Pete Brown at the Independent Brewers’ Conference
Last year, Pete Brown’s peers at the British Guild of Beer Writers named him Writer of the Year. His latest blog post, describing the Society of Independent Brewers (SIBA) annual conference, explains why he won that honor.
The opening paragraph, written on “a cold, draughty train with no tables, no refreshment trolley, no power sockets,” sets the tone:
Wedged sideways on a hard, narrow seat, developing pins and needles in my left leg which is curled up to provide a surface for the laptop, the cold grey light, bare branches and churned, muddy fields gliding past the window, everything conspiring to accentuate what was a surprisingly mild hangover, draw out the nuances of it, develop the waves of pain and nausea like a symphony orchestra playing variations on a theme, and turn it into something that forces me to seriously contemplate tearing my eyeballs from their sockets.
He’s that good.
Brown goes on to explain how attendees get got “riotously, deliciously hoonered on real ale,”at £1.50 a pint; how his tasting notes couldn’t do justice to the winner of SIBA’s national brewing conference, “Triple Chocoholic” from the Saltaire Brewery; and why the fraternization among competing breweries would earn someone the sack in other industries.
He’s also looking forward to next year’s conference.