An appreciation of beer!

On Monday, my lovely children took me out for a birthday treat. During the conversation, the subject (or should I say shubject) of beer came up. My son jokingly suggested that I'd drank over 1,000 different beers in my life. I started to think about it. Although this sounds like and outrageous number, to his shock and horror, I repled "You know, that may be just about right". I've never really kept a record of all the different beers I've drunk, but I had my first pint in a pub aged 13, on the way to watch Manchester City play West Ham at Upton Park. I bumped into a bunch of Manchester dockers, who took me under their wing and bought me four pints. I decided I rather enjoyed it, so have spent as much time as possible in pubs ever since! That was 50 years ago. If I've tried 20 new and different beers a year, on average, since then, I will have tried over 1,000. For many years, I'd attend the Great British Beer Festival every year and try at least seven or eight new beers. I'd only need to try one new one a month for the rest of the year to hit my target. I have a good mate called Keith and we meet around once a month for beers and curries and generally will try at least one or two new beers. Then there are the family holidays abroad, on these, I may try three or four foreign brews. I also like craft beers  and if one tickles my fancy in the supermarket, I'll get some, although I only really drink beers at home during lockdown or at parties. 

During lockdown, I took to ordering cases of beer from a company called Falvourly beers. Theses cases had 24 beers, of which there were usually 6-8 different types. I was drinking a case a week during lockdown, so would've taken a big chunk out of the total in those few months. Of course, I have no real way of knowing, but yes, I reckon 1,000 is not a bad guess.

So what are my favourite beers? Well that is very much dependent on where I am drinking them. If I am in Spain, I'll drink a local lager, something I'd generally avoid like the plague in a UK pub. I tend to try and visit pubs that have decent real ales and especially new ones. My favourite pubs are ones like The Southampton Arms, which have a good selection of different ales. With real ales, you might find it tastes amazing in one pub and not great in the next. My favourite is usually the one I am drinking, if it is well kept and flavorusome. When I've worked in various localities, I generally settle on a pub and a beer. My last job in town was near The Artillery Arms, a pretty decent Fullers pub. There I'd drink the Seafarers     or Olivers Island, depending on my mood or the weather.

In Indian restaurants, sadly these days we usually get a choice of Kingfisher or Cobra. I prefer Kingfisher of the two. The Mill Hill Tandoori used to do Dortmunder Union lager, which was infinitely better. Curry is infinitely improved by a decent lager. 

With my Mum, God rest her soul, I'd always have a Guinness. I can't really imagine drinking any other beer with her. She put her recovery from a total gastrectomy in 1970 down to drinking 8 pints of the stuff a night. I feel I owe Arthur Guinness & co a lot, so I do enjoy a good pint of the black stuff.

When I go to football at Hadley FC, there is no draft beer, so my tipple of choice is the rather fine Whistable Bay bottled beer. It seems to go down rather well as the nights draw in and the fog rolls across the hills of Hertfordshire towards Barnet.

In Portugal, the Super Bock tends to go down rather well. It isn't something I'd drink in the UK normally, although it may make a good beer for the Barbecue. Some beers taste better when they are cold and the weather is hot!

The point I'm making is that there is a beer for every occasion. If I was on the beach in Spain or Italy, I wouldn't have a Guinness, just as if I was in a bar in Dublin I wouldn't have a Super Bock.

Anyway, I'll leave it there for now. It's making me thirsty and I don't knock off for an hour!