Sunday 19 February 2017

Postwar Scottish Stout

I'm just filling in the final gaps in my Scottish manuscript over the weekend. The end is almost in sight.

I've marked all the sections that are incomplete and I'm working my way through them. They're all in the final section, covering 1939 to 1970. Or so. The end date isn't 100% fixed.

I was surpised to see I hadn't included the grist table. Then I looked in the spreadsheet. It was obvious what I'd been dodging:


Only five beers but more than a dozen ingredients. An absolute nightmare of a table to assemble. Hence my lack of arsing to get on with it.

That's sort of the story of me writing a book. I throw down the headings then start filling in the easiest bits. The stuff I can do mostly from my head. Next I'll start attacking specific sections with multiple megaton nuclear tables, divided by the occasional paragraph of text. The hard stuff - where I need to go back to the brewing records or do extra research - gets left until last. And - as in this case - the awkward data.

Now I've had time to think, the answer's there: transposition.

With the book just about done, time to get Alexei to conjour up a cover. I'll get an ISBN number next week. That's just about everything. Except one last thing. A title.

Any suggestions? There's a free copy of the book if I use your title.

13 comments:

J. Karanka said...

Scotland Brews: Dispelling the myths of Scottish brewing

You could replace myths by BS too.

Ed said...

You're having trouble thinking of a title? Surely it can only be "Scotland! plus".

Oblivious said...

Title: Where's the Peat....

Bob said...

Och aye the brew!

Unknown said...

Shut up about Scottish Beer
Aye, Scottish Beer
The wee book ae Scottish Beer
The Muckle book ae Scottish Beer
The guid book ae Scottish beer
Beer;Made in Scottland
The bonnie book of Scottish Beer
Hoots! Scottish Beer
Ma Big Book ae Scottish Beer

Korev said...

True Grit - The story of Scottish Brewing

StuartP said...

More Scotland!

Doug Warren said...

Glorious Faem? (i.e foam)

O thou my muse, guid auld Scotch Drink
Whether thro' wimplin' worms thou jink
Or, richly brown, ream owre the brink
In glorious faem
Inspire me 'til I lisp an' wink
To sing thy name
- Burns

It helps that the Scots pronunciation of foam sounds like "fame."

Chris said...

I'm don't know about my titles, but with that length it might be a Wee Heavy ;-)

Boring Ideas: The homebrewer's guide to Scottish Beer OR The Real story of Scottish Beer

Fun Idea: Everything you thought you knew about Scottish is wrong! (or "is Bollocks" if you can get a publisher to go along with that)

Robp said...

Not Just Scotch
"A journey through Scottish beer"

Korev said...

Another one brief and to the point "Sct Bru"

Unknown said...

The Breweries & Beers of Scotland; 1800-1970?

Oblivious said...

Title: Scottish brewing or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying about The BJCP and Love Grits