types of beer and keen to write about it for no other reason than a love of beer and writing.

Tandleman particularly noted a need for CAMRA to have a long look at itself. I don't know if it will be all that easy as there are many opinions as to what the organisation should do. However, as Tandleman says, the fact that it'll never please everyone is not a reason to avoid an overdue review of its purpose. My fear would be that without engaging with a young, forward thinking, receptive and enthusiastic future we may see a decline in CAMRA in a few years time, which would be a shame.

I think the beer future will be multifaceted and I hope that the various factions will get along just fine. I think pubs in particular are evolving beasts but sometimes I wonder if they evolve fast enough. I hope that the traditional will be maintained in a way that also allows progress where it is appropriate and furthermore can permit a broad and inclusive beer culture.

A rewarding award

Once upon a time there was a young lad in a junior school. He didn't really like writing, his spelling was bad, punctuation dodgy and handwriting illegible. The subject matter set by the teachers didn't help and the bullying by them to get the technicalities correct further turned him away from doing nearly any writing at all. Teachers queried dyslexia and his parents blamed laziness.

Moving to secondary school helped as the subjects became more interesting, but the damage was done. Writing remained difficult and at the age of 25 this young man had little more than a few "O" levels and part of an ONC. Luckily, by the beginning of the 1990's computers started to become affordable. Spellcheckers fixed many things and writing became legible once some form of touch typing was mastered. A reasonable string of qualifications ensued and a career in engineering with the nuclear industry enhanced. However, writing method statements, risk assessments and maintenance manuals are marginally less interesting than writing a telephone directory. Time for a career change. This by now not-so-young man bought a pub. What else?

And so there becomes a reason to write, about the frustrations of trying to turn a dream into a reality, about how it is not as easy to run a pub as some seem to think and of course about something more special than anything that might have gone before in this persons life, about beer. This blog was thus born.

Now I will mix up the third to first person, surely I can be excused that, and perhaps the reader can understand the delight when I found that the person described above was awarded a prize for his writing. On Thursday night, when Zak Avery described my blog, before finally saying my name, I could not be more pleased. In the same competition that many great beer writers before have gained accolades I become one of them; I am runner up in the New Media category.

It seems difficult not to be self indulgent after what I see as a personal achievement greater than nearly anything I have done before. It will take a while to sink in properly no doubt, as before the British Guild of Beer Writers dinner I had tried my very hardest to convince myself not to be disappointed if I won nothing. I was kidding myself, of course I'd be disappointed. Afterwards, an incredible sense of anticlimax and tiredness enveloped me as the pent up emotions finally able to be released.

It remains for me to thank a few people; It's the done thing. A few bloggers that are key to inspiration must be listed; Jeff Bell AKA stonch must surely be the first, it was his blog that gave me the idea to write something meaningful and it was great last night to be in his very busy pub with other bloggers. Next thanks goes to Jeff Pickthall who's sceptical outlook can provide great tempering for my crazy ideas but more importantly his encouragement is invaluable. Tandleman deserves a big mention as his blog often sparks post subjects and the discussions that follow, which he often engages in, can be far more important than the original piece.

The twin to this blog, Pencil and Spoon, gained Mark Dredge the title of the best new media writer. Well done to Mark, I genuinely believe he deserves that and I look forward to many years of further writings. Equally, I don't think anybody, except perhaps the man himself, believed that Pete Brown would not get Beer Writer of the Year.

I have to end with a final bit of sentimentality towards the two most important women in my life. First of course is Ann for encouraging and proof reading this blog and moreover putting up with me being grumpy when the words just don't work, or because I have to leave my writing as something in the pub becomes more important. The second sadly has not survived to see this day, but I am certain that my mother would have had tremendous pride knowing her son finally did get around to writing something useful after all. I might have driven her insane by not doing my homework, sorry Mum, but I hope it was all worth it in the end. I'm glad at least you knew there was untapped potential there and all it needed was to find a passion and anything was possible.

Various bits of news

It's quiet here now. The pub is in winter mode which means we don't open during the week. Hardknott pass is closed for repairs and in any case traffic along the road averages about one car per hour outside the summer season.

But still, there seems to be lots to do. I'm brewing today, a beer with an O.G. of around 1100, I hope. Needs many hours of boiling which will no doubt result in small but inevitable increased shrinking of the polar ice caps. Sorry penguins and polar bears.

I'm also starting to look at the options for selling beers in bottles mail order. Don't get too excited, it's very early stages just yet, I've got a bit of work to do before that happens. Quite apart from actually brewing the beer and the time it takes to bottle, I also have to explore various commercial difficulties such as economic and reliable ways of shipping from this far flung corner of the globe.

Last weekend we had another very successful wedding. I'm going to have to explore further how we promote that little addition to our repertoire. It's just something else to work into a long overdue revamp of our marketing and branding. If I get bored and we get a spell of fine weather, and yes it does happen even in Cumbria, we've got lots of outside painting to do. When it's raining we've got stuff to fix up inside too. So there, that's my excuses for reduced blog posting.

Hopefully I'll get a little bit of time to write next week; I hope so as I miss it. Meanwhile you can have a look at my second post as guest blogger for the BitterSweet partnership. I'd be interested in knowing what the reader thinks of what I've said or maybe more generally about the BitterSweet project.

That's all for now. Better go back and see if my copper has exploded yet.

One Year

It's one year since I started this blog. When Blogger posts this I'll be away from my computer at a seminar on barley wine organised by the British Guild of Beer Writers. I wrote this yesterday because I knew today¹ I'd be busy. I really didn't want to let the day pass without marking the occasion.

It's been an interesting and possibly life changing year for me. This blog has put me in touch with lots of interesting and friendly people. I've explored beers and got myself deeper into the way of beer geekery, and I am worryingly enjoying it far too much. I'm not sure where life will take me next, apart from the fact we know we're playing out our end game here, we've been here long enough and the place needs a fresh set of ideas. What I do know is that beer and brewing will continue to take some place in my life.

It gets me thinking again about why I write this blog. The reasons I think are quite complex but have got one very key motivation and that is to communicate the many difficulties surrounding the pub industry and to try and counter some of the armchair commentators who claim the industry just needs to pull it's socks up to solve it's problems. I know what I need to do at my place and it distresses me that I'm constrained by time, money and legislation. I doubt that there are many publicans that are simply blasé about their own problems.

When we bought our place nearly 6 years ago we were full of all sorts of ideas about how we could make it work. We knew it would be hard work but we also thought we knew what it was that many pubs did wrong. What we probably didn't appreciate was just how difficult it was to fix some of the simplest things. We believe we have a unique set of problems here due to our location and the age of the building. However, I bet every single publican feels the same way and I'd certainly bet that most really do want to deliver the best service they can within the constraints their own business places on them.

After a while here I started to trawl the Internet to find out what people said about my pub and also compare against my competition. What I found quite astounded me. Not so much some of the things that got said about me but more the general griping about pubs. It seemed to me that very few punters have much idea about just how difficult it is to deliver the service we do.

Perhaps I'm over-sensitive, but it does seem to me that most people are on a hatred trip against the British Pub industry. We just can't seem to get it right. If we raise our standards and charge to cover the inevitable costs we get accused of being snobby and overpriced. If we cut our costs, with the inevitable lowering of standards, we might be able to provide beer at under £2 a pint, but then we're accused of standards that are too low. Of course, just to cap it all the drinks industry is constantly under fire from various anti alcohol factions which it strikes me the majority of the population are actually agreeing with.

I over reacted a little about Tandleman's Post where it is claimed that 94% of surveyed people didn't think that pubs delivered good service. I'm not sure I would agree with the findings and there is a big debate about the validity of the survey in the comments to the piece, but I do want to make one clear point here; Pubs are businesses that deliver a service at a price. Many are competing with Wetherspoons² for trade, with their big drinking houses that thrive because of economies of scale, buying powers and techniques similar to supermarkets. It would seem to me that this is what the general pub going public want; they want a cheap pint. If they wanted better service then more pubs would spring up providing that service, and charge for it, after all, it's a free market we're in.

But wait, this is supposed to be a celebratory blog day post. I'm getting all negative here. I actually think that although there are a lot of difficulties in the pub trade, as there are in the wider business world in general, there are also lots to be happy about. The Cask Report for instance is full of positive news. Indeed, it was last years edition that gave me great hope 12 months ago. I did start to think that perhaps there are some positive slants that can be put on things. I think that the positive news here is all about quality and how indeed, for many pubs an increase in quality can be the very magic that is required.

For me, the thing that excites me is the increase of interest in more diverse beers. It's true that in the last 7 years or so I've gone from being a confirmed Guinness drinker to a beer anorak. This might mean that I notice unusual³ beer more than I used to, but I still think there is an increase of availability of specialist beers both in supermarkets and in various bars. Our sales of specialist bottled beers have increased this year and we know that some of our customers are coming here because of them. In turn, I feel that there is an increase of awareness of the general public about quality beer to the extent that some restaurants are stocking more than just the predictable culprits and pubs are much more likely to have some less obvious choices as well.

There are changes in the industry as restaurants and swanky wine bars squeeze the market. The pub industry suffers as the traditional pub going demographic shrinks. In turn some pubs change their approach to be more like restaurants or swanky bars, a risk that can result in spectacular success or inevitable failure.

I think there is a bright future to the pub industry. We might have to redefine what a pub actually is. There might also be inevitable loss of some of the dead wood. An acceptance that the trade is diversifying and some do have to rely heavily on a restaurant style service or depend on their own residential trade to survive. The days of the pure wet lead boozer are probably long behind us. There are new breeds of pub emerging that might not suit the traditionalist but they are becoming increasingly successful. They often, although I admit not always, provide a better service than your sleazy back street boozer. They might also be a little more pricey, but surely good service is worth that?

There we have the reason why I really write this blog; because I have a fascination about how the industry works and how it can continue to work. Both the beer and pub industry that are unavoidably intertwined are constantly evolving. Artisan beer, eclectic cuisine, perhaps fine wine, malt whisky or fancy cocktails are pushing out traditional drinking culture, but there is scope to tap into this market providing the pub culture can cope. How the pub culture can be made to cope with this is still an under explored topic which I'm sure I'll return to again during my second year of beer blogging.

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¹It feels weird writing in the present tense about something that has yet to happen.

²I am not against Wetherspoons if that is what people want. It certainly seems to be to me that generally it is what the majority want. If you want better service go to a pub that provides it, but please don't talk down our pubs, they are what they are and we're mostly, collectively, working hard to provide what the pub goer wants.

³Of course what classes as unusual would create a whole new discussion. Something esoteric for one person might well be familiar and boring to another. Indeed, if specialist beers become more common place there starts to be an undermining of the very thing that makes them interesting.

Cutting Overheads

One of the things that has helped our financial performance this year has been a careful control of our overheads. Heating and lighting are very high here and I suspect the same is true of many pubs. Another high expenditure item are staff hours. Resisting the temptation to roster staff just in case it gets busy can waste money. Clearly the down side of this is that it might get busy and then there are insufficient staff to provide a satisfactory level of quality service.

Now that October is here our weekday trade has dropped to a level where the gross profit¹ is less than the wages bill. There are some softer benefits to the business in having the bar open, most important to that is manning the phone to take room bookings. However, even that is dying off now.

Ann and I are going away for a few days next week. We've had the dilemma of working out how to organise the various difficulties of having the place open and paying staff to serve a low number of people. We've taken the rather controversial decision to close the place. We feel that the cost of being open combined with the worry of something going wrong when we are hundreds of miles away isn't justifiable for the very low level of revenue we would gain. We'll be open again next weekend, when it'll be a little busier.

Tomorrow the British Guild of Beer Writers will be holding a seminar on barley wine, that should be interesting. Tomorrow night we are staying at The Hillsborough Hotel in Sheffield where it is rumoured there will be a hop-monster IPA on sale, brewed with the help of Pete Brown. I believe there will be various beer writers staying there as well. Tuesday morning Ann will pour me onto a train bound for London, I just hope she won't expect too much intelligent conversation during the journey.

We had planned on going to a trade show in Earls Court, The Restaurant Show. This is normally a good ideas mine for our own food operation. However, in the last couple of weeks I've had various invites to beer related events that coincide with us being in the metropolis, it would be rude to turn them down. It's going to be tough on my liver, me thinks. Ann might have to go to the show by herself and trust me with beer. Can I trust her let loose with the cheque book?

The trip should generate some interesting blog topics I hope. I probably won't get time to write anything whilst we're away, and I'm even pondering the advantage of carrying our old heavy slow lap-top with us. I do hope to schedule a blog for auto publishing tomorrow and there is good reason for that, as the reader will find out, but you might not hear much from me for a few days.

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¹Gross profit (G.P.) is simply the percentage of the selling price after the supply price of the product is deducted. Calculation is done on the exclusive VAT values. For instance, if a product is sold at £1.15, the exclusive VAT selling price is £1. If the product cost the publican 80p to buy then the G.P. is 20%.

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.

What HAVE CAMRA ever done for US?

I was thinking of doing a complete parody of the Monty Python sketch. Replacing The Romans with CAMRA and having a fictitious Peoples Beer Front questioning what CAMRA has actually done for British beer. I don't think I could carry it off, so I'll just leave the reader with the concept.

It's been an interesting few days. Alongside finding myself in a Hairy Bikers kitchen on Saturday, there seemed to be some need for shuttle diplomacy in the beer blogging world, which is not quite over yet. Hopefully this might round things off. I like to remain friends with everybody and what would be even better would be for everybody else to be friends with each other too. Perhaps a big global blogging group hug might be asking too much, but I can hope.

After all, the Romans, according to Monty Python, who we all know have history correctly documented, did bring peace to Judea. Besides, I'm going to the GBBF next week and I might bump into people in real life. For sure, I'm looking forward to the beers on the BSF bar, it sounds too exciting. I'd hope to be able to have a chat with the staff without the spectre of an "entertainingly demented" Sausage, who despite being technically correct and not sounding at all demented on the telephone, has given some grief to a well known blogger recently. OK guys, I know some of you found it hilarious, but some didn't get the joke - OK?

There are issues I have with CAMRA, it's too late for me to try and hide that one. I am for instance concerned that there might be too much pallyness between CAMRA and the regional breweries. This background came out subliminally in my previous post about regionals, in a dumb side dig at CAMRA that was not really relevant to the post. Tandleman commented as much and that was a good call.

The point of this post though, is to highlight the things that I think CAMRA really do that are good. After all, there has to be some good in everything. Hopefully, there might be some bridges built as a result.

They saved cask ale. I can already hear my CAMRA sceptic friends screaming at their computer screens. It is true that cask ale might just have found a renaissance via other routes without CAMRA. After all, quality baked bread has not died out despite the onslaught of Sunblest. But still, the cask ale scene would be quite different without CAMRA. Is that good or bad? You choose.

The Good Beer Guide. Now come on sceptic people, despite the occasional quirky choices, it's a generally good guide to where the best beer driven pubs are if you travel to a strange part of the country. It's better than the pay-for-entry guides out there when it comes to impartiality. We always use it.

Pub and Brewery Awards. Restaurants can get rosettes or Michelin Stars or be listed by Egon Ronay. Pubs would have no real recognition without the CAMRA schemes. For me, I cannot overstate how much of a boost it is, when you are down, to be told you've just got in the GBG or got pub of the season or some other CAMRA award. Tandleman reminded us of this only today.

Beer Festivals. It's true that they might not always be in the greatest of venues. But then what venue can you get hundreds of different beers into and it not be like a big drafty hall? They are a chance to try beers that are rarely found in pubs and a chance for breweries to get their name out there.

Resurgence of Micro Brewing. Although I think that the resurgence of demand for artisan products by the general public would have generated expansion of this sector, there is no doubt that the small brewery discount of beer duty has helped, and this is largely due to CAMRA.

Brought peace to the beer world. OK, maybe not, but it's a concept.

Now, I just hope I haven't dug myself an even bigger hole.

Beer Passion

Beer is like no other product. It raises emotions and opinions in just the same way as politics and religion. People who drink beer regularly almost always have a view on the subject. Sometimes it's the price of a pint, sometimes it's the brand of beer, sometimes it's the temperature or the fullness of the glass or the use or otherwise of extraneous CO₂.

Pubs are like no other business. Perhaps it's as a direct result of them still being, for the now at least, where the majority of beer is consumed. Regular and irregular pub customers almost always have a view on this diverse industry. No one style of pub is going to suit everybody. For some, the basic traditional pub doesn't provide the level of comfort or sophistication that they desire, perhaps these people are snobs. Others find too much ponciness results in an "up their own arse" impression that doesn't belong in a pub, and perhaps this set of customers lack the appreciation required.

For me, like many other publicans, my pub is my livelihood, my home and pretty much my life. I know that I get oversensitive when comments are made about the industry. I know that many publicans are putting in hours well in excess of the working hours directive, many are working for less than the minimum wage. Some, like me, do it for reasons that are hard to define but for sure have very little to do with money. It is, basically, our passion.

More than this, the niche sectors of the beer market, real ale and extreme beers, are promoted well by unpaid people. Be it CAMRA or beer bloggers or tickers or beer geeks they all, we all, contribute towards promoting and encouraging the more unusual small time brewers and the pubs that are bringing these beers to market.

I am part of that niche industry and therefore I care about what these groups of people say. If there is something that we don't do and feel we are unable to do, but there is comment that it should generally be done, I feel bad. I think that I care too much because it drives me to distraction, far too often, from the general good running of the business.

So why do people do this unpaid promotion? There always has to be an exchange. For paid work there is the exchange of money in return for hours attended. Without the money, most of us wouldn't do it. Conversely, when we do something for the fun of it, when the pay is negligible or none existent, like running a pub, blogging or being a CAMRA activist, there has to be an alternative payback, a discretionary exchange. Much of these activities are well meaning and truly intend to help the industry that is providing the goods and services that the impassioned desire.

The payback for many, of course, is the feeling that they are a little bit more in control of what they care about; pubs and beer. A feeling of being able to shape the things they are passionate about. For me, part of running my place is to do something I care about. To be able to create a pub that does things the way I see that they should be done. As I say, perhaps I care too much. When the things that the promoters say are at odds with what I feel I can or should do, or are impossible to attain because of our location or where the layout of the building prevents it, these comments cut deeper than anybody might ever believe.

In the clearing stands a boxer, and a fighter by his trade
And he carries the reminders of every glove
that laid him down or cut him
till he cried out in his anger and his shame
I am leaving, I am leaving, but the fighter still remains

Simon and Garfunkel

Please bear with me.....

I've not posted for a while. It's not that I've fallen out with blogging, it's just that I seem to have several other things going on. In particular, we are much busier now with customers, which of course we expected with the longer days and better weather, although today it is raining.

Additionally, this blog has helped me to start a longer term writing project that has been in concept for over 3 years. More of my writing time will be taken over by this new project.

But don't worry, I'll still keep posting here when I become inspired to do so. I've got an idea about comparing my own Tenacity ale with draft Westmalle Dubbel, but I'm waiting for them to both go on the bar together. I like both these beers and in isolation they seem to provoke similar enjoyment for me. I suspect there will also be significant discernible differences when tasted in the same session.

Watch this space.....

Beer writing

I like the beer blogosphere. It enables me to rant on about things that bother me in my mission to provide a quality hospitality service to discerning customers. It also provides me with plenty of ideas and opinion from other bloggers both by reading their blogs and comments left on mine. The free speech and democratic nature makes it a very exciting and powerful media that I believe is going to grow over the next few years. Freedom and interactivity are the things that make it so powerful as a communication method.

My pub is probably what you would call a specialist pub. We don't sell products that many standard pubs would consider bread and butter. A standard "cooking" lager for instance is something we don't serve. We are slowly shaping our customer base to match our product, but its frustrating when you know a small proportion just don't "get it"

This frustration was another reason why I started this blog. I knew that there was a proportion of the general public understood that there was more to beer than cream flow and extra cold and beers that only owe their success to sponsorship of major sport rather than providing a quality product. I am obviously keen to increase the number of people from this group who visit my pub and I am also keen to increase the overall number of people that understand quality beer and accepting of pub specialisation.

When I started blogging I was aware of an organisation called the British Guild of Beer Writers. Their aim is:

"To improve standards of beer writing and extend the public knowledge of beer."

I'll buy into that I thought. But of course I didn't think I'd ever consider myself worthy of joining an organisation of such stature. After all, I failed my English "0" level. Indeed failed with such a significant margin that the risk of me passing was more remote than the risk of me losing my cherry, which trust me, at 16 was also a low risk.

To my delight it was suggested that I should join the Guild. It seems I've left my secondary school education behind long ago and my subsequent application was accepted. Thank god for technical college, distance learning, and spell checkers, it seems my writing is good enough after all. I feel I now need to take the roll of beer writer seriously. There is much still to do if we are to  further explore the extension of "the public knowledge of beer"

That was perhaps quite a long introduction to the main point of this post. This point might actually be at odds with the thing that makes blogging so powerful, the freedom and accessibility of it as a medium. It is incredibly important to me to defend the position of every blogger to be able to apply their own style, language, opinions and subject matter almost without fear or favour. However, do we bloggers need to consider the image we project about beer to casual visitors?

I know my blog gets hits from Google searches. People are looking for information on beer or pubs on the Internet. I'm guessing other bloggers get the same hits on their sites, which of course is fantastic. But do we give the right impression?

There are discussions regarding accessibility of beer to the relatively disadvantaged, perhaps seen as "the drink of the working man". This is counterpoised by the desire by some to intellectualise about beer and make it more revered. Perhaps even to make it trendy. There are debates on the relative benefits or pitfalls of Wetherspoons compared to Gastro pubs. Kids in pubs, pets in pubs and many other relevant and interesting discussions take place. I enjoy them all. Extraneous CO₂ also triggering thoughtful discussion, as well as the good old sparkler, if debate should fizzle out.

Perhaps the most relevant, interesting and provoking debate is the relationship that CAMRA has with the beer world as a whole. This one can really get people going. Bloggers can get very agitated when the subject is discussed. I think the discussion is good, but perhaps we need to think about how it might look to outsiders if we start getting into playground "my dad is bigger than your dad" type fights.

A pub's not just for Saturdays

A while ago I signed up to statcounter to get some details of visits to my blog. It's free and therefore worth every penny I pay. It's really interesting to see how people get here and what they might be looking for. A couple of other bloggers have commented on the curious search terms that people enter.

I get more interested in the times and days that visits occur. Clearly on a Saturday you are all in the pub rather than playing on the Internet. Well done.

But it does raise an interesting question. We are busy enough on a Saturday, but for about half the year we'd be better off closed for some of the week. Should we close the doors when we know trade is too low to justify being open?

Luckily Easter is getting close, we'll be inundated with people then, it's mixed blessings as we could do with the money, but for a few days it will be pandemonium.

The Centenary Post

There's not been very much from this blogger for a few days. The simple reason for that is I've been busy. Plus, this is my 100th post to this blog and I wanted it to be special. How do I make it special when I've not got much time to make it so?

Perhaps I should just look at what I've got in this little blog. Look back whence it came and look forward to where we're going.

Looking back to when I started this blog and the reasons for doing so; I believed that there was so much opinion out there as to why pubs failed, mainly put out by CAMRA, that I had to say something. Equally I found mainstream hospitality publications to be focusing on the mass market style businesses. There seemed to me to be very little synergy with the small, privately owned pub. I hoped I could contribute something to the understanding of the difficulties the marginal pub is facing.

What I found in the beer blogging world is fantastic for me. I've found people who want to explore the real issues and in a friendly and interesting way. It seems to me to be something that is a little more connected to the real world than mainstream media. It makes me realise that this is the media of the future. A media that is is interactive and in touch with what real people think.

Unfortunately I have an inn to run. But fortunately this Inn is getting customers. Their needs are more immediate than this blog. But there are stimulating posts from other bloggers that deserve more than fleeting comments.

Meanwhile I have 4 eager brew apprentices, I expect asleep up stairs. Tomorrow, no, later today, we will brew some beer, or at least get wort in a fermenter and await the yeast's magic tricks. There might be an interesting future as some of this group are considering a possible brew future for their own humble inn.

Blogging about beer

Why blog about beer? I've been provoked into asking this question by Wurst, our colourful and controversial blogger. I have a suspicion that the provocation was somewhat rhetorical and merely a vehicle to get across his obvious irritation about something. Rhetorical or not, it is clear that Wurst is wound up about a few things, it would be interesting to understand why.

The answer to the original question regarding beer blogging has been developing in my mind. I think there is a simple answer; Because we care about beer. That though, is not sufficient to compel us to write, one would imagine. It is because we have a view on the many issues surrounding beer, and pubs and other drinking related subjects. It is because we want to share our thoughts with others in the hope they might understand our views.

For me, the main issue was trying to share with a wider audience the difficulties of turning a failing pub around. Being a licensee and hearing some of the CAMRA rhetoric I found difficult. For me, the raft of CAMRA demands was conflicting with my ability to make an honest living. The full pint campaign a case in point. I used to be quite annoyed about it. Wurst is obviously still is, or maybe just with CAMRA in general.

Thankfully, the combined efforts of the bloggers I currently follow have been able to rationalise most issues. The full pint thing has been dealt with in a rational way with sensitive comments. But there remains a couple of issues that bother me. One is that of sparklers, which seems like an argument we might just have to accept. The other is the perception of CAMRA many people have.

Out of all the groups of people that have contempt for CAMRA, by far in a way the strongest are the people who are trying to earn a living from the industry. There seems to be barriers in some areas that are hindering a relationship that could be beneficial to everybody. I've just returned from a branch meeting, and I am quite upset about being made to feel like an outsider, the reason being I own a pub and therefor have an "interest". I fear the work of my fellow bloggers has all but been undone.

Maybe Wurst is a bit extreme in his point of view, but Tim is making some good points that back up his view. Perhaps this view is wrong, or misinformed, but if so I still want to know why it is there with many people.