Friday Smirk

The barmaid explaining to the lads how faith in science is not the same as faith in God (any God) But, when you think about it, semantics are very important to theists, after all, it's all they've got..

Weekend Beer

We visited a local bottle shop last week and they had some Verdant beers in stock, I snagged a couple of cans of this beauty "When Myth & Science Agree", a 5% pale ale made in collaboration with the "Plant One" charity who aim to restore 500 hectares of fish forests over the next five years, a worthy cause. The beer itself is delicious, classic Verdant murk loaded up with Nelson, Krush and NZH-106 (first encountered by me last year), a flavour explosion of limes and tropical fruits, a real pleasure to sup!

Floridian Memories

Back in March 2025 we packed our bags and escaped to Florida for a couple of weeks and as part of the trip we visited the Florida Keys, an archipelago of islands jutting out into the Caribbean Sea off the bottom of Florida. At the very end of those islands and closest to Cuba is the island of Key West, it's a real party town and has been for many years. One of it's most famous inhabitants was the author Ernest Hemingway who lived there in the 1930s and is know for his hard drinking and sport fishing, I can see why, the vibe of the island is kinda that way inclined. His house in Key West is pictured above, it's now a museum, an interesting place to wander around for an hour or two, must have been a hell of a time to be alive (and rich)..

White Out

In the continuing effort to drink some of my stash of White Wine that needs drinking (because it's getting old) here's another classic producer (Huet) from the Loire Valley in France. This Vouvray wine is made from Chenin Blanc grapes in a dry style and ages superbly, a deep golden colour and smelling of peaches and cream with a touch of honey and dry straw it was very enticing on the nose. The flavours on the palette mirrored the nose, very viscous and rich with a long finish, a delightful wine, shame it's my last bottle!

Memories of Indochina

 

Back in 2024 we were lucky enough to visit Vietnam and Cambodia, it was an eye-opening trip as we'd never been to that part of the world before and it's a real culture shock from sleepy old Europe. I recall vividly the decaying splendor that is the palace complex at Angkor Wat in Cambodia where the jungle is gradually reclaiming the once resplendent capital of the Khmer empire. The picture above shows one such temple, the stairs up to it are deliberately steep to give people the impression that they're ascending to "heaven", with the heat and humidity I would guess that once someone reaches the top they probably think they're pretty close to heaven.. Note my shadow at the bottom of the picture, very Indiana Jones I thought..

Memories of NYC

We were lucky enough to visit NYC last autumn, it was October time and the weather was just turning cold although the skies were still blue. It was a great trip and good to catch up with people and places I hadn't seen for quite a few years, New York is one of those towns that I could always find a reason to visit, maybe next year..

Friday Smirk

The boys discussing religious differences and how liberal apologists for religion tend to gift all faiths with unearned respect in order not to "offend" anyone, even though they are all totally mutually contradictory. I wish we could dilute religions down so that they become benign and toothless, perhaps then we could all get on with curing disease and achieving world peace, although I fear that being just superstitious chimps with shoes we would struggle to even start.

Full Set

 

We were having coffee in a craft beer bar (unlikely I know, but it was a school night!) the other day and I noticed an interesting collection of Vibrant Forest cans hanging on the wall above where we were sitting (see above). VF is one of my favourite South Coast (New Forest) brewers and their PUPA pale ale is an absolute belter, this collection though, looks like the "full set" to me!

Scaled Up

Another beer in the WCIPA quartet I introduced last month this one is definitely the most "modern" of the bunch so far, much paler and crisper than the others with nice bitterness and a solid grapefruit/citrus twang to it! I can't decide whether I prefer this one or the "Reverb" from Elusive, if this weather keeps going I might have to snag a couple more cans to help sort it out..

Heat trap

Out on my walk yesterday I came across this unfortunate scene. A beautiful (and huge) willow tree that had snapped in the dry conditions, apparently wood becomes brittle without normal internal water pressure and is prone to sudden failure under minimal weight or wind etc. Such a shame, this was a wonderful looking tree and now it's firewood (or maybe cricket bats?) and the poor people that live in this little cul-de-sac can't get their cars in or out!

Thames Path

Lovely walk along the Thames path from Hurley to Marlow (and back) last weekend, it was a bit cooler by the river and we stopped off at the Butcher’s Tap and Grill and had a tasty burger and chips before walking back to the car, around 10 km covered in total, which isn't bad for a Sunday!

Gose

Had one of these last night (Saturday) it's a beer style that you don't come across too often called a "Gose", I think it's Belgian or German in origin and involves fermentation using bacteria (Lactobacillus) which is very efficient and dries the beer out, various flavourings are typically added, in this case grapefruit and lime. A very nice drink for a hot day, refreshing and morish.

Pure Blood

So, continuing on my quest to clear out older bottles of wine that I have gathering dust here's a well known Loire producer called "Didier Daguneau" famous for his expressions of Sauvignon Blanc. This one was a 2000 vintage called "Pur Sang" or "Pure Blood" in English, at 26 years old it was delicious. Clearly an old wine on the nose and the fruit was subdued but the layers of flavours, straw, honey, apricot were to die for, and just look at the colour of it!

Midweek Mirth

Hehe, sounds about right, same for ghost and UFO sightings too..

Fanning the flames

I've been reading (with dismay) about the raging wildfires happening in the South West of France at the moment, very scary stuff, I shudder to think what might happen if the flames manage to get through to the outskirts of the densely populated suburbs of Bordeaux itself. I also shudder to think about the pristine chateaux and vineyards of the Medoc and Pessac, it would be a national disaster if they could not be saved, not to mention a wine lovers worst nightmare! 

I recall our holiday to Crete last year, one evening on our way back from town to our hotel we passed a raging wildfire going on about half a kilometer from our residence, I managed to snap a rather blurry photo of the fire from the roof of the building (see above) We were all relieved that the Greek fire service were on top form that evening and around 6 fire engines managed to extinguish the flames within an hour or so but it was still quite scary to watch whole olive trees be consumed by flames within a few seconds before jumping to the next tree etc.., such was the dry state of the brush surrounding our little enclave. Fortunately no buildings were destroyed in the fire and it seemed like no one was in too much danger once the firemen got control of things, I can only imagine what it must be like in Southern Europe at the moment, I wish them the best of luck and more pragmatically a little rain in the forecast?

Reverb

So this one (tried on Saturday) is from Elusive and is called "Reverb", it's a newer style pale WCIPA and is made with Amarillo, Talus and Krush hops, Krush being fairly new to the hop scene and providing tropical fruit and citrus aroma and flavour. I liked this beer, there's a lot going on, a little bit like drinking a bag of wine gums, very fruity but also with a decent bitter finish, particularly good with cheese (which by chance I was eating at the time!) - good effort!

For reference I downloaded the flavour wheel for Krush hops, as I previously mentioned, there's a lot going on with this one, particularly orange flavours complimented by Amarillo which also delivers orange and tangerine flavours, a citrus smorgasbord!

Oldskool WCIPA

 

Had one of these on Friday evening, it's a West Coast (WC) IPA collaboration from Indie Rabble (Windsor) and Siren (Finchampstead) both Berkshire brewers. Not your usual WCIPA, more a blast from the past, malt forward, bitter and what tasted like old skool C-Suite hops (Cascade, Centennial, Citra, Columbus etc.), not your usual citrusy pale westy, very nice for a change although it took a few sips to get back in the groove..

Reviewing Westys

My local brewers seem to have a thing for West Coast style beers at the moment, not that I'm complaining as I love it however I thought it reasonable to try out the current offerings (in the interests of science of course) and to see which one I liked best, individual reviews and summary to follow!

Friday Smirk

The lads discussing the inappropriateness of irony meters when it comes to religion. I can't say I disagree, I always smirked at the "big" claim of Christianity that Jesus died for our sins, but apparently only for the weekend.

Berlin Memories

Here's me looking thoughtful to the horizon at the Holocaust memorial in Berlin last year, it was a powerful (physical) monument but I have to be honest, like a lot of modern art, I wasn't entirely sure how to interpret it intellectually. 

Chile Memories

In preparation for the post on Friday here's a memory from our visit to Chile last year. It's one of the Cathedrals in the City centre and illustrates perfectly the opulence of the Catholic Church when compared to some of the bone crushing poverty we also witnessed there (i.e. adults sifting through the contents of rubbish bins after dark..) Of course there's plenty of poverty to be had on our little planet on all the inhabited continents, that's not what I'm highlighting here, it's the contrast.

More Whites

Following on from the Burgundy we had on Friday I opened the above wine (that I reckoned needed drinking) on Saturday. From Puligny Montrachet it was a 2002 Premier Cru from Clos de la Mouchere by producer Jean Boillot & Fils. I was half expecting this one to be past its best but boy was I wrong, absolutely stunning wine, rich, dry, full of flavour and very long. Perfect white Burgundy only one more of these left, but I don't think I should be in any hurry to open it, this one seems bullet-proof!

Dried Out

I walked past my favourite little pond today and was shocked to see it completely dried out! I do hope the various critters that used to live in the pond (i.e. the family of Moorhens) made it out before all the water disappeared! Looks like we're in for at least another week of dry weather, I wonder how much rain will be required to top the levels up again?

Falklands West vs Gibraltar North

For those who missed the thriller in Miami last night England pulled out all the stops in a splendid match and beat France 6 - 4 to clinch 3rd place in the tournament. I didn't watch much of the world cup this time, what I did watch was generally boring and Americanised with a side of corruption, as most American things are these days, however the match last night was an exception! Exciting, fast, clean and skillful, how the game should be played with  the added bonus of 10 goals to watch, shame it wasn't the final. As for the final, I probably won't bother, after all who cares about the Falklands West vs Gibraltar North, especially with Trump in attendance, I'm sure it'll be suitably dull and cringeworthy.

White clear out

Had a bit of a clear out of the wine store yesterday and surfaced a couple of bottles of white that really need drinking. The picture above shows one such bottle, a delicious Burgundy from Corton-Charlemagne, a Grand Cru from 2003 and showing nicely. Apricots all day long with this one, you'd hardly guess it was Chardonnay at all, more like a Rhone white! Luckily I have one more of these so I'll be dusting it off next weekend I reckon, perfect with a Risotto or similar..

Friday Smirk

The boys pointing out how some of our religious brothers and sisters hear argument and disagreement as hate-speech and intolerance. It's a shame, as if the boot was on the other foot (i.e. if religion was in the minority and they were swamped with irreligious sentiment all day from tv, radio, film and politicians) they'd probably go postal.

Theology Thursday

Sounds about right Peter..

Cape Memories

We were fortunate enough to visit Cape Town, South Africa back in January of this year, it was great to escape the Northern Hemisphere Winter for a few weeks, soak up some Sun and see the wonderful animals and sights of Africa. The map above shows the Cape of Good Hope in 3d form, it's at the top of Table Mountain above the city and has a little arrow pointing toward London. At a distance of 9,670 km it's roughly 20% of the circumference of the entire planet away from home!

Tuesday Titter

When I was working I used to hate it when my birthday wasn't on a Friday or Saturday, although in recent years my company gave people a day off on their birthday (gratis) which was a nice touch, but you still can't go too mad on a school night.

Memory Drain

Ahhh, remember frosty, crisp mornings...

Sunday Smile

About right, probably not smile-worthy tho...

Birds eye view

Interesting fish-eye view of my home town, taken by a local photographer..

Friday Smirk

Not wrong there George..

Miss it?

It's been a period of reflection this last week, spent most of it with a bunch of other 60 somethings, some approaching retirement and others already retired. The guys who have yet to take the plunge were very keen to understand the process and the considerations involved and so many of our conversations centred around this. 

Talking about a topic allows you to practice your arguments and to reflect on the quality and depth of them as other people probe the nooks and crannies of your logic. My own view is that if you feel confident about retiring you should, at any age (within reason), I don't regret it for a nano-second, in fact after two years now I simply don't think about work at all! My cycles these days are consumed by family, friends, leisure activities, hobbies and holidays, sounds superficial and perhaps it is, but it feels damn good and after 40 odd years of slog working hard (never having more than 2 weeks off at a time) and missing a lot of important family moments I feel I earned it!

Experimental

I tried one of these while in Cornwall last weekend, supped at the Verdant brewery in Penryn it's a new DIPA (Double IPA) made with an experimental hop variety called NZH-101. Weighing in at 8% I only had a half but it was a unique flavour profile, very weedy (i.e. cannabis-like) with back-notes of mango and tropical fruits and a slight bitterness, a really interesting addition. I'm not sure I could drink loads of it, certainly not at that ABV, but as the newest member of Verdant's SBP#10 or Small Batch Project (number 10) beers I'd say it's a banger!

Bye bye USA...

Well done Belgium, good to see that cheats don't prosper..!

Tuesday Titter

Ah yes, I remember working in corporate environments...

Kernow rematch

Just got back last night from another weekend away in Falmouth, Cornwall (starting to imagine I live there!) Anyway, this wasn't exactly a holiday as one of my old school friends is getting married this year and asked me to be his best man, I agreed and, of course, it was my duty to organise the stag do! He loves the West Country and beer, and so do I! So we decided to spend a weekend in Falmouth, all very civilised of course (we're both in our 60s!) no strippers or being tied naked to lamp posts etc. more seafood lunches and evenings in interesting (and quiet!) pubs or bars drinking local artisanal beers!

To mix things up a bit we decided to take the train down to Falmouth from Reading (which was convenient for everyone) and I booked us all into a hotel right next to Falmouth Docks station to minimise walking with bags etc. I'd never visited Falmouth Docks station (we usually use Falmouth Town) but it's literally at the end of the line (see picture above)! Total travel time door to door was around 5 hours which was not too bad I reckon, hard to beat that using a car (with stops) and the departure time was a civilised 10:30 am arriving in our hotel around 3:30 pm ready to hit the town!

Having arrived in Falmouth in the late afternoon we headed out to our first port of call, a pub called Beerwolf Books, part pub part bookshop, it's usually quiet early on and there's usually a great line up of beers available to try, it was a big hit and the chaps (6 of us) thoroughly approved! We supped a couple of cold ones in there and by around 6pm people we getting peckish! At that point we retired up the hill to the Seaview Inn which is a pub and also an Indian restaurant, we ordered a range of street food like dishes and tucked into a couple of Verdant beers and delicious grub, at closing time we headed back to our hotel and were all tucked up in bed by 11:30pm (as all good OAP's should be!)

The next day we were all up by 9am and headed down to breakfast, after that we had a wander up the road to Gyllyngvase beach (see above) where I'd promised the old codgers a paddle in the sea! Paddle ticked off we stopped for an hour in the beach cafe there for some cold drinks and then headed around the coastal path to Swanpool beach and the Beach House restaurant for some lunch and refreshments. I've talked more about the seaview Inn and the Beach House in a previous Falmouth post so won't dwell on it here suffice to say that both places were a big hit with the boys..

After lunch we headed back to town and played a couple of games of pool in the Games Room (a pub games venue off the high street) things got quite competitive and we overran our time by a good margin, however, they didn't seem to mind and we had a great laugh taking the mickey out of each other over our atrocious lack of skill and coordination! When they finally kicked us out we wandered up to the Moor (a square in Falmouth) and picked up a cab to take us down the road to the neighbouring town of Penryn where the Verdant brewery (and their excellent Pizzas) awaited! The beer selection there was as impressive as ever (see above) and we settled in for an evening of conversation, laughs, drinking games and good ale!

I think we got back to our hotel around midnight (honestly can't remember) and all slept like logs! Now, our hotel wasn't that posh, it had to accommodate a range of budgets, but it's the only hotel in the world I've stayed in that delivers 6am morning wake up calls via Herring Gull!! (see above) At around 10am we all took a much needed head-clearing stroll into town for some breakfast, a couple of sausage baps later we felt able to have a little walk around some of the sights of Falmouth and the harbour stopping for cold lemonades (it was warm!) along the way. After lunch we headed back to the hotel bar for a quick pint (of Verdant Lightbulb) before jumping on the train home, it bookended the weekend nicely and we all sat on the train for the next four hours satisfied that a cracking weekend had been had by everyone!

Sunday Smile

 Know what I mean? Eh, eh, nudge nudge, say no more..

Top 50

So the results are in, the top 50 beers in the country as voted for by consumers and overseen by a panel of industry experts. I was surprised how many "old faithfuls" were on the list this year, I suspect this is a reflection of availability rather than anything else (like quality or taste etc.) anyway here's the list..

1. Steady Rolling Man, Deya
2. Best, Five Points
3. Jaipur, Thornbridge
4. I Could Get Better At T*sco For A Quid, Pretty Decent Beer Co
5. London Black, Anspach & Hobday
6. Plum Porter, Titanic
7. Pilsner, Pillars
8. Lightbulb, Verdant
9. Landlord, Timothy Taylor
10. American Pale Ale, Saint Monday
11. Parade, Beak
12. Even Sharks Need Water, Verdant
13. Kitchen Disco, Double-Barrelled
14. Turtles All The Way Down, Duration Brewing
15. Proper Job, St Austell
16. Iron Brew Sour, Vault City
17. Sumo, Mad Squirrel Brewery
18. Lumina, Siren Craft Brew
19. Clwb Tropicana, Tiny Rebel
20. Atlantic APA, Brixton
21. Sicilian Lemonade Radler, Left Handed Giant
22. Intuition, Attic
23. Old Peculier, Theakston
24. Sonoma, Track
25. Peach, Jubel
26. Floret, Polly's Brewing
27. Faith, Northern Monk
28. Boost, Deya
29. Camden Hells, Camden Town Brewery
30. Kaleidoscope, Wiper and True
31. Three Swords, Kirkstall
32. Aurora, Burning Sky
33. Oregon Trail, Elusive
34. Citra, Oakham
35. Lager, Lucky Saint
36. Table Beer, Kernel
37. Helles Lager, Harbour Brewing
38. Time Better Spent, Tap Social Movement
39. Foghorn, Brewpoint
40. Bristol Lager, New Bristol Brewery
41. Wherry, Woodforde's
42. Juice Forsyth, Brew York
43. Sussex Best, Harvey's
44. Keller Pils, Lost & Grounded
45. Roadie, Signature Brew
46. Helles, Braybrooke
47. Premium British Lager, Utopian
48. Halo, Hackney Church Brew Co
49. Mosaic GF Pale Ale, Arbor
50. Heathen, Abbeydale Brewery

I've added links to my reviews of the beers that I've tried. Great to see representation from most of my favourite brewers, for example, Verdant, Siren, DEYA, Elusive and Kernel to name but a few. Shame that beers like Old Peculier and Wherry are on the list, this is the kind of thing we used to go for in the 70s and not a patch on modern brews in my humble opinion. 

Friday Smirk

The boys illustrating the illogical core of the main religions, the belief in things that cannot be shown to be true or untrue (unfalsifiable) and the insistence that their holy books were authored by the creator of the universe when even a child can see that they were written by scientifically illiterate Men (not Women!)

Ice cold in Kernow

Had one of these last week, an unusual choice for me as I usually go for hazy pale ales or IPAs if I have any choice however, what with the heat and everything, I decided an ice cold lager was more appropriate. It was a banger too, from my favourite brewers, Verdant it was a Helles style lager (as opposed to a Pilsner) a little softer but just as good. 

London Stories

I was wondering around Hampstead Village a few weeks back filling time while waiting for my Son to finish work (he lives nearby) it was late in the afternoon and the rain was starting to set in so I looked for somewhere to take cover and maybe have a coffee or something. I turned down a side street off of Heath St. and low and behold stumbled across a little craft beer bar (The Tipsy Dog). Never one to pass up an opportunity for an interesting half of something I wondered in, it was empty and so I ordered a half of a pale ale I'd never tried before and got chatting to the barman. 

The venue itself was really small, only 4 taps (keg only) and perhaps a dozen or so seats plus a couple of large beer fridges that were filled with cans and bottles (some good stuff), more of a "bottle shop" than a bar I suppose although it was a nice little space and the perfect refuge from a Summer downpour! I only had time for one and after that I headed on down the hill to where I was meeting my boy, however next time I'm up in Hampstead and have half an hour to kill I know exactly where I need to go!

Kernow Adventures - Part 2

While in Falmouth last week we popped into the Seafood bar in town (on one of the days) and had a spot of lunch (see above) This venue is owned by my favourite brewer Verdant and sells their beers and a range of interesting seafood dishes (tapas style) We had a fish-finger bun, crab loaded fries, fish tacos and scallops, my goodness it was delicious, strong flavours and great combinations of ingredients plus (of course) a lovely half of a delicious Verdant beer to go with it all, totally lush.

On a different day we hopped onto the St Mawes ferry and sailed across to that picture perfect little village for some lunch. The venue was a hotel called the "Idle Rocks" which has a very scenic veranda and restaurant. I opted for the fixed lunch menu which included chowder to start followed by sole (see above) with sides of fries and broccoli, then a dark chocolate cremeux to finish, all for £28 which I thought was great value considering the setting and the quality of food, great spot for lunch, thoroughly recommended!

The picture above shows the veranda of the restaurant and the view beyond to the harbour wall and on to Falmouth, a great place to have lunch (when the weather is good!)

One of the disadvantages of staying/living in a seaside town is the noise and waste products from the ample seagulls that also live there. The various families of gulls that inhabit the town centre seem to be screeching at each other for most of the day only stopping when it gets dark and then starting up again at first light. I suppose you get used to it after a while but I can imagine that it gets a bit much sometimes. One day we even saw a Greater Black-backed Gull eating a dead rat, swallowed in one go! It's easy to understand that you're looking at an evolved dinosaur when you see something like that!