Thursday 21 December 2017

Not so dirty dozen

Following my general review of 2017, here’s a selection of my most significant posts from throughout the year. There are twelve in total, but they don’t fall conveniently into one per month.

January:

A campaign designed by a committee – some thoughts on CAMRA’s Revitalisation Report

February:

Local antihero – my love-hate relationship with our local family brewer, Robinson’s

April:

Micro appeal – micropubs are the flavour of the month, but their appeal to the wider pubgoing population is actually very limited

May:

False memory syndrome - despite what antismokers claim, it wasn’t difficult to find non-smoking provision in pubs before 1 July 2007

July:

Ten years gone – for anyone who claims to support pubs to still argue that the smoking ban was a good idea is an exercise in the most breathtaking and contemptible hypocrisy

Murdered by the smoking ban – “So as you sit in your smoke-free gastropub commenting on how delicate Pierre manages to get those organic scallops you can rest easy knowing that you've taken away one of the few nice things in the lives of people you've never met.”

Beer from somewhere, or from anywhere? - real ale and craft beer, at heart they’re basically the same, surely? Er no, actually they’re distinct concepts that arise from very different sources

August:

Nobody else has complained – the ins and outs of taking sub-standard beer back to the bar

Forty years of progress – the Good Beer Guide of 2018 is certainly very different from that of 1978, but is it, or the pub scene in general, actually better?

September:

The undercutting fallacy – the role of “cheap supermarket alcohol” in the decline of the pub trade is greatly exaggerated

Standing at the crossroads – CAMRA comprises two camps of traditionalists and modernisers divided by mutual incomprehension

November:

Quantity and Quality – a guest post from licensee Kieran Lyons on cask beer stocking and rotation policies to ensure consistent quality

4 comments:

  1. Keep up the good work. Merry xmas and a happy new year to you

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  2. That's a good list, illustrative of the breadth of your blog. Really enjoyed that post on the ten bestsellers recently, showed just how far the mainstream beer scene is from the beer blogging scene. MT

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    Replies
    1. Yes, and I think that post illustrates how CAMRA and "beer communicators" overestimate just how much influence they have in the beer world. Another example of this was the list on the MA website of top beer trends for 2018, none of which I would expect to make it anywhere near the Dog & Duck. That may make a good topic for a future blogpost.

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  3. Will take a peek at these over the holidays.

    Merry Christmas and thanks for all the posts; and the links at the side:

    https://www.jibjab.com/view/make/christmas_sign_spinner/8c08a66b-cea0-4ea7-b03b-876dbbdc12a4

    Cheers!

    ReplyDelete

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