TheMumbler wrote:No it isn't
, try an even vaguely appropriate analogy.
Yes it is so na na na - just cos you like elevator music and given half a chance would play in a band in a lift and don't recognise the genius of electro that's YOUR problem. (I should probably point out at this stage that we shall continue this argument over our next brew together or down the pub and this is not a forum spat or start of a flame war
)
Why are you so down on British beer styles anyway? Sure, there is much to be liked in the brewing of other places but equally there is a fine tradition of brewing here. I'm all for a bit of variety but you seem to be throwing out the baby with the bathwater.
I'm not down on them (well maybe a bit) they're GREAT, but as history has shown us also very vulnerable - witness the invasion of lager and the uptake/prevalence of hoegaarden or weissen's now - and a fairly narrow view of what beer can be. I believe that hoegaarden and weissens etc. show there is an appetite out there for new tastes which the domestic micro-market doesn't seem to be going for sticking instead to a narrow set of traditions... The AMerican micros at least try to immitate and then have a twist on 'foreign' styles which generates interest and a market for 'interesting beer'. I've seen the same in Denmark (a pink quinoa-based fruity sour beer anyone - on ice in the sun??? a 'real beer' targeted at women but NOT a 'real ale'...) Achouffe in Belgium making American IPAs and Scotch Ales etc. etc. But... we wont? TBH in this regard BrewDog aren't doing a lot of variety but at least they are distinctive in a way that makes their beers instantly identifiable - and not just by packaging. A few others are but not many...
I'd love to see either real traditions coming back with say a series of brands based on history - a tudor ale, an elizabethan ale, a victorian porter, an edwardian IPA etc. that would be something different, distinctive and traditional - looking back to the weirder corners of our beer history or looking at who brought what over (Huguenot ale?). Beers like fraoch are inspiring and different - more of that please, just more of something distinct. I really feel that a very narrow definition of what 'real ale' is has come to dominate and there are more and more bottles of very very similar beers on the shelves in terms of look / style / taste. Meantime are an exception, BrewDog the most noticeable... The more people think 'wow this could be very different' the more the market could grow.
Fallen wrote:I believe Thornbridge were innovating long before BrewDog
Shall have to check them out. Among many other good obnservations (a nation of swillers etc) I do think that what BrewDog are doing is modelled on an American model. In the USA god know how tiny the percentage of the market is drinking real beer. BUT what is evident is that the micros have been a revolution and do have a small % but significant market, 'scene' and culture around them. I'd love to see it come in over here - something like a return of the firkin chain in terms of delivery (micro brewing in a pub) but with a more interesting range of beer and more bottled beers so they can make something interesting and keep it a while. Bare Arts in todmorden do this approach very well as homebrew-writ-large and do some interesting beers.
http://www.barearts.com//acatalog/ - more of this please!
As for brewdog, I'm a CAMRA member and go to their beer festivals but BrewDog pi$$ing them off just makes me smile.
And a King Keg could be put into a dead panda.
But nothing else on the shelf comes close... At least I brew my own so can ape the style and intent and that's why I've got in to homebrew, to make the beers I can't buy rather than copies of the tedium that dominates our shelves.
I'm a Jock so should really be actively supporting BrewDog)........is this really the only kind of marketing campaign that can get you noticed nowadays?
