Prince William's Stag do

Evening Blogerati,

I'm already fed up of the royal wedding but thought I'd post this...hope it makes you smile (:

Peace

G

Drinking Games - The Royal Wedding

Evening Blogerati,

Friday sees the wedding of Prince William and Kate Middleton. A true story of modern day romance, most certainly destined  for tabloid controversy, pointless celebrity and eventual divorce...actually that's overly cynical of me and I'm sure he'll do a better job than his old man.

Anyway in honour of this momentous national event (so momentous we get the day off work) I thought I'd share the drinking game that will be played around my gaff.

Essentially each player chooses a drink for the duration of the game - which starts whenever people turn up and ends when the new couple are on the balcony of Buckingham Palace...

Personally I'll be drinking Brain's SA.

You will also need a large bottle of whisky for the penalty shots, and a large jug for the accumulator :)

The Game

The game is split into three challenges/areas
- toasts
- penalties/races
- accumulators

Toasts
The following toast must be made with your chosen drink. Failure to do so results in a penalty shot of whisky.

• Her Royal Highness the Queen - when ever the Queen is shown on screen she must be greeted with proper etiquette.
  Men should bow - an inclination of the head, not from the waist.
  Ladies curtsy - a discreet but dignified bob.
  This should be combined with the correct greeting, initially 'Your Majesty' and subsequently 'Ma'am'. Then followed by the toast of two fingers from your chosen drink.
• Prince Harry - when Harry is shown on TV all players must salute, and then down two fingers.
• Diana

   - when mentioned all players must give the toast "May she rest in peace" and down three fingers.
• The Happy Couple - when both Will and Kate are shown on screen together all players must toast "to the happy couple" and down two fingers of drink.
• Whenever the National Anthem is playing, everyone must stand and drink....for the entire anthem or until their glass/bottle/can is empty.

Penalties/Races

• The first person to shout ‘QILF’ when Kate is on screen gets to choose another player to drink a penalty shot of whisky.
• Each time a member of the Royal family does a Royal wave, the last person to Royal wave back has to down a penalty shot.
• Whenever Prince Philip is shown without the Queen, the last player to shout “Bloody Foreigners” must drink a penalty shot.
• If Elton John is spotted on screen the last person to shout “Candle in the Wind” must drink a penalty shot

Accumulators
Each time someone on TV mentions the word "future" each player must contribute 2 fingers of their chosen drink to the jug. This continues until the old Archbishop says "I now pronounce you husband and wife"...at which point all players must stand and toast "God save the King" and finish what ever drink they are currently holding.
The last person to do so has to down the jug!

Feel free to add your own rules and help add some life to the pointless commentary.

Just don't get too drunk...unlike Kate

Peace

G

...an experiment

Evening Blogerati,

well I made it back from cornwall. Surf wasn't spectacular - but the weather certainly was :)
Hope you all had a good Easter?

Anyway to try something a bit different I thought I'd post a comic for a change...enjoy and let me know what you think.

Peace,

G

wow 10,000 hits

Evening Blogerati,

At some point last night I tipped over the 10,000 hits mark....which I never thought I'd get to, so thank you one and all.

It's just a quick post tonight as I'm off to enjoy the Easter Break, partake in some surfing down in West Wales oh and of course celebrate the coming of the lord (:

So I hope you all have a good few days - and I'll be sure to catch up and support all your blogs when I'm back.

...I leave you with some Bill Bailey

 

Peace

G

Drinking Games - FUBAR

Evening Blogerati,

I've not posted a drinking game in a while and with Easter fast approaching I thought I'd share a little game called FUBAR

You will need:-
A deck of cards
A group of friends

Shuffle the deck and scatter the cards face down in the middle of the table.

Taking it in turns each player flips over a card, displaying it to everyone.

Each card has a different rule:-

• Ace: Drink one fingers width of your chosen beverage.
• 2: Drink two fingers...
• 3: Drink three fingers...
• 4: Questions – You look at the person of your choice and ask them a question, they must answer your question with a question and it keeps going until someone screws up.
  Example - What is going on? Wasn't this your idea? Why are you looking at me?
  You don’t have to question the person who questioned you either but make sure to make eye contact.
• 5: Any person of your choosing has to drink 5 fingers of their drink.
• 6: I never. This is where the person who flipped the card says something they have never done and anyone who has must drink.
• 7: Thumbmaster – This person puts their thumb down on the table whenever they want and the last one to put theirs down drinks. The thumbmaster can do this as many times as he wants until the next seven is picked.
• 8: Categories – The first person gives a topic/category and in rotation, everyone else must give a kind.
  If you can't immediately give an answer you must drink while you think of one.
  Example: Toothpaste, Crest, Colgate, Mentadent, etc.
• 9: Rhyme – Everyone must give a word that rhymes with yours.
  If you can't immediately give an answer you must drink while you think of one.
  Example: Shoe…glue…you…etc…
• 10: Social – Everyone drinks
• Jack: Assholes drink…guys drink
• Queen: Bitches drink….girls drink
• King: Waterfall – This can be extremely hard, depending on your group of drinkers. It goes in order first being the one who picked the card and so on.
  The first person begins to drink, followed by the 2nd, 3rd, 4th etc....
  The 2nd person can't stop drinking until the 1st person does...
  The 3rd person can't stop until the 2nd...4th until the 3rd etc etc 

Play until the cards are gone or the bar closes :)

Peace

G

The paper-clip challenge

Evening Blogerati,

We were talking today over lunch about dull things some people come out with and I thought I'd share some of them with you...

"I need to take two litres of water with me on this hike."
"Ok I'll get you a big bottle of water from the supermarket."
"No mum can you get some small bottles they weigh less..."

"Name an american president..."
"JFK"
"...you dull idiot JFK is an airport!!!"

Made me giggle.

Anyway on to today's challenge and more of a office ice breaker than bar bet....but hey it's handy for those after work drinks on a friday...

You'll need two paperclips and a note to bet with...
The challenge is to interlink the two paper-clips but you're only aloud to touch one paper-clip at a time!

Here's how it's done:-

Peace,

G

That frozen wine knocked me on my arse!

Evening Blogerati,

Good start to the week?

I was talking to a mate in work about yesterdays post and she reminded me of one of the side effects of freezing a alcohol and water mix - namely as an alternative to distillation.

Now freezing alcohol seems to fall somewhere in-between legal issues for distillation in many areas (eg can you really stop your Applejack from freezing if its left outside?). Sort it out with your own authorities (or just keep your freezer contents personal).

Anyway I thought I'd cover some of the science of jacking alcohol and why it works...

The process is known as fractional freezing or fractional crystallisation and is used in many industrial processes to separate out two different liquids utilizing the fact that they freeze at different temperatures.

Now in simplistic terms if you have a mixture of alcohol and water and took this down to 0c the water would freeze first (forming ice crystals) leaving the alcohol still liquid.
This is a large simplification...what actually happens is a dilute solution of alcohol in water freezes first leaving behind a mixture richer in alcohol.
If you then removed the ice crystals (slush) and re-froze the mixture - you'd end up with a slightly stronger mixture ...and so on and so on.
As the mixture became stronger you would need a lower and lower temperature to cause crystals to form....but you wouldn't be interested in that, right?

Now this method for increasing the alcohol content of drinks was popular in the American colonial period for turning hard cider into Applejack and was even used as currency to pay road construction crews.

However it's worth pointing out that this method also increases the concentration of any impurities in the mixture....so I personally wouldn't recommended it.

So there you go...freeze your wine, ruin that taste, but get some knock you socks off fortification out of it.

On a slightly related note cheers for suggestions on other stupid and crazy ways to open wine...I'll be testing a few out and posting the results (:

Oh and it looks like few of you are fans of Cheryl Cole....so lets say a big hello to Emma Watson!

Peace

G

Sunny Sunday!

Afternoon!

What a glorious day! I hope everyone's weekend is full of as much sunshine as mine has been. I do love this time of year...especially the ladies fashion choices.

Anyway as it's sunny and i'm sat here outside a coffee shop eating icescream and drinking ice cold coke I thought I'd post another stupid way to open a bottle of wine without a corkscrew...

Now it's not ideal...yes there are easier ways but hell that's not the point lol

Essentially as with most water based liquids the wine expands as it freezes...this forces the cork out of the bottle for you. The only down side being you then have to wait for the damn stuff to thaw out. However for white wine, on a sunny day, especially at a BBQ this is a great way to keep the stuff chilled over the course of an evening. I think next time I'll try using a drill...mmmmm power tools! Or I have seen a bottle being opened by a sword...so I might give that a whirl next (:

Lastly a very good friend of mine has started her own blog about her experiences in life.
It's well worth checking out!
http://lifeinannaseyes.blogspot.com/

Off topic Saturday

Evening Blogerati,

how goes the weekend?

Mine has so far been immense!
Last night my local rugby side the Dragons played the Ospreys at home in Rodney Parade (our stadium).
Now in terms of welsh rugby the O's are the star studded glory boys with their side full of Welsh international players; the Dragons on the other hand struggle to keep any international stars as they are quickly attracted away by the money of bigger clubs. So it was a real David vs Goliath battle. Now the O's don't have a great track record down at Rodney Parade in part due to the crowd and the fierce atmosphere. You see most other team have developed large stadiums which they have then struggled to fill. At the Dragons we've kept it small and most of the fans still stand. This generates a really close vocal crowd who are only a few yards from the action... which allows them to voice passing critique, usually at opposition players or lines men. Now for certain high profile stars they don't react well to the sledging they get from the crowd... after all they play for Wales and should therefore be accorded proper respect...etc etc You can guess that this just encourages people more and the banter is just upped a few notches.

Anyway the game... we won, and not only did we win but we secured an additional bonus point for getting 4 tries in the game.

I've actually lost my voice through singing so much!
Rugby involves a lot of singing...especially when winning.

The other great element of this weekend has been the final purchase, by a close friend, of a VW Camper van :)

Now the great part is that after next weekend she is off to Germany for the summer...and guess who has to babysit the V-Dub :)

So I will be heading off down to Cornwall on any weekend that has even the remote chance of a glimmer of sun. Actually I think I'm going even if it's raining!

Peace

G

Glastonbury line up announced

Evening Blogerati,

firstly a big thank you to Kelly over at Psycho Carnival who was kind enough to pass on the 'I love this blog award'. If you guys haven't stopped by the carnival go check it out, Kelly has a uniquely hilarious and irreverent style.



As part of winning the award I have to share 10 things about me...tough one...
So here are my 10:-

1. I've rafted down the Zambezi river.
2. I used to have a phobia about phones, hated speaking on them and used to get all self concious and shy (aww bless)... I know completely lame. However I went for the kill or cure approach and got a summer job working in a call centre - luckily it cured me although it was a close run thing.
3. I funded some of my uni education by making and selling soap...which was kind of relevant to the Biochem course I was doing. Unlike some of my class who went into their own version of a pharmacy and ended up going to jail... no officer I just make soap!
4. I went 13 years without a hair cut...until I decided I needed to get a proper job and so sold out and had it cut. On the infamous day a load of my friends accompanied me to film it...and make sure I went through with it.
5. I drink more tea than beer - usually at least 8-10 cups a day.
6. I can juggle fire...
7. When I had to get security clearance for my job I had to disclose a warning I received for speeding on roller blades - 35 mph in a 20 zone!...which was one of my proudest moments...yes officer I do want to make it official, do you know how cool that ticket will look on my wall.
8. I used to be vegetarian (it went with the hair) 
9. I've walked from one end of Wales to the other.
10. My three regular holidays in a year are:-
    - The tomato festival in Brunol Spain
    - The Oktoberfest
    - Glastonbury music festival

Also I have to pass this award on to another blogger...so I'd like to award it to Fran (aka The Angry Lurker)

http://theangrylurker.blogspot.com/
He has a great site full of useful historical info and showcasing his talents as a painter.

There you go 10 random things about me....and leading on from the last one the other cool thing that happened today is that they announced the line up for Glastonbury.
Now for you folks across the pond and elsewhere in the world may not be aware of Glastonbury.
It is the largest green field open-air music and performing arts festival in the world and is the mother of most modern music festivals. Luckily enough, after getting drunk with a guy in a pub once, I get to work there as a steward, which is always a great laugh and comes with a free ticket and use of the staff facilities.

Anyway the line up...looks fairly cool this year check it out here.

Personally I'm stoked that BB King is playing...what would be top of your guys 'must see list'?

G

New Pages...

Not much by way of an update tonight.
After reading some of your feedback I've added back the pages at the top of the blog.
Here you will find links to all the past tricks, drinking games, and the odd attempt at capturing the science of alcohol!

So if you are stuck for a way to break the ice at a party give one of them a try (:

Also I thought I'd share a religious/physics joke...

I love Bill Bailey - but he's either a love or hate kind of comic.

Peace

G

Tuesday's trick

Evening Blogerati,

returning to the normal theme of this site I bring you a little trick that I used to use back in uni to score free beer...ok I admit not much free beer because, hell once you've seen it once then you kind of know how it's done. Which is probably why I've picked up so many of these over the years... always trying to get free beer lol

Anyway you're out drinking with some friends and you finish you beer but don't want to go to the bar to get the next one. So while rolling up a small piece of paper you challenge one of your more drunk buds to try and blow this little piece of paper from the neck of an empty bottle - into the bottle. How easy is that? How about a bet on it?.....

Try it yourself. The problem you will find is that often the ball of paper gets blown back out of the bottle...which seems to make no sense.

Here's how you pull off the trick...

Ok now the science bit...(http://www.science-wizards.com/index_files/Page1132.htm)

Essentially when you blow into the bottle you are forcing air in raising the air pressure inside the bottle as the air becomes compressed. Any gas will always try and equalise it's pressure and so the air under high pressure in the bottle pushes out to equalise the pressure with the lower pressure outside.

Which takes the ball of paper with it.

Now to get the paper into the bottle you need to focus that stream of air so that it is only hitting the paper ball. This avoids a build up of pressure in the bottle and so the paper ball can be blown inwards.

Easy when you know how.

G

Anne Hathaway!

Evening Blogerati, having a good Monday?

Well after a week's change of pace it's back to the usual schedule.
As promised this weeks Barmaid of the week is Ms Anne Hathaway, just for Lost and a few others...I hope you enjoy.

Writing about some of my favourite things was cool...so I might return to it as a theme in future posts...after all there is rafting the Zambezi, the Tomatina in Spain...Glastonbury festival...so many opportunities to mix good company with good alcohol.

Anyway before I get into introductions here is Monday's match puzzle...should be an easy one for you:-



While you ponder that, here's a little introduction to Ms Hathaway:-

1. Anne is a native New Yorker born in Brooklyn, November 12, 1982. She is mostly Irish and French but has Native American and German roots.
2. We almost lost her fine talents to a life of seclusion and religious devotion as she contemplated becoming a nun during her childhood. This was dashed when her brother came out of the closet and she realised she could not follow a religion that condemned his sexuality...hooray for gays! She remains a non-denominational Christian because she had not "found the religion" for her.
3. Our Anne is not only a talented actress but also a soprano...(singing not the family), performing with the All-Eastern U.S. High School Honors Chorus at Carnegie Hall. 
4. Hathaway is a trained stage actress and has stated that she prefers performing on stage to film roles, but lets face it the money isn't as good.
5. Talking of money in 2008 she became the face of Lancome’s fragrance Magnifique.
6. She is also heavily involved with charities, including The Creative Coalition, The Step Up Women's Network, St. Jude Children's Research Hospital, The Human Rights Campaign, and The Lollipop Theatre Network. In 2008, she scooped Elle magazine's "Women in Hollywood" tribute, and has also been honoured for her work with Step Up Women's Network and the Human Rights Campaign.
7. Not everything has been rosy for Anne, In early 2007 having battled with depression during her teenage years. According to an interview in 2007 she eventually overcame the disorder without medication.
8. Her relationship with real estate developer Raffaello Follieri took a turn for the worse when his charity organization was under investigation by the IRS in 2008 for failing to file tax papers. Hathaway ended the relationship citing that it could ruin her acting career...the eternal battle between love and career.
9. Regarding personal difficulties, Anne Hathaway’s mantra is a quote by Oscar Wilde that says, “The less said about life’s sores the better.”
10. ...and finally Anne keeps that slender svelte figure by cutting out meat and staying strictly veggie

So there you are...Anne Hathaway.

Back to the puzzle...here's the solution:-

A new poll will be up shortly for the next barmaid of the week.

Peace,

G

Oktoberfest...part 2

Evening Blogerati,

A few of you mentioned going to the Oktoberfest at least once, or putting it on your bucket list ad this very much how it started for me.
Back last century (lol I sound old) I was in a fairly dead end job and in the tail end of a relationship that wasn't going anywhere fast. While bored one night I started to chatting to my mate JP about all the cool stuff that goes on around the world and how I never get to see any of it because of the GF etc etc. One thing led to another and we decided to kick our lives into a higher gear...enjoy what the world has to offer...and generally party hard. This led to us writing our bucket list which consisted of all the crazy festivals around the world. Now initially we were going to enter JP's Ferrari  the Gumball rally but it was the year that they hiked the entrance fee up to £30,000, so instead we decided to try out the Oktoberfest. JP had lived in Germany while in the forces so it seemed like a natural place to start the list.

Now the Oktoberfest ground is a busy bustling place, full of great people, mad fairground rides, lots of little stalls full of things to eat and an awesome party atmosphere...however this is nothing to the atmosphere inside a beer tent.
Whether by fate or chance the first tent we headed for was that of the Hofbräuhaus which had a reputation of being more international than other tents. Walking in there for the first time will be an experience that is with me for the rest of my life. 6,000 people all stood up (some on benches, a few on tables) Steins in hand, sing 'Ein Prosit" in unison....awesome truly awesome.
The other advantage to the HoffBrau tent is that it is the only tent with a standing section (named the pig pen) under the auspicious gaze of Aloysius (the guardian angel of the HB tent). As we headed down to the pig pen a group of Canadians were leaving (fate again) so we took their place and ordered our first Stein.

Girls in Dirndls

Now the best thing about the 'fest...other than the beer and women dressed in dirndls...is the people you meet. I've met people from all over the globe at the fest and even blagged a few free holidays out of drunken conversations and friendships wrought in beer. The best has to be a 2 week trip to Mexico staying at this guys villa. However during that first visit we shared our table with a group of Italians, they didn't speak english, we didn't speak Italian...however we muddled through trying to teach each other over more and more beer. We then went back to the same table the following evening and arranged to meet them again. Then at the end of the festival we jokingly said that we'd see them again next year at the say table, and they have shown up every year since... with this being our ten year anniversary... same table, same tent, same group of Italians... you have to love tradition. We've also kept the same waitress, Helga, who is about 6'7'' and the scariest and sweetest woman I've ever met.

Far too many stories to share...anyway I said I'd post a few tips ect...

I think I've covered what I think is the best tent. In honesty after 10 years of going I've only really experienced the HoffBrau tent... but certainly it's one of the easiest to get in and attracts lots of Auzzies, Kiwi's Americans Canadians and British.

Now you can reserve tables in the tents - and these tend to get booked up very early in the year.
So either plan ahead (we normally book everything in December for the following year) or get to the tent early. Most tents keep a number of tables un-reserved and some, like the HoffBrau, have whole areas that can not be booked. However on the busy party nights of Friday and Saturday these will fill up quickly...so get there early in the day to bag your table. This may involve some tactical drinking to see you through...because if you start drinking at 11 when the tents open it's a long old day until it shuts at 11pm that evening.

Now if you do end up getting there late and security have closed the doors one great tip is to hang around by the service entrance where they bring the beer & food from. On a few occasions where we've been stuck outside a waitress has come up to us and offered a table inside. They want to keep their tables full and it's a way for them to 'cherry pick' their customers without just having whoever is next in the queue.

Finally it isn't all about the Oktoberfest ground. There are a great number of cool places to grab a beer around Munich. My personal favourites, and recommendations are:-

• Speiselokal Lenz - a great bar right by the Oktoberfest ground that is usually quite empty when the festival is on and does some amazing food. It's also the place where we got an Italian girl so drunk that she lost control of her bladder - I'm not proud...but it was funny
• Augustiner Keller - another great bar in the heart of Munich that serves some great beer and food.
• Hofbraeuhaus - the world famous HoffBrau, you couldn't come all the way to Munich and not have a drink where old Adolph used to sup a few steins. 

If you get the chance go...
If you go, and are there on the middle weekend of the festival...come to the HB tent, head for the corner of the standing area closest to the toilets... I'll be there, first stein's on me.

Peace

G

The Okteoberfest...part 1

Continuing this week's theme of 'favourites' I thought today I'd post about the Oktoberfest in Munich, which has to be my favourite beer pilgrimage of the year. This year will mark my tenth visit.

The Oktoberfest is a 16–18 day festival held each year in Munich, Bavaria, Germany, running from late September to the first weekend in October.The festival is held in an area named the Theresienwiese (field, or meadow, of Therese), often called Wiesn for short, located near Munich's centre.

It is the biggest beer festival in the world with close to 6.2 million visitors who in their stay consume around 6,940,600 litres of beer.

The Festival all started to honour the marriage of King Ludwig I and Therese of Bavaria, with a parade taking place for the first time in 1810. Since then it's been cancelled 24 times due to war, disease and other emergencies.

Today's festival is a huge event with the 100 acres Oktoberfest ground packed full of food stores, carnival rides, merchandise stores, tobacconists as well as the 14 main beer tents.

Now I say beer tent, and to most people this means some big marquee, but the Oktoberfest takes this to a whole new level. Although they are temporary structures just for the festival they are more akin to timber frame buildings. The smallest 'tent' sits 1000 people with the largest, the 'Winzerer Fähndl' tent of the Paulaner brewery, seating close to 8,500 people.
Each tent is run by a German Brewery and serves special Oktoberfest beer which is stronger (5.8% to 6.3%) and has a higher sugar content. When served in 1litre steins it's very easy to get very drunk very quickly...but that's kinda the fun :)

The tents are decked out with many tables and benches, not that you sit down a lot as standing on the benches is customary. Also there is no bar to go an queue at to get your beer, each table has it's own waitress who ferry's however many steins you need. These girls are impressive and I've seen more than a few carry 12 Steins at a time.

That is part 1 ...in part 2 tomorrow I'll give you more of a guide to the cool places to check out, the best tent (in my opinion), how to guarantee entry to your chosen tent...and anything else that I think of.

Before I go here is a little clip of the atmosphere inside a tent:-

Peace

G

Ye Olde Murenger House

Evening Blogerati,

continuing this weeks theme of favourites I though today I'd blog about my favourite pub - The Murenger (or to give it's proper name 'Ye Olde Murenger House'...or the Murry).

Now I doubt many of you know Newport, at all, but if you are ever in the neighbourhood this place is worth checking out. It's easy to find just off the main street leading away from the train station and has a very old distinctive look:-

It claims to be the oldest pub in Newport dating back to around 1530.
Certainly the building has been dated to 1541 and was possibly the town house of the first High Sheriff of Monmouthshire, Sir Charles Herbert. A Murenger was the official responsible for collecting and administering the duties on merchandise entering and leaving the town. However there is some doubt as to whether this building was ever an official residence.

So 200 years before the signing of the 'declaration of independence' people were supping down beer in the Murry.

Enough of the history...in more recent times it's been dubbed a 'haven in a superpub ghetto' and has an intriguing way of keeping the more rowdy chav element out.
You see the Murry is a Sam Smith's pub and as such only stocks Sam Smith's products. There are no Smirnoff Ices, Red Bulls or other popular alcopops. If you walk in and ask for some modern hip or trendy drink then you'll probably just get an odd look and pointed in the direction of the door.

The pub has a distinctive clientèle rich in the indy/punk/rock culture of Newport and has been a regular watering hole for many musicians and bands from Joe Strummer of the Clash to John Squire, guitarist of The Stone Roses; and more local Bands from the Goldie Looking Chain, Feeder and Skindred.

Their Billy Brag choir has even been featured on TV...

For me it's always been the place that great nights out have started, and more than a few have ended.

Peace

G

My three favourite beers

Evening blogerati, having a good Monday?

Following some questions in your comments I've decided to have a little change of pace for this weeks posts and devote them to my favourite things relating to beer.

So this week we'll have my favourite pub to drink beer,  my favourite holiday destination involving beer, my favourite, my favourite music festival...where i usually drink beer...mmmm...and any other thing I can think of around beer...

But to start I thought I'd blog about my favourite Beers

Now when it comes to beer I'm a fan of Bitter, or Pale Ale as it's sometimes referred to.

To get a bit sciency about them - Ales are made with top fermenting yeast;
Lagers are made with a bottom fermenting yeast and are fermented at a lower temperature.

Ales usually have a more full and rich flavor, while Lagers tend to be crisp and have more hop flavor.
Don't get me wrong I love Largers (Bud, Coors etc.) but if I have a choice it's a pint of bitter for me any day of the week.

So here are my top three favourite Bitters...in no particular order.

First we have - Hancocks HB.
The W.H. Hancock Co Ltd brewery company traces it's origin back to the early 1800's when  William Hancock snr built a brewery in Wiveliscombe, Somerset.

Hancocks HB is a 3.6% session bitter now produced by Coors in Burton-on-Trent. Beer critics have described it thus:-

"Pours as dark amber with medium white head. The nose is floral and faintly smoky and the foretaste is mild and sweet, followed by some sourness and a sharpness which fades but lingers in the aftertaste. One of the beers I knew as a boy and helped make me the man I now am!"

I don't know about the floral stuff to me it's just a great beer and the first pint I remember drinking in the rugby club when I was 15. So for better or worse it's also helped me become the man I am now.

Next up - Brains SA (or Skull Attack as we like to call it)

Although Brains as a brewery can trace its history back to it's founding in 1882 in Cardiff, Wales by Samuel Arthur Brain, Brains SA was first launched at the start of the 20th Century and is now the brewery's flagship Ale.
SA is a 4.2% bitter brewed to a recipe combining the characteristics of pale and crystal malts with choicest traditional ale hop varieties. The beer has a long, deep, bitter-sweet finish with fruit and hop notes. This is Brains beer at its best, a strong ale which is distinctively hoppy.
For me this beer is always associated with the 6 Nations Rugby tournament, drinking in celebration of Wlesh victories over the English and glorious grand slams.


...and finally we have - Bass (or Bass Pale Ale to give it it's proper name).

The Bass Brewery was founded in 1777 by William Bass in Burton upon Trent. With their Pale Ale being exported throughout the British Empire. The distinctive red triangle becoming the UK's first registered trademark.

Bass is the strongest of my three ales at 5% alcohol by volume:-

"...it is light amber in color with a foamy head. It has a pale malty aroma with no hop characteristic. Sweet nutty caramel malts fill a very modest medium body and lightly carbonated brew. Very light floral hop on finish and aftertaste."

For me this was the beer of my University days - getting far too drunk and miss far too many lectures. But hey I did Biochem so any time spent with beer was just research...

So there  you have my 3 favourite beers.

Peace

G

Sunday Sunday

Evening Blogerati, how was the weekend?

Mine was filled with minecraft and rugby...
Seriously I need to give up the minecraft, it got to about an hour before the game kicked off and I was in two minds whether to just stay in and carry on mining. Luckily I saw sense and went out into the real world, drank real beer and watched grown men hit lumps out of one another.

Normally on a Sunday I do a few little blog reviews but this Sunday I thought I'd share some improvements I've been working on.

I've been at this blogging lark for a while now and I've wanted to find an easy way to link back to some of my old content. More specifically the bar tricks and drinking games.
I've not wanted to simply list them as space on blogs is at a premium and I already have stupidly long lists of blogs that I find cool.
So what I really wanted was a way of having a collapsible menu similar to the way the blog archive works.
Now at first I thought I could just hijack the code used by the blog archive widget - but this proved too complicated for my limited JavaScript/CSS skills. Then I thought of just adapting my own JavaScript/CSS which gave me some success (see the bottom right column) but not quite what I was after.
Finally the one I've settled for is adapting the LinkList widget to only display it's content when clicked.
...so if you look at the top right column you should see '[+/-]...more cool tricks', click on that and it should expand to some of my older posts.

It's not an ideal solution - and I'll still persevere with finding a better one, but for the moment it's workable.

If you're interested in having a expandable/collapsible linklist I followed this post:-
http://bloggeruniversity.blogspot.com/2008/06/expandcollapse-sidebar-widget-title.html

Now onto the Barmaid of the week.
The observant will have noticed that I've not run a poll this week. I'm going to blame minecraft...I know lame...but I also wanted to feature a lady that maybe wouldn't have commanded popular appeal....
So Just for Ray and The Angry Lurker next weeks Busty Barmaid will be........

...and probably Anne Hathaway the week after - just for Lost.in.Idaho

Peace

G

Beer - a brief history...

As some of you guessed my lack of blogging time this week has been down to playing minecraft.
It still fascinates me how a simple 'mine stuff/build stuff' game can be so all consuming...and yet I have fallen into the minecraft trap, consuming hours of my time in the blink of an eye.

Yes - I think I need therapy.

Anyway for Saturday's post I thought I'd take you on a little history lesson of my personal favourite beverage - Beer!

The true invention of beer is probably lost in time as it certainly pre-dates written language.
Given the fact that almost any cereal can undergo spontaneous fermentation due to wild yeasts in the air, it is likely that early beers were developed all over the world as soon as farming crops established itself.
Whoever the brave soul who first decided to sip the foaming, fermenting concoction and discovered it's intoxicating effects should be applauded.

Tests of ancient Chinese archaeological findings show that they were brewing fermented alcoholic drinks as far back as 7000BC with a similar process being used across the globe in Egypt and Ancient Iraq.
Written accounts of beer date back to the 6th millennium BC, being recorded in the written history of Ancient Iraq. The earliest Sumerian writings contain references to beer. A prayer to the goddess Ninkasi known as "The Hymn to Ninkasi" serves as both a prayer as well as a method of remembering the recipe for beer in a culture with few literate people.

There is real debate is concerning exactly why humans began to shift from being hunter gathers to farmers.
Many think this has been due to the production of bread driving the rise of farming - personally I'm sure that the ability to also produce intoxicating liquor certainly helped.

There is also the nutritional aspect of beer to consider.
Sprouting barley contains enzymes that help break down starch into sugars making them more digestible. The addition of yeast introduces essential amino acids as well as increasing B vitamins. The health benefit of consuming a mildly alcoholic drink was no doubt a factor. Besides the nutritional value imparted by the yeast; the slightly acidic condition caused by such an elixir, is most beneficial in the reduction of harmful bacteria in the intestines. It has further been postulated, that early man would not likely have gone to such trouble to obtain the relatively small amount of food value provided by bread alone.

Beer was an integral part of ancient civilisations. Hammurabi, the ruler of Babylon from 1795-1750 BC is credited with giving the world its first written laws, and you guessed it - beer got a special mention.

Law 108 states; that the owner of a tavern must give proper measure of beer for corn. Should she take instead, money, then it must be in an amount equal to said measure of corn and not less. If it was less then she should be convicted and thrown into the water. One can only presume to drown. 

Law 111 states that; "If an innkeeper furnish sixty ka of uskani-drink to… she shall receive fifty ka of corn at harvest." 

That beer played a major role in everyday life can also be seen in that Hammurabi allowed for a daily ration of brew. It is notable that the laws regarding beer, are much higher on the list than those relating to looking after a family.

The role of beer in Egyptian society was far greater than just a drink. Beer's medicinal qualities meant that it was often prescribed to treat various illnesses. It was also a suitable gift for the Pharaoh and often offered as a sacrifice to the gods.

As the Egyptians loved writing stuff down there is plenty of evidence of the process and recipes used to make beer:-

A dough was made using a considerable amount of yeast; this was then formed into loaves and lightly baked. The bread was crumbled and water added at which point it would be strained to produce a wort.
Herbs were then added to improve flavour and dates to increase sweetness. The resulting liquid was fermented in large vats and eventually placed in sealed jars to be stored and transported. 

This process was, in time, taught to the Greeks with the Greek writer Sophocles (450 BC) probably being the first to write about the concept of moderation when it came to beer. He believed that the best diet for Greeks consisted of bread, meats, various types of vegetables, and beer or "ζῦθος" (zythos) as they called it.

Brewing grew leaps and bounds with the rise of Christianity. Monasteries in their efforts to provide food, shelter and drink for travellers and pilgrims organising brewing, making it into a trade.
This led to a large number of Christian saints being patrons of brewing:
- Saint Augustine of Hippo
- Saint Arnulf of Metz
- Saint Luke the Evangelist
- ...and good old Saint Nicholas (which is apt as Santa always brings me beer)

So there you have a very quick history of beer.

Peace

G

Quick Friday post...

Evening Bloggerati!

How's everyone? Ready for the weekend?

Just a very quick post tonight....mainly because it's Friday ^_^

So I give you Jessica ----->

...and the lovely Mr Bill Hicks

Back to normal posting tomorrow...

G