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&amp;quot;Hendrixcat&amp;quot;:34qx4d7d wrote: I'm an ex-librarian. I fear no man.[/quote:34qx4d7d]Bloody hell! A scientist [i:34qx4d7d][b:34qx4d7d]and [/b:34qx4d7d][/i:34qx4d7d]ex-librarian? <!-- s:shock: --><img src="{SMILIES_PATH}/icon_eek.gif" alt=":shock:" title="Shocked" /><!-- s:shock: --> <!-- s:lol: --><img src="{SMILIES_PATH}/icon_lol.gif" alt="" title="Laughing" /><!-- s:lol: -->

&amp;quot;bigears&amp;quot;:34qx4d7d wrote: I leafed through this book briefly in the B&C one evening but it sounds like it's worth a place on the bookshelf.[/quote:34qx4d7d]Definitely. One nice aspect of the book for amatuer craft brewers is the fact that he also lists the proportions of grains and hops in some of our favourite beers. This makes me think we'll see some level of cloning attempts based on this alone.

Actually we already (more or less) have the recipes for Hooker and Purgatory on the site, possibly others that I haven't noticed. Thankfully a lot of the craft brewers are not so precious about their recipes.

&amp;quot;Hendrixcat&amp;quot;:37b1ysb3 wrote: I'll trump you with the OED (I have a paper version, imagine that!). It gives 'flattering to an excessive degree' and 'of large size or quantity'.[/quote:37b1ysb3]Yes but the OED does specialise in archaic usage, and the last dead-tree version is eighteen years old now. The one-volume [i:37b1ysb3]New Oxford Dictionary of English[/i:37b1ysb3] (my 1998 edition anyway) includes a health warning on "fulsome" and says not to use it in ambiguous situations. Writing a book that's likely to be reviewed by a pedantic librarian with an inflated sense of his own vocabulary is one of those situations, I reckon.

&amp;quot;Adeptus&amp;quot;:37b1ysb3 wrote: One nice aspect of the book for amatuer craft brewers is the fact that he also lists the proportions of grains and hops in some of our favourite beers. This makes me think we'll see some level of cloning attempts based on this alone.[/quote:37b1ysb3]patto1ro has been posting some grain bills for classic Whitbread beers over on his blog[/url:37b1ysb3] this week. He didn't have much luck getting such information out of Guinness though: see the comments here[/url:37b1ysb3].

[quote:2rnafwnh]Yes but the OED does specialise in archaic usage, and the last dead-tree version is eighteen years old now. The one-volume New Oxford Dictionary of English (my 1998 edition anyway) includes a health warning on "fulsome" and says not to use it in ambiguous situations. Writing a book that's likely to be reviewed by a pedantic librarian with an inflated sense of his own vocabulary is one of those situations, I reckon. [/quote:2rnafwnh]

I'm always interested in the derivation and use of words, but in this situation I'm fearful that you have attributed an opinion to the author that he did not intend to convey. It's hard to know what fulsome means to everyday people who don't pounce on dictionaries, like I am apt to do. I first met the word on the Porterhouse beer menu, and I grasped its meaning without even checking the dictionary because it seemed like a good description of Wrassler's full body. We should end the pedantics here, before we are barred, methinks.

&amp;quot;Hendrixcat&amp;quot;:1wbwutsr wrote: I'm fearful that you have attributed an opinion to the author that he did not intend to convey.[/quote:1wbwutsr]I have, but I hope it's clear from the context that my meaning was not direct attribution but disingenuous irony (or "smart-arsed" if you prefer, as I said earlier in this thread). I think it's also fairly clear from the relevant paragraph in the book that Iorwerth is not taking a stand against Draught Guinness.

i'm still reading the book at bedtime. I don't read fast, cos I usually fall asleep and have to re-read it the next day. I think it's a very easily read book, and despite the fact that it's a reference, it's enjoyable to read for the sake of reading. having the (more-or-less) recipes is a nice feature too.
I think I'm still drunk from last night. my words don't come out easy.