It's Always Fun With A Puppy Dog!
Apr. 1st, 2015 10:49 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
lupestripeOn Tuesday evening, Wolfie and I headed down to BrewDog in Leeds for another tasting session before we try to give up beer for April. I'm aware that statement is a statement of the unlikely, particularly with a Tanuki visit and two Leeds meets this month, but my weight is steadily going up again and alcohol is the primary cause. Furthermore, since getting the Untappd app, I've realised just how much I drink and should probably cut it back, despite it being one of my primary hobbies. I think a month of moderation could make a big difference as my diet is generally good, while I am hoping to get back to my full exercise regime at the gym from next week as my back seems to be on the mend. My back problems have motivated me to have a drier April as I feel the excess weight I'm carrying probably isn't helping, despite concluding that it's the new back-friendly posture chairs at work that have been causing the damage. Half an hour on these and my back is in agony while I can go a whole day on my old back-unfriendly chair and feel very little. I don't know what this says about my back - maybe it's buggered beyond repair or just doesn't like the new posture it's trying to adopt, taking time to break in like a new shoe - but three weeks of back pain is enough and I'm hoping it goes soon. I'm doing two-thirds of my usual regimen at the gym so as not to twinge it again, with some success, it burns lightly after the exercise but nothing substantial. I know it's not good to aggravate it but I can't stay sedentary either and movement will probably help the muscles.
Anyway, I digress. Wolfie was running slightly late for the 7:30pm start but this didn't matter as it was just us two doing the tasting again, as seems to be a common theme. Indeed this must be something like the seventh session we have done and we have had company only on one other occasion, with a few other times us bringing friends to share the tasting. Still this just meant more beer for us and a proper chat with one of the barmen, who are becoming close friends with us. This is not surprising as the Untappd app has highlighted we had been in the bar 33 times since December 9, and that's just the times we have drunk there, not picked up beer to take away. Averaging one visit every three days is somewhat alarming but there you go. As it was just us, we were pretty much allowed to dictate the flow of the evening, lengthening it out so the six beers filled a two and a half hour timespan. This was largely down to the conversation we are having and enjoying the beer, but on a work night it also prevented us buying much more before having to get the bus home.
The theme of the tasting was Something In... and it was dedicated to beers which had been brewed with something original. This included Gravol which contained ash and many Mikeller beers including the gloriously sour yet sweet SpontanSweetCherry and a cucumber witbeer which did exactly as it said on the, erm, bottle. This was called I'm A Kombo and the label consisted of a How To guide to make your own bottle stopper out of a cucumber. We also tried Flying Dog's The Fear, a perfectly balanced not too sweet pumpkin ale, an oatmeal mash (Beer Weak Brunch Weasel) and a 2012 holiday beer from Mikeller called From To Via. I do like the beer tasting sessions as you get to try a range of beers and have some excellent tuition too, as we compared tasting notes with the barman and talked craft beer and BrewDog in general. He too was tasting, which was a nice touch, and with a compared passion for beer, it was a great evening. After the session we finished off with a couple more beers and a nip of Sink The Bismarck, brewdog's 41% double IPA. It was a nice way to end the evening, like a deep rich whiskey, even though it took the bar staff a good while to open the bottle after we finished the dregs of an old one. With some cheesy popcorn it was a good way to round off the evening, along with planning the next session, which is likely to be April 20. As we are the only ones who go to these things, we largely set the date, although I am hoping to bring some people to the next one. Yep I'm aware that the dry April promise has largely been scuppered on day one but we go to these things anyway (largely because they wouldn't happen if we didn't) and I did promise a few Sheffield furs we would take them to BrewDog on a Monday night this month. By killing two birds with one stone, I'm reducing my alcohol intake and thus I'll overlook it. It's convenient but then it often is, surely one session can't hurt...
Anyway, I digress. Wolfie was running slightly late for the 7:30pm start but this didn't matter as it was just us two doing the tasting again, as seems to be a common theme. Indeed this must be something like the seventh session we have done and we have had company only on one other occasion, with a few other times us bringing friends to share the tasting. Still this just meant more beer for us and a proper chat with one of the barmen, who are becoming close friends with us. This is not surprising as the Untappd app has highlighted we had been in the bar 33 times since December 9, and that's just the times we have drunk there, not picked up beer to take away. Averaging one visit every three days is somewhat alarming but there you go. As it was just us, we were pretty much allowed to dictate the flow of the evening, lengthening it out so the six beers filled a two and a half hour timespan. This was largely down to the conversation we are having and enjoying the beer, but on a work night it also prevented us buying much more before having to get the bus home.
The theme of the tasting was Something In... and it was dedicated to beers which had been brewed with something original. This included Gravol which contained ash and many Mikeller beers including the gloriously sour yet sweet SpontanSweetCherry and a cucumber witbeer which did exactly as it said on the, erm, bottle. This was called I'm A Kombo and the label consisted of a How To guide to make your own bottle stopper out of a cucumber. We also tried Flying Dog's The Fear, a perfectly balanced not too sweet pumpkin ale, an oatmeal mash (Beer Weak Brunch Weasel) and a 2012 holiday beer from Mikeller called From To Via. I do like the beer tasting sessions as you get to try a range of beers and have some excellent tuition too, as we compared tasting notes with the barman and talked craft beer and BrewDog in general. He too was tasting, which was a nice touch, and with a compared passion for beer, it was a great evening. After the session we finished off with a couple more beers and a nip of Sink The Bismarck, brewdog's 41% double IPA. It was a nice way to end the evening, like a deep rich whiskey, even though it took the bar staff a good while to open the bottle after we finished the dregs of an old one. With some cheesy popcorn it was a good way to round off the evening, along with planning the next session, which is likely to be April 20. As we are the only ones who go to these things, we largely set the date, although I am hoping to bring some people to the next one. Yep I'm aware that the dry April promise has largely been scuppered on day one but we go to these things anyway (largely because they wouldn't happen if we didn't) and I did promise a few Sheffield furs we would take them to BrewDog on a Monday night this month. By killing two birds with one stone, I'm reducing my alcohol intake and thus I'll overlook it. It's convenient but then it often is, surely one session can't hurt...
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Date: 2015-04-01 04:23 pm (UTC)That sounds like the cue for the Wild Beer Company, given that's sort of their modus operandi. ^_^ Wish I could lay my paws on their wares a bit more easily.. they deliberately eschew supermarket distribution, however, and there's no deli or dedicated beer seller in town.
I do want to try Sink the Bismarck sometime. =:9 I'll have to add that to the wish list, if this current main job prospect all works out, along with a box or two of Rare Hare, which I see has come around again - one of the very nicest rich ales around, and it even ages well, judging by the two boxes from last Spring, which I'm now down to the final two bottles of. ^_^ (They even have some Festivity left, it seems - their superb Winter porter, which is much less cloying than many of its ilk, rather more like a hearty ale)
I hear you on needing to rein the beer back in. *sigh* That and snacking are my dietary weaknesses - and at stressful times like these, such do afford temporary comfort. =:/ With luck, the aforementioned job will indeed pan out - with that safely secured, and an income reestablished, I should be in a rather better position to progress.
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Date: 2015-04-17 11:35 pm (UTC)StB is a great beer but TNP is probably better. Both are on sale in BrewDog bars now. As for Wild Beer Co, I have a large bottle of one of their beers in the house right now, which I bought from the BottleDog in Kings Cross.
Trying to rein the beer in, that and snacking is my weakness too. Been moderately successful so far, with the emphasis on the word moderate.