Whatcha drinking (2018-2022)?

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TastyReuben said:
You ever have something trigger an instant memory? Well, your mention of Aylesbury did just that.

When I was stationed at RAF Upper Heyford, there was a Mexican-style restaurant in Aylesbury, can't remember the name for the life of me, but they used to do monthly "American Night" specials, where they took dollars in place of pounds, meaning if a meal normally cost £10, it would be $10.

Clever way to drive in patrons, and on American Night, it was always packed to overflowing.
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There was a Mexican restaurant near Banbury, too. I forget the name of the village, but it was just south of Banbury, not too far from Upper Heyford. There was also a good Hook Norton pub almost next door to it.
 
Duck59 said:
There was a Mexican restaurant near Banbury, too. I forget the name of the village, but it was just south of Banbury, not too far from Upper Heyford. There was also a good Hook Norton pub almost next door to it.
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I've mentioned before that, as newly-assigned Americans, we had to attend "cultural awareness" classes when first arriving, where they taught us that some rude American words were not rude British words (and the opposite as well), to never, ever, ever make fun of the queen, even if your British friends were, and to try and accept that there was no 24/7/365 mega-mall at every other intersection.

One such class was conducted by a gentlemanly British fellow, bow tie, sweater-vest, looked like he'd stepped right out of a Marple paperback, and the gist of his hour-long lecture was, "You really must make every effort, while you're our guests, to avail yourself of the fine beers available from Hook Norton, especially one named Old Hooky, which really is quite exquisite and not to be missed, if I may take such a liberty as to suggest something of that nature to you, our new-found friends from an old ally across the ocean."

I knew him only for that hour, but I loved that guy! :)
 
Got it! With a bit of help from an old Good Beer Guide and not much help from an ageing memory, the place I was trying to recall was Deddington, which is about six miles south of Banbury. The pub was called the Crown and Tuns, which appears to still be operative as a Hook Norton pub.

One of the odd things, in a Hook Norton sense, was that it wasn't a beer you saw very often in Oxford (that is, the city of Oxford). Hook Norton had no pubs in the city and the nearest, as I recall, was one in Woodstock, just near Blenheim Palace. The tied-house system was just ending when I moved from Oxford and you could get Hooky beer in the odd pub by then. One of life's many small ironies is that I have drunk much more Hook Norton beer since I've lived in Scotland than I ever did when I lived in Oxford. They have a very good web shop and pretty reasonable prices on their beer, so we are fairly regular customers between our various exploratory missions.
 
Duck59 said:
Got it! With a bit of help from an old Good Beer Guide and not much help from an ageing memory, the place I was trying to recall was Deddington, which is about six miles south of Banbury. The pub was called the Crown and Tuns, which appears to still be operative as a Hook Norton pub.

One of the odd things, in a Hook Norton sense, was that it wasn't a beer you saw very often in Oxford (that is, the city of Oxford). Hook Norton had no pubs in the city and the nearest, as I recall, was one in Woodstock, just near Blenheim Palace. The tied-house system was just ending when I moved from Oxford and you could get Hooky beer in the odd pub by then. One of life's many small ironies is that I have drunk much more Hook Norton beer since I've lived in Scotland than I ever did when I lived in Oxford. They have a very good web shop and pretty reasonable prices on their beer, so we are fairly regular customers between our various exploratory missions.
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Oh, we've been to Deddington a thousand times if we've been once. We lived right down the road in Brackley. We even went back to Deddington in 2018, since we were in the area (and went to Hook Norton for a meal as well).
 
Chiltern Pale Ale last night. It's a 3.7% amber coloured ale, not as pale as some of the many beers of this type. This is just about right for a session beer and has a good malt-hop balance. A sign of this is a gentle sweetness at the beginning, slightly fruity in this instance, before the hops and bitterness kick in, giving it a good hoppy finish. Enjoyable.
 
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...with creme de cassis added, hence the lovely shade of...carmine?
 
One of our Lancaster beers is Mr Trotter's, a 4.0% reddish-brown ale made with chestnuts. It's a little sweet on first tasting, but you get some bitterness coming through later. I found it a little bland, but it's pleasant enough and I can at least say that I've had a beer made with chestnuts.
 
We've still got a couple of Chiltern beers to work through, but we got the chance to stock up on our reserves thanks to Woodforde's brewery offering 15% off if you spent £100. Now, £100 = 5 minikegs from them, so five for £17 each seemed a good deal. Unfortunately, their splendid Norfolk Nog wasn't available, but we have a couple of kegs of the ever-reliable Wherry plus three that we've not tried before. One of them is a cider, or cyder as they will have it. We're not usually cider drinkers, but we'll give it a spin.
 
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