Beer #1 - Switzerland (Day 1 - May 13th) Price: £3.49 (rrp £3.99 but got 50p off as it was on window display)
Even though it was on our tough / impossible list (probably because we didn't think the country was flat enough to grow the necessary crops!) However, a trip to Trafalgar Wines, Brighton produced our first find - and what a find it was. Weighing in at a mighty 14% (yes, one-four per freeking cent) and allegedly 'The Strongest Lager Beer in the World', Samichlaus will be a force to be reckoned with and is the first beverage to qualify for Cup of Good Hop.
DAY 2 - May 14th
Reports into COGH Towers from James of successful sourcing of Portugal, Argentina and Nigeria. Reports #2, 3 and 4 to follow...
DAY 3 - May 15th
As I was walking to the tube this morning every exotic beer shop seemed to be calling out to me, as if they housed the Holy Grail. Will be hunting down beers this afternoon... Hoping for some notable scalps. Watch this space...
Beer #5 - Australia (Price £1.79)
A friend of mine is most insistent - and if you don't believe me read the comments section on the welcome page of this blog - that we don't buy just any old rubbish to represent Australia in COGH. And so, entering Oddbins on Wardour Street, the only contribution they could make to our haul was a bottle of Coopers Sparkling Ale - oooh, and slavering at the thought of it. It will stand far more chance of qualification to the latter stages than Lucas Neill, Harry Kewell, Mark Schwarzer and the other geriatrics that play for the Socceroos these days.
Beer #6 - S. Korea (Price £1.55)
Whilst cycling along Charing Cross Road I happened to remember that there was a Korean shop nearby, and a short, partially understood exchange later I was in the possession of a bottle of OB - a brew of which I know less than nothing. Like the Korean team itself, a dark horse that could prove to be a match for the titans of the beer world.
OB - drink it and shut up...Beer #7 - Japan (Price £1.55)
Whilst in the same shop me old eyeballs fell upon bottles of Sapporo - and my thoughts immediately turned to birds, stones and killing. Must have drunk it in the past, but if I did that night has faded from memory like every other James Blunt song apart from that incredibly annoying one. Got a mountain to climb, like Mount Fuji or something badass like that.
n.b. successes now moved to day-by-day updates. Will keep this page live for old times' sake ;)
I've drunk enough OB to know it's going out in the group stage. Less a dark horse than a light, unsatisfying, gassy piss.
ReplyDeleteSapporo now...
Sounds like OB won't last long in a tough group - there's the dark horse of Guinness Foreign, Quilmes and Mythos in there.
ReplyDeleteAgain, Japan is in with a couple of the world's top beer producing countries and Cameroon, who will piggyback in on the back of their French colonial past. It's going to be fascinating...
P.