Right, in order to get the full meaning and what I am getting at with this blog post I feel the need to give some history & background on myself...
I'll try my best to keep it short & interesting
So I had my fortieth birthday at the end of July so I've been legally drinking beer for just over twenty two years and I've lived a pretty full life
saw a lot of good bands live, enjoyed a lot of good beer, had to put up with a lot of bad beer
(especially in rock/metal venues) been married then divorced, seen my life destroyed & rebuilt.
Worked hard for nothing, despaired at looking for work really hard for nothing,
had windfalls, had not enough money to eat & fathered two children.
In beer terms took up real ale from my dad's love of it
saw CAMRA (even joined once) grow & flourish and the Marble Arch so the same,
drank all over Britain
had Boddington's on the decline whilst still brewed at Strangeways,
managed to drink Dobbins and always appreciated good beer.
Now I don't blog much
and as much as I post, much as I tweet and photograph beer alongside Beeradvocate UK forum hog & upload onto Untappd
I don't think I've ever properly blogged about Ale
But something needs to be said about the current (media social assisted) beer scene
I used to be a bit bashful & shy, found it hard to speak up
now I'm much more forthright and vocal/overbearing loudmouthed nutter
It's the sociable side
the 'stranger is a friend you've not met yet' that's been missing of late in
premises and on web sites
there seems to be a big amount of friendliness that's gone on the good beer front.
Part one, the actual supping side
Funnily enough it's in person I find it less distressing
now I've used to go regularly to the CAMRA Stockport beer festival, not been for at least fifteen years & decided to put it right this year.
I couldn't stop for long & I had work the next day so both my beer & time there where limited
and I acknowledge that I din't strike up any conversations, but no one spoke to me, not about what I was ordering, the Tiny Rebel T-shirt I was wearing or even mention in passing the pleasant weather
like I said was quiet myself
but I never found myself not chatting back when the festival was at Stockport Town Hall.
Similarly in the craft orientated bars
now I love the Port Street beer house, always try and grab a quick one at the end of my working week, never been spoken to by anyone in there ever.
Maybe it's a lost art, maybe it's seen as possibly invasive but I reckon for every polite refusal to chat
you'l make say three or four fellow beer lover's day.
Part Two, Online ale antics
It's in the online realm, in the virtual world I find these awkward silences the most perturbing
and I have a theory, which to be honest I would rather was wrong.
Now like I have said earlier I am an active member or the UK end of the Beeradvocate site & have even posted on the main bits & have made a couple of online friendships with beer people of all sorts.
Oh and on his blog & on twitter you'll find it difficult to find a more enjoyable read, passionate proclaimer or friendly sort than BeersManchester/ Aleman Manchester
but I've also witnessed a lot of cold behaviour
and this is why IMHO.
Now on the flipside of the hugely positive online beer experience I noticed some downright rudeness
Now I am aware that some people have less online time & keep their presence & interaction much more to folk they actually know (& this isn't about those in the actual physical aspect of the trade/brewery accounts, that would have more reason)
but I reckon a lot of the ignored requests, not following back, not liking posts, not favoriting, not retweeting, not replying & basically not interacting is twisted ambition,
that doing so would further the other persons online profile and make them more likely to be the
internet Michael Jackson.
Well bollocks to that, I am here (writing this blog & in general)
to drink good beer, listen to rocking music, make friends & enjoy myself
and I don't give a fuck if you are Michael Jackson the beer critic
or Michael Jackson the moonwalking zombie
it's affability that makes us hail to the ale.
Cheers, Bevis.
(you never know, I might share a drink with you again)
Oh and you can find the most excellent BeersManchester here
http://beersmanchester.wordpress.com/
