Yay! Us!

CAMRA members across Cumbria have voted our No. 2 Stout
Champion Stout of Cumbria, 2009.

Thank you! You're absolutely right!

We have no beer in the house, so we're celebrating with a bottle of Ridge Zinfandel Paso Robles 2006. Yum.

How green you are, how green you are...

We got mentioned by name by Woolpack Dave, so I'm afraid I had to comment on the eco thing. It's interesting how defeatism and selfishness seem to be so acceptable nowadays. Crikey, using the word "nowadays" makes me sound ancient. My old mate Bobby P sees a lot of selfishness and stupidity among the younger folk, and was often heard to refer to them as "Thatchers brats". Of course, they don't know what he means, because that would be history, innit.

I realise that blogs, and blog comments particularly, aren't really the place for reasoned argument, references, footnotes and shit. But hells teeth, the unsupported opinions advanced as facts... (by people commenting on Dave's interesting and thoughtful piece)

"Fact" 1. ...the more ethically-sourced and artisan the beer is, the less eco-friendly it's likely to be...

Well, this seems to be confusing efficiency with "eco-friendly". Let's imagine GreenShedBev are producing a unit of some artisanal product with 10 units of renewable power and 300 litres of water from a secure hydrological unit. Whereas the more efficient GlobalHyperBevCo can turn out a unit for 5 non-renewable power units and 295 litres of water from a threatened aquifer. See?

"Fact" 2. ...what you, I, or everyone we know does, won't make a jot of difference...

This is simply wrong isn't it? If there's anything to the Six degrees of separation thang, then between us, we know everybody. Just about. Or is the point here that it's the people we don't know - the others who will continue to upstuff things? So there's no point in us good folk trying?

"Fact" 3. ...hemp wearing anti global yogurt weavers an easy sting in the marketing dept...

What's so funny about peace, love and understanding?
Tosser.

Indulgence Or Innovation?

Beer festivals aside (it's difficult making a living off "festival beers"), non mainstream styled beers are a difficult sell. Should we blame the publicans for this? No, they have to buy what their regulars will drink. I have customers worried about a "Best Bitter" being too bitter, or a 4.4% being too strong. What should I do?

We need to sell the beer. The beer has to sell. So that we can make some more.

Perhaps it's just too easy to throw a huge pile of hops and malt into the big bucket, give it a couple of weeks, then sell a few 9s of novelty beer via Boggart. Perhaps this is a recipe for a "minimum viable product". Or it's not, and it's just homebrew writ large. Or self-indulgent toss. Or the beer equivalent of Dōjinshi, fan-fiction, whatever. Heck, I don't know.