Serious drinking

Beyond a pale: a weak beer stuffed to the
gunwales with flavour

We're in recovery mode here at Beer Advent Calendar Towers. This involves hefty lie-ins, big jumpers, posh bread and cheese. And soon, more beer. 

I'm more tired than anything else. Having gone out on a few choice beers yesterday and little food, I imagined today was going to be one long hangover. But the drinks choice at the venue was so dire I pretty much failed to finish every one I bought. In the end, I just stopped bothering. Clearly having too much of a good time.

There does seem to be a pattern emerging here. Not for the first time have I bailed out early, so to speak, on what would normally be a full-on booze-a-thon. Might be that I'm getting too old for it all and can't hack the pace any more, but I'd prefer to think I'm beginning to eschew overindulgence to the point of generally being a bit of a twit in favour of being slightly more sensible.

Of course, time will tell whether I manage to pull it off, but I'm thinking of setting myself a New Year's resolution to only drink good beer slowly and in moderation. Which will hopefully put an end to the kind of raging hangover I feared I'd have today. I've a couple of events before Christmas that I can use as practice runs. See how the land lies, that kind of thing.

Meanwhile, we're only 10 beers away from Christmas Eve, so it's time to stop rambling, crack open this pale ale and start the countdown.

Beer: Pale ale
Strength: A liver-friendly 4.1%
Smell: A mite vinegary out of the bottle, in the glass it's a totally different bowl of fruit, tropical stuff at that.
Tasting notes: Not sure I can trust my somewhat furry palate right now, but what I can say is this should go some way to removing at least one layer of matter from my tongue. At first, it feels like someone's confused my mouth with a juicer and is twisting a half of grapefruit into it. There's a momentary lapse as they stop to grab another half and someone sneaks in with a slice of melon, then there it goes again. Pulp, pith and skin is rammed in there for good measure and you're left with the kind of tangy sensation that would have Jilly Goolden frothing at the mouth and unable to articulate.
Session factor: Dangerously high. This stuff would test my New Year's resolution mettle to its limits.
Gut reaction: I foresee no disturbance as a result of drinking this beer.

Actual beer: Moor Beer Company So'Hop. Down as 4.3% on the label and one of my favourite breweries, which makes me all the happier having enjoyed it.