Signing off 2021 with a climate record

I see that the record has been broken for the warmest new years eve on record today (in the UK). The temperature in Somerset (Glastonbury pictured above) reached a balmy 15.8 Centigrade, which is ridiculous if you think about it, practically tee shirt weather in the UK in late December! 

We spent a pleasant week in Somerset back in July this year (feels an age ago) and the night time temperature probably hovered around this mark, so to get it in December is truly exceptional! Of course exceptional things happen all the time but when it comes to climate superlatives it's statistically noticeable that they're coming thicker and faster than ever before as our climate averages keep notching up every year. Seems probable that we'll start seeing more severe changes and effects from now on (if we will ever lift ourselves out of this pesky pandemic!), out of the frying pan into the fire you could say! Oh well, I'm sure things will work out for the best, don't panic, have another cup of tea and try to forget the cricket! 

Cheers to 2022!

 

Craft books

Got a good book for Christmas written by beer guru and author Pete Brown penned in 2020 it's called "Craft Beer an argument" and is about the current craft beer scene and various attempts to define (or not) what this overloaded term actually means. I won't spoil the conclusion but essentially the strap line of the book is "Why the term 'Craft Beer' is completely undefinable, hopelessly misunderstood and absolutely essential." and his feelings on this conundrum are very much aligned to mine, if you understand why some people pay more for (truly) "artisanal" stuff then you probably also understand the attraction of craft beer.

 

New year anxiety

 

There's a lot of Covid anxiety around at the moment and quite rightly so. Looking at the numbers over the last few weeks it seems as though we're on a roller coaster ride of infections and hospitalizations with massive jumps in both in recent days. It's not just us here in the UK that the Omicron spike is having an impact, the charts above show viral load analysis of sewage outflows from the city of Boston, USA, as you can see there's definitely something bad going on there too! I think we'll just have a quiet new years celebration this year (as last year) it seems logical that the sooner this spike has flattened the sooner we'll get back to normal again and the less likely it will be that yet another new variant will appear, although the latter looks inevitable at these super high rates of infection. We did a spot of shopping yesterday and popped into Reading on the train, I was astounded to see around 30% of people still not bothering to wear masks (mostly young people, it must be said) - let's hope the stats don't continue to track as they currently are, although I'm not optimistic. I think I'll apply my usual bellwether in these situations, which is listen to what Boris Johnson says and assume that the opposite is true! At the moment he's claiming that we're in great shape so you can figure it out for yourselves. 

Learning..

This little video from London is doing the rounds at the moment, it shows what happens when tradition meets innovation (bear with me) the youngster who was flat-footed enough to get in the way of this particular guardsman went flying and the soldier happily marched on as if swatting a bug. Judging by the  disapproving noises in the press alongside the satisfying fact that the clumsy kid although bowled over, was unharmed, I would suggest both parties learned a valuable lesson for the future.

Thursday Ruby

 

Making a lamb curry for everyone this evening (whatever day it is..) the consensus is that we need some spice antidote to all the butter/chocolate/sugar combo's so prevalent at this time of year; Rogan Josh it is then! (plus a delicious hazy IPA from Cornish wizards Verdant, so random..)

Midweek Mirth

So true..

 

Mash madness

Tried a new beer last night while making dinner. Called "Golden Boy" it's made by one of my favourite breweries DEYA in collaboration with SMOD (St Mars of the Desert in Sheffield) and is a classic English Bitter style, although, it's not made in the traditional manner. They did a Bavarian decoction style mash (which involves removing and boiling half the mash water during the mash) which accentuates the malt character but used flowery English hops, the result is amazing, really tasty and rich with a delicate hop background, a real banger, if only best bitter was like this when I were a lad..

 

Getting ready

So here we are again, another year another something or other. I can't say that 2021 was a great year, not even a good one perhaps but my family and I made it through without major trauma, well, apart from my 20 year old son getting dumped by his girlfriend, but hey such is life, plenty of fish in the sea as they say (although he didn't see it quite that way, as we all didn't when we were that age) Anyway, I hope everyone is ready for the calorific onslaught, we certain are, can't wait, now where's that tin of Quality Street?

 

Nazi FC?

Snapped this on my walk today, WTF, Is this supposed to be a Nazi Father Christmas?

 

Congratulations!

Almost at the magic 1 million per day, an amazing effort, congratulations!

 

Friday Smirk

J&M getting in on the "Twitter pro-nouns" thing, about time if you ask me, people will think they're transphobic..

 

What next?

Here's a TV report from 1981, roughly 40 years ago, about the possibility of connecting computers together in a network in order to read newspapers (aka the Internet) we all know what happened next! I wonder what the next 40 years will bring?

It's party time!

LOL..

 

Groundhog virus

I sometimes can't believe we're having the same debates over and over again about Covid-19. The idiots in Government are claiming that things are "finely balanced", and the rabid right leaning mouthpieces in the media are still (yes still!) bleating on about freedom and comparing this to flu! A quick look at the appropriate charts (the above one showing average infections per day in my local area) show quite clearly that this is nothing like flu and things are anything but "finely balanced"!

It's such a shame that people will inevitably die unnecessarily but unfortunately for them the nature and timing of this pandemic is such that, thanks to science, most people will not be touched directly by death and, empathy not being a strong point of many these days, will prioritize their own (often childish) parochial needs and wants over the health and lives of "the other". You have to conclude that, barring a few notable exceptions, it really is as simple as that! Regardless of how mild or otherwise Omicron turns out to be.

 

Midweek Mirth

Covid approved humour from the excellent xkcd :)

 

Empty seats

It's been a crappy year really, pesky viruses still lurking and lot's of empty seats on the bus.

 

Faster than a Tory U-turn

I noticed a little story on the interwebs the other day about the NASA Parker probe which is the one visiting the Sun at the moment, it recently flew 5 million miles above the surface of our local Star, close enough to "touch" her atmosphere or corona, a first for any craft of ours. It wasn't this fact that caught my eye though. In order to not get fried the little craft has to be travelling pretty swiftly and recently broke the record for the fastest man made object ever as it swung through the huge gravitational pull of the Sun at 587,000 km per hour or ~100 miles per second. It sounds like an incredible speed but at the scale of the universe it's still only 0.064% of the speed of light and so it's worth remembering that even if it could keep going at that rate it would still take around 7,000 years to reach our next nearest Star! Still, London to New York in 35 seconds is pretty impressive!

 

Solstice

Don't worry the light will return, normality however...

 

The long walk

 

For a couple of years now I've been gradually cranking up my level of regular daily exercise with a mixture of running and walking (although mostly walking) and for the majority of this year I've been averaging around 50 km per week +/- 5 km and at a reasonable pace (~9 mins / km) In the last couple of months I've had several weeks when I've hit the magic 60 km although it's quite tough to do that and work at the same time (without walking in the dark!) I happened to be looking at my log book the other day and realised that a particular milestone had been reached. For the first time I've managed to cover 2,500 km in a year (with a couple of weeks to spare!) I calculate that with a following wind, and absence of snow, I might even break the 1,600 mile total for the year, not bad for an old bloke!

Tuesday Titter

Success rate of Christmas parties over time, couldn't resist...

 

Survivorship bias

Survivor bias is a logical error or fallacy where you concentrate your analysis on people or things that made it past some selection process as opposed to everyone involved, usually because of a lack of visibility or availability. This almost always leads to a false conclusion and the tendency to show causality when there really is none. If you're wondering about the picture above it shows a map of damage to WW2 planes coming back from missions, statistician Abraham Wald took survivor bias into account when trying to figure out how to minimize bomber losses to enemy fire. Most people would look at the picture and conclude that the places where there are red spots are where reinforcements should be added, of course the exact opposite is true because those planes hit in areas outside the red spots didn't actually make it back!

I heard a radio presenter today that said "it's really good news that all the people calling his show who have the new Covid variant say that it's mild" - can you spot the fallacy?

Top 10 craft beer breweries for 2021

 

I haven’t done a top 10 breweries list for a couple of years now, so I thought it would be interesting to see how the landscape had changed since the last one (2017) This year we have five newcomers (including #1) four fallers and one riser, a statement about the rude health of the British craft beer scene, long may it continue!

1. Beak (Lewes, Sussex) – Wonderful discovery of the last 18 months, I was lucky enough to get down to visit them in June. Just an embarrassment of unreasonably flavorsome NEIPAs and pales, their Nelson Sauvin showcase “Locals” was to die for.

2. Verdant – These guys from Falmouth, Cornwall are probably gonna be in my top 10 for eternity, still as good as ever in 2021, hazy IPA’s and Pale’s that are hard to beat or resist.

3. Siren – My “local” brewery (although not the closest these days) absolutely rock solid, a continual kaleidoscope of different styles and flavours, constant innovation, and experimentation, we love them around these parts!

4. Yonder - Visited in the Summer down in Somerset (near Wells) had some really different and exciting brews tasted really fresh from source. Wonderfully funky, natural ferment beers that go fabulously with food and provide real talking points for even the most hardened beer geek.

5. Northern Monk – Leeds based producer that’s been around for ages, had a pint of “Faith” in the Farringdon Tap during the Autumn and it was fabulous a real stand-out beer this year, must seek out more of their brews next year!

6. Lost and Grounded – Another permanent fixture on my top 10 list, Bristol based L&G produce (IMO) the best lagers in the country, slightly different (than the typical German varieties) but so good!

7. Burning Sky – Sussex wizards, masters of blending and natural ferments. Had a beer this year called “Recusant” and it was a revelation, so different and an absolute eye opener.

8. Pilot – Leith based brewery (Scotland) undisputed masters of social media and pretty good at brewing beer too! Had some great examples this year while visiting my Son, who’s studying up there.

9. Cloudwater – Manchester based brewery, visited their London tap room for the first time in December, it won’t be the last time!

10. Dolphin – Tried this Reading based producers’ wares for the first time this year, they specialize in sour and fruited beers, a revelation, so balanced and so flavorsome, the French would probably label these guys “Garagistes” not least because they actually brew in a residential garage in Woodley!  Looking forward to more examples in 2022!

Hazy marvel

Had this little number while making dinner for everyone last night (chicken & black bean taco's - yum!), it's from one of my favourite breweries, Verdant in Cornwall. A fruity, hazy hop bomb of a beer called "People, Money, Space, Time", such vivid and deep flavours at only 4% ABV, how the heck do they do that? I had this on cask once before in 2020, in fact it was my first pub pint after the first lockdown (read about it here) It was pretty good then, but this batch is truly singing, I wonder if they tweaked the recipe?

Trails

Typical sky over Southern England (on a nice day!) one of the many traffic intersections on our globe.

 

Gems

Another gem of wisdom from the Hitch.. (because it's 10 years!)

 

The right decision

So reassuring to see the Tory's getting a good spanking at the North Shropshire by-election yesterday, a record vote swing and absolutely the right result at the moment; sends a message to both Johnson and Starmer, both residing in "bubbles" in my view.

 

Friday Smirk

Hyperbolic Reframing - a classic religious tactic, "if you're not with us, you're with the Devil" etc. It's popular with all the main mono-theisms, particularly Islam and Christianity (of various flavours), but there is a remedy in my view, if more people understood the idea of a logical fallacy and had some basic critical thinking skills then just maybe, we could put this odorous ploy to bed in the world once and for all?
 

Anti-science Tories

A recent tweet (now deleted) by Tory MP Joy Morrissey (Beaconsfield) exposes a rather nasty and ignorant streak that seems to run through quite a few of our Conservative representatives at the moment (and probably some of other stripes too) It's clearly an attack on a scientist who was simply stating scientific facts, now call me crazy but anyone can have an opinion but we can't have our own "facts", this isn't a political position, simply an attribute of reality! 

The reason this is "nasty" is, if you accept that what this MP is expressing is a usurping of scientific fact by "opinion" (i.e. an argument from authority) we can only assume her real position is that she's ok with more people dying from Covid than are necessary so long as we slavishly follow the advice (not law) of a senior politician and aren't "socialist"?

Unfortunately for her there are many people in this country who are indeed Socialists, as is their right to be, and probably even more who would rather poke their eye's out with hot knitting needles rather than follow the advice of a lying opportunist like Johnson. I can only advise Ms. Morrissey that she perhaps should have paid more attention in her Politics classes at LSE and maybe should have taken a few STEM modules to understand the difference between opinions and facts, we could do with more Women (and politicians) doing STEM subjects anyway!

Hitch @10 years..

Amazingly another year has passed and I'm recalling the pleasure often accrued by listening to and reading the works of the author and intellectual pictured above. Christopher Hitchens died 10 years ago today in (seemingly unfeasibly) 2011! Cheers Hitch, many of us miss your razor sharp insight and wit, a void as yet unfilled..

Just show your ****king ID

Lovin this..

Unstoppable

 

Looks like this new variant, Omicron, is amazingly good at spreading itself among feckless Humans, to the point that it might just be going for the world record in transmissibility? Although it's only been here in the UK for a few weeks we're already seeing a doubling of cases every two days! and one in four people in London with the disease (it's more common than the common cold!). Shockingly a third of people in the Capital aren't vaccinated, this is somewhat unbelievable, what on earth do these people think is going to happen to them in one of the most densely populated parts of the Country? This kind of exponential growth (when applied to a respiratory virus) only ever ends in tears, I'm beginning to think that it was probably Omicron that killed off the Dinosaurs!

Midweek Mirth

So, just when we thought it's safe to go back into the water we're told to WFH (if possible) again until we have a better handle on the Omicron variant and it's lethality (we already know it's transmissibility is off the charts!). Ah well, it's for the greater good, if infection rates get too high (they're already the highest they've ever been) then simple math's points to a future where our health services become overwhelmed. If that happens then everyone will suffer, the last thing we want to see at Christmas time are people dying on stretchers in hospital corridors!

 

Conspiracy nut-jobs

 

I'm getting so bored of listening to people whining and moaning about having to wear a simple mask on a train, it's utterly childish! Those who complain bitterly about the life-changing horrors of vaccinations and mask wearing because of a global pandemic are not going to believe the inconvenience caused by other disasters such as ice-caps melting, super volcanoes or asteroid strikes! And another thing, what about these snowflakes who think this whole thing is a slippery slope to Government control and loss of freedom? We already wear seatbelts, don't smoke in pubs and obey the speed limit, a little paper mask is hardly the express lift to the Gestapo!

As for those hypocritical Conservative MP's who are belly aching about Covid passports being the same as Nazism in the Houses of Commons tonight, I think it's important to remember, these are the same bunch of plonkers that helped remove all of our rights to freedom of movement and employment around the entire continent of Europe, this is not even in the same league!

Thought experiments?

Spotted this the other day (pictured above). It's a thought provoking rebuttal and analysis from Dawkins over a tweet that caused his 1996 award from the AHA to be "rescinded", a somewhat ridiculous notion in any case. Anyway, I agree with his analysis, at some point we need to be able to hear the viewpoint of people that we disagree with (not just in Universities) and we must have the right to listen to ideas that we may or may not ultimately support without some third party filtering and censuring them first (particularly unelected and self appointed ones!). We also should be able to discuss difficult and controversial issues like adults, without throwing a hissy fit and trying to get the proposer fired for a badly made argument or an inappropriate joke. If we can't do that simple thing then we're almost certainly destined to make the fatal mistakes of history over and over again.

 

Party people

Lot of angst about "parties" flying around the interwebs at the moment, this cartoon sums up my feelings on being unnecessarily neighborly at this time of year, a party isn't just for Christmas you know!

 

Top 20 craft beers in 2021 (1-10)

 

Well, here we are again, the best craft beers for me in 2021, this is the top 10 which follows closely on the heels of numbers 11 to 20 here. It's been a great year for interesting beer, lot's of breweries mastered the art of canning and there's been a boom in off sales due to the pandemic and people staying at home. All I can hope is that next year we see the tailing off of the serious versions of Covid and can get back to some sensible levels of social beer gatherings, they're severely missed!

1. Fruit, Car, Sight, Exhibition from Verdant (DIPA - 8.00%) – I’ve had this one before (2018) and loved it. I saw it again by chance this year during lock-down in a local bottle shop and picked up a can. It blew my mind all over again, an even better version. Citra hops for days, hazy, chewy, soft, grapefruit, mango with perfect carbonation and bitterness. A perfect DIPA that competes with the best in the world.

2. Locals from Beak (IPA - 6.00%) – This one crossed my path several times this year and I had it in can and on keg at the Beak brewery down in Lewes. When we visited it was a hot day and the long walk from the station worked up a powerful thirst, had one of these and it was bliss. Stunning use of Nelson hops, white grape, cut grass, smooth, slight bitter finish, a wonderful example of a NZ IPA 

3. Recusant from Burning Sky (IPA - 6.30%) - A wild card this one, in many ways. Not only does it feature an unusual hop (Styrian Goldings) it’s also made with Belgian yeast with additions of Brett bacteria (think horse blanket aromas) – a wonderful beer, shouldn’t work but it does and brilliantly.

4. Wool from Beak (DIPA - 8.00%) – Another stunner from the wonderful Beak but in collaboration with Leeds based Northern Monk (two of my favourite producers) The combination of Citra, Sabro and El Dorado hops give it a rich aroma and flavour of ripe berries and mango all in a hazy, smooth, and fluffy package, excellent work.

5. The Grateful Eight from Siren (DIPA - 8.00%) – This one was a special beer produced for Siren’s eighth birthday party. Kind of in a West coast style so lots of grapefruit and citrus flavours with a solid bitter core, easy drinking, could have sunk loads of these but weighing in at 8% ABV probably wise that we didn’t.

6. Bones of A Sailor from Siren (Imperial Porter - 9.00%) – Another birthday beer from Siren this one was essentially a chocolate porter but amped up in both taste and strength. Lovely chocolate and coffee vibes with a rich and smooth mouthfeel and a really complex malt structure, great stuff.

7. Wild IPA from The Wild Beer Co (IPA (natural ferment) - 5.20%) – Had this one when on holiday in Somerset and I visited their little bottle shop in the sticks on the outskirts of Wells. There was a deal on that day where if you bought more than £20 worth of beer you got a free bottle of Wild IPA (i.e., I hadn’t even chosen it!). Turned out to be my favourite beer of the whole holiday, a wonderful expression of IPA using natural yeasts, quite funky in character with a delicious pink grapefruit vibe, delicious.

8. Lulla from Beak (IPA - 3.50%) – A revelation of a beer, proving that you can make a low ABV sessionable NEIPA that tastes great. Hazy, soft, oodles of tropical fruit flavours and aroma that make you think you’re drinking something from Verdant or DEYA at 6.5%, a triumph of a beer.

9. Falling Upwards from Siren (DIPA - 8.20%) – A big NEIPA from Siren this one. Loaded up with Nelson, Citra and Azacca hops it exudes flavour from the start, a huge nose and an equally unctuous taste and mouthfeel, hazy and soft. Like #5 on this list, it would be tempting to have a few of these but probably best to show restraint!

10. Dark & Perilous Nights from Siren (Imperial Stout - 12.40%) – One of the highest rated Siren beers ever, this one popped up at the Barista event at the brewery this Summer. One last remaining keg of the stuff that was hoovered up in an instant by those in attendance. Luckily, I managed to get a glass before it disappeared. Wow, probably the most viscous beer I’ve ever tried, thick, creamy a pure chocolate fudge of a beer. Flavours of dark sugar, toffee and chocolate in a boozy and soul warming package, one for the Siren history books.

Nanny State?

As per my previous post I spent the day in London yesterday and ended up, after all our business was concluded, taking my team out for a few beers along the Bermondsey beer mile. Anyway, we ended up at the Cloudwater tap room on Enid street where there was a fine selection of the latest and greatest craft beers on offer, everything from uber murky New England IPAs to bone crushingly bitter West Coast IPAs as well as a couple of Imperial stouts flavoured with all kinds of Christmas goodness like Ginger and Chocolate. Everything was in its place and we settled in for a couple of drinks before catching the train home. I spotted on the board a particular beer that I wanted to try for ages, a West Coast IPA called Crystallography, something of a celebrity in the Westy world, anyway, I asked for two thirds of a pint of that beer and to my surprise was refused!? The barman drew my attention to a little notice above the beer board which stated that any beer at or above 8% ABV could only be served in half pints or less. I was a little taken aback but figured OK, house rules are house rules and not wanting to give the impression that I was some kind of trouble maker I ordered a half instead. 

Once back at the table I pondered this rule a little more. In most of these kinds of bars there are large fridges that contain all of the beers available in cans to consume on the premises or to take away and as I'd expect there were a stack of cans of this precise beer (Crystallography) available in 440ml cans (two thirds of a pint) When we'd all finished our beers I went and got our final round and spoke to the barman, I asked if he thought it odd that he couldn't serve me a measure of a particular beer from a tap but would happily serve it to me via a can instead, he sympathized, yeah he said, doesn't really make much sense but we do it to prevent uninitiated people ordering pints of 8% beer by mistake and regretting it. I could see what he meant, but still, it offended my logic gene a just little bit.

Testing the laws of Physics..

Remember back in August there was a big stink about an Alpaca (Geronimo) that tested positive for Bovine Tuberculosis and had to be put down, causing much angst and anger in it's owners as well as the wider community. Well, interestingly it turns out that the post mortem on the animal showed no signs of the disease only atypical lesions on the liver and lymph nodes (TB usually shows up in the lungs) - What can we conclude? 

Well, I guess science isn't perfect, tests aren't perfect and occasionally people make mistakes (including when doing post mortems), sometimes all of these things conflate to enable and justify horrible things to be done. That's what it's like to live in a universe governed only by the laws of physics I suppose, I feel for all involved..

 

Long day

Spent the day in London (again) yesterday. It was an early start catching the 7am train (felt like waking up in the middle of the night!), anyway, the train was more or less empty and so I got to witness the sunrise through the window as we sped through Hayes and Harlington, arriving into Paddington in good time to enact my cunning plan to avoid the underground by walking to our new London Bridge office. 

It was quite a chunky walk (around 8 km) for first thing in the morning but the Sun was out and it wasn't too cold, anyway, I set off at a fair lick giving myself an hour and a bit to cover the distance. Down to Hyde Park, along Park Lane and across Green Park passing by Wellington's old London Gaff and then Buckingham Palace where I snapped the gold statue above the fountain there glinting in the morning sunshine.

Onwards past the Houses of Parliament and across Westminster bridge to the Southbank and Waterloo. From there I decided to follow the path of the river and walked along the bank taking in all the sights as I progressed East toward London Bridge and the Shard, I managed to snap a pic as I passed.

I arrived at our new office, which is located the Bermondsey side of London Bridge in good time and had a well earned cuppa!

I had a good day working with the team and popped across to Roast in Borough market for some lunch (a treat from a supplier!), which was delicious, then after a somewhat sleepy afternoon of meetings I took some of the chaps out for a pint along the Bermondsey beer mile, dropping into the Cloudwater bar in Enid Street (which is great BTW) finishing off by hopping on the tube at Bermondsey and heading home via Paddington. My head finally hit the pillow at around 11pm so a very long day indeed!

 

Friday Smirk

J&M on the money as usual. If you had to list the most obvious attributes of religions down the ages I think "sense of humour" would be pretty near the bottom whereas if you asked most professional comedians if they were religious or not most would say not.

 

Outbreaks everywhere!

Yep, this...

Truth

Lovin this, someone running into Mega-church preacher Joel Osteen in a parking lot and telling him the truth; we know exactly what he is too mate there's a bloke just like him running our country!

Gender madness

You may think this is a joke but, this is a real form in a real online application. When I see things like this I have to ask, why is "gender" relevant when applying for or buying things? Surely the overriding objectives of the folk who are aggressively in favour of intersectional politics are oriented around equality and equal opportunity over classification and segregation? If so, then why so keen to be classified at every opportunity in this obviously subjective way, it seems counter-productive to me? On the other hand perhaps this movement isn't really about equality after all? We can only form our opinions via the evidence at hand, and that doesn't seem to make much sense unless you assume a darker underlying motive.

 

Covid contrarians

 

There's an enormous who-ha going on at the moment in the media over the question regarding a supposed party that occurred in Number 10 last year at Christmas time. People seem to be getting upset that those responsible may be lying about it, i.e. attempting to deny that a party took place when the evidence so far suggests that something did occur. I must say, I'm more relaxed about the lying aspect of this story. I'm already convinced that this Government and (at least) some of the people running it pretty much lie about everything, so my default position is that I assume everything is a lie and look for evidence that it isn't. My only way of countering such fraud is to voice my opinion and disagreement openly and to vote the right way when I have the chance, which is what all of us can and should do.

What worries me more is the apparent response that many people seem to be having to this, social media channels are full of people saying that from now on they're not going to follow any guidelines or mandates related to precautionary actions around the pandemic. Apparently a case of "if a bunch of arrogant, entitled tossers in #10 are going to break the rules then so am I". Of course by doing so these people are making themselves no better than the tossers in #10 and are seemingly willing to put the more vulnerable people around them at risk out of base childish spite. Who such people think will end up worse off as a consequence of their disobedience is a mystery, do they think that Johnson gives a monkeys what regular people do? He's already proven beyond doubt (to me at least) that his number one priority is himself. 

I have to ask the obvious question, is this party business a hill that people are quite literally prepared to die on?

Bookish art

As mentioned in a previous post we popped into the Tate Modern museum in London at the weekend, mainly because we needed to kill an hour before lunch and it was raining, but I must say it was a very interesting hour and well worth taking a look. A standout exhibit for me was the one pictured above. Actually this photo doesn't really do it justice as the bookshelves extended around the whole room, which was much bigger than this picture suggests. It shows highly decorated books, hundreds of them, organized on uniform shelves painted white for contrast. All the books were authored by immigrants to the UK, which was kind of the point of the piece, i.e. to highlight the contribution made by those that come to our fair shores to set up their lives here. It was a powerful point, diversity in a society can be a force for good as much as it can be a force for division, I guess the trick is to only be intolerant of intolerance.

 

Tuesday Titter

Doing the rounds in police circles ATM, apparently.. 

 

Christmas TV

So, who's looking forward to Christmas TV? (not...)

 

Sexist humour

Classic (old fashioned) pub humour although these days it would probably be called sexist. I would argue that a joke is not a claim about reality and as such can't really be anything "ist", probably..

 

Flying Jellyfish

 

Spent the weekend in London with friends enjoying good food, wine and chat. Popped into the Tate Modern this afternoon to kill an hour before lunch, saw these little chaps, free-floating jellyfish like contraptions flying around in the main entrance space, really effective and TBH a little disconcerting as they appeared very biological but were obviously machines with little propellers directing their movements.

Friday Smirk

But, but, the "war on Christmas" is what I look forward to most every year..

 

Midweek Mirth

We've got our Christmas office party tomorrow evening, it'll be interesting to see who's confident enough to turn up or not. I can't imagine that it'll be as raucous as past events and everyone has to have a negative lateral flow before coming. Still, if it turns out to be just the founders there at least we'll know what they really think of us.. 

 

Top 20 craft beers in 2021 (11-20)

 

So, it's that time of year again, time to reflect and ponder the year behind us and gaze, blurry eyed, at the year ahead. The craft beer scene this year was certainly affected by the pandemic, especially during the lock-down periods so normal service wasn't resumed, but, it was so much better than last year (2020) At least there were a few festivals and events to attend and pubs were open again albeit mostly for garden based entertainment. Lot's of new beers sampled and assessed this year (hurrah!), so many in fact that I decided to expand my usual list of 10 to 20 instead! So, here are beers I ranked 11-20. I shall be sharing the top 10 later in the month; obviously I'm hedging my bets in the vain hope that I might taste something better between now and then, although judging by the high quality of this year's corpus I somehow doubt it..

11. Coolbox from Yonder (Lager - 3.50%) – A Lager! Had this one at the down in deepest Somerset at the Yonder tap room itself (always best to get beer fresh and local!) Anyway, this example really struck a chord. There are lots of good lagers around but seldom do you find something that's different, this was. Lovely background flavour of lemon/citrus to complement the usual biscuit and bready core, very sessionable and (probably) delightful in the warm weather (not that I’d know, as it chucked it down while we were there!)

12. Waltzer from Siren (Imperial Stout - 13.50%) – A special barrel (rum barrels) aged beer from Siren that was part of a circus themed set. A massive beer, dark, thick, unctuous, and full of flavour. Like old engine oil in appearance but coffee, molasses, raisins, chocolate, and cream on the palette, a classic in waiting.

13. Green Path IPA from Burnt Mill (IPA - 6.00%) – A real blast from the past here from Burnt Mill. A classic old style “C Hop” IPA with a clean crisp appearance and noticeable bitterness. Huge grapefruit hit followed by a significant malt character, it’s one of their core beers so worth seeking out.

14. Invoice me for the Microphone from DEYA (IPA - 6.50%) – Classic DEYA here, uber-murk, soft, creamy, and stacked full of flavour. Combination of hops used in this one including Mosaic and Citra so no real surprises but made so well, balanced and drinkable, a real banker and one my Friday Favorites.

15. Nacken 2021 from Siren (Belgian IPA - 6.90%) – Quite an unusual beer this one, probably a Marmite kind of a drink for many. Made with two other breweries (Omnipollo and Casita) Belgian/German yeast makes up a lot of the taste profile, funky but with a ton of American hops that kind of balance things out, I thought it was great.

16. Strangers from Beak (IPA - 5.00%) – Another Beak beauty, hazy IPA loaded up with Mosaic, Sabro and Idaho-7 hops delivering a real pithy punch of pineapple, grape, and grapefruit flavours. Showing real balance and depth this was a beer that really stood out this year.

17. Indecision Time from Burning Sky (IPA - 5.60%) – I don’t know what the guys at Burning Sky do to their beers, but you always get something unusual from them. On paper this is a straightforward IPA made with Nelson hops and a smidgen of Citra and Centennial, but something about it makes everything shine. More of the classic Nelson flavours, grape and citrus plus superb balance and harmony with the other ingredients, the taste of a double but the ABV of a single, good work!

18. Origin Story from Siren (Stout - 10.00%) – I’m not usually a massive dark beer fan but this year I seem to have been enjoying more than my fair share of them! This beauty from Siren contained over 20 specialty malts in a really complex recipe. Dark, smooth, and rich it showed off flavours of caramel, chocolate, coffee, and toffee with a slight sweetness, quite spectacular.

19. Bibble from The Wild Beer Co (Pale Ale - 4.20%) – Apparently (according to the label) “Bibble” is a Somerset word meaning to drink loudly, often and well; you could certainly give it a go with this beer! Classic Mosaic flavours, blueberry, citrus, and pink grapefruit, well balanced and easy going. Worth seeking out as it’s one of their core beers.

20. Tumbler from Dolphin (Fruited Sour - 5.60%) – A late entry (only had this one last weekend) but so good it had to make the list. A sour beer, not usually my first choice but this one was different and so well made. A cherry and pear flavoured saison it was like a beery fruit cordial, so easy to drink and so well balanced, nothing out of place and perfectly complimentary fruit flavours, delicious.

Pots of gold

Wonderfully intense rainbows framing the chimney tops this evening as a strong setting Sun in the West shone through some hefty downpours of rain. I wonder if our pot of gold will be the news that Omicron is a limp, flatulent version of Covid as some are saying currently and only causes mild illness, let's hope so..