The following arrived in this morning's email. I'll reserve comment except to say that a) nowhere do I presume to call myself an "expert", and b) the moment I have an opportunity to enjoy beer in Bohemia, I'll be there.
Dear Sir, or Beer Expert (hardly),
I was astounded by your audacity to call yourself a beer
expert, or at least, by your labelling the list of breweries
the best beers...
There is no such thing as the best beer, the impression
one could get from glancing at the list. I made up my mind
to judge your effort as poor and misleading from the very
simple fact that you arrived at some abslute judgments
from drinking (tasting) one beer and that from a bottle,
rather than dispensed artfully from a pipe in a beerglass
of proper size and shape. Bottled beer is an abomination
just one step better than canned beer.
Please do me a favor and stop promoting obscure breweries.
You remind me of the wine promoters, who can describe wine
in the most poetic terms of tastes that have nothing to do
with the ultimate value of wine, drinking from bottles
that travelled half way around the world. You know well
what will happen to a bottle of wine, don’t you? Exactly
the same will happen to a bottle of beer, transforming it
to a liquid very close to a genuine Bud brewed somewhere
in a stainless steel monstrosity in New Jersey.
Come here, to Bohemia, parched on a nice warm day. Then
you’ll see what beer realy is, and never mind the subtle
taste that your buds revoke after a Big Mac.
Regards from J.E.Kalfus
Czech Republic