Muddying the Waters

I was struck recently by the tweet below from blogger @Super Crushy about that vexed old subject, beer clarity.

I've been getting the occasional twinge and thinking I need to write something in response to all the people bemoaning the lack of clear beer and then I remember that I wrote this two years ago.

I have definitely not had enough of the haze. https://t.co/RLo6Hxfrr7 pic.twitter.com/acRxmKJsbi

— Super Crushy (@femtobrewster) May 4, 2018

Never being one to pass up an opportunity to respond, I, err, responded with a tweet and then the following conversation took place:

 Tandleman‏ @tandleman May 4

Boo!

1 reply 0 retweets 0 likes

 Super Crushy‏ @femtobrewster May 4

I think people should focus their efforts on highlighting badly made beer, rather than just complaining about beer styles they don't enjoy.

1 reply 1 retweet 0 likes

 Tandleman‏ @tandleman May 4

No argument there but I quite like responding in kind to your proselytizing.

1 reply 0 retweets 1 like

— Tandleman (@tandleman) May 4, 2018

If I may quote Pete Brown about the current state of cask beer "Cask ale’s health has recently gone into severe decline. Over the twelve months to February 2018, and in the twelve months before that, cask volume declined by over 4% each year – that means almost ten per cent of the entire cask market has vanished in the last 24 months."

I have been banging on about the quality of cask beer at the point of dispense for a long time now and as cask ale declines (the battle isn't won - if you think it is, stop reading now) so my question is this. Does the confusion sown by murky beer, often unlabelled as such, help or hinder the fight for quality cask beer and the need to find more people to drink it with confidence?

This isn't a pop at Super Crushy. She is entitled to her point of view and in fact is hardly alone in finding nothing unacceptable in beer that isn't clear.  I merely wish to point out, as a veteran cask ale drinker, one aspect of the law of unintended consequences, though equally, I don't suggest that the decline in cask beer sales is entirely down to intentional murkiness.

I do suggest, whatever your personal taste and whatever it does or doesn't do for craft beer, that it doesn't help the cause of cask beer much at all.  What do you reckon?

At one time if beer was hazy/cloudy, it was sent back.  Both sides knew the score.  This was an accepted norm which has now been overturned and not I'd venture, without disadvantage.

Sorry about the rogue bullet point. Can't find a way to get rid of it.