Oooh.....SA Road Trip! Sounds like a cool place to spend a few bucks and drink a few pints.

Say when!

Soon, my friend....soon...

Freetail Brewery would be a great place to have a mini Texas Plimemeet.

It was the guest at the pub last night and I did avail myself of it freely.

Wonderful beer.

And of course their advertising campaign plays on a certain aspect of the name's heritage.

I feel I have been a bit slack recently in educating people about the wonders of many beers on offer. This is because I realized drinking several bottles of strong beer every night does give one a belly. So tonight, I will talk about the one of the biggest beer-gut givers.. Lager

Now, As someone who does enjoy getting drunk every now and again, I feel Lager does its job, as it does envelope you in a warm, happy coat of merryness, and allows you to speak bulls**t till the cows come home, and feel no shame.

The main lager I drink (due to special offers at the moment ) is Kronnenburg 1664, which is brewed in France from what I can mainly tell, is sugar. To have a good lager you have to aim for the middle. Good refreshment balanced with a good flavour (that's not too strong or foul so you will drink many cans) balanced by how many cans you can buy compared to your competitor. Being a supporter of my local beers, I still refuse to drink Carling (which is the number one brewed beer where I live) as I consider this, quite frankly, piss. The same as Americans consider things like Bud Light and so forth. You only ever buy it because someone else will drink it.

I have a strange relationship with Lager as I would much rather spend the night drinking interesting beers instead of generic lagers, but when I am just in the mood to get tipsy, I'm afraid the lighter taste of Lager (and the price) always attracts me more than some good beers. Plus, cans are easier to open and are lighter to carry than a load of beers to aid you on your journey to tipsyness.

following on from above, some lagers can be good. If you are in the need for refreshment, Lagers (as long as they are cold) make a damned good, refreshing drink. As long as it;s not Stella Artois (lovingly known as Wife Beater) or Carling, you get fewer looks from people. The more obscure sounding your lager, the less bad press you will receive :p (one of my favourites is Faxe. It doesn't taste great, but it comes in Litre (more than a quart) cans, and it freaks people out!

Ok, Tonight, for the first time, I am actually facing trepidation against something that I am about to drink...



Black Beer (oh dear). My first taste of the dreaded Malt Liquor. And to be honest, the taste is Dreadful :P It's thick, black, syrupy, malty, and FOUL! And the bottle it came in is big...

Mathers 'Black Beer', Yorkshire, Malt Liquor, 8.5%. Thick, black, heavy. sweet smell, syrupy, cough medicine taste with a malty aftertaste, aand a lingering desire not to drink anymore.

This stuff really lives up to it's name. It's black. Very Black. When I poured it out, the thickness actually shocked me, as it clung to the side of the glass. I actually held back tasting this as it looks damned scary!

On finally tasting it, it was as I expected. Foul tasting cough syrup! I like most cough syrups (like Jeiger and so fourth, a mans cough syrup!) but this one is just sickly sweet, with an aftertaste of malted barley, which I suppose lends its name. this is the most eponymous beer I have had to date, it really lives up to it's name! The back of the bottle suggests that you mix it with something, but the thing it advises you to mix it with is either Whiskey or Rum, which I really don't advise :P The other thing it says to mix it with is lemonade, which I DO advise! Infact, I think I might just go and water this down with some lemonade....

Ahem! What's wrong with a malty aftertaste?

Shandyman.


:)