Beer Nouveau

New introduction post seeing as we've had a lot more new followers. Hi, I'm Steve and I'm a beer and brewing historian. Which basically means I research and write about the societal history of beer from a holistic viewpoint. Every aspect of beer is entwined with every other aspect, and without...

Burn it all down

After this breakfast I went back to my hotel room, laid down on the bed, and woke up two hours later 🤣

Morning 😁

The recent story about all the Needle in a Haystack clones that suddenly popped up is very instructive of the kind of slop I complain about clogging up my inboxes all the time; clones of something else. For all the talk of enabling creativity, all I ever see from AI "devs" is someone else's idea.

Proper skyline.

I saw a video of the game MoonSweepers yesterday and thought it looked like a nice, gentle way to waste time. So I installed it yesterday afternoon. 12 hours later I realised it was 1am and I'd better get some sleep 🤣 Haven't got that engrossed in a game for *years* 🤣

It’s 11-13 degrees outside today, depending on where you are in the UK. This is also the recommended serving temperature range for cask ale. So this is my annual invitation to anyone who thinks cask is served “warm” to go outside in your summer clothes and let us know how you get on.

Day 12 of Being Ill and I'm more just feeling grotty than ill. This is very much an improvement, and means I'll hopefully be able to still make it to Norwich Beer Fest next week, if the trains are able to run with this weather we're about to get.

STOCKPILE YOUR GOVERNMENT-MANDATED 72 HOURS WORTH OF BEER HERE: pilotbeer.co.uk

"...with a footnote to the effect that the editors would welcome applications from anyone interested in taking over the post of cyber correspondent."

Coming next: the BBC weather correspondent puzzles over how it can be raining one day and sunny the next.

Day 11 of Being Ill: Actually managed to sleep through last night without waking up in a coughing fit. Feel a bit more awake and less fogged brained today, but still coughing when I get up and move about :¬/ But, better than yesterday, so there's that.

Day ten of Being Ill: I thought I was getting better on Monday so went out and did a cider blending thing, but felt worse on Tuesday. Today (Wednesday) I'm spending more time coughing than not, and am almost out of milk for tea. :¬/

eBay user? Don't want AI to crawl all over your personal data? Click here and toggle the off button at the bottom of the page: accountsettings.ebay.co.uk/ai-preferences

Seriously folks, this radio playlist is perfect for anyone in the Industry who fancies a laugh 🤣 breww.com/radio/

😉 breww.com/radio/ Thanks for the feedback on the controls, will share it internally!

I'm giving an "introduction to cider blending" interactive talk later, so I'm rewatching and rereading a load of stuff on different approaches to blending, and it's so obvious whether the speaker is more traditional or more modern/craft. But there's always a passion.

Yeah, I think this is pretty accurate. 🤣

Repeat after me: 1) PIP isn't an out of work benefit. It is a benefit paid to disabled people to pay for the extra costs of living with a disability. 2) Some PIP claimants work. Some PIP claimants will never able to work at all. 3) Impoverishing people doesn't get them closer to employment

Day six of Being Ill: I really fancy a beer. Still getting coughing fits, not as bad as yesterday though, and I managed to mostly sleep through the night. Today I seem to be surviving on lemsip, tea and cake. The brain is still really fogged up though, feels like my memory has wandered off too :¬/

Producer: “Who can we get to represent the views of voters in struggling working class towns?” Researcher: “How about a London born privately educated banjo player who is the son of the billionaire who owns GB News?” Producer: “Perfect!”

Day five of Being Ill: Coughing is back, with a vengence. Spent most of last night waking up in coughing fits and I've expelled so much phlegm I'm surprised I haven't lost a few stone. So I'm fully expecting my ribs to start hurting again later. I really don't like being ill :¬/

Day Four of Being Ill: Coughing has subsided considerable and my ribs don't ache as much, so yay. However the brain fog is back along with clogged sinuses, so boo. Today's gonna invlove lots of tea, lemsip, and computer games where I don't have to think :¬/

I believe quite strongly that there is no such thing as ethical AI use, and I've never met an author I respect who disagrees with me. This is bad

Day Three of Being Ill, I'm currently feeling a bit more mentally awake, the brain isn't quite fogged up as much, but the ribs are hurting even more from the coughing, which has thankfully subsided. I hate being ill.

Watching VisionQuest and the attention to detail in the settings, backgrounds, furniture, etc is absolutely superb. Except for the pub. A pub that's supposed to be set in Edinburgh but is so very obviously a Cotswold's village pub.

Statesman

Yesterday's breakfast vs today's breakfast. Yeah, I need to sort my diet out 🤣

I've got all afternoon, evening and night free in Nottingham, but I've not even finished my first pint and already feel like going back to the hotel for an early night 🤣

On a train, only 5 minutes late. Thankfully it's a direct train, I really don't like having to change, so should be in Nottingham just before midday.

I'm on the Blue Rinse Bus. First one after 9am when they've quietened down. Lots of "retired" folk.

Just remembered I was supposed to be having an early night as I've a train to catch in the morning and haven't packed or anything yet. Got a feeling I'll be paying extra for a later train 🤣

Okay, so a "threat" led Trump to move his bombers out of the UK. But, and here's what I don't understand, a "threat" led him to deploy them to Iran? What was so scary in the UK that the might of the US Air Force ran away?

When they talk about reducing red tape, remember this image.