Moby Dickheads

I very much enjoyed the little heated debate between The Beer Nut and The Boy Dredge which was provoked by spooge beer. BN set forth the proposition that hard-to-find beers and brewery launches, as seen in the US mostly, were Bad For Beer. Mark, all enthusiasm and curiosity, set out a counter-argument that we could do with more of what he called Blockbuster Beers. There were some great contributions, including from Cookie. For the record, I tend to agree with Beer Nut, although I'm not sure the breweries are loving it all as much as they might.

Now, I've got some very good sources who provided me with information about some of the most recent US launches. I was going to regale you with anecdotes about the idiots who pitched up at Southampton Publick House at around midnight on one of the coldest nights of the year to queue for a couple of beers. Or the spoogebeerians who protested about the price of the Captain Lawrence 2010 Rosso e Marrone, then were seen with many more bottles than the per-person limit. All, no doubt going on eBay, or for trades.

Then, more seriously, there was the fall-out from the Kate The Great Imperial Stout launch at Portsmouth Brewing in New Hampshire, when local Beer Advocates who picked up on rumours of place-holding in the queue, stampeded and panicked the brewpub into changing their opening arrangements at very short notice and with no warning, meaning people who drove from as far away as Boston arrived to find the bottles all sold. Meantime, bottles were being pre-sold on eBay. I hear Portsmouth are thinking about a better way to handle this for next year. I'd suggest one way is to ignore greedy tickers who only want the beer to hoard or sell on.

I was going to set out some of the traders' lexicon - talk about the so-called 'White Whales', the rare beers which make tickers tremble with desire. The circle-jerkery of BIF. The hot-housing of a craft-beer niche by online groups. As Beer Nut proposed, all bad for beer.

Then, I found this.

You don't have to watch it all - you'll get the idea. I think it ought to have had a soundtrack. "Raising The Count" by Cabaret Voltaire, or some dramatic Hammer Horror music would have done. Otherwise, I leave you with one thought. If this guy loves beer, he loves it the same way Josef Fritzl loved his kids. And that isn't good.