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Here’s a summary of our nineteen blog posts from last month. (We’re going to try to round up like this every month from now on — good idea, or not?)
- We started the month with an anti-wishlist for beer on TV, suggesting six plausible but unappealing formats, including Top Beer and A Very Dry History of British Beer (for BBC Four).
- We pondered on our experience of wheat beer in Lindau, struggling to work out whether it is a ‘dumbed down’ style or accessibly complex.
- For Session #80, we came off the fence and expressed optimism that there is plenty of room yet for more breweries and more diversity in the UK beer market.
- We spoke at the Eden Project beer festival for the second year running and were posed some interesting questions by audience members — why don’t more people drink mild?
- We suggested a checklist of signs of a healthy beer culture. (Responses from Bryan Betts and Leigh Linley.)
- Way back in 1975, a CAMRA member called Dave Bennett proposed a vocabulary for tasting beer.
- Thirty-odd-year-old Adnams’ Tally Ho was interesting to drink, if not exactly pleasurable.
- As part of an ongoing series, we tried to work out some guidance for writing the names of family brewers.
- We reviewed Dark Star Belgian IPA, and raved about a pub in Mevagissey which seemed stuck in a time warp.
- In the last of our What We Did on our Holidays posts, we wrote about our brief exploration of the beer scene in Strasbourg.
- We shared an 1895 account of a visit to the George Inn, Southwark, by two female pubgoers.
- We wondered whether big/extreme/craft beer might be the equivalent of loud/intense/angry music which appeals to adolescents.
- We reviewed Michael Pollan’s book Cooked, drawing out links to beer and brewing.
- Giving you all a month’s notice in case you want to join in, we announced that we’re posting something long on 30 November.
- We reviewed the new ‘bookazine’ for home brewers and considered its significance as an indicator of beer’s status.
- In response to a vexing email from a big beer PR person, we suggested one way knackered old lager brands might be revived: honesty.
- And, finally, we published a spooky story about beer for Halloween.
10 replies on “The Month That Was: October 2013”
Blogging about what you’ve blogged about. Hmm. Good idea or not? I’d have thought that question answers itself – I mean it does come aross as a bit self regarding don’t you think?
Have to say it does smack of modern TV documentaries -“here’s what we’re going to tell you”, “here it is”, “here’s what we’ve just told you”.
Thanks for feedback, chaps.
It was motivated by the fact that we’ve recently found interesting stuff through this kind of round-up on blogs (beer or otherwise) we follow only casually, and that led us to wonder whether those who (for whatever perverse reasons) don’t read this blog *every* day might find it useful.
We’ll wait for a few more votes before making a decision, but should we decide to continue with it, we’ll make sure it’s clearly labelled, and posted in the Saturday/Sunday morning doldrums so you can avoid it.
For what it’s worth I think it’s a really good idea. A lot of the time I don’t get a chance to read your posts on the day you write them, and despite good intentions I often forget to go back. This summary reminds me what I missed, and what I still need to catch up on. Cheers!
Thanks for the feedback, Katherine.
Reflection. People react quite badly when others reflect upon themselves. Keep it up.
Summary would be even better if you included any pertinent comment/ other links generated as a result of the post, add something new to make the post worth reading as a stand alone
Good call, Steve. We’ll either add some links to this later if we get chance, or start doing so with next month’s round up.
That’s a very good idea from Steve. Utterly mystified by Alan’s rather gnomic comment.
When I see a ‘what we wrote about this past month’ sort of post I’ll usually skip ahead, even if I haven’t read everything. (As a regular blog reader, I crave the latest info.) However, if you keep it to quick blurb on the main page, I’ll likely click through, because now you’ve sparked my curiosity. (And put me in control.)
Example:
The Month That Was: October 2013
An anti-wish list for beer on TV. Wheat beer in Lindau. Room for more diversity in the UK beer market. (Etc.) Read more
This way, you make the past something that’s about to happen.
Hope that makes sense.