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I'm sure we would have heard by now. <!-- s:( --><img src="{SMILIES_PATH}/icon_sad.gif" alt="" title="Sad" /><!-- s:( -->

Unless, of course, Séan's being held for assault and they're not commenting so as not to prejudice the case against him.

Yes, that must be it. <!-- s:D --><img src="{SMILIES_PATH}/icon_biggrin.gif" alt="" title="Very Happy" /><!-- s:D -->

Or maybe he flipped out cos all the had in the hospitality suite was Bud, and he's now in the Gods...

I've been out of circulation due to the fact that I'm on call and everything decided to fall apart two nights in a row.

I got to talk alright and put forward some views, but all in all it was pretty unbalanced.

The bloke who was proposing home-brew as a money saving idea was actually a brewer of 20 years experience and he brought some wine and beer with him for the panel.

However, the beer was a real ale, of some sort, while the wine was a kit wine.

The first words out of a panellists mouth were from Ben Dunn slating the very idea, on the grounds that we have a binge drinking culture, so teaching people how to make cheaper beer is completely irresponsible.

The other two were less rabid but not exactly overwhelmed, by the idea either.

In the audience, there were three “experts” who were all wine buffs, two from offies and one from a restaurant. The restaurateur actually had the cheek to say that she thought that home-brew was a bad idea because, when you drink at home, outside the supervised environment of a pub or restaurant, you are in more danger.

Another audience member told a tale of woe, about how the home-brew sanitiser he used back in the seventies, gave him asthma, which left me and Linda Southern, from Grape n Grain in the pro camp. I did my best but we were pretty badly up against it.

In the end Ben Dunn said “Asking him to vote for home-brew would be like asking a Turkey to vote for Christmas”(?!?!), while the other two were of the opinion that it sounds like a great hobby, but not as a money saver. Which is a position I happen to agree with.


All in all, Not Highly Recommended.

So you don't think we'll be inundated with new members seeking recipes for clone Dutch Gold?

Well done anyway. Looking forward to seeing the show. Did they give you an airdate?

I held off commenting on this thing because I didn't want to appear too negative, but from what you describe, it turned out exactly as I feared it would. There is just no way to have a balanced debate on daytime TV, and the Irish attitude towards alcohol is just awful. This is the reason why I mentioned in an earlier thread that I don't put homebrewing on my CV. It just shouts proto alcoholic and there is little chance of convincing many of anything different. It's a shame really, and the ignorance of the panel on the show angers me greatly. If I had been there I would have had difficulty remaining civil.

I though something like this would happen either the bring drink culture card would be played or vested interests would knock it.

A could of points I thought where strange, Benn Dunn lecturing on home brewing considering past discretion with the white stuff and he is also form a shopping empire that has placed a big part in bringing drinking et home

The second was from the experts, how many people are injured in fights in pubs or injured because the bar failed to police how much others are drinking and then kicking them onto the street when they become a nuisance.

It probably a good time to distance home brewing from the ideas of making cheep beer, it more or a benefit of getting good beer and interesting past time that happens to be cheap <!-- s:D --><img src="{SMILIES_PATH}/icon_biggrin.gif" alt="" title="Very Happy" /><!-- s:D -->