Wednesday 2 September 2009

No Good Breweries in California?

About an hour ago I was getting a couple of tasters of unfamiliar cask ales in a pub I favour. Over my shoulder, came the advice "the Doombar is good."

The big butterscotch aroma and vinegariness suggested otherwise.

I chatted to the landlord. The weather was awful. We talked about emigrating. I said I would emigrate to California.

The voice came over my shoulder - "no good beer in California though."

This means either:

A: the speaker had tasted many Californian beers and come to the conclusion they weren't up to much.

B: The speaker was utterly clueless.

Given the "advice" about Doombar, I suspected B.

I later learned that the person concerned is a prominent local CAMRA "activist" and organiser of the local branch BF.






13 comments:

Whorst said...

That is funny Jeff! He probably thinks it's still 1975.

Jeff Rosenmeier said...

Hope you either kicked his ass or set him down with a dozen of CA's finest to educate him...

...I worked a food and drink fest this past weekend and for the first time ever more people knew about the US craft beer scene than didn't...I'm hoping that is a good sign and that the other lot are finally dying off.

If I hear one more time, "What's and American (said with fake accent) doing brewing Good beer"? Keep rattlin those cages Jeff...

Jeff Pickthall said...

I heard myself start a rant "what about Sierra Nevada, Anchor....." but I really couldn't be arsed.

What I took exception to was the false presumption that as I was in one of the local branches fave pubs but not familiar to her (indeed it was a her) I would be in need of her bullshit advice. It's an example of the not-a-recognised-CAMRA-face-therefore-must-be-ignorant fallacy that I've come across many times before.

I refrained from giving her a verbal mauling (though it was tempting) and played Mr Nice.

Mark Dredge said...

Haha, that's funny!

Let her drink the Doombar and save the good stuff for everyone else.

And I know what you mean about the not-recognised-CAMRA-face... I've had that before and usually just nod, smile and pretend to listen (usually hoping, to be honest, that they'll say something ridiculous that'll make for a good blog post!!).

Adrian Tierney-Jones said...

You may laugh but I get this from non CAMRA types as well when they say ‘surely there’s no good beer in the US’ (cue steam from ears and 10 minute beer bore hectoring) — and the other funny thing is that one of the biggest CAMRA men out here in the west country has visited loads of US craft breweries out there (he once had his wife do a 90 mile detour to visit Avery or someone), has Le Baladin and Grand Plato on the Christmas lunch table and pulls a face when you mention certain moderate West Country beers. I might suggest he does a fraternal visit up north, a bit like Gorbachev telling Erick Honecker the game was up in the late 1980s.

Tandleman said...

If it's the same West Country person I'm thinking of, not only does he come from the North, but he comes here regularly to see his old mum!

Jeff Pickthall said...

@Tandleman

This individual was a woman not possessed of a any obvious West Country characterstics e.g. straw in mouth, flagon of cider, songs about combine harvesters etc.

Tandleman said...

Could be the same guy then! No.I should have made it clear, I was responding to ATJ.

Adrian Tierney-Jones said...

Tandleman
I think you are right, he’s a good guy, totally devoted to beer of all sorts.

Tandleman said...

Yes. He likes heapys of beer and is an old mate of mine of some 20 years.

Adrian Tierney-Jones said...

Tandleman
spot on

Leigh said...

hmmmm. This smacks of the time I tried to get into a convo with the owner of my local HBS. When I told him that I wanted to start by brewing a clone of SNPA, he announced that 'didnt like it because American beer has got too much rice in it'. How does someone that sells brewing kit confuse SNPA with Bud? Needless to say, I've not been back.

Rob Sterowski said...

I had someone in a HBS try to dissuade me from re-using commercial beer bottles once.