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31-07-2017, 10:28
Visit the Boak and Bailey's Beer Blog site (http://boakandbailey.com/2017/07/everything-we-wrote-in-july-2017-bristol-wetherspoons-music/)

https://i2.wp.com/boakandbailey.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/july_2017.jpg?resize=650%2C437It’s a relatively sparse round-up this month what with moving house in the middle so we’ll use the spare space to include a bit more from social media.We started the month with a brief account of a conversation between bar staff about dreams and nightmares (http://boakandbailey.com/2017/07/pub-life-barmaids-dream-electric-sheep/):*‘She wakes her partner up in the middle of the night shouting out loud, “Who’s next then, please?”’
We were prompted by Chris Clough*to think a bit about Old School IPA and what it means to us (http://boakandbailey.com/2017/07/old-school-ipa/):

What makes an IPA Old School in our view is and emphasis on hop bitterness as well as, and perhaps more than, aroma/flavour; a preference for English hop varieties; mellow orange character rather than pine or grapefruit; and a certain stoical pintability, despite relatively high ABVs by late 20th century cask ale standards.
Having planned to give it a miss we suddenly felt inspired to take part in*Mark Lindner’s*Session #125 on the topic of Single Malt and Single Hop (SMaSH) beers (http://boakandbailey.com/2017/07/session-125-single-malt-single-hop/). (You can read his round-up of all the contributions here (http://marklindner.info/bbl/2017/07/smash-beers-session-125-round-up/).)
https://i2.wp.com/boakandbailey.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/bristol_cranes.jpg?resize=650%2C488
We gave our first tentative, deliberately vague field report from our new neighbourhood in Bristol (http://boakandbailey.com/2017/07/understanding-new-turf/). A couple of weeks on we can report that the micropub is currently where we find ourselves drawn most often, on which more later, but we’ve also tried a few more local pubs and found them decent in different ways, too.
Young people might not be going to Proper Pubs but we can’t help but notice they seem to love Wetherspoon’s (http://boakandbailey.com/2017/07/the-young-ones/):

The younger drinkers we’ve noticed are often on hot chocolate, frothy coffee or pounding cans of energy drink. A typical party, sat near us about a fortnight ago, between them had one pint of bitter, two of lager, a can of Monster, and a pint of Coke. They were all eating, too, treating it almost like a diner.
(Phil Edwards contributed some field observations of his own from Manchester (https://ohgoodale.wordpress.com/2017/07/24/down-with-the-kids/), as did Tandleman (http://tandlemanbeerblog.blogspot.co.uk/2017/07/in-with-new.html).)
If you think your region is being overlooked as a beer destination (i.e. not written about by the Usual Suspects) the answer is simple, we reckon: write about it yourself (http://boakandbailey.com/2017/07/quick-one-overlooked/). The comments on this ended up focusing on Birmingham and the West Midlands even though we tried to keep it general, but they’re interesting nonetheless.
How do pubs*smell? (http://boakandbailey.com/2017/07/pub-perfume/) That’s something we were prompted to think about by the tenth anniversary of the institution of the ban on smoking in pubs, the debate around which often ends up wallowing in foul aromas of one kind or another.
https://i0.wp.com/boakandbailey.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/fullers_london_pride_1956.jpg?resize=500%2C490This is by far our favourite — Fuller’s jumping on the pop music bandwagon in 1956. Needs to be resurrected!Here’s a real labour of love: we made a Spotify playlist to accompany our new book,*20th Century Pub (http://boakandbailey.com/2017/07/playlist-20th-century-pub/). Give it a listen, or at least a skim — some of the tracks are really interesting in their own right.
Wetherspoon’s pubs now have an app you can use to order food and drink from your seat. Boak*gave it a spin with a specific thought in mind: how well does it work for beer geeks (http://boakandbailey.com/2017/07/appy-meal/)? TL;DR? Not very.
(The*Pub Curmudgeon referenced this post in a piece on queuing at Spoons (http://pubcurmudgeon.blogspot.co.uk/2017/07/join-queue.html).)
There were also five weekly round-ups of links and news:


01/07/2017 — Smoking, Civil War, Global Chic (http://boakandbailey.com/2017/07/news-nuggets-longreads-1-july-2017-smoking-civil-war-global-chic/)
08/07/2017 — London Fields, St Ives, Anywhere (http://boakandbailey.com/2017/07/news-nuggets-longreads-8-july-2017-london-fields-st-ives-anywhere/)
15/07/2017 — Crowdfunding & Flat-Roofed Pubs (http://boakandbailey.com/2017/07/news-nuggets-longreads-15-july-2017-crowdfunding-flat-roofed-pubs/)
22/07/2017 —*Quality, Icebergs, Cheesecloth (http://boakandbailey.com/2017/07/news-nuggets-longreads-22-july-2017-quality-icebergs-cheesecloth/)
29/07/2017 — Germany, Quality Control, Staly Vegas (http://boakandbailey.com/2017/07/news-nuggets-longreads-29-july-2017-germany-quality-control-staly-vegas/)

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We posted a few Patron-only things on our Patreon feed (https://www.patreon.com/boakandbailey/posts)*— behind the scenes notes mostly, including stuff on how our book cover got designed and some thoughts on the upcoming British Guild of Beer Writers awards.
We’re approaching our (fairly modest) second target of $100 a month, by the way — thanks, everyone!
Our newsletter was a*little more curt than usual because we typed it on a smartphone in a packed-up house with no chairs to sit on but what we did write seemed to get people talking (https://twitter.com/BoakandBailey/status/885802544303398912):

In the wake of our Michael Jackson article for*Beer Advocate, and reflecting on the blogosphere with our weekly news round-ups in mind, we reached a conclusion: free beer and hospitality don’t guarantee positive coverage but, when you’re just starting out as a writer or blogger, they aren’t half flattering…
If you’re interested in c.1,300 words of this kind of stuff every month*sign up (http://tinyletter.com/boakandbailey)!
On Facebook there’s been some of this sort of thing…

…while on Twitter, it’s been more like this:

In the snug at the Nova Scotia. pic.twitter.com/6khzCi10qs (https://t.co/6khzCi10qs)
— Boak and Bailey (@BoakandBailey) July 29, 2017 (https://twitter.com/BoakandBailey/status/891276021126877184)

And we’re still persevering with Instagram even if we’re finding it faintly baffling — why can’t we just see what people we follow post in chronological order? Grr.



The correct colours for a pub: beer below, nicotine above. (https://www.instagram.com/p/BXIelyDFLyM/)

A post shared by Boak & Bailey (@boakandbailey) on Jul 29, 2017 at 6:39am PDT

Everything We Wrote in July 2017: Bristol, Wetherspoons, Music (http://boakandbailey.com/2017/07/everything-we-wrote-in-july-2017-bristol-wetherspoons-music/) originally posted at Boak & Bailey's Beer Blog (http://boakandbailey.com)


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