Friday night booziness

My Friday nights usually involve a beer with the lads after work and then quickly home to take the Missus out for dinner. Last Friday night was supposed to be no different, but it saw me getting pretty smashed at home by myself before going to dinner. A sad thing I know, but I dealt with it.
The story starts with me salivating at my desk at 4.30pm hanging to get down to the pub for some more of the Tetley's Dark Mild which I had sampled over lunch time. I had a slight problem though - the office had cleared out and I would have to drink alone. Usually not a problem as I know several regulars at a few of the pubs around the office, but since having a borderline argument with one such twat over my lunchtime pint I retreated home collecting a few bottles from Waitrose on the way. Once home, I contacted the Missus to see how long she will be whilst I poured myself a pint of St Peter's IPA.
"I am playing winglady for Tracy*" was the reply from the other end of my mobile, "she has met a really hot guy and I'm facilitating. I am having one more drink."
Fair enough I thought, Tracy is a nice enough 30 something spinster who deserves to be happy too. So I booted up my PC and happily watched episode 6 of "Oz and James" on BBC iPlayer. I had to pause my viewing twice; once to visit the dunny, the second time to get another beer. It seemed as good a time as any to crack the bottle of Cooper's Vintage Ale 2007 reserve that I picked up in Whole Foods a couple of weeks ago. This beer was good. Actually very good, and it was nice to taste a beer brewed with Australian water. It's the terroir I tell myself while absorbing Oz Clark's attempts to intellectualize beer while James May tries to pass whitty criticisms. The iplayer viewing ends and it is time for another beer. They were going down rather easy. First the 5.5% IPA followed by the 7.5% Australian strong ale - a Fuller's ESB was exactly what I needed. There was nothing interesting on the TV so I watched the second episode of "Ross Kemp: Return to Afghanistan." I check my watch, still no sign of the missus. It's pushing 8.30 now so I give her a call - she is on the tube will be home in 20 minutes. Great I scheme, rubbing my hands together like an evil villain - plenty of time to drink that bottle of Budvar dark I have stashed in the vegetable crisper.
By the time the missus arrived home I was starting to feel a little tipsy, and she was not in much better condition. I decided a curry would be the cure, so we trotted out to my favourite London restaurant: "The Raj of India" - home of the best Kingfisher this side of Favisham. By the time we left the restaurant I was pretty pissed, but boy did I have fun even if I was drinking alone for most of the evening. I'll let you know if Tracy ended up pulling when more info comes to hand - it is probably more interesting than my Friday night was, but I thought I would share anyway.

* Name changed to protect the innocent!

Beercasting

I tried to listen to a few different beer podcasts a few months ago but could not really find anything that was really entertaining. The best one, and the only one I still listen to is Craftbrewer Radio hosted by my fellow countrymen Graham Sanders and Ian the Cellerman. Quite frankly the show sucks and Sander's ego is bigger than... well bigger than any witty noun I think of right now! Why do I still listen? Well I do like that it has an Australian perspective, and tells the story as it is. For far to long the Australian beer related internet community has become a hot bed of myths and bullshit. A quick browse over at Australia's largest community, aussiehomebrewer.com yields a whole lot of rubbish posts and stuff that is basically untrue. At least Graham and Ian are outspoken enough to cut through the bullshit and get to the truth - a feat which often leaves them high and dry with the established community.

One thing that Craftbrewer Radio does that really annoys me though, is Graham's insistence on mispronouncing just about every brewing related term.

Graham, if you are reading this wort is pronounced wert. Say these words: world, word, worth. Now say wort? It is not that difficult, and it is logical. Other words he regularly butchers are Hefe as in the German word for yeast. He thinks it's heff, rather than huffa. He also has problems with Schwarz, claiming it is swash rather than schvartz. Anyhow the main one I wanted to identify before moving on is rauch. Graham thinks it is roush, sad isn't it. Next time you wish to say this word, you should think of the German word reich, and substitute the 'ei' for 'au'. Makes sense now doesn't it Graham??

Speaking of which, I picked up a bottle of Schlenkerla rauchbier (6.5% abv) from Whole Foods last weekend. I had never had a Bamburg smoked lager before and after my olfactory senses became familiar with the bacon aroma, I really enjoyed this. I think it would be the perfect beer to drink at Christmas in Australia when we tend to favour cold cuts of smoked meat rather than the traditional roast. It would be an ideal match. I pray to St Arnou that one day Sander's will sort out his words, but until then, I will just shut up and drink another beer.

http://www.schlenkerla.de/

Australia vs the USA

I am pretty busy this week and do not have time to write long witty posts about controversial issues. What I will do though is give a teaser into an upcoming post. At Whole Foods, Kensington on Saturday I bought a couple of bottles of an old favourite of mine - Little Creatures pale ale. I have been told by many people that Little Creatures pale ale (LCPA) is almost identical to Sierra Nevada pale ale (SNPA). I disagree and although similar, I think they are totally different beasts. I plan to pick up a bottle of SNPA from Tesco during my weekly shop this evening so I can reveal the truth. That's right, a side by side comparison of the two beers. Stay tuned.

Bière de Garde

Does anybody know where I can get my hands on some Trois Monts in London? Since reading about French farmhouse ales in Garrett Oliver's "Brewmaster's Table", I have been on a mission to seek it out to no avail. I have some Saison Dupont to take care of my Belgian farmhouse needs, but have had no luck on the French side. In my search I did luck across a whole stack of other gems at Whole Foods, Kensington - I will elaborate further upon these in the future. For now I have my sights on 3 Monts.