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I didnt make a comment which i didnt believe to be true. But the comment itself maybe didnt come across the way i had hoped. it was a good debate, as i said it was me trying to lighten the mood, with the love of beer, yadda, yadda, i could have done without using the word cheeky, and that i do understand, and will except critisicism for.

[quote:1hvmw4eh]as i said it was me trying to lighten the mood,[/quote:1hvmw4eh]

Unfortunatley you appeared to be pontificating to those involved in the debate, suggesting they shouldn't have made some of the comments they did. This is why the retort to your initial post was so scathing. I accept you did not want to come across this way, but on the surface of it you seemed to be preaching somewhat. Forget about it, we've all been misunderstood on these damn forums at some point or another.

and for that i apologise. The written word can often be misunderstood, if anyone was speaking to me in person you would know i am not high and mighty on anything

This is one of the things I hate about forums and communicating by text. You can't get peoples intonations and other things that add to the words. For those of us who have met in person it's easier as we can kind of imagine the other person talking. A few of us meet up fairly regularly, but there are a majority who don't have that luxury really.

One of the great things about our little (but growing) community is the passion for the subject matter. More often than not this allows us all to share knowledge and experience in a very active way. I think for the first time we now see opinions on a topic that are fairly divisive. Why divisive? Because we all love craft beers, and we all want to see more in this little country of ours. The fact that there are split opinions on the Arainn Mhor offering merely highlights the passion we have for more and better craft beers from Ireland, but also the spread of opinion on what makes an Irish Craft Beer/Brewery. I think the latter needs a thread of it's own, or maybe a thesis <!-- s:) --><img src="{SMILIES_PATH}/icon_smile.gif" alt="" title="Smile" /><!-- s:) -->

Nothing got nasty on the thread, and I think Graeme has already said that he regrets the use for the word "cheeky". What I understood from his oiginal post was that he was saddened by the reaction to a company that he felt should be supported, as every Irish brewery is precious. The debate as to whether this is the case or not is strictly a matter of opinion, and as others have said, nobody is here to try to force any opinion on anyone else. As long as people can express their opinions in a mature and polite manner, then this forum is doing it's job.

Lads, I just had a call from the Advertising Standards Agency who had recently received an email complaining about our ‘Brewed in the EU’ claim. Having explained to the very nice lady about our enterprise and how we put business sense before purist nirvana she was entirely satisfied with our approach and wished us well in our endeavour.

I sincerely hope the offending email to the ASA did not originate from anyone who contributes to this site. If it did then that individual is a disgrace and a bitter and twisted person. I will assume the benefit of the doubt here but I am paying a visit to the ASA to give them a present of some of our beers and perhaps the origin will come out in conversation.

&amp;quot;js_040&amp;quot;:1oeu5ni0 wrote: I sincerely hope the offending email to the ASA did not originate from anyone who contributes to this site. If it did then that individual is a disgrace and a bitter and twisted person. I will assume the benefit of the doubt here but I am paying a visit to the ASA to give them a present of some of our beers and perhaps the origin will come out in conversation.[/quote:1oeu5ni0]That sounds vaugely threatening. It is more than likely that it came from a member (considering the debate on this thread), but I certainly hope the ASA is not so unprofessional as to reveal the identity of complainants. People are entitled to query and complain as much as they like. This site is an open forum for beer lovers, but those members are free citizens entitled to follow whatever channels they see fit outside of this forum. As long as they are polite and respect each others opinions on this forum we, the admin team, have no gripe.

How could someone complain about your "brewed in the EU" claim though, as it is certainly true. <!-- s:? --><img src="{SMILIES_PATH}/icon_confused.gif" alt="" title="Confused" /><!-- s:? --> I'm sure it's not nice to have an organisation like that call about your products though, and I smypathise, but certainly nobody could question the brewed in the EU tag.