Tag: beeryshortreads

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Generalisations about beer culture

100 Words: Using Powers for Good

Illustration: 'Citrus burst'.

By Bailey

Last weekend, I visited a few pubs with a mate. Normally laid back, there is, it transpires, one thing that raises his blood pressure:

‘I can’t stand American hops — why does everything have to taste of bloody grapefruit!?’

So, in the next place, when I ordered Dark Star Hophead and he said, ‘Same,’ I held up a hand with a heroic flourish.

‘No! You probably want this one.’ That being a best bitter with English hops.

It seemed counter-intuitive — Hophead is a classic! — but he loved his caramel-sweet malt bomb, and I felt, smugly, that I’d done the noble thing.

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Generalisations about beer culture pubs Uncategorized

100 Words: Not The Same Again

'Second Pint?' illustration.

Mr Turner is right: ‘The biggest influence in whether someone has a second pint is the quality of their first.’ 

Sometimes, you mean to have one beer and end up having four because you don’t know when you’ll next taste something so perfect.

More often, though, you have one and, though there’s nothing wrong with it, not that you could complain about, not that you can put your finger on, that awkward first date is as far as it ever goes.

Not ordering a second pint is just about the most passive protest a customer can make.

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marketing

100 WORDS: Feeding the Beast

Troll face.

A brewery does something annoying or offensive — what do you do?

If you don’t challenge, you’re letting them off the hook.

But if you write or Tweet about it, you shine a light on their stunt — just what they want — and your reaction, however negative, ends up being counted as an ‘engagement’ in a marketing executive’s ‘return on investment’ report.

It will probably also gain them even more attention when it’s reported as ‘BEER GEEKS OUTRAGED’ in the trade press two days later.

We tend to ignore, because, frankly, stunts are boring, and ignoring is easier… but should we?

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opinion

100 Words: The Best Beer in the World, and that’s final

Adapted from Westmalle by Georgio, from Flickr under Creative Commons.
We’ve been asked several times in the last couple of years: “What would you say is the best beer in the world?”

It’s a daft question, but we’ve tried to answer, with Bailey saying something weasely like “My current favourite is…” and Boak consistently naming the cask version of Fuller’s London Porter.

But we’ve had a think and made a final decision with which we can both agree: the best beer in the world is Westmalle Tripel.

If we could drink nothing else for all eternity, we’d be quite happy.

So there you go. Good to have that settled.

Photograph adapted from Westmalle by Georgio, from Flickr under Creative Commons.

Categories
Generalisations about beer culture

“I just find it too bitter.”

Illustration: Sweet Tooth brand can sugar cube.

Discussing the relaunch of Let There Be Beer today reminded us of just how often we hear the statement above uttered by people who dislike beer.

We ought to bear in mind every time we catch ourselves complaining that mainstream beers are bland or that, say, Sharp’s Doom Bar is too sickly sweet, that, for some, those beers are probably still too bitter.

We’re quite cured of the desire to ‘convert people’ these days, but if a beer sceptic asked us for a suggestion, we might point them to a gentle-but-quirky, barely-bitter-at-all German or Belgian wheat beer.