London Bloggers Meetup - the Greene King

My first London Bloggers Meetup in months and months, damn my job requiring I get up at 4:30am. I slip into Bank underground station, walk for ages to get to the surface, then wander the streets randomly until I find the venue. Admittedly I did use myBerry and googlemaps, but it was still loading when I stumbled in to The City Tavern.

It was a very pubby pub, just like a pub. The meetup was in an upstairs room, kind of crowded. You could see straight into the office above the opposite street. The event was sponsored by Greene King IPA, its a kind of beer. There were a handful of helpful brewer type people around being knowledgable about the ways of beer.

The free beer on tap could be served in one of two ways:-

• Smooth and creamy - the northern style
• Clean and Crisp - the southern style

I went northern. Its all to do with the nozzle, but is it a patronising stereotypically thing? Well, the beer's all right, and the talky brewer chap recommends trying the clean and crisp southern version and comparing.

I wish Aref-Adib was here.

Aw man, the nature of tasting beer is as nuanced as high end audio listening.

The difference between northern and southern styles is in the north the beer is broadly poured from the bottom with a sparkler to add turbulence and for southern jessies its poured from the top without the sparkler. When you make white sugar, you bubble up bubbles of somekind of sodium which removed impurities and bleaches the sugar. Similarly bubbles travelling through the length of the glass changes the flavour and makes the head taste different.

Its the Target hops, an English variety, that give Greene King IPA its distinctive flavour, the oils in the hops. Most people don't know what hops taste like, I don't, well, they taste like that.

I love hearing this sort of thing. Although its a little bit cheesy for the hosty speakery people to list words that people usually use to describe flavour at an event where people will be describing flavours. "Rearrange the following words in the order of you choosing".

So aye, there was a short talk by the brewery people about the nature of beer tasting, which sides of the tongue do the trick and how to pour it.

How would I describe the taste?

It was all right.

There followed a talk from a charity blogger. The travails of charities trying to preach to a new audience who aren't already charitynuts.

Madagasca faces problems, but I can't help but think of Mark Wadsworth's post today about a sequence of adverts on Sky, NHS quit-smoking services, private quit-smoking products, WWF soliciting climate change donations, and then airlines.

It begs the question, how can the government afford TV adverts?

Anyhoo, back to Madagasca, quite clearly having a forest just sitting there, not providing substantial income for the country is unsustainable. Its not going to feed the population, or educate them or get them iPhones. Making your blogpost titles keyword rich ain't going to get Madagasca into the Amazonspace. Ooh, did I make an irony?

Greene King IPA Cask Revolution
Originally uploaded by consolidatedpr

Anyways, as is my way for the London Bloggers Meetups, I'll try to list bloggery people I saw and spoke to.

Spoke/grunted at (7)

• Hailey the beard drummer
• Her friend Shell
• Christiano Betta
• Anthony Fresh Plastic
• Bruce Bird
• Oscar
• Godwyns

Folk who I saw and recognised (8)

• Andy Bargery
• Peter Marshall
• Krista Booker
• Chris qwgmlm
• Sweena
• Lolly
• Michael someone
• Caroline of Caroline's Miscellany

Hmm, everyone's a lot better looking than I remember from last time.

Please excuse spelling, poor memory and lack of links, I'll sort it next time I get on broadband internet. I'm on the train home right now, tapping this out on myBerry, clutching my goodie bag of Greene King beers, and wondering where I'm sleeping tonight.