Friday evening in my London local, The Dean Swift, SE1, really enjoyed tucking into some great pale ale styles, some of which I'd tasted at IPA dinner two weeks before. SWB (Yorkshire -based Summer Wine Brewery) Kahuna is wonderful, and so is (London brewer) Redemption's Big Chief. Just one big problem: Kahuna is 6pct and Big Chief 5.5 which means that after half a dozen pints - can't remember which way round but let's say three of each, I swayed home and woke the next morning (just about) with a headful of hops. Hopping.
At which point it was off to The Valley (Floyd Road) to watch my team Charlton Athletic hopefully hammer the Iron (nickname of Scunthorpe United, which just happens to be where my wife was born - the town you understand, not Glanford Park). And just in case I needed courage, there was a pint of it - Courage Best Bitter - to set me up. Not the world's greatest ale perhaps, but ale nonetheless and, poured straight from the firkin, a decent drink indeed.
If only a few more football grounds would follow suit and pour fans real ale rather than dodgy lager which is slower to serve, more like draining a sump than pulling a pint. I'm told Brighton's new stadium is a proud exception, serving excellent local ales with guests, but I have yet to have the delight. We need promotion first!
And our hopes of that suffered what I pray was just a minor dent when those 'Iron' men came back from two down and bundled in a stoppage time equaliser. Not what was needed. But a natter about the future of graphic novels with the lad over a pint of Black Sheep in the Royal Oak afterwards blunted the pain. Until I remembered the hangover.
Onwards, and let's keep working on that upwards.
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