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I refer to Swiftys post elsewhere regarding the pub landlords 'forced' to drink their booze stocks - bet you wish you were there, eh?
'Forced' - bet their arms had to be hammerlocked behind their backs to get them to drink it, yeah.
 
Son sells 28 years of birthday whisky to buy first home

A man whose father gave him 18-year-old whisky every year for his birthday is selling the collection to buy a house.

Matthew Robson, from Taunton, was born in 1992 and over the course of his life his father Pete has spent about £5,000 on 28 bottles of Macallan single malt.

The collection is now worth more than £40,000 and has been put up for sale.

The 28-year-old said it "probably wasn't" the best gift for a young boy but with "strict instructions never to open them" they had become a nest egg.

"Each year I received it as a birthday present," Matthew said. "I thought it was quite a quirky little present as I was slightly too young to start drinking.

"But I was under strict instructions, never, never to open them and I tried my hardest and succeeded and they're all intact."
 
I've said this for a long time that whisky is a smart investment.
 
He is not a nice man that Humphrey Smith as he has no shut down my ex local and also shut down another pub in Sheffield and fired the staff for not having his favourite dessert on the menu :(
 
He is not a nice man that Humphrey Smith as he has no shut down my ex local and also shut down another pub in Sheffield and fired the staff for not having his favourite dessert on the menu :(
He closed down a brand new pub last year after he heard a customer swearing.
Who does that? That is mighty weird.
 
No swearing and no phones/tablets ect.
Fair enough, they all swear like troopers in the Sam smiths local to me though.
Always liked there own brand drinks and even the crisps are good quality.
Taddy lager was very cheap until the recent price hike.
The bottled organic fruit beers are nice too.
 
No swearing and no phones/tablets ect.
Fair enough, they all swear like troopers in the Sam smiths local to me though.
Always liked there own brand drinks and even the crisps are good quality.
Taddy lager was very cheap until the recent price hike.
The bottled organic fruit beers are nice too.
He also got rid of the lovely £1.50 Toasties heater.
 
New thing turned up in the local shop, so I decided to gamble on their 4 cans offer.

SmartSelect_20201012-224813_Gallery.jpgSmartSelect_20201012-224836_Gallery.jpg

My immediate response is that it doesn't taste like 5.2%, and while is has that distinctive wheat beer taste, in is very 'flat' in the sense of non effervesence and of the effect on the tongue. You may think I'd be a stickler for bottles, cans and labels that skew towards the Edwardian, but I'm actually quite a supporter of newer designs that attract younger drinkers. I'd imagine in UK somebody would kick off about that packaging appealing to minors.
 
Am I?

Content to be so, but there seems to be much of this kind of complaint in the media.

"but I'm actually quite a supporter of newer designs that attract younger drinkers" - Alcohol is not the best stuff to be pitched at younger people. Particularly if it's 5.2%

I really think we should be scaling back any advertising on alcohol.
 
"but I'm actually quite a supporter of newer designs that attract younger drinkers" - Alcohol is not the best stuff to be pitched at younger people. Particularly if it's 5.2%

I really think we should be scaling back any advertising on alcohol.

I see where you are coming from (I misunderstood your point at first), but I do still think that it's perfectly possible to have a sensible relationship with alcohol, and that the reason the British are so poor at achieving one is down to a lot more than just advertising.

Nobody in my family is a prodigious imbiber--if anything I myself have skated the closest to unhealthy intake--but we all drink socially, and my brother and I were brought up with the idea of a glass of wine with our Sunday roast and, later, a couple of pints in the pub.

If anything, it was university that ushered me along into regular blackout territory. Almost every social event revolved around alcohol, and at least a few of my social circle became proper alcoholics.

When I wrote of attracting young drinkers, I had in mind the idea of existing drinkers with a healthy mindset joining CAMRA or supporting the local pub, not handing out shots in fluorescent glasses at the school gates.
 
My Dad - remember part French (or possibly Swiss) was of the opinion that it was exactly the British repressive attitude towards drink that caused the excessive consumption. They do drink a lot in France but they don't seem to have the same 'lets drink until I vomit' attitude of the British.

But in France they introduce their children to (very small quantities) of wine with meals from very young. One presumes this creates different psychological links to getting pissed for the first time with your mates.
 
My Dad - remember part French (or possibly Swiss) was of the opinion that it was exactly the British repressive attitude towards drink that caused the excessive consumption. They do drink a lot in France but they don't seem to have the same 'lets drink until I vomit' attitude of the British.

But in France they introduce their children to (very small quantities) of wine with meals from very young. One presumes this creates different psychological links to getting pissed for the first time with your mates.
Yup, I can remember being taught in French lessons at school that children would be given watered-down wine to drink with meals. Seemed highly civilised to me, back I'd never seen anyone drink wine!

In fact in the '60s when I was a child alcohol seemed to exist solely for people to get smashed on. Nobody I knew drank in moderation.
I later realised how many problem drinkers there are in my family.
 
My Dad - remember part French (or possibly Swiss) was of the opinion that it was exactly the British repressive attitude towards drink that caused the excessive consumption. They do drink a lot in France but they don't seem to have the same 'lets drink until I vomit' attitude of the British.

But in France they introduce their children to (very small quantities) of wine with meals from very young. One presumes this creates different psychological links to getting pissed for the first time with your mates.
I vaguely remember reading something about the differences between winemaking and beer-drinking cultures. The climate doesn't promote wine-making in Britain, although John Barleycorn thrives. Unlike wine, beer won't keep for very long, and it would be a waste to pour it away, amirite? So we developed a binge culture, in order to make the most of the beer we brewed. The French, and other more Mediterranean nations, could sip in moderation, happy in the knowledge that the rest of their stocks wouldn't spoil.

Quite how that explains the Russian relationship with vodka, of course, is an excellent question...
 
... Quite how that explains the Russian relationship with vodka, of course, is an excellent question...

It's also climate-related, taken to a new level ...

The Russian climate is inimical to wine production *and* it is severe enough to motivate staying indoors for protracted periods with nothing better to do than getting blotto.
:evillaugh:
 
I vaguely remember reading something about the differences between winemaking and beer-drinking cultures. The climate doesn't promote wine-making in Britain, although John Barleycorn thrives. Unlike wine, beer won't keep for very long, and it would be a waste to pour it away, amirite? So we developed a binge culture, in order to make the most of the beer we brewed. The French, and other more Mediterranean nations, could sip in moderation, happy in the knowledge that the rest of their stocks wouldn't spoil.

Quite how that explains the Russian relationship with vodka, of course, is an excellent question...
I think I read that too, but the British will get blotto on wine if available, check out the upper classes in the Georgian period when beer was definitely non-U for the posh.

It's a good general point though, one does tend to think of the whole of northern Europe as quaffing instead of wine-bibing.

I wonder if the deal in Russia is due to the shortage of other fermentable materials in winter? I have an idea vodka is made from potatoes, if that's the case beer wouldn't be an option. And the production of spirits in general is historically more common in Northern Europe than the south. Mind you, having tasted grappa I can see why it wouldn't catch on.
 
Alcohol use amongst younger people is on the decrease - being pissed does not create a good IG selfie.
 
The (or one of the ... ) most exclusive wines on earth will be coming (back) to earth tomorrow ... But seriously, it's for science.
Cheers! French wine, vines headed home after year in space

The International Space Station bid adieu Tuesday to 12 bottles of French Bordeaux wine and hundreds of snippets of grapevines that spent a year orbiting the world in the name of science.

SpaceX’s Dragon cargo capsule undocked with the wine and vines — and thousands of pounds of other gear and research, including mice — and aimed for a splashdown Wednesday night in the Gulf of Mexico off the coast of Tampa. The Atlantic had been targeted, but poor weather shifted the arrival to Florida’s other side. ...

The carefully packed wine — each bottle nestled inside a steel cylinder to prevent breakage — remained corked aboard the orbiting lab. Space Cargo Unlimited, a Luxembourg startup behind the experiments, wanted the wine to age for an entire year up there.

None of the bottles will be opened until the end of February. That’s when the company will pop open a bottle or two for an out-of-this-world wine tasting in Bordeaux by some of France’s top connoisseurs and experts. Months of chemical testing will follow. Researchers are eager to see how space altered the sedimentation and bubbles.

Agricultural science is the primary objective, stresses Nicolas Gaume, the company’s CEO and co-founder, although he admits it will be fun to sample the wine. He’ll be among the lucky few taking a sip. ...

FULL STORY: https://apnews.com/article/french-wine-vines-head-home-from-space-7b6618c03efa9b02b5d929a937cbb234
 
I’m not a big fan of gin personally but I’ve just seen an advert for alcohol free gin......seriously, what is the eff’in point in that?
I had that exact same question until relatively recently. But I've eventually realised that, although I still like the idea, I get very little actual pleasure from alcohol, its aftermath, or the company of people under its influence. Quite the opposite, in fact. But that doesn't mean I want to spend the rest of my life drinking fizzy pop. So I'm on the hunt for beverages with interesting and complex flavours. I don't think alcohol-free gin has made it to Vietnam yet, but I'll give it a try when it does.
 
I’m not a big fan of gin personally but I’ve just seen an advert for alcohol free gin......seriously, what is the eff’in point in that?
Its actually 1.2% abv but i totally agree, also what is the point of any alcohol free product, unless its always been that way obviously like water (alcohol free vodka lol) fruit juice, cordial etc
 
I had that exact same question until relatively recently. But I've eventually realised that, although I still like the idea, I get very little actual pleasure from alcohol, its aftermath, or the company of people under its influence. Quite the opposite, in fact. But that doesn't mean I want to spend the rest of my life drinking fizzy pop. So I'm on the hunt for beverages with interesting and complex flavours. I don't think alcohol-free gin has made it to Vietnam yet, but I'll give it a try when it does.
There are a whole range or interesting cordials, as well as botanical infusions on the market
 
I had that exact same question until relatively recently. But I've eventually realised that, although I still like the idea, I get very little actual pleasure from alcohol, its aftermath, or the company of people under its influence. Quite the opposite, in fact. But that doesn't mean I want to spend the rest of my life drinking fizzy pop. So I'm on the hunt for beverages with interesting and complex flavours. I don't think alcohol-free gin has made it to Vietnam yet, but I'll give it a try when it does.
https://www.sobersistas.co.uk/item/mocktails-cordials-infusions-syrups-and-more/
 
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