Beer Compurgation

On the day that I wrote my first blog post… I was reading the words of encouragement from a non-beer industry friend. I wondered whether I could replicate the intrigue and knowledge of those I had been reading since I joined the cyber beer space. I decided to add a voice – a personal voice – without comprehension of how serious it was taken. And we had an exciting range of beers to talk about and exciting developments. The industry was more enclosed. My follower count was less than thirty, but then my favourite breweries had less than 200. They could interact. They interacted as themselves; as small one-two person bands do. And the choices were slightly more limited. You shopped at one of three or four online stores. I knew of only one specialist independent retailer. The bars weren’t numerous. Anything imported under six months old was considered luxuriously fresh. And an old head shared my first post with kind words. And others took notice, with inspirat...

We are more spoilt right now then we often care to remember. For years I’ve been hearing that there has never been a better time to be a beer drinker and that is only increasing. Still, over-indulgence can lead to complacency and timely feet-grounding reminders can be necessary. If this time of year really is beer festival season then I thought that I’d grown tired of it. Much like the occasional December when one needs a little push in finding their Christmas spirit, there was something about this festival season that just wasn’t clicking for me. I was weary of rush for tickets, overly subscribed trade days and beer list "drops." I left Leeds International Beer Festival (LIBF) in September feeling a little disappointed in something that I couldn’t quite place. In contrast to all of my positive previous visits, when people asked me how it was I was responding with a shrug and a muttered “ alright, yeah .” I couldn’t place my discontent. The festival is still...

In the middle of a big shop, I have been stood in the beer aisle of the local Tesco Extra for over five minutes. For a good while my partner and I have dissected every bottle on the end shelves. Here, the bottles are more variable and much more colourful. There are also many new editions to the choice that previously stood here during previous shops. Once every single new choice and discontinued product from this area has been discussed, a small orange box containing four 330ml cans of Thornbridge’s Jaipur are placed in the basket before the shop continues. Rarely do any of my supermarket beer purchases include more than one of the same beer (unless a family party or Christian holiday is coming up) but this time it feels necessary. It feels inclusive. It feels like the result of a week of good marketing. Where are the UK hype beers? Some time ago, and I apologise to the author for not being able to recall exactly who it was, a British beer writer asked What - or ...

Find your happy place. The advice given on a couple of occasions felt clichéd as if it were the chapter heading in a self-help book from a conniving business writer. But it was honest. It had seen me through many evenings. I was tweeting from my little shed a few months ago, whilst sat enjoying a couple of beers, when somebody asked me a rather obvious question: “Why do you drink beer in the shed? Are you not allowed to drink in the house?” I giggled at first then realised it was a genuine question. It does seem odd. It would seem so to outsiders. I’m obviously allowed to drink in the house. I think it was still winter when I was asked and I’d chosen to sit in a dark, wooden, leaning shack with a hot water bottle stuffed down my jumper rather than the far-too-comfortable sofa in front of the fire inside a brick house. It is more than a shed to me though. It has become my happy place. The garden as a whole has, but this is one area that has a selfishly calming effe...