Drinking Earl Grey as there is no Lapsang Souchong left.

Feels sadly like drinking weak alco pop mixed drinks after having peaty single malts on tap.

One of the best, if not the best mainstream brewery in the Netherlands is Hertog Jan. Their pils is relatively safe to drink on tap, and not the standard yellow piss stained bleach you find in a lot of the bars here.

After my lengthy period of enforced sobrierty, I decided to have a bottle of the latest edition to their stable of fine ales: Oerblond. An interestingly bitter brew with wonderful heavy hops. Hertog Jan has clearly taken notice for the current vogue of immensely hoppy ales and decided to take inspiration from artisan brewers and deliver a similar product to the supermarkets. And I can say it worked.

Of course, after three months and a bit off the booze, my taste buds may well be somewhat biased. The effects of the 6.2% alcohol was extremely noticeable, it felt like that buzz of my youth and had I drank more, I would have been somewhat merrily pissed. As it was, I drank gently in a beer buzz haze with John Coltrane providing musical delight to my senses.

Last edited by 4F Hepcat (2011-10-06 11:16:15)

Enjoyed a bottle of Lambic beer last night: Lindeman's, Gueze.

For those  uninitiated, Lambic beer hails from Belgium and is traditional ale which relies on naturally occuring yeast in the environment to ferment. The Gueze style is a mix of two year old and younger ale and is aged for a much longer period in barrels than normal beers. As such it has a very distinctive taste that some people find off putting and almost like vomit.

In saying that, this beer is a wonderful example of the style, champagne like in its sour fizz and extremely refreshing. A good apertif, and although only 4.5%, its not a session ale. One is enough, I imagine it would become a bit sickly after four or five.

^Is that the ale that still has the sediment floating about in it?

Sprouted flax seed green juice. (as bitter as f*ck...always stirs me up).

Had some of the Wetherspoons ales during the week - including ones where they get an American brewer over to try their hand in an English brewery:-
Fat Head’s Yakima Sun
5% | Strong bitter
Matt Cole, from Fat Head’s Brewery, has travelled to Shepherd Neame Brewery (Kent) to brew this beer especially for this Wetherspoon real-ale festival.

Yesterday had local ales from a Kingston pub
Windsor & Eton Knight of the Garter was the best.  Dorking Gold was a bit tired.
http://www.thewilloughbyarms.com/2.html

A couple of pints at lunchtime and some well earned pints on a Friday night after a hard weeks work.

Seems reasonable to me. There is probably some Health and Safety recommendation that it contravenes but that applies to many things nowadays.

I'm strictly operating within the recommended alcohol units per week at the moment, that is, 21 units for me. Of course, there is another guideline that says 28 units is okay, exactly a bottle of whisky, smacks of lobbying by the distilling industry to me. I've started keeping a diary using this calculator:
http://www.cleavebooks.co.uk/scol/ccalcoh3.htm

If you're drinking Belgian ales, it quickly mounts up. There's a lot of beer shops by me specialising in Belgian ales, from the Trappist beers to the smaller micro-breweries and its a shame not to sample on the basis that its all too strong for session drinking. If you've been off the booze for three months like me, you don't need much to feel tipsy and that is a good thing.

I had a pint of Erdinger's alcohol free weissbrau yesterday, really refreshing and full of vitamin B12. This now replaces Bavaria as my alcohol free beer of choice.

Had a late dinner.

* sprouted buckwheat green juice
* sprouted alfalfa juice
* sprouted sesame seed milk
* digestive enzymes
* green algae - chlorella
* blue/green algae - spirulina

Don't need to eat much these days. Only two very small meals a day. Before l sprout the seeds l could actually fit them in one hand, yet l am gaining muscle and strength since eating under 1,000 calories a day. l survive largely on sunlight and sound vibrations these days, that is my food.

^No, its no more that 4 units a day for a man, 2.6 for a lady. Anything more is considered a binge. Of course, that's utter nonsense prepared by health workers who have seen the ravages of alcoholism at first hand.

The facts are well known, when it comes to drink, one is always going to inform the doc that you drink less than what you do, therefore the safe limits are likely to be skewered down and overly conservative.