It’s good to talk

Beer has become a topic of conversation at the dinner table. And, says Dominic Roskrow, that’s very good news

Writing about rock music, someone once said, is a bit like dancing to architecture. The same could be said with regard to talking about beer.

There have always been a group of people who seem to talk about nothing else, of course, but if I’m brutally honest, I’ve always considered them a bit nerdish. I’d listen to them go on and on about how hoppy and malty a particular beer was and I’d switch off. Blow this, I’d think, let’s drink the blinking stuff – or words to that effect.

These days, though, all sorts of people are talking about all sorts of beer styles. People you would never expect to venture past an Aussie Chardonnay are surprising dinner parties with their knowledge of Trappist beers and fruity ales.

Talking about beer is an international phenomenon. A Czech reader wrote recently and listed the British beers he most wanted to try. Me too, I thought – they were that obscure. There’s a sort of new trans-Atlantic dialogue going on, too, with American drinkers seeking information on the best small regional British ales and the British seeking out the new wave of flavoursome American ones.

We’re part of this conversation, of course, but much of it is happening as a direct result of the internet. And it’s not just websites, either.

The birth of the amateur podcast – a sort of do it yourself radio station available on the internet – has allowed any number of enthusiasts to air their views on the subject to their heart’s content.

America particularly seems enthusiastic about the topic. I was recently privileged to guest on an American beer radio station – really – and because of the time difference I was on at 9pm on a Saturday night – mid afternoon in America. Because the family was watching the X Factor, which is a British television programme laughingly and misleadingly described as a talent show, I was banished to the playroom.

They put you on hold so you can listen to the show till it’s your turn, so there I was on a freezing winter’s night somewhat bizarrely listening to two guys talking about beer mid afternoon in the States. And you know what? The warmth, the comraderie, the chat, it all reminded me of how it used to be in British pubs.

Now I should declare here that I’ve had a bad run with British pubs of late. There are, I know, lots of great ones. It’s just I haven’t been in any recently. The ones I visited last year were virtually without exception soulless and vacant, with menus crammed full of dishes with purple crinkly lettuce (which no respecting rabbit would touch and neither will I) and décor more suited to a restaurant than a pub.

And I have been missing the chumminess of the old-fashioned local, the places with big fires, an ever-changing beer choice and no satellite screen or overloud music system. Talking places.

That’s what the beer radio boys brought back through their banter, and I loved it.

There’s definitely something weird going on. Dinner parties where beer’s on the conversational agenda as well as on the table and chat-free pubs where they only serve wine? I don’t know where it’s all headed but I do know this: I’ve got an overwhelming urge to go and tap dance on the statue in front of our trendy new library.

Cheers.

By Dominic Roskrow

Section : From the Editor

Page number : 5