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03-07-2011, 22:15
Visit the Raising the Bar site (http://raisethebeerbar.blogspot.com/2011/07/your-beverage-needs-you.html)


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So this weekend saw the online beer Twitterati lay siege on Saturday Kitchen on BBC1 at 10am. The idea championed by Hardknott Dave (http://hardknott.blogspot.com/) & others using the #saturdaykitchen hashtag was to suggest beer to match foods that were being prepared on the show. The show has previously been entirely biased in only recommending wine matches to suit the food so much so it prompted Dave to make a complaint (http://hardknott.blogspot.com/2011/06/saturday-kitchen.html) to Ofcom regarding the complete ignorance of beer as a versatile beverage suitable for food matching by the BBC.

I myself back Dave 100%, the point which he is trying to readdress is the fact that compared to beer, wine gets an inordinate amount of coverage by the national media.

As people who care about beer we saw something completely organic happen in our time lines on Twitter happen on Saturday. Something wonderful, something incredibly positive & a joy to behold. A huge number of beery twitter folk spontaneously backed Dave's suggestion by using the hashtag & taking part.

It was the use of social media at it's best, being used by a group of people who care about something enough to make their voices heard completely off the cuff. During the show there were approximately 1500 beer/food related tweets directed at the programme, recommending a huge diverse range of beers suitable for a range of dishes on the show.

These suggestions were almost certainly certainly picked up by the production team. Hopefully we will see some impact on the show & get the amazing cornucopia of exciting beers in the UK some national television coverage as a great & versatile accompaniment to food.


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We may have already seen an acknowledgement from Olly Smith who is Saturday Kitchen's resident wine expert as this morning a piece about beer for wine lovers appeared in the The Mail (http://www.dailymail.co.uk/home/moslive/article-2009501/OLLY-SMITH-Some-beers-born-adored-wine-lovers.html). A piece for which Olly should be praised for as it brings some balance to the wine over beer coverage imbalance. You can & should follow him on twitter @jollyolly (http://twitter.com/#%21/jollyolly) as he appreciates & is knowledgeable about his beer.

The main message that spoke volumes to me on Saturday was that for all of the negativity that permeates the online beer world it was incredibly refreshing & powerful to combine instantly over common ground to unite & the promote the beverage we all love!

When we unite together & fight under the beer banner we ARE capable of doing great things. I will certainly think twice before I publish any blog post in the future & ask myself;

'Will this forward the cause of beer or add value?'
'Or foster conflict & negativity?'

If it's the latter I will now think long & hard before hitting the publish button, I urge you to do the same. It IS possible to bring lots of new drinkers into the amazing world of modern British beer.

IF we talk about the positives!

See you next Saturday 10am sharp on Twitter with the hashtag #saturdaykitchen

If we get a result here, we can go elsewhere into getting Beer the coverage our national drink deserves.https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/532306293614525754-6175095803460020005?l=raisethebeerbar.blogspot.com


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