Blog Archive

Thursday, June 11, 2015

Perception and Mass Produced "Craft" Beer

Perception, we deal with it in our lives constantly, whether at work or in our personal lives with perceived opinions from the way we dress, do our hair or the way our friends and family think we live our lives.

This is not something new to craft beer either, but it has been grating my cheese lately with a solid chunk of the community adopting this absolutely steadfast resolve that if it's marketed or in anyway produced by a big corporation than the beer most certainly is awful.

But is it? I mean if you just drank something, not knowing where it came from, enjoyed it and were then told that it's owned by a giant global corporation do you then run to your fridge or recycling bin and destroy any remaining evidence that you consumed this product? Generally, no you wouldn't because who gives a shit? Right?

Well it seems that some people actually act like this, oh god, that's owned by Coke? fuck its awful I'm never drinking it again.. Wait, you just said 10 minutes ago it was good? YEAH but that was before I knew Coke were involved, god it's so bad...

Strong logic there buddy.

What in the actual fuck? Am I joking from the above? hell no, I've witnessed this behavior several times in the last couple of months, replace Coke with what ever mega-corp you want but the circumstances are the same.

If your best mates insult you because you drink beer from James Squire, Yenda, Matilda Bay or some other large Australian "Craft" brewery then you have to question "are these really my mates?" not "are you kidding?, that beers made by so and so?" because the reality is if you enjoyed a beer regardless of who it's made by and you'd drink it again then just do it.

If you happen to be fairly new to craft beer and your learned friends are insulting your choices, they are dicks. Not a single person that drinks the latest Double IPA Black Imperial Yolo Barleywine started on that because they'd have fucking spat it out if they did.

The point is that as your palate develops you may leave this type of beer behind or you might revisit it every now and then, this is the evolution of enjoying more and more unique beers and should not be seen as a negative as for the most part it is where a vast majority of craft drinkers started.

I personally drank my way through way hundreds of European beers from every lager and pilsner under the sun to Belgian Tripel's and Quads before Australian staples like Cooper's pale and sparkling and beers from James Squire.

It's all part of the journey, the company that created the beer should matter less than whether you enjoyed it. If your enjoyment is changed by finding out who made the beer then I suggest before you buy it, you go and google it so you can save us all the trouble of reading your bullshit crying about where the beer has come from because in reality if you cared so much you'd be doing this in the first place.

TLDR, If you liked it, just drink it.

*This post may or not be sponsored by Coca Cola Amatil, especially the Coke Life product which is amaze-balls. *This comment may or may not be a load of shit.







Wednesday, June 3, 2015

Brumalia Blogger's Beer - Help us name the beer!

Bacchus Brewing in Capalaba will be hosting an event on the Saturday and Sunday the 20th & 21st of June to coincide with the Winter solstice.

The Brumalia event will not just be an excuse to drink beer, well it is but it's also going to see 25 beers on tap that are largely all brewed in collaboration with other breweries from around Australia.

The list is extensive with a lot of popular and well known breweries getting involved including XXXX, Ekim, Green Beacon, Brewcult and way too many to list here.

Fortunately a few of Brisbane's beer bloggers were also invited to brew a beer which for someone like me was pretty exciting as I haven't had much exposure to brewing, home brew or otherwise.

So myself, Darren from 250 Beers, Judd from Brewed, Crude and Bitter, Darren from Craft Beerscapade, Jason from Brews & Bacon and Dave from BeerFoodBrisbane (Instagram) made our way out to Bacchus early one week day morning to brew.


The rules for Brumalia were pretty simple, pick any style but the beer has to be dark so we went with a Black Saison and used a new hop variety called Equinox which has some nice peppery, earthy notes that should pair well with the style chosen.

As the event gets closer we need to come up with a name for the beer and given how great the community is in Brisbane we wanted to involve everyone and give them a chance to come up with a name and potentially win a Brumalia shirt.

To participate all you need to do is send an email to Name Our Brumalia Beer with what you would call the beer.
Competition closes Saturday 6th June at Midnight so email ASAP to have a chance and help us name the Blogger's Black Saison..