In which I spit all the dummies and throw all the toys out of all the prams…

A comment I made on this article here, just now, no idea if it will be published.

Makes the whole “beer sommelier” thing look a bit daft really.

I was aiming to go for the “sommelier” qualification, but TBH it smells a bit like poo after this bit of mis-counted “journalism”. I’ll rejig back to the US Cicerone path now I think. It seems to have better standards. Some actual values regarding the quality of beer.

Clear glass bottles.. in two cases… FFS… we discussed the evil of these when I did the Beer Academy ‘Advanced’ course. The whole Beer Academy “Sommelier” clearly worth little of any value in addition to this if this list is picked as a “best of Britain” with their brand attached to it. Automatic assumption is “so, they paid for these product placements”.

The publication of this article with the Beer Academy’s “Beer Sommelier” very thoroughly attached to it totally devalues the concept I would hope that they’re hoping to build. What does “beer sommelier” actually mean with this in front of us…???

Very little, very little at all. “Travesty” comes to mind.

It is grim. Very grim.

[UPDATE] See also: Ed Wray (in the comments below) has a response of sorts regarding Shep’s beer here: The Hops in Shepherd Neame Beers