‘To blog or not to blog?’ – that is the question.

I have been talking about beer and pubs for over 40 years and, with the advent of social media, I have lately been writing about it. I am fortunate, when I work, to have a job that often enables me to travel and to pursue my ‘hobby’ of finding great pubs and tasting lovely beer all over the country and I have been prompted, encouraged, even bullied, to put my occasional Facebook and Twitter posts on the subject into some sort of formal/informal format and I guess this is the best way to do it.

My current employment, due to end very shortly, has temporarily clipped my pub-visiting and beer-drinking wings but, as I approach a new long, national tour, it appears that the opportunity to resume my beer odyssey might be too much to resist.

I must start by saying that I am not a writer. I have subtitled the blog ‘ramblings’ because I predict that’s what you will see. Maybe with time, assuming I stick at it, some sort of structure may develop but don’t hold your breath. Some posts will almost certainly be entirely pictorial. I have also used the word ‘occasional’. Don’t expect a regular post. It took me ages to get this far!

What will amuse many, if not all, of my friends is that I don’t actually consider that I drink that much. By ‘that much’, I mean I’m not a regular drinker, not a five (or ten) pints a night guy. Having posted about several pubs I’d visited in one day a few years ago, one friend commented that I must have been pissed but, when I know I have several places to visit, I only usually have a half in each one, just to get the flavour, not only of the beer, but also of the pub. If I do find one (pub) I particularly like, I might go back for a longer session if time and opportunity allow. The fairly recent introduction of the third-of-a-pint tasting platters has been a great innovation, allowing me to sample, say, six different beers whilst only drinking two pints.

Having mentioned tasting and sampling, I do not profess to be any sort of expert. I know when I like a beer but I’m not sure if I could explain exactly why. Is it the hops? Is it the malt? In a later piece, I may look into a bit of the history of beer and why different flavours have evolved. I may even explore the actual process of brewing. I hear terms like ‘secondary fermentation’ and ‘bottom fermentation’ and I nod sagely when fuggles and different types of yeast are mentioned without having a clue what it all means. Perhaps you might join me while I find out.