A post about beer finally

First, here is a stiched up wide angle photo of my dorm room. You can see I've started a small bottle collection up top there. So far I've had some bad and some good; really, a lot of the stuff seems to have a bit of an off flavour just from being stored in the bottle warm at the local Asda under fluorescent lights... but I at least can get an idea of the flavor. Some of my 'favorites' (of the bottle stuff) is the Well's John Bull Bitter, Greene King IPA, and Deuchars IPA. Now I know the first two come from big-ass breweries in England, but too bad, they were pretty good.

Now Deuchars IPA is a good story, as its rather local (from the Caledonian Brewery here in Edinburgh) and widely available as a real cask ale. Quite a good standard beer to have, its nice and hoppy but balanced... not over hopped like the American version of the style. I also love that the beer over here is lower in alcohol. Beer over 4.5% or so is considered "strong". Most beers I've had the pleasure of trying are on average 4% abv. Now I know most people are going to throw their hands up and say "well thats stupid, you have to spend more to get drunk!"... but the point of drinking good beer is to be able to enjoy it. Honestly, if I can find a good beer at 3.2-3.8% that has lots of flavour I'll get it, as I can drink lots of good stuff without getting as drunk.

Anyway, Friday was a good day. At around 1:30 in the afternoon we arrived at an excellent cask ale pub called the Blue Blazer where several fine cask beers were tried. Then back to the university for the Scotch Whisky Society's first tasting of the school year, which involved about 30 people drinking 6 bottles of scotch. There was Glenkinchie 12, Glenmorangie 10, as well as my favorite for the night Carol Ila 12. Then back to another good cask ale pub downtown for more of the same...

Luckily in my advancing years I decided at about quarter to midnight to take an escape route home with another fellow rather than going to the next pub. I'm sure by doing so I saved myself quite a bit of hangover... I was also trying to beat having to take the night bus home, which costs £2.50 rather than the regular £1! I've also become cheap now that I don't have a job.

Anyway, I feel bad for not writing down any reviews of the beers... next time. I know I enjoyed the "Three Sisters" which was a nice Scottish style beer, perhaps a 70 or 80 shilling beer but with more hop character than one would expect. Quite sweet, well balanced, and interesting enough to make a mark in my mind.

Cheers!