SUIP!

So, I’m in London. It’s a great place. Bracingly cold mazes of cars with iced windscreens and streets of unfairly attractive people under the crispest of blue skies. Although South Africa is my home, Britain is where most of my family live, including my brother and sister-in-law, who I am currently visiting for the next few days. I then travel to Dundee in Scotland to spend Christmas with my mother’s mum, and then to Maryport in England’s Lake District to spend New Year with my other grandmother.

As a family, we like beer very much. Even my brother’s dog Gizmo loves a little lick of beer every once in a while, although it always seems to make him go into sneezing fits.

I arrived in London this morning after an overnight flight from Johannesburg and got straight to buying Christmas gifts for my extended family. After being out, unshowered and profoundly travel-tired on Ken High Street for about five hours too many, I got back to my brother’s and was very happy to find out he’d stocked his tiny fridge with a few beers for me to try. We delved straight in as the sun set at four o’clock. (The South African summer is something I should appreciate a lot more.)

First up was Laverstoke Park Farm Organic Real Lager, a strange-looking Helles with a child-drawn label and little else extraordinary about it. With nice biscuity and sweet malty notes on nose and palate, coupled with easy drinkability, I found it refreshing, if somewhat ordinary. But then I looked at the label.

On the back it reads, under a seemingly unremarkable quote, “Jody Scheckter ‘79”? You mean, like, Jody flippen Scheckter, South Africa’s only Formula 1 Drivers Champion? I thought it was queer coincidence, but it wasn’t: after retiring from Formula 1, Jody Scheckter started an organic farm in Hampshire, about 40 miles outside of London, where he produces organic meats, produce and beer.

Now as one of the foremost organic farmers in this part of England, he’s looking to produce a biodynamic sparkling wine by the end of next year. Very seldom does a man manage to lead two massively successful careers in one lifetime - Scheckter, South Africa’s biggest motoring legend, has turned out to be one of them. Unfortunately his Helles is more notable as a by-product of a particularly South African oddity than a good beer, but I’ll seek out his ale too.

Next up was Robinson’s Old Tom, a highly-acclaimed strong ale from Stockport that was first brewed in 1899. First impressions were good: it has, among other things, just about the nicest embossed bottle I’ve ever seen. Sometimes good looking bottles translate into uninspiring beers, but I was happy to find that Old Tom lived up to its appearances.

Pouring dark brown with a very lacy beige head, it lets off pleasing wafts of sweet alcohol, dried dark fruits and just the faintest touch of caramel. Although it has thin mouth feel and little complexity on the palate, it is deliciously sour-sweet with sherry-esque and raisiny notes abounding especially. It’s not quite full or articulate enough for me to consider it the best ale I’ve ever had, but probably still a must-try for anyone making the trip over here.

My brother and I finished off our first afternoon of drinking with a small-batch filtered oak aged beer from Edinburgh. Innis & Gunn’s Rum Finish, a relatively unknown beer in Innis & Gunn’s varied repertoire, is an odd beast. Aged for 57 days – the Rum Finish is the middle child of three aged beers they produce; the others are aged for 47 and 102 days respectively – it manages to imbue what would ordinarily be (as I’ve been told about Innes & Gunn’s usual ale offerings) a less than stellar strong ale with tantalising echoes of oak and rum. It’s fruity and spicy and not something I’m particularly used to, but it is very well-balanced and went down a treat with dinner.

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Although it’s not even close to being my first time in London, it’s my first time here as a serious beer drinker. If you have any recommendations about beers that I should try while here or anywhere in the United Kingdom, leave me a comment either here or on Twitter at @SUIPEXCLAMATION.