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2015 - The Least Productive Year


This year has been the blog's least productive, by far. I'm not lamenting it, much less apologising. I've very busy with my job—fortunately, even if sometimes it was a bit too much—and with the book, which was far from an easy task, but well worth it—I'm proud of it and it's selling pretty well.

The other, maybe more important, reason why I've been writing so little is that I feel I've run out of things to say about beer. I've lost count of how many posts I started, only to abort them after a few sentences because I realised I was repeating myself—“again this? Sod it! I'll browse Reddit instead”. In fact, I feel the whole beer discourse is repeating itself (and probably has been doing so for a while already). I can't understand, for instance, why so many people are still getting their pants in such a twist every time an independent brewing company is sold to a bigger one; it happens in pretty much every industry where economies of scale play a big role, why would the brewing industry be any different? Ah! Yeah, the fairytale.

On a side note, and since I'm on topic. To all those brewery owners and executives that take the pulpit every time a sale is announced: shut the fuck up already! Really. When I was nine or ten, my mum took me and my sister to buy trainers. I really wanted the Bjorn Borg tennis shoes—they were all the rage at the time—but they didn't have my size. They had my sister's, who tried them on and said she wanted them. My response was telling her that she was stupid; that those trainers weren't for girls, but for boys; that she would be made fun of; that she could not have those trainers. Those brewery owners and executives remind me of that. Whether they do it because they're butthurt they aren't getting the trainers they want, or because they hope their tantrum will result in nicer, more expensive, trainers, I can't tell, but they're beginning to look pretty pathetic.

And for the sake of fairness. To all those owners who've recently sold their brewing companies. You also shut the fuck up. That “the beer is not going to change” bollocks; nobody believes it, not even yourselves. It will change, if it serves the purpose of the new owners, and there's little, if anything, you can do about it; whether that change will be for the better or the worse will depend on whom you ask. Incidentally, I read an article not long ago (and I wish I could be arsed with looking for it) that said some breweries are tweaking the recipes of their core IPAs to make them relevant again (and I believe you know what I mean by that). Those beers are also changing because it serves the purpose of their owners; whether that change is for the better or the worse will depend on whom you ask.

But enough with the ranting. This post is not about ranting, is about navel-gazing.

As I was saying, the beer discourse has become too repetitive, and I've lost interest in it. I've decided to focus on what does affects me as a consumer—my own beer ecosystem and experience. What people are arguing about in the US, the UK, Spain or Scandinavia is of no concert to me, not enough to bother to comment on it here. That's why I have Facebook for.

There's this project I've been thinking of for awhile and I want to make it happen in 2016, maybe with someone else. I will announce it properly once I have a few things worked out. I will also start a new series that will involve visiting random pubs. It'll be very simple: at a yet to be chosen tram stop, I'll get on the first tram (or bus) that comes in either direction, will get off at the 10th stop and will walk into the first pub I come across, preferably one that is not in the book already. Who knows, I might end up finding a lost treasure, or not; at the very least, it will be fun, which is what I want.

There are a couple more things, but you'll see; in any case, don't expect 2016 to be a lot more productive.

But well, happy new year to everyone!

Na Zdraví!

Comments

  1. Excellent. 2015 was the year that bland generalism peaked with beer writing. The dullards got left the car keys. Screw that.

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