Drinkalongathon 2012 - Abt and Laphroaig

12:58

Christmas isn't all about eating. There's drinking to be done, too. And what goes better with whisky than St. Bernardus Abt? Or should that be: what goes better with St.Bernardus Abt than whisky?

The whiskiness of the . . . no, I've done that one already. The medicinal gauziness of the laphroaig reminds me that hospital is probably where I'll end up later today. The brown Belgian beeriness of the Abt rinses the out the iodine taste from my mouth. Um, Kopstoot Royale, as I like to call this combination, lovely.

It helps me cope with a dual tragedy this year. I broke both my Chimay and St. Bernardus glasses. I'm reduced to using a Leffe glass I got cheap on Koniginnen Dag. Sacrilege, I know.

Talking of sacrilege, with all the weight Andrew's lost, he looks like Jesus on the cross if he lifts up his shirt. I'll have to trick him into doing it and take a quick snap later. What could be more Christmasy that Jesus on a crucifix?

In case you've forgotten, please have your string ready. I want you to be able to spring into action and without the string it just isn't going to work.

12th November 2010 - 1

18:20 I walk in the door.

18:21 Pfft. I open a bottle of St. Bernardus Abt and pour it into a Chimay glass. And switch on the computer.

Maybe you recognise the building on the screen.

The working week is over. Where's that beer?

18:40 First post of my biary.

St. Bernardus crisis

Ton Overmars is out of St. Bernardus Prior. "Het rooie is niet te krijgen, meneer." Damn. Another St. Bernardus crisis.

OK, it's nothing like as serious as the Abt Apocalypse. When Abt went missing from the Overmars shelves for more than a week. Trauma? A near-death experience, more like. Yet Prior plays its part in my drinking day. Sure, the first cap to pop when I pop in the door is an Abt's. Taking my coat off wouldn't be the same without it. But once my dm's* are parked and the second Abt is a whistling empty on the patio, I feel like a change of pace. Prior's perfect.

It has that St. Bernardusy thing going on. How would you describe that? Dead nice, that's it. And almost like Abt.

That's why panic set in when Ton told me the bad news. Aah, but he still had plenty of Pater. There was the solution. DIY Prior. 12+6 divided by two makes . . . . 9. That's close enough to 8 for me.

Now I wish I'd kept a real Prior for comparison. I reckon it's fairly close, judging from memory. (Which, as Mike will tell you, is a bit bollocky.) It'll do.






* they aren't real Doc Marten's. Solovair. Much better.

The St. Bernardus's:
6 Pater
8 Prior
12 Abt

A La Pinte du Nord

I was very briefly in Paris last week for work. Not expecting any free time, I hadn't researched any beer destinations. Then I found I had three hours to kill at Gare du Nord.

I know a couple of things about Parisian cafés. Principally that they're hideously expensive. But there's one handy rule of thumb: any café in a prominent position on a main road is likely to be at the top end of the price scale. So I went for a wander around the smaller streets, hoping to find somewhere vaguely affordable.

I did better than I expected. Not only did I find a place with something drinkable on offer, the prices were about the same as Amsterdam. Just 5 euros for a Chimay Blue. I took more than 90 minutes to drink it. That's record. A slowness record.

It's a handy place to know if you're waiting for a train. It can't be more than 100 metres from Gare du Nord. And they've got half a dozen draught beers and a dozen or so bottled. Two of the draughts I've never heard of: Gothic and Record. (Turns out the former is a Kronenbourg brand, the latter a Pelforth one.) Duvel and all three Chimays are the highlights of the bottles.



A La Pinte du Nord
38 Rue de Saint-Quentin,
75010 Paris, France.
Tel.: 01 45 26 11 89