Not an entirely successful trip, I admit. I didn’t sleep last night and I felt so tired I didn’t get the maximum pleasure from the experience.
[image image_id=”2033″ align=”left”]However, the trip merits a mention, not for the excellent [link2post id=”380″]Smoked Bock[/link2post] (my first beer), nor the characterful, fruity and refreshing Boon Kriek (my second beer, it really was damned good example of cherry-infused lambic), but for their ‘special’ beer which will only be on draught for a limited period of time. It is Meantime Brewery India Pale Ale. Long time followers of this spume of drivel may recall that when [link2post id=”1180″]I reviewed it I said it is my favourite beer ever[/link2post]. I still stick by that assertion; indeed I’ll go as far saying that the draught version is better than the bottled variety. Consequently, this was the most compelling beer experience I’ve had. It is a powerful, personality-filled, complex beer for the noble drinker who is strong of mind and driven by the quest for quality experiences. I bloody loved it and you will too. Get down The Union in Greenwich and order a pint as soon as you can manage it.
On the subject of ‘managing it’ I will point something out before Peter or the partner start mocking me for being a lightweight. I was so spent and generally shagged out that after half of my pint of IPA, and I will claim as a partial defence that two beers followed by half a pint of 7.5% beer added to the feeling of being rather knackered*, that I had to pass the rest of the beer to the partner to finish off. When he’d finished that I was permitted to stagger home and have a five hour nap. I feel a much improved after my afternoon kip.
[image image_id=”3196″ align=”right”]* Three beers at lunchtime? One of them 7.5% (albeit only a half of that)? I suppose this means that, according to the Health Select Committee report on alcohol, I am drinking at a hazardous or harmful level. This is laughable rubbish, of course. Like the vast majority of people I have a very healthy relationship with alcohol; one trip to the boozer a week is going to do me more good than harm. If the control-freak, self-appointed, self-serving moral booze police of this country read my blogs I suppose they would think I needed locking up for my own protection… Gits.
Well yes, David, you will not live this day down for a long time. Your most compelling beer experience”, and you only managed half of it. Beer for “the noble drinker who is strong of mind”? Uh hum. An interesting observation. Daniel, who was struggling to keep his eyes open at first, perked up more and more as the beers slipped down. David took the more conventional route for someone who has been up all night and then drunk three beers.
But it was an entertaining afternoon. I thought you would would write more about Boon Kriek, David, one of the best fruit beers I’ve tasted. Not the horrible cherryade (spelling?) type slop you have been known to drink. This was actually nice. More sour cherries, like a central European strudel kind of thing.
My wheat beer and pale ale were both terrific. And the IPA was indeed amazing. Yes, definitely better than the bottled version. Best beer experience ever? Too different from, say, the wonderful Timothy Taylor’s Landlord for such comparisons to have much meaning. But while it’s there, I’ll be going back for more.