Reading: Pete Brown, "Three Sheets to the Wind"

I had to write about Mr Pete Brown in this blog as a sign of saluting.  It is he who demonstrates so well that beer is not only for drinking but could be a subject for writing about.  I found his book "Man Walks into a Pub" in Page One (Festival Walk) several years ago, bought it and read it right away.  It was so well-researched that you did not expect drinking beer is so complicated from the perspective of culture and social history.

In those years in-between, I continued to drink a lot, visiting pubs regularly.  Eventually I have a more peaceful mood in the recent year, and I could search for more of his works (in a pity, his books could not be easily found in any bookshop in HK).  And "Three Sheets to the Wind" is his second book on beer-drinking, first published in 2006.

The sub-title of the book, "300 bars in 13 countries: one man's quest for the meaning of beer", basically tells all about its theme.  I admired this man, who did his extensive traveling in a cause surely not shared by many. It is indeed interesting or intriguing to ask, in a certain geographical or cultural context, what beer drinking means.  It is a pity that Brown did not come to Hong Kong (he did go to Shanghai, which formed a very interesting chapter), and guess what he would find out about drinking in this metropolitan city.  I do think the phenomenon of drinking in those "upstairs bars" will sure be a striking experience to him.

Brown travelled to Barcelona and Madrid of Spain, Czech Republic, Dublin of Ireland, Belgium, US, Australia, Japan, China, Oktoberfest (Munich), Denmark, and eventually back to Barnsley of England.  He visited breweries, bars and met PR persons of various breweries, drinkers, etc.  I enjoyed the reading so much and I imagined I will actually visit those places, with my buddy, of course.

It is not possible to retrace the journey of Brown here, as it was too fascinating.  I could only reiterate the paragraphs he talked about treasuring beer, that I shared so much:

I'm not suggesting we do away with the pint - our national symbol - but we really do need to treat beer with a bit more respect, and celebrate its diversity and variety.  If someone offers us a beer that's 6 per cent ABV and tells us that it should be drunk slowly in small measures, we should listen.

Yet the best drinking is about a middle state.  It's about having had too much to drive, feeling the effects, being more relaxed, loquacious and funny, but still being a long way off losing control of your faculties, doing anything you definitely wouldn't do sober, or forgetting your address, your pants or your belief in a basic level of decency and respect.  In English, we'd usually describe this middle state as a 'bit pissed', defining it only in relation to the greater state of intoxication we soon hope to achieve. ...

In most of the places I've visited this middle state is an end in itself, and comes with its own special name.  The Spanish have la chispa.  The Germans have Gemutklichkeit.  The Danes have hygge.  The Irish have the craic.  None of these words can be translated directly into English, but when people helpfully try to do it for us, they always use words like cosiness, friendship, warmth and buzz.

The more you read Brown's passages, the more you find drinking fascinating and enjoyable.  And I am now very easily reach this state of cosiness when I just drink a a glass of good beer, and that's really wonderful.

Cheers, fellow serious beer drinkers!!