Beer tasting and math lessons


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September 14th 2005
Published: September 14th 2005
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Slainte!Slainte!Slainte!

Apparently, this Irish/Scotish toast that wishes good health/long life is pronounced 'slayn-jah.' Note the civility of this picture with our first of 4 progressively more potent Val Dieu beers.
Ooh, when it rains it pours. Almost 3 weeks without an entry and then WHAM! 2 entries in one day. To quote Steve Martin from "My Blue Heaven", "I amaze even myself."

It's been an pub-filled adventure these past three days. Monday was by far the most successful quiz night to date. With only a team of 3, we took on two other teams twice our size and came away with a whopping margin of victory. After 8 rounds, we had a score of 72, with the others trailing at 55 and 39. Did I mention there were only 3 of us? Excellent. The shoarma pizza and Newton apple-flavored beers tasted good, but victory in the beer round (Africa theme) and overall tasted so very much sweeter.

In an amazing display of liverial (I'll make up words if I feel like it, dangit) fortitude, about a dozen of us turned up at the Cloister yet again on Tuesday for the Val Dieu Abbey Brewery beer tasting. None of this hoity-toity wine tasting stuff where you have a sip and then spit it out; nope, not us. Over the course of the night--and amid repeat servings of Belgian-style mussels and
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A little out of focus to you too, eh? This is at about the 3rd beer (9%) stage.
shrimp kebabs with garlic sauce--we proceeded to sample the fine offerings of Val Dieu in the form of (now pay attention here kids, and bust out the calculators if necessary) 6%, 8%, 9%, and 10.5% beers, right down the very last drop. Throw in the 5% for a Dommelsch before hand and the round of La Chouffes (8.5%) afterwards and the progressive rowdiness that flows chronologically in the pictures makes good sense! I guess what they say about how American beers (<3.5%, roughly) will taste like water after getting used to the European fare, especially when I've been drinking beers about 3 times as strong! As a totally awesome souvenier, I've got a couple of weighty Val Dieu goblets...but darned if I can find a Mailboxes, etc. around here to help me get them home in one piece. Ah, the dilemmas of European life.

Tonight was dinner and a pint at the Fiddler. As it was cheap menu night, I opted for a big cheeseburger. But, being English, Nikki opted for the biggest plate of fish and chips I think I've ever seen. You can only imagine the amount of vinegar and salt necessary to cover the 12"x18" platter
99 bottles of beer on the wall...99 bottles of beer on the wall...99 bottles of beer on the wall...

well look, you can't make a decent beer-amid (pyramid) with bottles, so this'll have to do.
of deep-fried goodness. After a 'quick' 2 hour power nap from 9pm to 11pm I needed to recouperate from the past few nights, I sit before you a proud 2-blog-in-one-day man. Woo hoo! Let's celebrate with some PICTURES.


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"You wee little bastard!""You wee little bastard!"
"You wee little bastard!"

After about 4 beers, you can really start to separate the scrappy Scotsmen from the rest of the pack!
How many?How many?
How many?

If you notice when looking through the pics on Yahoo, Ross has a handy habit of letting me know what round of the tasting we're on!


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