Guido Fawked – Miliband Wasn’t Drinking Bitter

The perpetually thirsty Paul Staines and his rabble at the Guido Fawkes blog thought they were on to a winner after Mil The Younger visited a microbrewery in Hackney last week and sampled the product. With a nod to one of their heroes, the legendarily foul mouthed Paul Dacre, they proudly announced “The Man Who Hated Bitter”, claiming that Miliband had not enjoyed the brew he sampled.

Nah, I'm not as interested in craft beer as getting ratarsed, shit no, news, yeah, about getting legless, bollocks no, politicians bang to rights. While getting pissed. Oh sod it

Sadly, quite apart from the debateable evidence – the video doesn’t prove anything one way or the other – the story is another example of the Fawkes folks failing to do their homework. A little application of the ancient and mysterious act known as “five minutes’ Googling” followed by a little background reading, tells you that what was offered to the Labour leader was not “bitter”.

I don't drink bitter, cos I'm on telly!

Miliband had visited the Five Points Brewing Company, whose range of beers, as befits a craft brewery, is not constrained by labels such as “bitter”, although they do produce a pale beer, Five Points Pale, which could be described thus, although that would be to do it an injustice, as this is a meeting of British and North American styles, using hops from the US West Coast.

Wrong again, lads ...

But that was not the beer sampled by the Labour leader, as the Five Points Twitter feed confirmed – on several occasions. It is clear from the video, and all the photos, that the beer was too dark to be called “bitter”. True, there are darker bitters produced – Barnsley Bitter from the Oakwell Brewery is one such – but this was yet darker. That should have given the Fawkes rabble a clue.

... here's the correct information

Or rather, it should have given a clue to anyone who knew their beer styles, which The Great Guido gives every sign of not doing. What was offered to Ed Miliband was Hook Island Red, a red rye ale brewed to an ABV of 6%, promising “lots of interesting tastes and aromas”. This, just in case the Fawkes folks have still not taken in the information, is not “bitter”.

There are pale beers brewed to that strength – lots of IPAs, such as Out Of Step IPA from Crewe’s own Offbeat Brewery at 5.8%, could at a stretch be called strong “bitter” ales – but anyone calling what Miliband sampled “bitter” would get laughed out of court by even semi-serious craft beer lovers. For people who consume so much in the way of alcoholic beverages, Staines and Co are worryingly clueless.

So back to the classroom for The Great Guido. Another fine mess, once again.