But auntie, what about beer?

I have always related to cookery and culinary-related programmes that the BBC provide, however, as a beer specialist myself for a large company, I feel it is my duty to comment on and try to understand the bias wine has in today’s programming.

Beer is the oldest-produced liquid-commodity in the world, dating back to 6000BC. Yet it is overlooked on programmes such as Saturday Kitchen by the fascination of wine. The complexity of beer lends itself to be better-suited to complementing food.  The use of malts, hops and yeast means that there are three flavour profiles to work with food, unlike wine where you just have the grape.

The diversity of styles in beer can help create a perfect marriage of flavours: from wheat beers to pilsners, and IPAs to stouts. The range of flavours and ingredients can easily shadow that of the usual white, red and rose.

It surprises me that the only programmes we have seen on beer, is a couple of middle-aged men travelling across the country in an effort to find a boozer where they can get drunk in and play some games… Now don’t get me wrong, this is entertaining television, but why cant there be programming that brings beer and brewing to life!  Why can’t Saturday Morning Kitchen pair a beer to their dishes rather than have some toff in Sainsbury’s prancing around the wine aisles? (Especially as James Martin confesses to enjoying a lovely glass of Duvel when cooking at home.)

I am keen to discover why the BBC has an infatuation with wine, and feels it is okay to disregard beer? There are around 167 wine producers in the UK, yet there are over 800 breweries, all of which use UK malt and barley to produce their beer. The UK brewing industry supports our local farmers through red tractor accreditation... surely this should be something to shout about?

The great British tradition of brewing is seeing a revival and it is key for the re-growth of the economy that we get behind our manufacturing. The revival in brewing can only be seen as a positive impact on today’s stuttering industry, where in Yorkshire alone, over three pubs every day are closing. I believe as Britain’s great institution, it is the BBC's duty to get behind the brewing industry and start portraying beer in a new light.

By introducing beer in cookery-related programming it can help in promoting sensible drinking and make consumers aware that beer is not the so called lynchpin of the “binge drinking” generation. This myth can be dispelled by the BBC doing away with the image of the local boozer and a landlord pulling a pint of beer every time a health and alcohol story hits the news.

We should be proud of our beer industry – in Yorkshire alone there are around 100 operational breweries, all of which use local farmers to source there ingredients. 

Beer is integral to our history and industry. Let’s celebrate that by the BBC leading the way... RESPONSIBLY!