Jo clipped out a story from Saturday’s Independent entitled “Health Fears Over ‘Extreme Beer’ Craze”, which turned out to be one of the most ludicrous, badly-researched pieces of “journalism” that I’ve read in a long time. Inaccurate, biased and blatantly sensational, you can read it online here.

I was prepping a response (read: rant) in my head but then discovered that Pete Brown has already written one that’s much more eloquent and fact-filled than anything I would have been able to come up with, so I’ll urge you to go read his piece instead.

Of course, the ironic upside to the original is that it’s actually a great little advert for BrewDog and Thornbridge, assuming anyone with a genuine interest in artisan beer happened to be reading it…

Quick aside: Boak and Bailey were inspired by Pete Brown’s letter to the Independent to write to the BBC and ask why beer never seems to be featured in the food-matching slots of their weekend morning cookery shows. Which was spooky, because I had the exact same thought whilst watching Saturday Kitchen the other day. Mind you they did feature beer on Something for the Weekend on Sunday… as an ingredient in a white bean chili, which is hardly the same thing.