Friday 13 November 2009

The Other Beer


I have been happily married to Sharp’s beers for over 7 years now. I feel as lucky today to be with them as I did when we first got together. This is the perfect marriage but there is one small matter which I prefer to keep from them.

I keep a mistress.

There is a beer which I fell in love with as a teenager which has stayed as fresh and beautiful to this day, despite huge growth as a brand. A beer which excites, soothes and makes even the worst event tolerable. Even All Bar One on Leicester Square with tedious company can be a haven of pleasure when clutching a glass of this beer. What beer is it that keeps me running back for more? It is quite appropriately the Duvel (Flemish for devil).

While many of the great Belgian beers have been neutered by expansions in production (Chimay, Hoegaarden, Westmalle to name a few) the Duvel has stayed beautifully consistent. No other beer that I am aware of marries consistency and with complexity and character while defining a whole style of beer. A beer so accessible to the ‘average drinker’ that it was available on Eurostar, a serious highlight of trans-channel train travel.

This story of my happy love triangle does unfortunately have a sad twist. The Wicked witches of Eurostar have stepped in and tried stop me being able to drink the Duvel en route to Brussels. For commercial reasons they have replaced my beautiful Belgian with the two chav slappers, Stella from Magor and Kroney from Reading.

All love stories have a happy ending. This one is no exception. I have found a secret compartment in my hand luggage which will accommodate bottles of Duvel. When I leave for Belgium in a couple of weeks I will be taking my faithful Duvel with me and there is nothing that the wicked witches of Eurostar can do about it.

Apart from refusing to let me travel that is.

1 comments:

Anonymous said...

Did you know that you look like Gordan Ramsay? I have been following your blog passionately and I think it's really good.
You seem like a very worldy wise and intelligent being, I would love to be your other mistress, are there any vacancies?

Yours devotedly,

Zoe

xxx

wwww.deviantart.com/cheetarah

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