Drinking in Edinburgh: An #EBBC13 roundup

First beers of the weekend in the
Red Squirrel, which became a regular haunt

Last weekend was spent at the beer bloggers conference in Edinburgh. We had all manner of interesting sessions to attend and certainly no shortage of beer. (I tried 65 new beers over the three days!) But it wasn't just a chance to score free beer, there was also some serious ideas sharing going on too.A number of people have posted some of their thoughts, here are some of my own  

(and I'll try not to make it seem like a beer diary!*).

Robert and Craig consider which beer is best in the Bow Bar

One of the highlights of such an event for me is to be able to meet up with friends old and new and "talk shop". We're in a room where everyone understands the language of beer, to such an extent that we're no longer really aware that there is a fair amount of jargon used in beer writing. Susanne reminded us that we need to be mindful that our audience aren't all beer geeks like the rest of us and that we should reflect that in our writing. Perhaps one of the reasons wine has grown its market share so rapidly is that despite being a highly technical subject, none of that is put on the bottle, whereas therecan be a tendency for "craft beer to sound like a chemistry experiment" (Garret Oliver) with IBUs, EBCs, etc. 

Matt from Pilgrim and Progress and Beer Norway's Christer
discussing the finer points of beer rating at Stewart's

But at the same time, we shouldn't talk down to our audience. In all likelihood they know more than us, certainly their palate could be more experienced than ours. Try to find the similarities between beer and other beverages to give people a reference point. Never assume that a beer is "too much" for someone as we have "no idea what they can handle" (Garret Oliver outlining how he'll take whatever beers he fancies to a beer tasting because unless someone has a chance to try something, how do we know whether they like it or not?)

JohnMartin presents...The Shilling System

We also had a great session on the history of Scottish beer from John Martin (Scottish Brewing Archive Association), especially they fairly confusing shilling system and discussions in similarities between Scottish beer and continental brewing styles among other juicy tidbits. Who knew that the first lager brewer in the UK was John Muir in Scotland? Tax protests aren't a new thing either; long before the beer duty escalator the treaty of the union was delayed due to the English trying to impose a malt tax on the Scots and later 9 people died in the riots that ensued following a rise in malt duty.

The Shilling System Today

Designation	Name	Strength (ABV%)	Example
60/-	Light	<3.5	Belhaven
70/-	Heavy	3.5-4.0	Tinpot
80/-	Export	4.0-5.5	Stewart
90/-	Wee Heavy	>5.5	Luckie

Wouldn't mind a fireplace like this
at home - Edinburgh council chambers

Edinburgh has some fantastic buildings both old - from the vaulted ceilings of our conference venue, the Ghillie Dhu and the wood panelled interior of the old council chambers to the brand spanking new Stewart's brewery that we had a chance to visit on the Friday night. Our hosts Jo and Steve Stewart's enthusiasm really reflects their position in the vanguard in the newly emerging Scottish craft brewing sector. I see new breweries opening up on an almost weekly basis...now if only Northern Ireland could get a few new breweries open up...

Reuben enjoying a Brodies in Cask and Barrel Southside.

Pubs too are not in short supply. I'd been in a number during last year's Edinburgh Independents Beer Festival but the shabby chic of theHanging Bat and the old school polished wood and mirrors plus half island bar of the Cask and Barrel southside were particular highlights this year. See Robert's Beer Lens blog for some better (i.e. not taken on a phone!) examples.

As an aside, Edinburgh seems to be trying to compete for the most unusual toilet accessories. The Hanging Bat has half keg sinks and the urinals in the Ghillie Dhu... well see for yourself (right).

Mr Oliver enjoying a self-poured Pilsner

Some tips for reaching a wider audience include using Pinterest and Instagram as a lot of people are visually stimulated. We need to write for our audiences but first and foremost we should make ourselves happy. I'll leave you with another Garret Oliver quote "if you aren't making people happy you're doing everything wrong and for all the wrong reasons". Something to bear in mind whether a brewer or a blogger.

Massive thanks to everyone who presented sessions, donated beer, organised food or muled beer for me over the weekend, much appreciated. Fab work once again from the conference organisers, for another conference summary you could do worse than zephyr adventure's own thoughts on the weekend.

*I may post a roundup of the very enjoyable pre-conference pub crawl pub amble and evening activties if I feel like it, though I didn't really take many pictures, ratebeer tells of the many fantastic beers enjoyed anyway.

200 Not Out

Its been almost 2 years since I sat down to write my first blog post and I'd never have thought then that I'd still be doing it 2 years (and numerous beers!) later. I'm under no illusions that its a long time in blogging, there are plenty who have been about for longer, but I'm happy with what I've achieved.

I've found a community, and many friends through doing this. There is an interested crowd of followers on Twitter, many of whom I've met and enjoyed beer with. I've learnt more about beer (when I thought I was already pretty knowledgeable) and helped to bring to attention the improvements in Northern Ireland beer and cider availability. I've joined the Guild of Beer Writers, been to a blogging conference and am I'm even writing a book (which I need to hurry up and finish).

Recently I've been struggling to find the time to blog, or anything interesting to talk about, but recent reappearances of bloggers on hiatus, bumping into old acquaintances and discovering new beers has renewed my enthusiasm. Expect posts on Vienna brew pubs, Belfast cocktail bars and the usual multi-beer reviews. Who knows I may even get round to doing  a cheese and beer pairing again soon! All this in good time to liven the place up before heading to the Beer Bloggers' Conference in Edinburgh this year. Hope to share a pint with some of you there, here's to another 200!

Stale Superlatives

Everyone hates to see bland and non-descriptive beer descriptions such as "hoppy" or "malty" (see Mark's post here for a great analysis) but there is sometimes a danger it can go the other way. Superlative descriptors and elaborate adjectives seem to do the rounds, I don't blame people for using them...maybe they've seen it used somewhere else and decide to shoe horn it into their descriptions or perhaps tehy've always used them but only recently become noticable. Here are my top 10 to avoid:

1. Unctuous: used in reviews to describe something moreish and silky, a better description would be to go for texture.

2. Hop Sack (dusty or otherwise): used by Zak Avery in his 500 beers book, how many regular beer drinkers know what a hop sack smells like? Is it just a slightly musty fresh hop smell, or  amixture of hops and hessian? Or do they use plastic sacks these days?

3. Funky (to describe a Brett fermented beer): funky means a bad smell, perhaps some people find the aroma unpleasant but surely if the descriptions of horse-blanket and mouth-puckering sour weren't enough to put people off then this would? Or is it a conspiracy to keep lambics for beer-geeks?

4. "In my top # beers" be honest, you don't have a fixed x number of beers that are your favourite, let the review speak for itself and leave the summing up for the end of the year

5. ...

I failed in my task to find a top ten, perhaps there aren't as many words as I'd thought, or maybe I haven't been remembering well enough! I open up the floor to other contributions and please leave the clichés and flowery language to the world of wine!


Of course it would be remiss of me to not include a disclaimer, as I'm sure I may have been (or possibly will be) guilty of using any and all of these at some point. Blame the beer.