Friday night I was joined by a few old friends for a discussion, and a good few swallows.
The topic for the night was beer. One or two friends thought England was the place for real connoisseurs of the true taste of beer. Years of making and drinking the hop made liquid, from light colours to the darkest brown and even black coloured beers. Tastes from pale and sweet to dark and sharp, bitter and sour. Guinness sour in a bottle and mothers milk when out of a barrel.
Draft Double Diamond and Marstons Light are so easy to drink, that you’re drunk as skunk after just a few.
A mans drink is Old Peculiar, and Directors needs a warning of hangovers to come. When you’re old or unwell a strong stout or a Mackerson is what you need to build you up, raise your spirits.
Never drink Barley Wine (its not a wine but a deadly strong beer). or Dragons Blood, a weak bitter with an evil taste.
In the morning start the day with a baby bottle of Bass. It draws the nerves together and begins the day with a zing.
Warm beer drunk in winter in the pub besides a blazing coal fire, the taste takes years before you become drawn to your own particular preference. Thats the real beer.
A yank who has recently joined our group was quick to dispute this ancient claim. Its the new chemical produced beers that are best and the best of them is a Bud.
We in the USA always produce the finest of ales.
Boris an ex German miner and now an ozzie train driver says lagers made in his homeland have always been considered the only drink in the Beerkellers of Europe.
Sitting quietly was a friend who left the UK over forty years ago, and is now more Aussie than the bogans in Broome. He agreed with everyone even accepting beer in Europe tastes better in a glass than a can or a bottle…however, he said, we in Australia know which beer is really the best…be it Hahns or Swans or Fosters or any other beer… sitting by the sea, or in the garden or out in the bush, when the sun is up and the temperature reaches 40 degrees. Just the thought of the amber liquid, so cold it makes your blood freeze, crossing your tongue and pouring down your throat…in a can or a bottle or even a paper bag is bloody heaven.
So we may not be connoisseurs but cold beer, good or bad… if an Aussie can drink it its bloody great.
The night ended, or rather the next morning we all agreed, bugger the discussion the night had been a grand end to the drought…and we all staggered off to recover for next fridays debate.
Suggested topics were politics or religion, but it was eventually decided on…that’s right… the best way to drink whiskey.
by TOG
