A Right Lot of Re- Tweets

I've been noticing on Twitter that some of the re-tweets recently tell me more than I need to know about the writers and quite a lot about the re-tweeters. In fact there are some people that I follow that are going to take the knock soon for continually re-tweeting drivel. Of course most Twitter content is drivel, but I like to think I've followed a lot of discerning people that won't in effect spam me. Is it too much to ask that you don't inflict other people's scary or stupid political/humour/miscellaneous guff on me and others?

Now I have no objection at all to the personal stuff. I love to know who has had what for brekkie or lunch or whatever, or when the guff I receive is beer related. That's Twitter and I live with that. I also hope on my few re-tweets, that it is at least usually, only beery stuff that I re-direct to my beery followers. But I have a hit list of those that don't. I don't suppose they'll care if they get de-followed, but they are beer people whose beery thoughts I do want to hear. So, think before you re-tweet. Please.

Back to beer and another re-tweet. Does Thwaites really want their Old Dan described thus: "very enjoyable thick caramel favour (sic)nice alcohol burn, sweet smooth finish"

Makes you want to rush out and buy it eh?

Feel better now I've got that off my chest!

Blogging Annoyances

One of the best pieces of advice given to me blogging wise, was from Jeff Bell aka Stonch. "Forget all that moderation and password stuff. You won't get enough spam or nutcases to make it worthwhile and people don't like it." He was right.*

It is annoying enough to have to re-record infeasibly long and indistinct word verification when you comment, but then up pops "Your comment will be published after blog owner approval." WTF?

If it is you (and you know who you are and there are quite a few of you) please let me know why on earth you do it? It's bad enough doing the former, but then more hoops to jump through? Why? Is it a power thing? I get the odd bit of spam, but I just delete it. Simples. Best of all, just stop it. It is pointless and irritating.

*It's a paraphrase, but that's the gist of it.

Having us for Mugs

There is a terrible trend emerging it seems and it needs to be strangled at birth. The dimpled, handled mug is making an undeserved comeback. This old man's glass, so common thirty odd years ago, was thankfully dying out and only available by request. It was the reserve of the pub bore and for the few old soaks that still required them to drink their brown beer from. It was becoming history and when you saw the odd one, you thought back with misplaced nostalgia to the era of the Sweeney, the three day week, shillings, Watney's and Younger's Tartan and immediately specified "a straight glass please" with your order, in case the dimpled horror should be inflicted on you and your golden, hoppy, micro brewed beer.

Now, zombie like, it is lurching out of its grave and to add to the macabre horror, it is trendy and up and coming real ale spots that seem to be encouraging it. Well don't. It is an awful glass to drink out of and does nothing for the appearance or taste of modern beer. Its thick wall is off putting and it looks as wrong and alien in a contemporary pub, as would decorating it with flock wallpaper, frilly standard lamps and putting formica covered tables and lino in. It is out of place and out of time.

Retro can be good. Not in this case. Don't do it and for those misguided establishments that do, please make sure you have a straight, thin walled glass for proper drinkers.

Three of the Best

It was one of these days when you encounter the beer you want to drink at the peak of its condition. To get one in a pub that is just perfect is a pleasure, to get two is the icing on the cake and to get three is the cake itself.

I'd been put on the edge of annoyance though earlier on Saturday by a tweet about Wetherspoons in Derby and the twit (sorry twitterer) feeling "unclean". Well here's some simple advice which works every time - "Just don't go there". They'll hardly miss anyone that thinks that way, as they sell the most cask beer of any JDW in the chain. How do I know this? Well I was told by the manager of the one that is second and chasing hard for number one, the Regal Moon in Rochdale, the venue for my perfect trio of beers. Such stereotypical and snobbish remarks do a disservice to excellent managers who are rising above the norm to sell great beer in a big pub chain. JDW's, like all such megaliths, have good and bad. The good are very good and shouldn't be carelessly denigrated without an actual and specific reason. Managers such as Chris at Rochdale are dedicated to getting more and more of their regulars drinking good beer and attracting others to do likewise. If sales are anything to go by, they are succeeding. He proudly boasts that he probably sells less John Smith's Smooth than any other major JDW. That's a good thing in my book. OK - rant over.

Now back to beer. Those of us who live up north have a plethora of great breweries that brew cask beer that you want to drink lots of. One such is West Yorkshire based Ossett who have a super range of beers. Ossett also operate two other micro breweries and run 14 pubs. Saturday's beer was Silver King, a pale beer, using lager malt with a distinct bitter, citrus finish. It is very quaffable. Less known, but producing some of the best pale and hoppy beers in the north is Millstone from Mossley, nestling in the Lancashire side of the Pennines. True Grit is full bodied, bitter from the late addition of hops, with a distinct and lasting hoppy finish and is very, very drinkable. It was on top form on Saturday and provided a perfect route map along with Silver King to the piece de resistance, Jaipur IPA. What more can be said about this classic beer? Nothing really, except to say I've never had it better. It was truly, unutterably and dangerously delicious.

An excellent day was finished off with a tour of the Regal Moon's impressive cellar, part of which is pictured above.

Excellent Rant

It appears that Marston's Beer Company's MD Stephen Oliver has got a bit of chilli under his foreskin. It's made him shirty. In the Morning Advertiser, he has a right go at everyone. CAMRA are a lot of "beardy weirdies" - no prize for originality then- and slightly better - a set of "gobby hobbitts". Warming to his theme, we become "sandal-clad, whisker-stroking stormtroopers".

Showing no mercy Ollie also blasts his own licensees who it seems are an ungrateful bunch of bastards, not that he used these exact words. Why? The ingrates seemingly want to be able to sell beers from outside Marston's 5 breweries and their 35 permanent and 53 occasional ales. What a shower of shits! SIBA don't escape either, with a swipe at their not chipping in to pay for Cask Ale Week. He also has a neat little pop at small brewers saying their beers are "eclectic pints brewed in a cupboard with the dubious benefit of progressive beer duty." They are also "oddballs down a country lane" whose beer is served with bits in it.

It seems "normal" people should start to drink Marstons Beer and be grateful for it. Presumably he means if you don't like their beers, you aren't "normal". Now I love a good rant as much as the next man and no doubt Ollie's words will strike a chord with some, but the underlying message seems to be "after all we've done for you, why don't you like our beer you gits?".

Most people reading his outpourings will work that answer out for themselves, though I can see why he's miffed. After all they kindly took over some nice breweries, kept them going and made their ale more widely available. They could have been like Greene King and shut the lot down. It may well be a point. Why then is everyone so bloody unappreciative of their efforts?

There must be more to this than meets the eye. Why is Ollie so rattled?

Read the MA Article here.