Adrian Dingle has posted the roundup for The Session #79, titled “What the hell has America done to beer?” or “USA versus Old World Beer Culture.” Not surprisingly he has include a few rebuttals.
I wonder if any minds were changed in the course of posts, reading of posts, and comments.
Anyway, the next Session is Oct. 4. We’ll await the official announcement from host Derek Harrison, but he’s already told us it will be “Is Craft Beer a Bubble?”
I’m afraid the session round-up confirmed my worst fears that the host was far more interested in starting a fight than a discussion on a topic, which is why I sat this one out. Also interesting is how thinned skinned our host was considering how freely he threw criticism about. I just hope The Session only goes up from here.
“Not surprisingly he has include a few rebuttals.” Dingle didn’t just offer rebuttals — he took the opportunity to give his opinion on the quality of each entry as he was presenting each entry, so the reader would know what _he_ thought about each entry before getting a chance to read things for him/herself. He made every entry all about his own views, refusing to give participants the chance to speak for themselves without filters (unless readers knew enough to go directly to the blogs, indirectly through his round-up). It struck me as slaps in the faces of all who participated.
I think Lew Bryson has met the gentleman and has said his public persona is at odds with being face-to-face with him — that they had a respectful conversation over a few beers. But I have to wonder about Dingle’s self-awareness: when the manner in which he portrays his passions gets to the point where he treats folks poorly — how does that help his advocacy efforts, and how does he expect anybody to want to help him out?
So this month’s session round-up amounts to a guy whining about the writers who disagreed with his preconceived notions and praising the writers who said things he liked? Great.
The Session is about facilitating valuable discourse between us. And the round-up serves as the venue to share those opinions. In that regard, this month’s was an utter disappointment.
I don’t necessarily disagree with the comments above, but I doubt anyone was surprised
I must admit, however, that the experience has prodded me to read “Audacity of Hops”, an “Ambitious Brew” and “Amber, Gold & Black” to try and get a handle on the whole “Beer Culture” thing.
Anymore recommendations for reading?
Cheers,
Alex