That urban beer bubble seems to be leaking somewhat. In the last couple of weeks, we’ve seen the following:
- A spat between two breweries make national television news, newspapers and hugely popular non-specialist blogs, thanks to the Brewdog publicity machine and a compelling tale of skullduggery.
- Marverine ‘Beer Beauty’ Cole on This Morning — a popular and very mainstream TV show — talking as seriously about beer as that format will allow. Much better than the One Show‘s attempt with Jay Rayner from last year which, although good, patronised beer as wine’s less versatile, uncouth cousin.
- News that Brewdog are to have their own Channel 4 TV show. It will almost certainly be unbearable for most beer geeks to watch but may well grab the attention of many others. (Unlike the Neil Morrissey/Richard Fox show from a few years back, this will at least feature actual brewers, rather than celebs playing thereat.)
- A beer from a small local brewer with a prominent ‘craft beer’ label on the pumpclip appearing between Sharp’s Doom Bar and Spingo Middle in one of our local pubs.
- People we have dealings with in the real world beginning to talk about beer the same way they do about music, films or food: as something in which any person of discernment ought to take an interest. It’s odd to see someone you know only through work tweeting about their plans to go to Camden Brewery on Friday night for ‘some quality craft beers’.
Perhaps it is still a bubble and, yes, perhaps it remains predominantly urban, but if this outbreak continues, it might well pop at some point.
11 replies on “The Beer Bubble is Leaking”
I was worrying then that this was going to be a post about over saturation, and that we’ll be seeing a lot of breweries ceasing to exist.
Though to be honest, there are some that I’m surprised survive, given their output…
I’m glad to see some further pushing of beers into the public eye. Personally i enjoy brewdogs brash and bold advertising, although maybe a little over the top at times may be what the industry needs, definatly looking foreward to any show they put on channel 4, hoping it may be in a heston style for beer. Glad to see beer is being noticed as a positive more then a negative, at least in some areas of publicity.
And beer and food pairing at mean time on hairy bikers earlier (maybe a repeat?) Where’s this brewdog programme news?
It was on the Brewdog blog, I think, and people were saying they’d seen clips at the AGM.
I think I would like to see some more beer segments or beer / food pairings on programmes like Saturday Kitchen showcasing the diversity of beer (funnily enough was tweeting about this very thing on Saturday) and the current crop of new British brewers to a British audience, rather than helping the foreign wine trade. I’m not saying that wine is not a valid drink (well I might be) but when beer is given an equal footing by the media at large as a grown-up drink to be taken seriously, then that will be the real breakthrough. Part of me however, thinks that this might strip some of the vitalty and creativity that currently exists in the current climate. It’s a tough one.
I keep banging on about the same thing every time I see the wine buffs on Saturday kitchen marching into Sainsbury’s, Tescos or whatever other major supermarket they can find to promote something that often travels from the other side of the world.
James Martin only ever seems to mention beer so as to big up how Yorkshire he is, which is a way of saying that beer is a rough and ready drink, and it always seems to be Black Sheep.
I would dearly love to see the ‘beer bubble’ well and truly burst – quite frankly it is about time that beer (and I of course mean real beer) went mainstream and became a natural social entity as it really ought to already be – lets all take the pins of anti beer ignorance and go burst that bubble!
That would be amazing and long overdue. A lovely piece on beer and puddings in Stylist too who are notoriously anti beer – times they are a changing!!
I thought that Beer Beauty tv appearance was good. At least the best I’ve seen on mainstream TV. Both presenters put aside their prejudices and went along for the ride. In a weird way it was quite nice to see a glamorous woman actually appearing to enjoy it and not being forced into it for TV as I’ve seen before. I mean that in the sense that there are many non-beer drinking women who could be influenced by the attitude she showed. Don’t know how staged it was but I was pleased to see it.
Let’s hope it does burst! Getting so frickin bored of the bubble…
I’m representing beer a lot more on radio these days (though telly remains as elusive as ever, apart from one-offs) and interest from mainstream press is going from absolutely frozen nil zero whatsoever to merely uninterested – a high thawing of opinion. I even get rejection emails back from people at Observer Food Monthly these days instead of just being ignored!
My anecdotal evidence: I have two parties a year to try and clear my short-dated stock form my cellar. Three years ago I had to rush out and buy commercial lager. Two years ago everyone was happy with my random ale/craft selection. Last party: “Haven’t you got anything a bit more hoppy? Any US hops? Any oak aged stuff?”
My free beer is no longer good enough for the good burghers of N16…
[…] Boak and Bailey’s post earlier this week got me thinking, there is a lot of talk about how we would like things to be with respect to beer and ale and their place in society but could we maybe do more to push “the beer society” (excuse the pun). […]