Tenacity

Dave has always said the you need a good supply of tenacity when running a pub. The first beer he made was brewed without anything like the level of knowledge he now has, only a vague idea of a recipe and uncertainty about the precise legal status of the brewing authorisation from HMRC. However, none of those things put him off.

The first brew was supposed to be a stab at a generic bitter. Far too much crystal malt was used and a very tasty dark ruby beer resulted. It had fantastic strong malty sweetness balanced with hop bittering. The beer tasted determined and Dave was determined to get it brewed, and drunk. Calling it Tenacity summed up the moment. We've not changed the recipe, after all why fix what ain't broke. We've realised it's two years since it was last brewed, but now it's back.

It is not pronounced ten-a-city as some customers seem to want to say. We've got some on the bar right now and there are another 8 casks after that. It's just lovely and recently got compared to Barngates Red Bull Terrier, which is also delicious.

Beer makes you more intelligent

Well we have this theory. It stems from studying artificial intelligence (A.I.). You know, the cause of machines starting to think for themselves in The Matrix. Dave studied this at some previous time when he thought that getting qualifications might help him...it didn't, but then he's even beyond the best psychiatrists help.

It's a difficult theory to explain but, basically when you are training a neural network, a kind of computer "brain", you give it input and adjustments are made to the network algorithms until the output shows the best solution. This is an iterative process. The problem with this technique is that local best solutions can be found that may not be the overall best. This is a bit like looking for the lowest point in a field. You might find a low point but it might not be the lowest point if the higher points are hiding the lowest. Do you follow so far?

Well the solution to this is to kick, metaphorically, the network into a completely new part of the field and see if there is anything better over there. The process is called annealing.

It is our view that alcohol can provide that annealing effect. Loosening up to new areas in the field of thinking. How else is it that such brilliant ideas often occur over a pint of beer?

Now before the dreaded Portman Group get hold of us, we have to point out that we believe this to only work with smaller doses of the aforementioned intelligence drug. Excessive amounts result in annealing effects that make all ideas good ones. Oh and the same annealing drug is also found in wine, spirits and even, get this, alcopops, although we do think that lager has a fake version.

This is brought to mind as a result of Dave spending too much time reading other blogs about beer. There seems to be so many ideas and thoughts out there, some of which we agree with, some of which we do not and many that lie somewhere in between. It seems to have got Dave all confused about what's right and wrong. Some annealing is being prescribed for later.

Meanwhile, here's some blog links for the reader to think about:

Beer names - Jeff Pickthall
Portman Group on beer names - Roger Protz
Real ale is for the rich - Kerran Cross
Why I'm Not a Member of CAMRA - Jeff Pickthall

Dave seems to be unable to rationalise these conflicting opinions - anybody any ideas??

Supporting information:

The Intelligent Choice

The end of Fizzy Tastless EXTRA cold Lager

This says it all..........