Beer and other Stuff
Since moving to La Linea the things I have missed most about England are the architecture, which I can get on my not infrequent visits to some more illustrious cities, Jerez, Sevilla, Madrid and the beer. I am a great lover of real ale which is unfortunately not available out of a barrel anywhere that I know of in Andalucia or Gibraltar. Occasionally I will make a trip to a shop that might sell London Pride in bottles which is nowhere near as good as it is on tap, but I'll open a bottle anyway, stir some of the fizz out of it with my finger and pretend.

I was without a drop of the real stuff for 18 months after first moving to the Iberian Peninsular. I was on the Thameslink train from Luton Airport to Streatham as the train rolled up to the platform at London Bridge, the grey cells in my brain moved into warp drive, the time for a decision had come. Home or the George Inn on Borough High Street, the options span in an ever accelerating circle in my mind until I felt so dizzy I had to get out and get in to the George for a pint to calm down.

The first pint was actually almost disappointing, was that what I had yearned for all those lager filled days, was that it? I persevered. By the third of fourth I realised that it was indeed a magnificent brew. I was only in London for four nights, by night four I fully realised that God himself probably drinks it and if there were to be a second coming of Christ, he would certainly get off at London Bridge and nip into the George for a couple of pints. Ideally he should turn up with Muhammad, who as he doesn't touch the sauce, would be an ideal fellow to be the designated driver and ferry the other prophets home in the car.

Anyway, My dear friend David announced he was coming over a couple of months ago and asked if there was anything I'd like brought over. A few minutes internet research turned up The Brubox in London Bitter flavour. It sat around the flat for a while, then on Tuesday I decided to get on with it. It's very easy and basically involves brewing a 'tea' with 'teabags' of hops and grains, heating a can of malt extract and pouring the lot into a plastic cube with a lot of cold water, some yeast. According to the instructions you should wait until the temperature of the cube settles down to around 22C. There is a little plastic strip thermometer to go on the side of the box, which ranges from about 15C to 28C. Ambient here is low 30s at the moment. I couldn't well put it in the fridge so I put the yeast in the following day when the cube was at room temperature. The instructions say fermentation should normally complete in 10 days, it has taken 3. I added the finings and a couple of teaspoons of sugar for secondary fermentation this morning, by this evening the cube was spherical, so I let a little pressure out, don't want my laundry room redecorated in a copper tint with the smell of stale beer coming from every inch of the room. Although saying that, it might remind me of a pub I know in Streatham. Anyway, I am supposed to give it 5 days to clear and allow for secondary fermentation. I reckon 2 days in this heat for the fermentation, I guess the clearing will still take 5. But whether I should refrigerate it before serving is another matter. I might try it, room temperature here is really too hot and provided the beer is served in half pint glasses it should warm up enough to liberate the smell and flavour quite quickly. More on this later.

As a wise man once said:

"Give a man a fish and you have fed him for a day, teach a man to fish and he will sit in a boat and drink beer all day."