The Price of Freedom

(produced by Seeing the Lizards not in collaboration with Freedom Brewery)

Oh dear

One Tuesday about three weeks ago, I was in the the local.  Shocking, I know.  Tuesday's not my usual day, but I was on holiday and lacked both the energy and imagination to do anything else.  I was sat there with two other regulars enjoying my usual pint of filthy keg, when in walked this bloke with a huge bag of bottles.

I forget his name, but he was the Rep from Freedom Brewery, and he was doing the rounds of what was considered likely takers for his beer.  The bottles, of course, were free samples.  He laid them out on the bar and asked the landlord for a bottle opener.  Glasses were produced and we all got to try them.  There was a lager (Freedom Four), an IPA (East India Pale), a Kolsch-style beer (King Koln) and an unnamed "experimental" pale ale.

I'd had the Freedom Four before, when it was the house lager of a craft bar I go to.  As I recall, the bar staff got fed up with being asked by punters "What's the price of Freedom?" and had the pub company replace it with Amstel (craaaaaaft).  I'm not a lager connoisseur, but the other two regulars are inveterate fizz fans, and they lapped it up.  Then we had the India Pale, in my opinion a solid, well made 7/10 beer.  The landlord tried it, looked at the price quoted for an 18 and told the rep outright "I can get better stuff than this from Blackjack cheaper."

We swiftly moved on to the "experimental" pale.  The landlord again gave his honest opinion "Pale ale?  This tastes just like the lager, mate.  It needs more hops than this."  I of course had to add my opinion "I presume that the since Freedom mostly brew lager, everything they do is going to be like lager even if it's meant to be something else."  The landlord and I concurred on the main point - Freedom is priced too highly for beer that doesn't really stand out as exemplars of their stated styles.

We didn't even open the Kolsch.

The rep packed up his stuff , said his goodbyes and left.  He was probably found crying in the car park a few minutes later.  I hope we weren't seen to be that hard on his beer.  There was nothing wrong with it, it was just a bit dull.  I also hope he managed to flog some to other pubs with a less tough crowd in them.

Anyone for King Koln?  The bottle's still behind the bar.

Everybody's Making It Big But Me

We sing about beauty and we sing about truth for ten thousand dollars a show

It's often said that to be a Drinks writer, you don't require any original ideas, much writing ability or even any expertise in beers, wines or spirits. The sole ability you need is to type coherently while pissed.

And if that's a low bar, then most of the "Beer Blogging Community" can hurdle it with aplomb. After all, there's no money in it.

I don't think there's a single Blogger out there, even the ones who get ten times the pageviews I do, who has made a profit on this lark. Which, surprising as it may seem from someone like me,  I don't begrudge the rampant freebie imbibers of the European Beer Blogger Conference. Given the choice, what typical person wouldn't want to spend a weekend gossiping and drinking in congenial company with their peers?  It's the glue that binds us as a species together. And, like religion, bind it does, providing you don't scrutinise it too closely.

I would never fit in in such situations myself, but if somebody like Matt Curtis wants positivity fuel, liberally stoked with complementary booze, then that's fair enough. You do the cheerleading, Matt, and I'll do the mockery. The world needs both to stay in balance after all.

It's all harmless, really. As long as you take the resultant tales of free trips and schmoozing with the scepticism required.  You know the Bloggers won't want to appear rude to those who welcomed them so warmly, so don't expect impartiality on their part. Enjoy it for what it is.

They had fun. We can look askance and feel moderately virtuous. It's a win/win.