Box of Brilliant Beers

I was given a box of zero alcohol beers as a birthday gift. Styled as Another Box of Brilliant Beers. Presented by Beer Hawk.  Just started sampling; over the next couple of weeks I thought you'd be interested in my tasting comments (it'll be the last couple,of weeks by the time you read them).

It's worth noting that up to 0.5% alcohol is defined as 'alcohol free', although supermarket self service checkouts don't seem capable of recognising that and require the same authorisation as full alcohol beers do.

Jupiter 0.0%: A lightish but fairly hoppy Belgian beer. I like it.

Jever Fun 0.3%: This Pilsener is dry and unexciting with not much taste.

Maisel's Weisse 0.5%: A wheat beer that has a very fruity taste - Ocado calls it a banana flavour and I can definitely taste that. I really like it for its flavour but for me it's let down by being excessively fizzy. But another plus in this case is it's a 500ml bottle!

Bitburger Pils 0.05%: A slight pleasant sourness on this Bavarian beer. Perfectly drinkable.

Franziskaner Weissbier 0.5%: A flavourful, slightly fruity beer which is one of the best so far. 500ml!

Wheesht 0.0%: This is the real deal! By which I mean it's very much to my taste. A dark ale brewed at Harviestoun Brewery in Scotland. A great taste with a hint of chocolate. 'Wheesht' is apparently old Scottish slang for 'shh'! I don't imagine they mean to keep quiet about this product! I discovered you can buy a 12 bottle case of this for £12.60, although (a) there's a flat rate £5.95 for shipping orders of less than £50 and (b) the bottles are only 330ml. Needs a bit of thinking about.

Tiny Rebel Clwb Tropica 0.5%: Very fruity and fizzy pale ale brewed in Newport, Wales. A nice light drink for those who like a lager top. Although bubbly out of the can, it quietens down quite quickly.

Ghost Ship 0.5%: A well-known pale ale brewed in Suffolk by Adnams. Pour this into a wide-bottomed glass and you will see the gorgeous amber colour. Matched by the strong, earthy taste.

Lucky Saint 0.5%: I've come across this before. Brewed in Bavaria for Not Another Beer company, it's a light lager very similar to Heineken Zero. Not my favourite.

Leffe 0.0%: A Belgian brew which has quite a nice sweet taste and very little fizz. I think there is added sugar, as the calorie content is 40 per 100ml, compared with say my favourite St Peters Without at 29. Despite this, I could drink more of it, although it's not as hoppy as I prefer; just different for an occasional early evening drink.

Zero Five 0.5%: Brewed at Thornbridge Brewery in Derbyshire, this is fruity - apple? mango? - and very fizzy. Pleasant enough but not in the Top Five for me.

Hoegaarden 0.05%: A wheat beer brewed "with coriander orange peel" in Belgium. I really like the wheat beer taste and this one is not excessively bubbly.

My top five from these? Not in order, I could happily drink the two wheat beers - Hoegaarden and Maisel's - as well as Franziskaner, Wheesht and Ghost Ship.

I've recently bought a mixed case of my favourite St Peter's Without but I'll be looking out for these five.

Thanks for the birthday present Dan!

Wet December

I always thought the notion of such ideas as a Dry January were absurd. Marketing ploys or, occasionally as with Movember, charitable endeavours. There is nothing in this world that would persuade me to grow a moustache

or commit to a whole month without alcohol - or cheese, mushrooms, pizza, whatever.

I drink little alcohol but, in the approach to Christmas, it feels like I should prepare for the festive season. It would be churlish to decline offers of champagne, a good wine and a glass of brandy, so my body needs to be ready. Hence Wet December. I'll be looking for a bottle of Armagnac tomorrow, together with some decent Rioja. No alcoholic beer though - too fattening.

UPDATE: Couldn't find any Armagnac so went for Drambuie instead. More Christmassy anyway. I used to like Tia Maria so might get some of that too. Can you get decaff Tia Maria? News to follow in due course.

Shout out for St Peter's Without

So yesterday, switching from tea to beer at half time enabled England to win their match. I've not yet seen an acknowledgement from the team of my part in the victory. But I do want to acknowledge the beer's part.

I was a given a couple of bottles of St Peter's Without, a craft zero alcohol beer brewed in Beccles in the county of Suffolk, UK. I only drink occasional alcohol, being more partial to zero alcohol beers. This is a particularly tasty example, very hoppy and flavourful - well done St Peter's Brewery! - so I bought a further supply.  They do four varieties of zero alcohol beer: Original, Gold, Organic and Elderberry & Raspberry, with a mixed case of 12x500ml for £21.00. I'm definitely going to give that a try - unless of course they decide to donate one in a sponsorship deal😁. They do have interesting chunky bottles:

I'm not sure if other Saints have their own breweries but I guess there has always been a tradition of monks and religious orders brewing and distilling. Not sure why, although Arthur Guinness was a devout Christian who starting brewing beer "to wean people off spirits". Works for me. But does the brewery have Papal permission for use of the Saint Peter nomenclature? Perhaps copyright protection expired a couple of thousand years ago, so I could have called this blog Saint Peter without problems. Imagine that, St Peter blogging today!

Heard of Ninkasi? She was the Sumerian Goddess of Beer around 1800 BCE and her poem A Hymn to Ninkasi is a clay tablet that was simply a beer recipe. Not kidding; it's true. Here is a bit:

You are the one who soaks the malt in a jar,
The waves rise, the waves fall.
Ninkasi, you are the one who soaks the malt in a jar,
The waves rise, the waves fall.

You are the one who spreads the cooked mash on large reed mats,
Coolness overcomes,
Ninkasi, you are the one who spreads the cooked mash on large reed mats,
Coolness overcomes,

You are the one who holds with both hands the great sweet wort,
Brewing [it] with honey [and] wine
(You the sweet wort to the vessel)
Ninkasi, (…)(You the sweet wort to the vessel)

I guess it's not easy to be certain about translating ancient Sumerian tablets.

My epicurean day

08:00 Cereal of bran flakes and Kellogg's hazelnut and chocolate crunchy nut granola with semi skimmed dairy milk. Cup of decaffeinated tea with semi skimmed dairy milk.

10:30 Cup of instant decaffeinated coffee with semi skimmed dairy milk.

12:30 Thai chicken and lemongrass soup - not home made obviously since I don't, to my knowledge, have any lemongrass in my garden. Or chickens. Or Thais. Two glasses of home made banana/oat/whey protein/cocoa/peanut butter smoothie.

13:15 Cup of instant decaffeinated coffee with semi skimmed dairy milk, with two squares of Lindt "a touch of sea salt" dark chocolate.

16:00 Cup of Jasmine tea and one maple and pecan plait (courtesy of Lidl bakery).

17:30 Hors d'oeuvres of salmon and king prawn sushi with four lemon and herb olives.

19:00 Dinner of one cod and prawn Thai style fishcake (not home made since I don't like the smell of fish in my kitchen) with Marvellous tomatoes, spring onions, wild rocket followed by a fresh fruit salad of strawberries and grapes with mango, papaya and passion fruit yoghurt. One bottle of zero alcohol beer. 

20:00 Cup of percolated decaffeinated coffee with a dash of hazelnut milk.

21:00 Second cup of percolated decaffeinated coffee with a dash of hazelnut milk and a small glass of Armagnac.

Total carbs: too many to count.

Satisfaction rating: 9.5/10 (marks deducted for not the best yoghurt in my fridge - and it's too strong for the fruit - and for instant coffee).

Nigel, this is definitely not an essay. And Coco says "where pictures?"

Food and drink dilemmas

I'm drinking peppermint tea. Or is it just peppermint? That's what it says on the box. I thought "tea" was a generic term for drinks you make by pouring boiling water over leaves. But maybe tea is a protected term in some post-colonial Anglo-Indian trade treaty. Or maybe peppermint is different from peppermint tea? Who knows.

Should you make coffee with water which is boiling, nearly boiling or what? (This is obviously not for those who use the pesky machines). How do you get a kettle to produce water nearly boiling? I guess most people are like me and try to time it to the microsecond but miss out and...it boils. Is post boiled water the same as nearly boiled? Does anyone notice any difference?

Should you put the jam first on a scone, or cream first? This depends, of course, on whether you are in Cornwall or Devon. The answer, as we Cornishmen know all too well is....hang on, let me check -
in Cornwall it's jam first (correct), in Devon cream first (incorrect).

Should we decant wine from screwtop bottles? Wrong question - should we even be drinking from screwtop bottles? (I mean wine in screwtop bottles; don't get the impression I drink from the bottle) Corks good, screws bad, as George Orwell said.

And there's the age-old problem of eating spaghetti. Do you twirl the spag around a fork against the side of a spoon, cut into pieces with the spoon against a fork, suck in a genteel fashion (is that a sexist term? If so, add ladylike for balance) or just duck your head and slurp?

Don't get me going on chopsticks. Whoever invented those? I mean the person, not the nation. What ridiculous implements. I get that maybe they pre-dated knives, forks and spoons but now? That's just silly.

Enjoy your dinner, people! Or should it be supper? I think one is for a meal you cook for family and friends and the other involves eating in a restaurant but I don't care enough to check this. It's just food! And drink. Obviously.