Comments on: The Social Media Companion to The Oxford Companion of Beer

By: Gordon Ryan

Gordon Ryan — Wed, 02 Nov 2011 15:18:36 +0000

I think you nailed it in your assertion that this book is a leap forward for the craft industry, its community, and its culture. I don’t think anyone is trying to say that the information in the book is to be taken as a sort of coda and to be honored as the source of our collective beer knowledge. But it does serve to demonstrate to the world that there is a thriving passion for the art and craft of beer and that intelligent, creative people have taken it upon themselves to become among the most passionate.

The videos, as you mentioned, are fantastic. Mr. Oliver is, of course, a charismatic guy, so he’s certainly a pleasure to hear from.

By: erica

erica — Wed, 02 Nov 2011 06:02:01 +0000

“Beer contains history, beer contains culture, and beer contains some of the more amusing moments of a lot of our lives.”……so true

By: BUSSMANN

BUSSMANN — Wed, 26 Oct 2011 17:06:37 +0000

Thanks for the Youtube links… I think the Oxford Companion is a great piece of reference, but with everything this big there will be criticism (and some of it is warranted (for sure)). It was a huge undertaking to put it together and I am glad I own it.

By: Vince Tripp

Vince Tripp — Tue, 25 Oct 2011 23:25:30 +0000

Great post, I wasn’t aware of the videos. Thanks

By: John

John — Tue, 25 Oct 2011 19:48:54 +0000

Especially after reading the rebuttals to Oliver’s comments on criticism, I definitely don’t think people have been overly harsh. Not only are myths being perpetuated as scholarly research, Oliver has shown a lack of care in how history is presented in his, “just because I can’t point to evidence, they had to be making mead, etc. People were fermenting whatever they could get their hands on!” rebuttal.

I’m looking forward to seeing how the beer community errata wiki unfolds.

By: Dale Miskimins

Dale Miskimins — Tue, 25 Oct 2011 19:16:00 +0000

Thanks for this article Ashley. I wasn’t aware of the YouTube videos. Perhaps some people were too quick to criticize this project and overly harsh!

By: Lisa

Lisa — Tue, 25 Oct 2011 18:51:08 +0000

And it’s like anything that’s peer-reviewed – it really depends who the reviewers are, and how much time they actually have to do the work. I recognize that certain errors that are huge to me (e.g. the nitpicky archaeological ones that no one else without a few archaeology degrees is ever going to mind) are not going to be very big deals in the grand scheme of things, and like any reference work, it’s going to evolve over time.

It’s really nice to see a publisher put together these videos to accompany the book launch – I’ve always found it somewhat ironic that academic publishers (some of whom I’ve worked for in the past) are much more forward-thinking than the huge for-profit one (name redacted) that I work for at present.