Limited Edition, Locally Brewed Christmas Beer - Oops.

Gutted...

Fu**ing gutted...

I acquired two bottles of a locally brewed beer just before Christmas. Very rare they were too!

Ok so we live in France and the wine is superb and for the most part the beer is good but it's a bit erm... lagery. Blonde, Ambre, Brun and Dark whatever it's called all sort of tastes the same, and it's sweeter than my UK hand pulled, real ale palette is used to. Yes even here in the land of lovely, cheap booze I miss a good olde pint!

Luckily there's a brewery in the next department that's run by an award winning UK master brewer. They moved here about the same time we did and brew a variety of typically English beers as well as continental style beers to much acclaim (both indigenous and expat).

They were clients of mine at one time (I'm a freelance web designer) however a small issue of them not paying their bills on time or even after several reminders caused m,e to sack them as clients - call me daft but I prefer to work for people who actually pay.

Anyway, I digress and business issues (that should never come between a man and his beer) aside they do make superb beer. So..........

I bumped into them at a Marché de Noël (Christmas Market) just the other day.

After a few tastings and reminders of such delights as Timothy Taylor Landlord,  Fursty Ferret, Hobgoblin and Batemans XXXB I settled on two bottles (it was rather pricey) of a special, one off (400 bottles) brew XXX 10Degree - awesome... how to describe it? Guinness meets Theakstons Old Perculier meets Number 3... with a little something else thrown in...

Matured for six months in Cognac barrels before bottling the hint of cognac was devine! I can't believe how seriously fu**ing pissed off I am I only bought two bottles... With a wax sealed crown top closing the bottle, I was told by the brewer that the beer would keep ten years. I told him I doubted it would get the chance to last that long.

One bottle was enjoyed on Christmas day along with my Father, another real ale connoisseur, and damn fine it was too. The wax took a bit of smashing off before getting at the metal crown top but a few minutes of buggering about saw the delightful beverage served into two pint glasses. Bliss.

I have been saving the second bottle to enjoy on New Years Eve however some recent family member health problems have meant our NYE party has had to be cancelled. It suits me, to be honest New Years Eve is one of my least favourable nights of the year. I see it as welcoming another year of impending shit.

So this evening I thought to myself "F**k it" and got the second bottle out. Carefully cracked the wax away and went to the metal crown top with a traditional bottle opener... CRAAAAAAACK! Snapped the fu**ing neck and watched in slow motion as tiny fragments of glass fell into the bottle body as the contents fizzed up all over the worktop...

By the time I'd poured the non fizzed away beer through a sieve to catch any shards of glass the once proud beverage was a flat, pissed off looking small glass of shit.  FU**!!!!