Beer is the news

Story of the week has to be BrewDog's brilliantly conceived beer vote in which the Ellon punks invited their followers to design their next beer. That's right, over a week, and using the phrase #Mashtag, Twitter users were each day asked to choose key elements of the new beer.

Here're the results, and they look pretty damned tasty: 
Monday: Beer Style - Brown Ale.
Tuesday: Malt Bill & ABV - American Brown Ale at 7.5% ABV
Wednesday: Hops & IBU - New Zealand Hops and 95 IBU
Thursday: Special Twist - adding Hazelnuts and oak chips
Friday: Name -  #Mashtag

You should check out the BrewDog blog. As well as seeing the other options for each day, you get an idea of how all these flavours and methods work together, with good explanations on the brewing processes. Anyway, as a final twist BrewDog are also letting folks design the label. Plan is they'll start brewing very, very soon, with the first batch ready in about a month.

Anyway, it was a beautiful stunt, got a good hit online and in papers, and was in keeping with BrewDog's off-the-wall modus operandi. I'm sure it'll be lovely, but my worry is that, given the British electorate's tendency for blinkered stupidity, that the beer will be as uninspiring and unpalatable as our current government. Thank goodness then that craft beer drinkers aren't as braindead as the majority of UK voters. 

Also newsworthy, Munro's in Glasgow had their official opening, and I got leathered. Highlights were the Arbor Oyster Stout and Redchurch's Bethnel Pale Ale. 

And, finally, Cheerless News of the Week is how George Osborne became posterboy for British beer drinkers by giving the industry a mediocre tax break and removing a much-hated duty escalator that was generally considered to be the chief cause of thousands of pub closures.

In the following article, Camra chief executive Mike Benner said: "The Chancellor has become the toast of Britain's cash-strapped beer drinkers and we should now be paying around 10p less per pub pint than we would have been had the escalator remained in place in last week's Budget. This is a massive victory for Britain's 15 million beer drinkers."

I have not and will not be toasting Mr Osborne, and, frankly, I'd quite happily keep paying that 10p. I think on a ten-pint bender I can afford to waste another pound. Drinkers in dire poverty will be pleased, no doubt. Shame about the axe in welfare, social fund and council tax benefits, the imposition of the bedroom tax, removal of legal aid, tax credit reduction, public sector cuts, etc. 

What is worth raising a glass to is Mr Osborne's economy-salving decision to reduce the tax bill faced by millionaires. It's this kind of forward-thinking, groundbreaking vision that'll have this economy restored in no time - and the guy's not even an economist!! My millionaire beer-drinking readers out there, I trust YOU will be raising two glasses to Mr Osborne. 

Now, it really is good that the duty escalator has been removed, following hearty campaigning by Camra et al, and thousands of pub closures and job losses. Call me cynical, but I think this only happened because the duty escalator was starting to affect some of the larger breweries' bottom line. Maybe one of their non-exec board members went to the same school as Mr Osborne, maybe he had a wee word over dinner. Anyway, I hope he's toasting Mr Osborne. He can certainly afford to. 

Beer is the news

Full Malted Jacket. It's heavy, man. 

Proving that news flows faster downhill than up, The Guardian finally got round to reporting on BrewDog's continuing global domination ... about a month since Everybody and their Mum first reported James Watt and Matin Dickie's plans to bring their BrewDog chain to foreign shores, including Stockholm, Sao Paolo, Brussels and Tokyo.

To be fair to The Guardian, this story was only the hook on which to peg a larger piece about the Craft Beer Rising event in London (which attracted 1000 beer-buyers and 2000 hip London beer-drinkers and judging by the Twitter chatter was AWESOME!!! and A1!!!) and also threw in some pretty interesting beer business facts, such as:

• Sales of real ale have been boosted, rising for the first time in 20 years in 2011, with 1.6% more drunk than the year before. Last year sales are thought to have levelled out but real ale continues to outperform the wider beer market which has been hit by the economic downturn.
• Pubs may be closing at the rate of 18 a week but there are more than 1,000 microbreweries in Britain, according to Camra, with more than 160 opening last year.
• A new breed of pub catering for trendy young beer fans is springing up, such as the Craft Beer Company, which now has four bars, and the Euston Tap in London.
• Canada-based brewing giant Molson Coors UK has said that the craft beer market grew 13% year-on-year in the UK in 2012, and doubled in Ireland.
• Europe is following a trend in the US where craft beer sales nearly doubled between 2007 and 2012 to $12bn, according to market research firm Mintel. Over there the beers are most popular with 25 to 34-year olds, raising hopes that the trend will foster a younger generation of pint fans.

Nice.

Then there was the piece about Lothian brewer Knops Beer Company's expansion plans. Interesting to note that Robert Knops's beer is brewed at Traditional Scottish Ales in Stirling, along with a number of other microbrewers, including Fallen. Knops's expansion will allow him to brew his own beer on his own site under his own watchful eye, giving him full control over the whole process. It also means he doesn't have to hand over any of his precious recipes to strangers.

Lastly, American bevvy merchants Beachwood BBQ have launched their Full Malted Jacket ale.  Hundred-yard death stare aside, they badge this up as a Scottish-style "wee heavy". It's a mere 9.7%, which, by the way, is the amount of Scottish DNA in the US population. I kid you not. Available in Southern California, if you're ever passing...

Twistedmouth's Beer Blog - How you can get involved!

It's not me, it's you. 

I've made a decision. It's likely my last one of January and it's a blooming blinder. It's probably the best decision of 2013 to date, and even though it's not yet February, it'll surely be a contender for Best Decision of 2013. (Betcha can't wait for those awards to swing round.)

Ready?

Here goes:

This site should not just be about me and what I drink with silly musings and whinges and that. No, it should be about you. Yes, you.

So, I've been thinking about how I can get YOU involved in what is quickly becoming one of the best read and critically acclaimed beer blogs in the history of the internet, past present and future. But instead of thinking about me, I've been thinking about you. Yes, you. Yes, I've been thinking about how to get YOU involved and I've finally figured it out.

Sure, you can leave comments and Like on Facebook and retweet on Twitter and sign up with your email and share with the Google + thing and do all the other really cool social media stuff that you can do. And please do. But that's so ... 2012.

So here's the 2013 way you can become involved in this site AND help Scotland's beautiful craft beer industry AND kickstart our triple-dipshit economy. That's right, I'm going to reveal how you can be the saviour of humanity.

Ready?

Here goes:

You decide what beers I'll be drinking this year.

Isn't that brilliant?!

All you have to do is choose your beer and send the money, via PayPal or postage cheque, to Hippo Beers and I'll just nip along, pick the choice beer up, and drink it for you. In fact, you don't even have to choose. You can just send the money and let the guys in the shop choose for you. Yes, you! I think it's a stormer of an idea, and the best thing is, everyone wins.

Isn't that brilliant?