This weekend I have mostly been drinking Derbyshire ales.

Bass from the jug which is very flat. I am still not sure if it is straight from the barrel or dispensed into a jug first and left.

There was a beer festival in many of the pubs.

A great town for pubs but a desperate place to get a bite to eat. You are more or less forced to eat in your hotel. Restaurants are unappealing and pubs that do offer food stop serving very early.

Rip rig would have been a useful voice here. Do we still have East Midlands posters - Derbyshire, Nottinghamshire -on the forum?

Last edited by Kingston1an (2014-08-26 02:25:19)

Last night: an Australian red from South Australia's Wirra Wirra vineyard, a 2011 "Church Block" cabernet saignon - shiraz - merlot and mighty fine it was too, lacking that overipe and over alcohol content quality of branded Aussie wines. It was a wopping 14.5% though, but in a nice fireside cozy way. And I've still half a bottle left.

I've had that 48 hour flu that's going around and dead on time, it's starting to lift.

So I've made myself a extra dry martini with 10cl of Tanqueray and 2cl of the martini with 10 ice cubes, shaken and then poured in an absinthe glass. After a couple of sips, a splash of Fever Tree tonic water and I seem to be sweating out the last bit of fever as type. I'll be fine and dandy in the morning alright!

As one of my wine merchants delights in telling me, if you want the biggest bang for your buck as regards quality and price ratio, then you need to ditch the whisky as it has become a commodity for investors and instead take to cognac, armangac, calvados and plantation rum.

Last night I finished off with a Prunier XO cognac, that is better option to defeat a heavy cold/flu than any paracetomol or tramadol!

It's 2AM and I've awoke all alert and thinking about things, so I've poured myself an old style genever, Old Schiedam from the jenever museum here in the Netherlands. It's earthy and the colour of straw urine, the buzz is like whisky, with no gin qualities whatsoever, not a bad tipple this late hour. but then again I said that about Australian rum once.....

Welsh beers at The Bricklayers.

Purple Moose Ysgawen from Portmadoc was nice.

http://www.bricklayers-arms.co.uk/welsh-beer-festival-2014/

3 parts Dutch Courage label gin, to 1 part sweet and dry Martini in equal amounts, shaken with lots of ice.

You should of course, only shake in the general direction of Italy for ultimate Noel Coward experience.

The Dudley, served in a large tulip cocktail glass over ice:

1 part Chartreuse
2 parts gin
A double large dash of Madarine Napoleon
A dash of Agostara bitters
Yet another double dash, but this time dry Martini
Throw in a lemon slice
Top-up with soda water

I had two of these before dinner last night and I was flying, combined with a couple of glasses of red wine over my meal and I had a very pleasant sleep and awoke thoroughly refreshed with a very clear head.

I experimented with the concoction yesterday, decreased the Chartreuse and upped the Madarine Napoleon. Two before dinner, way, way too much. Half a bottle of red wine over dinner and I was off to bed two dances into Strictly Ballroom.