Over the last couple of weeks it all seems to have gone a bit mad in the UK beer scene.
There seems to be this really unsavoury undercurrent of sniping, backbiting and a hint of ill feeling between CAMRA, Brewers and Bloggers.
Everyone seems to have forgotten they all share something in common, something very special…they are all, first and foremost… beer lovers. I know people can get heated when they are passionate…
I’ve seen all sorts of claims from CAMRA saving British brewing to all but destroying it, bloggers being the future and shaping the industry to being a bunch of noisome nuisances and from brewers intent on causing trouble to those quietly getting on with brewing excellent beer.
I even read somewhere that if it hadn’t been for Guinness that we wouldn’t have stout today!
I sure this sort of madness goes on in other beer loving countries but I’ll be surprised if it’s actually healthy??!
I’m a CAMRA member this doesn’t automatically mean I agree with everything they say or do, I’m also a Brewdog drinker and the same goes for them, if it was all so clear cut then surely I’d have to be one or the other.
I started drinking beer because I liked the taste, I loved the choice available to me and that there was a huge world of new and interesting beers to discover. I started blogging to keep a record of what I was drinking and to hopefully promote some of the beers and breweries I liked, more importantly I blogged because it was fun. As it happens blogging has lead to more than that, I’ve met loads of new people and had many a great time out supping and discussing beer with people, heck I’ve even got some free beer out of it, which is nice, but not everything…
The last couple of weeks the fun has dwindled and I’ve not been enjoying seeing all the fighting and arguing, most of it seems quite childish, so if I don’t blog as much over the coming weeks then you know why.
Just for my 2 pence worth I’d like to see CAMRA listen to the masses, embrace a little bit of change and see how it goes!
I’d like bloggers to get back to blogging about having fun and drinking good beer, blogging about what they love (and don’t) and keeping the personal touch on their blogs.
I’d like brewers to keep brewing interesting drinkable ale and providing it in which ever form of dispense they think best suits the beer.
I’d like Brewdog to grow up, stop the sniping and concentrate on getting their house in order before throwing stones, back in the day I looked up and admired you guys but the last wee while I’ve all but given up.
Most of all I’d like everyone to step back, take a deep breath, grab a beer and enjoy the moment, life is to short for all these politics (and shit beer)
Well said Andy!
Nice post Andy and nice sentiment. The sad truth is that while some camps insist on promoting their own beer or beer styles by denigrating others then those that truly do celebrate beer need to step in and set the record straight or we’ll just lose beer drinkers for all of us.
Life is too short indeed but is their really such a thing as “shit beer”? Undoubtably there are beers you don’t like or some won’t recognise the brewing or dispense methods of but that just makes them beers you don’t like. If a beer is commercially available it’s because people are buying it and the brewer is making money therefore to someone it’s great beer – noone’s doing it just for the love of it.
You’re right CAMRA do need to listen to the masses and move with the times but they’re not alone in that – there’s as many breweries that could do more to celebrate and champion all beer.
We do all have something in common so it should be a lot easier but don’t give up blogging – we need more people like you writing about beer if we’re ever going to cut through some of the noise!!
Spot on Andy…let’s get on with drinking photographing and writing about good beer.
I’ll drink to that. Any excuse… 😉
Can I just suggest that maybe we don’t actually know what the masses are in this case.
If you go to GBBF this summer and see the (how many) thousands of people attending a CAMRA event – or go to Leeds earlier in the spring where people lapped up warm beer, in an overly warm room – maybe the point is that CAMRA are maintaining their appeal with the masses. And it is in fact the minority that are arguing for something that doesn’t actually need CAMRA’s involvement. If a brewer wants to move to keg, and has the support of a pub to sell their beer – why does it need a mandate of change to affect it?
I keep reading the word revolution. I struggle not to laugh out loud as i do. Aren’t most drinks born out of evolution – adapting something here and there – tweaking an old recipe; improving on what has gone before. If there is a case where beer has appeared in cask, and then moved in to keg before – this is hardly revolutionary. How that beer is transferred in to keg may now have evolved, but it is still the same notion.
When we talk of the masses though, I do wonder if 90% of the people who sit in pubs tonight, drinking keg lager or bitter even know this debate is going on. Talking in a revolution context by converting those is also laughable – as that happens. No one starts off as an American Craft aficionado – some may even have started drinking Mexican lager with lime in it. Yet people do “swap sides”, do learn to enjoy a different type of beer – usually without all this fuss.
Hear hear Andy – let’s hope common sense will prevail in the end…
What Chris said. 🙂
In our pub we put a brewdog keg line in and we sold Punk IPA at £2.90 a pint. It took 3 months to move 50 litres of it. Most of that went down the sink during line cleaning. The rest was drunk by a member of brewdog staff. CAMRA are listening to the masses.
We are currently in the process of throwing 50 litres of Zeitgeist black lager down the sink. Give it a couple more months.
Andy I absolutely agree. I’m bored by all this rubbish going around lets just get back to enjoying beer its a drink for fucks sake and CAMRA are a consumerist lobby group not an oppressive regime. If you like good kegged beer drink it (as I will tonight) and if you love cask ale please do that too (as I also will be doing tonight).
Denzil – Is this atrocity happening at O’Donoghues in Wakefield. That’s what happens when I move to a different ctiy. Kegged Punk and Zeitgeist wouldn’t be wasted on my watch. Feel free to drop off the kegs at my house and I’ll finally get use of my corny keg apparatus.
Yep, yep , yep. you’ll notice I’ve stayed clear of involvement in this argument, watching with interest from afar, if you will. In the meantime, I’ll keep letting people know what The Good Stuff is, yeah? Now, who wants a beer?
CAMRA was set up at a time when cask-conditioned beers in the UK were under considerable threat from big brewers who wanted to foist badly made mass produced keg beers on the public whether they wanted it or not. Their mission was to promote choice so that anyone who preferred decent cask ale would stand a chance of finding it. Anything wrong with that?
That said, CAMRA has got above itself by claiming to be the voice of the pubgoer and all beer consumers. The vast majority of members do not wish this situation but because the organisation’s National Executive comprises a majority of intellectually poor specimens, it has become little more than a marketing scam. The Executive recently tried to take the determination of subscriptions away from the members and put it in their hands alone. but over 80% of members at the AGM rejected this, a result which was entirely predictable. With nonentities like this in charge is it any surprise that they are wetting their pants over this nonsense about “craft” beers? I suspect that the more intelligent CAMRA members take the view that Brewdog and others pose no threat because their beers are pretty poor and they cannot promote it to numpties through TV campaigns claiming that these products are wonderful. Let them get on with it and the best of luck to them. I for one couldn’t give a flying F***. The dismal Colin Valentine doesn’t speak for the intelligent CAMRA members; how could he?
Thanks for all the comments guys (and Gals) I’ll have a proper read through them soon.
Bull & Fairhouse Rob. used to be O’Ds for a bit. Brewdog stuff sells well on cask. It’s better that way.
Denzil Vallance has nailed it for me. If a beer tastes better when served in cask form, then why should anyone give credence to a keg version?
I have come to the decision that the only time I will write about BrewDog on Fuggled is when their actual products are involved – such as the IPA blind tasting a few weeks ago. I realise that being over here in the States gives me a certain amount of distance, but their antics have, to coin a phrase, jumped the shark now. From the context of beer over here, they are mediocre, average at best and most certainly not worth shelling out the premium price for.
actually forget “jumping the shark”, “flogging a dead horse” is more apt.
VElky I quite like that jumping the shark saying!! doesn’t seem to get used as much over here.