Good idea! I'll have another Belleville Patriot, please. Went down nicely the other day. Very like the Dorking Brewery Washington Ale, well rounded but with a tang of aniseed to bemuse the tastebuds.
Earlier this week, after a family visit to a solicitor, during which my mind became befuddled but the clouds scudded away, we found ourselves walking past Zero degrees microbrewery. Exceptionally for early afternoon, I felt a microbeer was in order. So a Tongue Twister peach Gose seemed the perfect lunchtime beer to fuel my arduous journey half-mile journey back across the heath. Very peachy, a bit too tidy and conservative for my tastes but a rather good beer nevertheless. My brother then coaxed me into a Dr Goodnight chamomile and eucalyptus saison, while the server really wanted us to drink halves. Assured that none of us was driving, she relented. There was something reminiscent of some kind of medicine, which I guess was the eucalyptus. Nice though. I might return because I was very tempted by their beer described as a tropical stout.
So tonight, I went for an evening riverside pootle down to Woolwich, where I finally located Hop Stuff's original taproom. As soon as I'd got a One Mile End Gose fleur de sel sorted I got a text message and, as I was outside and seatless at the time, I put the beer down on the floor while I texted back. Half a sentence into my reply I discovered a spaniel puppy was drinking my beer. I had to remove a little black fleck floating on the top before I was able to resume my beer. Sour and salty, cloudy and dog-licked, it wouldn't have gone down well in Zero degrees. But I wasn't and it did go down well.
Diverted to the Hop Stuff taproom in Deptford, I went for another One Mile End beer, a Disarm American Pale. And it promptly ran out before the glass was full. 7/8ths of a pint for a half pint price to compensate for the impossibility of getting a full pint of One Mile End beer. Pleasantly refreshing, light and grapefruity.
So, anyway, if you found a dog drinking your beer, who'd get a fresh pint and who'd drink it anyway?