The Meaning of Bri

BRi’s Blog:  The Meaning of Bri

There are 100’s of beer blogs out there right now and I don’t wish to disparage any of them but thought I would make it clear why I have joined their ranks and how mine may differ from many:

1                     Are You An Expert? - I don’t work within the brewing industry in any way so all my views and recommendations are mine alone and based on my own experiences. I don’t mention this as a disclaimer, as most phrases like this are, but to inform you that I’m just someone who is passionate about great beer and I just want to share the knowledge I have. I am not promoting pubs or beers on anyone’s behalf other than yours, dear reader. I have been drinking beer for a long time and continue to explore the huge variety of styles available both home and abroad so if you find you disagree with me often, and think I am wrong about your favourite beer, then either accept that my view is different from yours and continue to read my blog but get annoyed by it or stop reading my blog. I’m happy for debate and discussion on beer, pubs, brewing etc. but you just telling me I am wrong is not an argument. It’s a statement. So think on before saying ‘I don’t know what I’m talking about’ unless you can tell me why I am factually wrong. I have worked in pubs and at beer festivals but, more importantly, I have spent a fair bit of time on the other side of the bar drinking beers from all over the world. I am not a member of CAMRA.

2                     What Beers Do You Like? - Beers are as different as people so I will tell you what I like (usually just on a scale of 0 to 100) and will only occasionally go into great depth about the taste experience (grapefruity, coffee, stale scones etc) as most beers are amply covered in cyber-space by breweries, beer guides and bloggers so I don’t really think that many people will be that interested in my descriptions of every beer. I may well point out if I think a beer is not like it usually is and, especially if I believe the recipe has been changed drastically, but that is only for guidance. I fully appreciate that what I like, you may not. We are all like snowflakes: unique and likely to fall in upland areas. I favour very hoppy pale beers (especially Double/Imperial IPAs) but also love deep, dark stouts and porters (so Black IPAs have my name written on each cask). I’m not so fond of amber, brown and red beers but a great beer IS a great beer and I still enjoy the best styles that produce these colours but my preferences are at the polar opposites of the spectrum. Nevertheless, I will still credit a well made beer even though I usually go for the big flavours of the craft brewers so it’s not just the 6% beers that get rave reviews from me; there’s no reason that I won’t champion a 2.8% or a 22% if they are done well – and they sometimes are. I’m not averse to trying innovative and strange brews from any corner of the globe, either, as long as it has been made with the best ingredients and passion.

3                     What’s Your Blog About? - The dominant feature of Bri’s Beer Blog is to advise people of the very best pubs in a particular area (town, city, region) as this is what I would like to know when I go somewhere new so I hope to be able to help people from my experiences. I will not just tell you every pub I went in although I may tell you every beer I tried so you may get a feel for the sort of place it is. Remember, by the very nature of the sort of pubs I will recommend that they will be free of brewery tie and be able to choose whichever beers they bloody well like so the beers I mention may very likely not be for sale if you decide to venture in. If this is the case, feel free to say to the barstaff that my blog said certain beers were sold there and watch their blank expressions. Oh, and I rant. These are called ‘Briatribes’ and is generally me giving my tuppence worth on the state of the beer and brewing in an irreverent and meandering style that may best be referred to as ‘unstructured’.

4                     What Makes A Great Beer? - I am only really interested in what has become called craft beers. That is, beers brewed primarily for the purpose of producing the best possible beer with the best possible ingredients. The minute an accountant starts advising a brewery of how to cut costs then most, if not, all hope is lost. As will become abundantly clear, I am not saying that big brewers CANNOT brew great beer – indeed, many of them used to – but just that they DO NOT brew great beer; and that’s all I’m interested in. In fact, I don’t think I will use the term craft beer anymore as it has become as meaningless as the words traditional, IPA (not actually a word at all), best bitter or free house. That is why I tend to just use the phrase great beer as there can be no other interpretation.

5                     What Is The Aim Of These Blogs? - Although I will rant and rave with the best of ‘em about the vagaries of the breweries and the government, I really don’t think this blog will make a brewery have a rethink about using cheaper malts or adding dry hops to the brew. I may complain that they don’t but I’m more concerned about drinking the beers that are great and are available NOW. It’s called ‘voting with your feet’ and we should all walk away from ANY establishment that treats its customers with contempt by attempting to sell them bland, shoddy, poorly-produced, overpriced goods or services – and not just beers and pubs – they want our money so make them earn it! I know that if you want a pint and the only pub for miles is a national brewery pub it’s difficult but I now walk/bus/train to wherever the next great pub is or I go without! That is why independently brewed premium bottled ales are the beer market’s greatest growth sellers, at the moment, as people who demand quality would rather drink bottles at home if the only choice is the ubiquitous muck that passes for real ale in a majority of pubs. You may get used to an insipid beer but how much do you actually enjoy it? Why settle for mediocrity when greatness exists and is available (somewhere)? I am not campaigning but I do let my feet do the talking and they control where my wallet goes – if you’ll excuse the rather labored metaphorical platitudes (and the phrase ‘metaphorical platitudes’). If I can help one person make an informed choice of where to drink great beer before having put their hand in their pocket and wasted it on some BFD then I will feel these blogs will have been worthwhile.

6                     Why Now? - Brewing is an industry featuring professional companies that are run on principles no different than any other business – that is why Britain ended up with a handful of enormous breweries only a few hundred years or so after every house brewed their own beer; because of economies of scale and the drive for profits. It wasn’t just the best breweries with the best beers that prospered, rather the breweries with the best business acumen. And so it continues. But after a long period of dark days for the British drinker where there were only a few truly great beers because any new independent found itself competing against the giant corporations for the same drinkers so had to attempt to compete on price and not just on quality alone which invariably lead them down the road of what I call Beer Flavoured Drinks. BFD is the name I use for any drink that uses the traditional ingredients of beer - usually in such small proportions that they are barely discernible to any of the senses – then adds various cheap adjuncts (such as rice, wheat, wood shavings) to them so they at least taste of something (even if it is wood shavings) or to make them look nicer (my favourite one is the brewers who use to use formaldehyde in the beers as a preservative, a fining to make the beer clearer or to keep the white, foam head a bit longer depending on which explanation you accept as the best/correct reason. That’s right: embalming fluid!) As a general rule, I find that the quality of a beer is often inversely proportional to the size of the brewery that brews it. Obviously, I am not suggesting that all home-brewed beer is great and all international beers are undrinkable as some small brewers do make very nasty beers as, indeed, some mega-breweries have on occasion made a very nice beer - only they tend not to as they don’t need to – so this is merely my findings after years of research. I could add a graph to show you. But I won’t because I haven’t made one but I’m sure you get the picture. My aim is to drink the best beers possible at any given location so I openly admit I have all but given up drinking beers brewed by multi-national corporations. I’ll say it again: I’m not saying that they are unable to make a wonderful beer but they tend not to so I would rather give my business to a small, independent craft brewer and, if that beer is not so great, I don’t feel so stupid for trying it than if it was made in a giant factory by a computer and is as rubbish as I suspected it would have been all along. That’s what experience is: learning from your mistakes and, hopefully, not repeating them. I am eclectic in my favourite styles of beer, and which breweries make them, but I am not trying to be elitist. I don’t dislike national brewers’ beers because they are popular; I dislike them because they are made with cheap ingredients and mass produced with little care for the consumer. They are brewed to be not so much liked by many but disliked by few. A sorry marketing strategy that is, alas, successful. Yet, having said all that, I believe now is the best time in my lifetime so far to be able to get great beer so I want to help people find them and enjoy them. What a hero, eh?