There’s some buzz in the UK this week about the release of the UK’s strongest beer.

Clocking in at 18.2%, the BBC points out that a single bottle contains twice the recommended daily limit.

Ah … to live in a nanny state and have both the state and people like the Auntie Beeb looking out for you.

Truth is, we know that BrewDog is just using this as a publicity stunt, and that’s good enough for us. We need a first official drink to start off this year’s festivities, and it’s got to be BrewDog Tokyo.

Arrangements are being made to get enough BrewDog Tokyo to Poperinge for those who are making the whole trip. If it’s complete crap, at least there will be 100 different beers to wash away the after taste…

Thanks Keith!!!

Yeah, I’ve done a pretty crap job at keeping this blog up-to-date. I can’t believe I didn’t file a trip report about the Belgian beer bar in Grenoble (Freres Berthom) … or the 2009 tour planning session at the PorterHouse earlier this year. For that matter, where’s the report on the late spring scouting trip to Brussels, where we’ve identified a few more great bars to go to when the Delirium and Floris are overrun during the beer festival?

Maybe my taste buds are feeling deprived. Actually no maybe about it…Belize is not a beer tourist destination.

However, it is a great and diverse country with many sites to see…from its coral reefs to its caves to its Mayan ruins. But we’re not here to talk about that…we’re here to talk beer.

Belize has a virtual beer monopoly with one brewer that controls the market with local brews and some international brews under contract. Most are forgettable … another bland tropical lager that quenches thirst …

Maybe 9 days of drinking Belikin Stout has clouded my judgment, but it’s actually a pretty nice beer. I’m not sure it’s a stout…my favorite stouts are the bottle conditioned Cooper’s Stout from Australia and for draft the PorterHouse brews out of Ireland (proudly served at their branch in London Covent Garden). I like a good draft Guinness…but if I’m in Dublin I hit every PorterHouse before returning to the hotel bar for the Guin. Oh … and don’t get me started on imperial stouts … that would be a nice nightcap right now as I sit on the beach.

Anyway, the Belikin Stout is a lighter stout but has some depth to the flavor…I question whether or not it is a true stout, but let’s call it a summer stout. A darker beer that drinks well under the hot sun…the world needs more beers like that. I’d gladly drink a Belikin Stout back home by the pool.

America needs a good summer stout … Belikin has done something right …

Aruba is not exactly what you’d call a beer destination. Like other Caribbean destinations, it’s the land of fruity drinks and bland lagers.

But that’s ok. The local beer, Balashi, tastes pretty good when you’re sitting on the beach. If you’re going to have a couple of beers, I always recommend drinking local, so be sure to have a couple of Balashis. On the other hand, if you’re going to have 11 or 12, then I’d recommend the Heineken (usually not my first choice … but Heineken does encourage you to enjoy Heineken responsibly, which I think means that you can keep drinking it until you accidentally spill one)…

What else did I learn?

I learned about heretofore little known and mythical religions of the Indian subcontinent. Then again, perhaps the religion was not native to India, and had only been outsourced there … that doesn’t make it any less significant to the people who lost their religion because of this outsourcing, but I digress.

What was I talking about again?

The Drinking String. An inspiring relgious tradition.

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Fate smiled upon me.

Last Sunday I had the good fortune to find myself on the road between Los Angeles and San Diego. I was in LA for a friend’s wedding, and turning the trip into a long weekend with a couple of days in San Diego sounded like a good idea.

I hadn’t planned on including any beer excursions on this trip. Oh, yes, of course, I had done my homework and had contingency plans for beer … I ALWAYS have a contingency plan that involves beer … but honestly, that plan was just a contingency.

The wedding was in Manhattan Beach, just a couple of miles south of LAX airport, and one of my contingency plans found me at the Manhattan Beach Brewing Company on Friday afternoon. Alas, to say that the beer was uninspiring would be an understatement. At least the porter was drinkable enough to merit a pint after the sampler. But it’s kind of sad to say that the soft pretzel was the best offering on the bar menu.

After that less than stellar experience, I figured that I’d spare my wife from any more brewpub visits on the trip. But as I was driving down I-5, with my wife asleep in the passenger seat, I thought about Stone Ruination IPA. I don’t get to drink it very often, but I figured I could at least pick some up at a package store in the San Diego area, and enjoy it later on the beach.

By the time we got to Oceanside, the thirst was driving me crazy. I was about to tell my wife about the purple gargoyles, but she would see them soon enough…

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