I’m off for the next few weeks travelling around Europe, working on Form Tools and seein’ the sights. But while I was out and about I thought I’d take a few moments away from programming to go on a monologue about the differences between North American and British beers, considering I had all of 7 days mature experience with British beer (so I’m basically an expert on the subject). Okay, obviously I still know little, but I’m pretty blown away by the difference between the two. Night and day, really.

Yesterday I was at the “Lamb and Flag” (a typically arbitrary-sounding British pub name) in Oxford and had their signature Lamb and Flag Gold. Strangest beer I think I ever had. Boring on first taste (since it followed a delicious, refined Skinner’s Betty Skogs). Very little aroma. Then I got whiffs of pancakes and syrup; other times some sort of smoked meat, fruit and cigarettes. Very cigaretty. Cigarettes butts in a bowl of fruit. Sounds disgusting when I describe it, but boy it worked.

[Hmmm. If I ever set up a pub, I’ll have to call it something equally arbitrary. How about “The Chicken and Croissant” or “The Asparagus and Socialist”?]
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North American microbreweries (esp the IPAs) are about in-your-face-awesome-deliciousness, whereas British beer seems all about understated flavours and depth. The zero fizz and slightly warmer temperature in which they’re sold is just great – really just great. It was a bit weird and unexpected for the first pint, but I already now prefer it. Plus it allows you to drink far, far more without feeling like you’re going to explode or throw up on someone; it also lets you drink the stuff at any hour without feeling like you’re doing something inappropriate.

Another observation: British beers belch better. A couple of rather boring pints I’ve had still taste brilliant on the belch. Quite honestly, they actually tasted *better* upon belching than when they went down in the first place. Not sure what to make of that. Possibly the source of a whole new industry. Beers intended for the way up, not down.

I was down in San Francisco last week and they had this stuff called Lagunitas IPA on tap at various pubs in the area. It’s a fantastic, delicious beer. Kerrisdale (my “hood” in Vancouver) now has its own craft beer store, which I felt I may have been single-handedly funding before I left (hopefully they’ll be able to survive until my return). They just started offering Lagunitas, which is every bit as good in the bottle as it is on tap. But Lagunitas is the complete opposite of every pint I’ve had here. Lagunitas is brash, hoppy, immediately tasty and slightly fizzy. The stuff here has been consistently delicate – reminiscient of a Boddingtons or a Smithwicks, but with rather more interesting flavours. Maybe I just need to branch out more, but I’ve visited maybe 12 or 15 pubs and have always ordered something I don’t recognize. It’s never been a dull experience and what I’ve had has always something along the lines that I describe.

Oh – and I ended up in a crappy pub offering nothing but drivel, so I got a pint of Guinness as a last resort. Wow!!! *Nothing* like the Guinness on offer in Canada – creamier head, better body – genuinely an interesting beer. It actually brought back a number of memories of getting drunk on the stuff in Yorkshire as a kid, which Canadian Guinness never conjured up. I can’t wait for Dublin to try it right from the source. If I don’t wake up in a pool of my own vomit with a tattoo of “mum” somewhere on my body, married to a prostitute, I really feel the experiment won’t be a success.