Beer Compurgation

I grew a little bored of tasting sessions and posts for beers after the full voracity of the Advent Calendar saga. However, occasionally some evenings deserve special mention and credit, as do the beers sampled at such times. For this reason, I’ve decided to write up my experience tasting a box of Wild Beer Co’s creations the other evening. Wild Beer Co . were a brewery that created a lot of hype around blogs and the social media long before their beers ever seemed to hit the shelves. Being the miserable cynic that I often am, this made me sceptical, and initially resentful, towards them. I find it shallow and naïve when I see fellow enthusiasts or bloggers hyping up a brewery or brew so much before tasting has even occurred. To me, it is just for those that are easily fooled into marketing schemes and ploys; the sort of humans you would find switching insurance every 3 months because a new species of talking animal told them to in the Coronation Street break. I don’t blame th

There was a time when I thought beer was subjective, when I believed it was there to be interpreted and commented on from a personal perspective. I used to form my own opinions about beer, pubs and breweries and sometimes I’d even write them in this little blog. Brewdog were no exception; I was happy to praise them when they did right and criticise when I felt they were wrong. Of course I now have seen that I was wrong to do this. You see, it’s not about opinions or personal preferences; it’s about following the crowd, doing what’s cool and avoiding controversy. At present it’s not cool to like Brewdog. Despite the fact that I still really enjoy their beers and bars, people keep telling me why I should hate them. You probably already do, as you are well “in” on what’s hot and what’s not. I wasn’t aware of this, the e-mail never landed in my inbox, but not wanting to fall out of the loop I’ve presented a list of reasons why we should all hate Brewdog so I can fit in with this g

So far in the year 2013 I’ve only written four posts (the Advent calendar one does not count) and they have mostly been rants or rather disparaging reports of events or bars I’ve visited. I’ve taken a little bit of stick for this, undeserved considering it is the times I feel most passionate about a certain occurrence that I feel the desire to put it into words.   Anyway, since passion also breeds happiness I felt compelled to express my joy at my first visit this weekend to a brand new beer shop in the centre of Manchester. We’ve been lacking a great beer shop in the city centre for so long that the thought has crossed my mind on more than one occasion to just open one myself. Finally, somebody with a little more providence than myself has gone about doing this in the form of the BeerMoth . Seeing as it’s in the heart of the Northern Quarter, the area I frequent the most in the city centre, this couldn’t be more conveniently placed for me. The shop only opened at the beginni