Tuesday 27 January 2009

Frightening the kids

I just scared the kids stupid. I was shouting at the television. It happens more often than I would care to admit.

"No, no!!!!!!!!! That's total f****** crap!!!!!!"

Why was I shouting? Porter and Stout. No change there. It's a topic that often makes me scream. To be more specific, Oz Clarke's potted history of Porter. It was just on. You missed it? A couple of minutes of myth.

To be honest, I rarely get through a television piece about beer without shouting or swearing of any kind. The treatment of beer in mainstream media is even more annoying than beer forums. And that's saying something.

Anyone know how to get in touch with Oz Clarke. Someone needs to put him straight about Porter.

Nice cameo from Beernut, though. Looks a good laugh, the Bull & Castle.

12 comments:

The Beer Nut said...

It certainly is. And during Oz's history of stout and porter I had visions of orange and white number tables which proved he was talking crap.

www.ozclarke.com could be what you want -- it's his publisher. Tell him pinkhead sent you.

Alistair Reece said...

I met up with the Beer Nut and Adeptus in the Bull and Castle - it is a fantastic pub, with excellent clientele.

Oblivious said...

Yep the Beer Nut and the lads did a great job

Anonymous said...

Ron, Oz is a fellow member of a certain guild we both belong to, if you need another channel to try and reach him. ;o)

Ron Pattinson said...

beer nut, I should know by now taht anything about Porter will drive me crazy. Unless it's MArtyn Cornell wrting/saying it.

I really must get to Dublin and try out the Bull and Castle myself.

Good suggestion Laurent. I hadn't thought of that.

Oblivious said...

Oh do and try and get over to Dublin we can bring you one a pub crawl

Anonymous said...

Thanks for the warning about the porter and stout bit - I was planning to watch the programme late tonight using BBC iPlayer after the small child has gone to bed, and I wouldn't want to wake her up by yelling at the TV myself ... the guild website only gives a snailmail address for Mr Clarke, I might post him a print-out of the porter chapter of Amber Gold and Black, though ...

Ron Pattinson said...

Zythophile, I'm thinking of posting Oz the text of my "Brown Beer". That and your Porter chapter should help put him right.

Unknown said...

Perhaps you should make sure the kids are out of the way before you read this comment, just in case you want to shout at your computer screen.

Clearly I need to read both these pieces of writing. I saw this post before I watched the program. I've now watched the program and can't see what the fuss is about. But then I'm not a beer historian, which is why I take interest in this blog.

I like the fact that proper beer is on main stream media. They can't get the facts right about anything, but anything that improves the profile of quality beer is good.

By the way, do you think that they did it in the "length of the tunnel" so that most people wouldn't notice they were talking crap? An excuse to garble. I don't think I can remember what was said, so arguably it's not important. OK, I guess I deserve you to shout at that.

Ron Pattinson said...

I didn't say the programme was crap, or that I didn't enjoy most of it. I've seen the other episodes and know to expect lots of odd-couple laddish joking around, with the occasioanl fact.

I was irritated because:

- it was the one supposedly factual bit
- I expected better beer knowledge from OZ Clarke
- it repeated a couple of Porter myths:

--that Guinness started using roasted barley to avoid the malt tax
--that Guinness has used rooasted barley since time immemorial
--that English breweries stopped brewing Porter during WW I because of restrictions on roasting malt

I've clearly not been shouting enough on this blog.

Unknown said...

Good, glad that's sorted.

Pivní Filosof said...

In a way, it makes me feel good that the Spanish media is not the only one that don't know what they are talking about when it comes to beer.
Though, I dare you find a gem like the following in the English speaking media:
"Lager, a kind of pale beer, very common in the US"
More pears of wisdom like this can be found here, for those of you who read Spanish