Lets not Fight

This piece is one of the reasons that i though i should start a blog, and its been brought to the front recently with another blog post

http://zythophile.wordpress.com/2011/01/29/why-extremophiles-are-a-danger-to-us-all/


And thats the constant bitching within the Beer Scene.


Now anyone who knows me, will know ive been a member of Ratebeer for the past 3 or so years, and every year sometimes 2 or 3 times someone will start a discussion about how CAMRA is doing x,y and z wrong.
Every year i find myself having to defend CAMRA position against often unjustified complaints, as well as justify why im a CAMRA member


More recently ive been coming across the same sort of unjustified complaints about Ratebeer and i find myself having to justify Ratebeers existence and why im a member of Ratebeer.


Now dont get me wrong i dont think Ratebeer or CAMRA are perfect, far from it. In many ways i have my own complaints against both. But the the point is they are what they are. They both do some things very well, they both could be better in places.




I've seen the stupidity of CAMRA(Campain for Real Ale)  being accused of promoting Cask (real ale) ale over keg. Now i have nothing against good keg beer, but my preferred dispense method is Cask. Almost every beer ive had in both forms is better in Cask, and while i think CAMRA will over the long term be better serves by Championing ALL good beer. Complaining that they Promote Cask beer is just plain silly.


On the Other side just recently when a brewer was advertising that they had 5 beers in the British top 10 in the Ratebeer best, some one suggested that that achievement was worthless and anyway they had CAMRA award where much more relevant for UK beers. My understanding  is that the Brittish Top beers is formed from Brittish ratings, and thus is just as relevant.


In the Grand Scheme of things both represent quite a small user base. What with the Vast majority of beer drinkers wanting Fizzy cold lager. The fact that they both might represent different user bases should be cause to celebrate the diversity of the beer lover. Not reason for complaint. Just because someone enjoys beer in a different way from you, is no reason to think your better, and that your way of enjoying beer is the "one true way"


I dont know why people cant just take what they want from the beer scene and allow others to enjoy beer in their own way.


Some people only want to drink 1 or 2 beers, and are not interested in trying new things, while others want to try as many beers as they can.

Some people only want to drink 1 style of beer, where as other want to try all the styles.


Some people want to drink Big ABV beers, where as others want to drink 4% bitters.

No one person or group of people are right, the beer scene and the world on the whole is much more complex than that.

To each there own enjoyment. We all want the same thing in the end. To enjoy good beer. All be it each of our definitions of good beer may vary and even then not actually by that much.