Meet BoB: The Blog o' Beer

My friends and fellow real ale guzzlers Darren (better known to most SF folks as Ariel) and Ed and I have been planning a blog where we could post on one of our passions - proper beer, real ale as it is normally called. We've been planning it for ages and Ed and Darren got it up and running a few weeks ago. Since I have finally, albeit rather slowly and haltingly, returned to the personal world of blogging (as distinct from my work blogging for Forbidden Planet which has continued) this week I thought it was about time I started putting in some of my Tasting Notes as well and just posted my first couple up, starting off with a couple of Scottish ales, one from Bellhaven and one from my own doorstep, Edinburgh's Innis & Gunn, who actually use old oak casks to mature the beer, an unusual process for ales, more something you'd expect in a single malt really, but it gives them a distinctive colour and aroma. Anyway, Darren and Ed have several pieces up on the Blog o' Beer -or BoB as it is also known - and I've now added my first couple of tasting reviews.

Viva Manchesteragas

Manchester has confounded the bookies (ironically enough) and won the bid for the first (and at the moment only) supercasino. There were several reasons the least likely location beat the favourites to scoop the rights to this new attraction, but I've heard confidentially the main reason it went to Manchester was because the committee were so impressed with the size and quality of the enormous extension Ariel and his missus (and Hobbes the cat) added to their Mancunian palace.