Wednesday 4 August 2010

Bitter question

Hi. You may remember my not too subtle previews for my next book. "Bitter!"

It would be in the shops now (if I had a proper publisher), had Andrew got his finger out. The lazy git wants to spend his summer holidays having fun. Selfish bastard. there's a book to finish. That's what I told him. My dad would have got his belt off if I'd defied him. Stuff like that. It's fun painting the 1960's as a time of psychotic parents beating their children unconscious with any handy blunt object. Teachers ritually beating young boys at the slightest excuse. Hang on. That last one really happened.

Where was I? Bitter! More exclamation marks. It must be a new book. My Mini Book Series. Do you remember the original concept? I think I do. Correct me if I get it wrong. 11 volumes. I get 10 copies of each printed, sign them, keep one for myself and give the rest away. A round 99 in all. (Still a few left. Especially "Numbers!" That only goes to people who might find it interesting. A remarkably select group.)

Playing online with his Playstation Wii remains Andrew's primary occupation, despite threats and bribes. Patience. Something we could all do with more of. You'll need some, if you're eager for the book. We'll be away in the US soon. No chance for Andrew finish before September.

Silver lining time. I've had chance to throw, no, carefully assemble all sorts of extra bits in the meantime. Tables. Numbers. Recipes. The stuff you probably don't read. Most of you, anyway. But what to do with it?

Mega Book Series. That was Andrew's idea. Good concept, bit of a struggle with the details on my side. What am I trying to tell you? Options. I'm going to be giving you some. About what forms "Bitter!" will take. Because, lacking any better idea my first Mega Book will be a bigger version of a Mini Book. Make sense? It does to me. (Like not calling all top-fermenting beers "Ales". Or not biting your toenails while watching TV with your in-laws.)

Mega Book. Mini Book. Two books to collect and and cherish. That's what I'm hoping. Screw a little more money out of this book thing for Andrew. He wants to go to university. I told him to start saving.

But what should I put in each? All my blog posts about the various types of Pale Ale, for sure. The Mini Book would be just that. The Mega Book would also have thirty or forty recipes and one of those tables of beer details I do.

That's the plan. Could change.

8 comments:

jonbrazie said...

Recipes equals super. Put more recipes in. Lots. To a homebrewer they give the best idea of what beer was like in the past. Not that I don't find sales figures and adverts intersting. Really, I just get a bit nerdy about this stuff.

Ron Pattinson said...

rabbi, these are the recipes I've got so far:

1839 Reid IPA
1869 Simonds SB
1877 Truman P1
1877 Truman P2
1886 Barclay Perkins PA
1910 Fullers AK
1910 Fullers PA
1910 Whitbread FA
1910 Whitbread IPA
1911 Russell's AK
1911 Russell's LDA
1915 Noakes LBA
1915 Truman P1
1922 Camden PA
1923 Whitbread IPA
1923 Whitbread PA
1926 Barclay Perkins PA
1929 Russell's PA
1930 Whitbread AK
1931 Whitbread TA
1933 Lees Bitter
1939 Barclay Perkins IPA
1942 Barclay Perkins XLK
1955 Whitbread IPA
1955 Whitbread PA
1964 Truman P1B
1965 Beasley IPA
1965 Beasley Treble Star Pale Ale
1965 Courage Light Ale

Bill said...

Ron, your spreadsheets, could you make them available to the public? I don't know how you would price them but I would wager a few folks here would be willing to shell out the money for a CD of your raw data.

I am looking forward to Bitter.

Ron Pattinson said...

First Stater, now there's a thought. How many of you would be interested in a CD of spreadsheets?

Oblivious said...

Surly a download would be cheaper to produce and access?

Moxey said...

Ron,

I definitely want to order a copy of "Bitter!" (the extra-special mega version with all the bells & whistles) when it becomes available.

Jim said...

It would be great to put the spreadsheets in Google Docs and make them publicly viewable.

Rob Sterowski said...

They are too big for Google Docs, it will only take documents up to about 1MB.