Wednesday, December 27, 2006

Beer Is A Mans Best Friend

Following the intense activity of Christmas and before the overhyped indulgence of New Years Eve come a quite period, a time for relaxing, not working and general taking it easy. Christmas and New Years are both heavily associated with wine, champagne and fine spirits, so in order to recharge the liver before December 31st I advise swapping to beer.


Beer has a bad image, people don't appreciate its class, they think its a cheap alternative and that drinking from a tin has no grace. Well I can tell you, as fact, that given a choice between cheap beer and cheap spirits (Or so called premiums like Smirnoff *spit*) cheap beer will do you less damage. As for being to aloof to drink from a tin, shit, you end up looking pretty stupid with a fat belly from drinking alcopops or throwing up after mixing wine with your Jack and Coke.


There's a lot of beer out there, the cheapest tins offer the best opportunity, but again there are so many to choose from you can make an ill informed decision and end up drinking Fosters or wearing a vest and drinking Stella. I'm a veteran of the eight tins for five pounds section of Bargain Booze, here's some advice to help you out:


Skol

Buying beer there is one important rule, AVOID AMERICAN. Skol is nice and Sweedish, and not only that, its endorsed by a Viking, and Skol is Swedish for cheers. This is one of the first beers to entre my life, excellent for camp fire drinking and the ideal place to start reintroducing yourself into the wonderful world of economy beer.


Red Stripe

Lurking in the darkest corners of Morrisons or Aldi, in the occasional restaurant and rather popular in Manchester (Night and Day being my steady supplier). Imported from Jamaica, apparently, this is a genuinely nice beer and great for drinking at more active occasions. Sadly it is harder to find, but you can have it delivered by the good people at Thedrinkshop.com.




Dutch Gold

When in Rome, do as the Romans. When in Ireland, take ever opportunity to buy Dutch Gold, then bring it back to England for sale on the black market. A bit sweet for some, Dutch Gold has two chief advantages. First, as cheap beers come, this is pretty damn cheap, normally six tins for seven Euro, meaning that this product is enjoyed by a wide strata of social groups, and its distribution in alleyways is a good way to gauge just how safe that shortcut really is . Second, mentioning it over here is a good way to find out just how much of an alcoholic your Irish friends really are.


Tuborg

Essential drinking in Sweeden, Denmark and the Roskilde Festival, also very popular in Ireland but, for reasons totally beyond me, impossible to find in England. I'm including it for reference, because its a favourite of mine, and if you know where to get it you can inform me. Again sweet, the same price as Dutch Gold, its scarcity is its downfall.




I guess this is kinda helpful, if you live in Ireland, if not, Skol is the only readily available beer here. Um, Red Stripe as I said, not everywhere (I knew one offy in Dublin that sold it). I guess, like me you just have to go out an experiment.



Happy Seasons Drinking!




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