Dammit, yes, I am. Even more so after watching these fine people have their say on the subject:

And if you’ve ever enjoyed a bloody good pint of just-right British session beer, or if you’ve tasted an amazing new hybrid-style creation from one of the UK’s many wonderfully innovative brewers, or if just you’ve got a favourite pub that feels like the perfect home-from-home, then so should you be.

My suggestion: use WritetoThem.com, search for details of your local MP, then send them the link to Vimeo, with a simple, five-word message: “Please watch this short video.”

Last week, Pete Brown complained about the current state of the UK beerblogosphere:

“…collectively, our online beer conversation [seems] to have settled into a complacent rut. It’s not any one person, but taken as a whole we all seem to be writing about what awesome beers we’ve had recently, how extreme they are, how rare they are, how hoppy or how aged they are. Beer blogs have become an online beer geek diary, a hi-tec glorified form of ticking. I brewed this beer. I bought this beer. I drank this beer. In this pub.”

My reaction to that was: “Ow!” No, sorry: “Fuck, OW!”

Okay, like the man said, the complaint wasn’t aimed at a particular blogger or blog, but when you know that 95% of your posts are Tasting Notes (with the occasional Pub Notes piece thrown in for good measure) then it’s hard not to take that sort of thing personally, y’know?

As it happens, albeit purely coincidentally, I’ve been wrestling with questions like “what’s the point?” and “why bother?” and have been on the verge of quitting this blog (and, most likely, blogging in general) several times during the past few months. Reading a post like that – one written by someone whose blog I follow avidly and whose writing I enjoy immensely – was almost the final straw.

But then I re-read Pete’s piece and pushed on past the “your blog’s shit, mate” moment, focusing instead on his Call to Action:

“Write something that scares you. Write something very personal. Write something you don’t think any other beer blogger would or could write.”

And then I read Impy Malting‘s ‘Why We Blog’ piece and Pete’s own follow-up post. And then I started thinking about my own reasons for plodding on with blogobeer.com.

You want to see something personal, Mr Brown? Fine. Here goes (with a quick aside, quoting from Impy, if I may: “This is not a plea for inclusion or encouragement, but a searching aloud.”)

I’ve been a blogger, on a variety of subjects, for about 10 years. It’s something I just seem to have to do: a habit that’s so deeply ingrained that seriously contemplating not blogging threatens to drop me into a deep blue funk. I’ve also worked in online marketing (currently for one of the largest print publishing houses in the UK) for even longer than I’ve been blogging. I’ve read every one of Seth Godin‘s books and the majority of his blog posts, as well as countless other articles on the dark art and weird science of blogging and being a blogger. All of which means I know quite a lot about the power and benefits of the medium. I have a good idea what makes a good blog tick. I can do blogging. Blogging is what I do…

So why have I been tempted to quit this blog? In short: I’ve been trying to work out what I can usefully offer the beerblogosphere. What sort of content can I provide that people will want to read? What can I produce that’s worth taking the time to write in the first place? Because time is the key for me: I really don’t have much to spare. For reasons that are too personal to discuss here (even at Pete B’s urging to write about something scary) because they’re not just personal to me, I just don’t have a lot of free time. Maybe an hour or so a day, a couple more at weekends, tops. I’m not complaining, it’s just the way it is and I’m sure anyone who, for example, is a parent to young children will find themselves is a similar boat. But it does mean that if I’m going to dedicate a regular chunk of that precious free time to blogging, I have to know it’s a worthwhile exercise.

In which case, why have I chosen to write about a subject that, whilst it’s certainly one that I find deeply interesting, I actually know relatively little about? Especially when everything I’ve read on the subject of successful blogging calls for the blogger to write from a position of expertise? What do I have to offer that the beerblogosphere wants? What can I say that’s interesting, valuable, remarkable, unique?

On the face of it, maybe not a lot…

I’m not running a major brewery, nor am I starting out on a new brewing enterprise. I’m not the manager of a beer emporium or an online beer retailer. I’m hardly likely to become the New Media Beer Writer of the Year, never mind the ultimate Beer Writer of the Year, and I certainly won’t achieve Legendary Beer Writer status any time soon. I’m not a particularly dedicated drinker, well-travelled pub connoisseur or a local CAMRA champion. Nor do I have a particular axe to grind. I don’t have a fascination for facts and figure or an in-depth knowledge of the history of beer and brewing. I’m don’t have the time to regularly socialise with fellow beer-bloggers, and I’ve never organised a special beer night (a great idea, but likely to go on a bit too late to be practical).

If all of the above is an example what I’m not, what does that leave? In beer-blogging terms, what am I?

My conclusion? I’m just a bloke who enjoys great ale. I’m an average, ordinary, beer-drinking, Northern bloke who, a couple of years back, invited a couple of mates to join him in writing a beer blog, to give us all somewhere to swap beer recommendations and chat about real ale. So now I’m an everyman beer-blogger; one of the rank and file, nothing particularly special to say. But I’ve learned a hell of a lot about the subject in the past couple of years and I’m learning more all the time. And I also (as it turns out) still have a burning desire to share that knowledge and share the joy of great ale and beer with anyone who wants to join in.

That’s what I have to offer: an ordinary punter’s enthusiasm and passion for great ale, with a side-order of friendly conversation (available on request).

In fact, that’s pretty much all I ever set out to achieve with Blogobeer.com. I didn’t want to generate Intense Debate on the State of Beer (because intense debate on anything takes reading-time and comments… lots and lots of comments). I didn’t want to become any sort of leader or figure-head in the beer-blogging community (luckily there’s very little danger of that happening). I didn’t even want to produce particularly great writing (although I do thoroughly enjoyed the great writing that other beer bloggers produce on a regular basis). And the one thing I definitely didn’t want was for the blog to become a chore, a task, a nagging pain in the arse (“Update me! Update me! It’s been days! I’m neglected!”).

All I really wanted to do was talk about real ale with my mates. Old mates, new mates. Anyone who stands on the common ground that is the love of great ale. Or great beer. Or great triple-green-hopped Double-Imperial IPAs. Whatever.

So I’ve decided to stick to my guns and just blog about whatever the hell I want to blog about. Life’s too short to make myself miserable worrying over what other beer bloggers might or might not think of my posts. Even if no-one else reads anything I write, then at least I’ll have a record of the ales and beers that I’ve enjoyed; my memory’s not what it was and I have a hard time recalling one particular session bitter from among all the other session bitters, so an online record will help me keep the better ones in mind for future reference. If that makes me a techno-ticker, so be it.

Then again, there isn’t much point in writing regularly if you don’t at least try to improve along the way, so I am going to attempt to make my Tasting Notes a bit more interesting in future. More descriptive, maybe. Pithier, perhaps. Shorter, definitely (why write one long post when you can break it up into a few and cut down on all that “must-post!” angst?) and more to the point. More photography, too; a picture speaks a thousand words and I do have a pretty good camera (even if my snapping skills show definite room for improvement, but that gives me something else to work on, eh?)

I’m also going to try to participate a little more. At the end of last year, Tandleman mused on the state of the beerblogosphere and made the point that:

Comments are needed to encourage bloggers. No comments = no point in a lot of ways. Surely there are enough things on blogs worthy of comment?”

So that’s something I’m going to try to do more often as well. If I see that another beer-blogger has posted their own write-up of a beer that I’ve tried myself, then I’m going to let them know that I agree with them (or not). I’m going to try to engage more of my fellow beer-bloggers in conversation and not just on Twitter (although hey, if that’s where the conversation is, then why the hell not?) And I’m going to try to remember to link in to other beer-bloggers’ posts a bit more often (that should help them with those seemingly all-important Wikio rankings…)

Tandleman also made the point that beer-bloggers should spend less time showing off their rare bottle collections and get off their keyboards, support their local pubs, that sort of thing:

“Some too, need to get out and about a bit more, particularly to the pub; they need to raise their heads up and look around them”

It’s a good point, and although I’ll still be doing most of my drinking at home – because I am always going to be subject to those free-time limitations – I do have a plan that might help. I’m lucky enough to work for a company that offers a perk called ‘summer hours’. From June through August we all work half an hour longer Monday to Thursday in exchange for Friday afternoons off. As a result, Jo and I are planning a few Summer Pub Expeditions (to places like Sheffield, Leeds, Huddersfield, Stalybridge and Buxton, or maybe just Salford, Manchester and Bury) which will hopefully provide me with a fresh perspective and some fresh inspiration.

I doubt that any of the resulting blog posts will be award-winning, Pulitzer prize material (sorry, Scooper) but I do hope to discover and talk about some great new beers and some great new pubs. (New to me, anyway. If you’ve discovered them all already and talking about them just bores you, that’s fine. It’s a big Internet, plenty more to see and read and do. Help yourself.)

And, come to think of it, there’s something else I could do. Something that maybe not many other beer-bloggers can do as well as, if not better than, me.

As I said at the top of this piece, I’ve worked in online marketing for over ten years. I’m an everyman in that field as well; I’m primarily a general website content manager for a wide range of websites, which means that I’ve learned enough to get by about a wide range of subjects related to online publishing, blogging and online promotion. I’m not an expert in a particular field, but I can just about hold my own when it comes to the essentials: HTML, CSS, RSS, WordPress, Blogger, search engine optimisation, website Analytics, keyword advertising, Twitter, Facebook, Google and the general ideas, concepts and principles of good marketing and effective blogging.

I’m always happy to share what I know, especially if I learn something new in the process. So I could post a few pieces about the areas and subjects I’ve just mentioned – either in broad, general terms, or how they apply to the beerblogosphere, or to a specific blog (at that blogger’s request). Again though, I’ll only be able to spend time putting those posts together if there’s going to be some interest out there. So, how about this: if anyone has anything they’d specifically like to know, put it in a comment below, or drop me a line and ask me. I’ll see if it’s a question I can usefully answer and if it is then I’ll rattle off a quick post.

In the meantime (mmmm: Meantime…) I’ll be the bloke in the corner with the laptop, sipping an imperial stout, trying to decipher the scribbles in my notebook and typing up my Tasting Notes (with the occasional Pub Notes piece thrown in for good measure).

Time for another quick wander down the highways, byways, lanes and back-alleys of the beerier reaches of the blogosphere, the Big News of the Week of course being the results of the British Guild of Beer Writers Awards…

So it’s huge and thoroughly deserved congratulations to all the winners and runners-up of this years British Guild of Beer Writers Awards, particularly Mark Dredge and Woolpack Dave in the New Media category and Pete Brown, whose incredibly entertaining (yet still mildly educational) Hops and Glory netted him the Beer Writer of the Year prize, which he celebrated with another deleted scene from the book. The Thornbridge brewer’s blog has a report from the Awards Dinner with food and beer tasting notes that are guaranteed to make you drool all over your keyboard (or is it just me who needs a keyboard-mop?) and the BGBW’s own Adrian Tierney-Jones has posted details of the menu as well.

Meanwhile, back at the beer-blogging coal-face: Mark Dredge muses on Extreme Beer: what is it, what does a beer have to be / do / go through to qualify as ‘extreme’? Tandleman has been talking evolution and innovation again, with another very interesting post that’s provoked a lot of discussion in the comments section. And Adrian Tierney-Jones weighs in with thoughts on both those issues, with a focus on the great work being done down at Fuller’s. All well worth a read.

Brewery news: Roger Protz informs us that Greenwich-based brewery Meantime are expanding, having signed the lease on a new brewery premises that will allow them to double and eventually quadruple their current output. BrewDog have secured planning permission for their proposed state-of-the-art brewery. And the folks at the Otter Brewery have been awarded the Sustainable Devon accolade for their environmentally friendly approach to brewing.

Pete Brown reports from the opening of The Tap, a brand new pub on Sheffield station. That serves a range of Thornbridge brews on tap. Sounds like a trip to South Yorkshire is on the cards.

Beer = Poetry. So says Carol Ann Duffy, as quoted by Zythophile.

Jeff Evans lets us into the secrets of brewing a strong Christmas Ale, whilst Tandleman bemoans the lack of imagination that most brewers seem to apply to the concept (for some reason my eye was drawn to this comment, and I believe I may have uttered the phrase “OMFG, I am so there!”)

Tyson reports on the fate of 41,472 bottles of Becks lager seized by HM Customs for failure to pay excise duty, which will not be re-cycled and used to produce electricity.

The Pub Curmudgeon has posted an interesting and thoughtful piece on beer advertising and the inherent snobbery of a small sub-set of the real ale enthusiast crowd. And he’s crunched the numbers on the latest stealth rise in beer duty revealed by Alistair Darling’s latest pre-budget announcements.

The Reluctant Scooper has also been crunching the numbers, this time on alcohol units and looking at the whole concept of recommended unit limits. He’s also been helping to expand our linguistic horizons with Jaipur: new definitions.

And finally: has been experimenting with beer floats (that’s an ice-cream + beer combo, in case you were wondering) and concludes that a good dollop of hops works wonders. I have to confess, I’m still not entirely convinced; I’m just not much of one for messing around with cocktails. Then again, I saw a port and stout mull-it being made on last Sunday’s ‘Something For the Weekend’ and I might actually be tempted…

Here we go with another round-up of beery blog posts and news items that have caught my eye in the last couple of weeks:

Another double-dose of Congrats – this time to BrewDog on their Hardcore IPA winning the Best Artisan Beer category in this year’s Independent Food and Drink Awards and to Burnley-based Moorhouse’s for taking the We’re Backing Business Award at the Lancashire Telegraph Business Awards.

Staying with BrewDog, remember when they launched the Zeitgeist blog, back when they launched the Zeitgeist black lager? The idea was that anyone who bought a Zeitgeist could then log into the blog and demonstrate their unbridled creativity by posting stuff. Seems they might have over-estimated the demand for that sort of service, as they’ve announced that the Zeitgeist blog is now open to all. I just hope they’re taking someone on full time to delete the inevitable flood of spam…

Although of course, the really big BrewDog news was their launch of the “World’s Strongest Beer”: Tactical Nuclear Penguin. A 32%ABV (yup, thirty-two) uber-imperial stout, prices at £30 £39 £35 y’say? Pah, in a few weeks that’ll be a whole 8% below the World’s Strongest Beer, according to Barry M. Veteran beer writer Roger Protz was publicly unimpressed with BrewDog (not for the first time), questioning both TNP’s ingredients andt he timing of the release, although his piece prompted howls of outrage by commenters which resulted in a subsequent clarification of his position from Mr P. Say one thing for the BrewDog boys: say they know how to get a debate going…

Meanwhile, Thornbridge have launched the first of a new range of beers brewed specifically to go well with traditional British food and endorsed by celebrity chefs. First up is ‘Brian Turner Amber Ale’.

Roger Protz and Pete Brown brought us some great news from Burton: Coors have announced plans to (re-)open the The National Brewery Centre – the new name for the former Bass Museum / Coors Visitor Centre – by Easter 2010 and open a new 30-barrel craft brewery as well. Mind you, Zythophile did rather take issue with the suggestion that Burton was the first place in the world to brew pale ales and provided a lengthy explanation as to why.

A few days later, Pete Brown wasn’t quite so happy with a truly atrocious Daily Mail article on alcohol consumption (and who can blame him?) although judging by how phis piece ends, it looks like he may have been instrumental in getting the article neatly neutered. Power to the beery people!

Marston’s-owned Jennings’ brewery was badly hit by the floods in Cockermouth last month, but the Publican reports they’re due to re-open in the new year, with production moving to other Marston’s sites in the meantime. Tandleman worries that this might have an adverse impact on flavour and quality and possibly set a dangerous set of wheels turning in the minds of the Marston’s decision-makers.

Also via Tandleman, news that love-em or hate-em pub chain Wetherspoon’s is planning to open another 250 pubs in the next 10 years, creating 10,000 jobs in the process. They can open one in my neck of the woods, definitely. I’ve got nothing against Holt’s you understand, but some choice within walking distance of home would be welcome…

So, you think you’re a bit of a scooper? You think you’ve got a tick or two in your notebook? Dale Van Wieren might just have the edge. Mind you it sounds like Mark Dredge was having a pretty good go at catching up, what with his visit to the 2 Kents beer festival and then the utterly awesome-sounding stout night.

The smoking ban continues to be a contentious issue. The Pub Curmudgeon kicked things off and Tandleman lit up a firestorm of debate (check out the comments thread). Woolpack Dave provided a publican’s-eye view of the issue and I think Mark Dredge rounded things up quite neatly. For the record, I said my piece in a comment on Dave’s blog.

Continuing a theme developed in Around the Beerblogosphere #3, it sounds like Boak and Bailey’s Christmas Pud will be a bit special this year as well. As usual, we’ll be having a supermarket gluten-free special and lumping it… <sigh>

Something we’ll all be familiar with, I’m sure: author Michael Marshall Smith shares a few painfully-crafted thoughts on the general inadvisability of hangovers.

Another couple of top-notch-sounding brews for the wishlist: Adnams Innovation, as recommended by Andy Mogg over at beerreviews.co.uk and Castle Rock Harvest Pale, highly praised by Paul Garrard on realaleblog. Plus, Jeff Evans recommends 10 great beers for Christmas (just in time for my planned shopping trip to Beer Ritz on Saturday, which is nice…)

Finally, I couldn’t pass up on the latest health research (which I’m sure you’ve all heard about by now): Alcohol protects mens’ hearts says the BBC. I’m sure Shane MacGowan’s liver will be delighted to hear that its sacrifice hasn’t been for nothing…

I’ve been inspired by Mark Dredge’s post on Pencil & Spoon, Why I Write a Beer Blog, to do something I’ve been contemplating for a while and that I hope will become a regular occurrence (time allowing).

Mark pointed out that one of the main reasons he writes his beer blog (and it’s a bloody good beer blog, too, I highly recommend it) is: “Beer means a lot to me, sharing it with people means more; this blog is about sharing.” That really struck a chord. Sharing really is important. Sharing enthusiasim for beer, sharing tips on great beer, sharing good news about beer and brewing. Sharing the love!

Before I badgered Ed, Joe and, a bit later on, Tim into joining me on this beer blog venture, I spent years perusing the science fiction / fantasy / horror sector of the blogosphere (and indeed, I still do). There’s a venerable institution that almost everyone in sf/f/h blogging indulges in to some extent, but it’s one that I’ve not really noticed all that much in the beer blogs: the link round-up.

They’re easy to do and a great way of sharing interesting material that other folks have taken the time and effort to write. So here’s the first of my ‘Around the Beerblogosphere’ posts: a round up of the pieces and conversation-starters that have caught my eye in the past couple of weeks. Hopefully, time allowing, there will be more to come in due course and on a regular basis.

Pete Brown (@petebrownbeer, author of Hops and Glory, has had a busy couple of weeks, what with the launch of the third annual Cask Report. He’s also been running the numbers on the hypocrisy (or just plain ignorance) of neo-prohibitionists. And yet, he still finds time to pass judgement on the FA over the Internet-only coverage of this Saturday’s Ukraine vs England match. Quite right he is, too.

The Publican‘s Daniel Pearce interviewed Pete Brown and others at the launch of the aforementioned Cask Report.

The Beer Justice has been sampling the new range of M&S own-label beers. Sounds like there are some interesting variants in there. I’ll be keeping my eye out for those, then.

Barry M (@BarMas) has been sampling a trio of beers from Hopdaemon (something I’m hoping to be able to do myself before too long…)

And over at IrishCraftBrewer.com, Barry has also posted the results of some rather fascinating research into the lost breweries of Ireland.

Zythophile’s blog was one of the first I started reading when I started beer blogging. He’s back after a lengthy absence, with news of a publishing deal for his book on the history of British beer styles. One for the Amazon wish-list, definitely.

I’m a big fan of Rob and Kim’s Beer Lens blog and loved this impressive shot of a
93 pump bar at an Atlanta Taco Mac restaurant. And just looking at these pints of Sly Fox O’Reilly’s Stout makes you thirsty as hell, doesn’t it..?

And finally… online retailer Beermerchants.com has put together a fantastic-looking Best of British mixed case packed with an elite selection of beers from Gadds, Lovibonds, Moor and Thornbridge. Must resist! Beer cupboard… already… completely… full…

That’s it for now. As I say, more to come, as and when I find the inspiration.