Love Lost - Such a cost, give me things that don't get lost...

Well, still a bit annoyed that I only heard the "This Valentine's Day I am going to go and stand outside an expensive restaurant and yell at each couple as they walk in 'Well you moved on pretty fast, didn't you?!'"... Still makes me smile and still worth sharing even though would have been better last week obvs! 

We've been playing catch up... We had a batch of Sundown we were not happy with and decided to put to drain. 😱 Money 💷 torn up 😱, but we really care about the beer and if it ain't right, it ain't right - demand has been huge for it as well, so we're out for likely another 10 days or so. Ugh. Annoying in every way, but such is life, this is the first beer we have put to drain in many years - still it hurts! 

Meanwhile, Satisfaction 3.4% has gone great - latest batch needs real cellaring and takes a bit of time to get truly bright but lovely peaches on the palate. More out in about 2 weeks. Very happy with it. Happy too with Swing Low 4.1% which has gone swiftly - I think 95% sold. We will do that recipe again, but a brewery very friendly to us (Kent)  has a beer of the same name, and they did it before us, so we'll need a new name - case of beer if you give us the idea! Appropriate Rugby songs? As a (now) Hampshire Highlander I would say "Flower of Scotland" but that wouldnae make me many friends in this part of the world!! Your ideas? 

Old Dray 4.8% was the second most demanded beer last week (after Moondance)... All things being equal we should have a few weeks stock of it, but not if it goes at last week's rate... 

So the lyrics in the subject line are the Niel Young classic "Old Man" which we kind of pretend pertains to our beer Old Dray. It sort of stacks up if you brush over it briefly. The actual backstory is though has more to it. The recipe was curated by Hugo Sharp [apparently from Sharp's toffee family so a good pedigree in appreciating the nice things in life!] who never actually worked at Triple fff but was the head brewer at Bass in Alton back in the day (brewery went through the usual amalgamation process, most recently was Coors owned, but now? No Brewery in sight, but flats a-plenty. Progress? You'll have to make your own mind up on that, but I am not so sure). 

Anyway Hugo set up his own Brewery up in Worldham, Hampshire and was making some terrific beer, but allegedly the authorities (not sure which specific ones, whether it was planning, environmental health, health and safety, meddling and nuisance, local council, corrupt and vested interests, HMRC or some other tax-funded entity - there are a lot after all!) shut him down. The story I heard was there were issues on the environmental health not understanding the fermentation process - hard to believe a former head of Bass Brewing would not have superb hygiene. Also, our experience with Environmental Health has been ok, but who knows?

Anyway, the Old Dray recipe was bequeathed to Triple fff as Graham was seen as a true traditionalist who would take care of it... And many years later on, we still are. For those that know their music, "Old man take a look at my life, I'm a lot like you were". Indeed. 

Xen

P.S. 

So I got suckered in with 10 days notice to doing the Winchester 10km this weekend. - Actually, that is probably the funniest thing I can say! ...

So will leave it with you there for the visual of me schlepping round the Winchester 10km on what is forecast to be a rainy Sunday am to give you a laugh! 

Bon weekend! 

Xen