Too Many (Duff) Bloggers?

(with thanks to Tandleman for the idea)

When we welcomed the explosion of beer writers brought about by Blogger, did we imagine we’d end up with so many of them? Did we imagine them all to be good? Is it as though just Blogger has caused this, or is it that ratebeer (RB) has lead to an increasing (or decreasing) number of opinions on a beer? Do some bloggers exist solely in order that their opinions reach a wider audience than the RB faithful? Are some of these opinions rather desperate in the extreme, harsh and cruel towards their subject matter simply in order to get noticed in the crowd? I talk to quite a few of them, and they all pretty much agree – it’s a desperate cycle of tasting ever more beers to keep their RB numbers ahead of the game, so much so that valid opinion is heavily discounted along the way, along with any literary quality.

Of course, the other side of the coin is that there are some beer writers out there making excellent judgement calls, writing really well and getting read widely. These bloggers have no need to write harshly about this beer or that, such is their reputation. Here we are talking about the Dredge’s & the Chunk’s of this world, but for many it is a relentless slog, attempting to string a decent sentence or two together, to get noticed amongst the throng of fellow bloggers.

Are there half arsed bloggers about? Of course there are. Why don’t they shut up? Well, does anyone listen to them anyway? Anyone?

I have a list of bloggers I avoid. It is small.

Essence of Stout

On sale from next week & perfect for the impending cold spell.

A stout is brewed with plenty of coloured malt to lend a pitch black colour, a full body and a roasty, toasty, chocolate mocca flavour. Oats give it a real smooth texture and this year I'm adding a teeny, tiny bit of vanilla pod, for roundness.

Hops would spoil all this, so we only use them for bittering. If we did use them for flavour it would become an oatmeal porter which is entirely different but worth trying.

80 Shilling Days

I'm brewing it today, even as I write. Well, I've done the hard part, Clive & Strings are busy cleaning up after me.

Everyone drinks hoppy, pale ales these days, and who can blame them? It is a fine and refreshing beer style after all, and the breadth of different sub-styles within the genre is enough to keep anyone interested for, well, quite a long time. However, and I dare not utter this out loud, I'm bored of them, bored bored bored bored bored. So it is with enthusiastic gusto that I'm brewing the very antithesis to IPA - Scottish Export, or 80 /- (shilling) ale.

This one is all about malt, and lots of it. Crystal malt provides a nutty, sweet red background, chocolate malt brings, well, a touch of silky smooth chocolate. Oats for smooth, wholesome goodness; melanoidin for sweet aroma & some amber to dry the palate, lest the sweetness becomes cloying. Oh, and, of course, a minute twist of heavily, heavenly Bruichladdich peated malt to drag us up onto Rannoch Moor once again.

I put a few hops in too, just for balance, and nothing else.

It's cold and damp outside, warm & cosy in. These days are not IPA days, these days are 80/- days.