Welcome to the Grown-up Travel Guide 2015 Beer Diary!
A little background info: in December a group of us decided to set up the 2014 Beer Advent Calendar, whereby we would try a new beer each day up until Christmas. We shared our tipples on Facebook and Instagram and a great time was had by all – plus we all got to learn about some fine brews from around the world.
Faced with a sense of emptiness when the challenge was over I decided that 24 days a year was just not enough. Why not a year of beer? And so here we are. I reckon a beer a day can keep the doctor away – but even if not it’ll be fun, right?
Given that a large proportion of the year 2015 will be spent in foreign climes there will be the added element of finding a new brew wherever we travel and there are a huge number of excellent beers available here in Norway too – most of which I doubt any of our readers will have heard of.
Your participation is not only encouraged but required – just use the hashtag #grownupbeerdiary if possible. Add your entries here and/or use our social media channels – whatever works best for you.
To keep it simple follow the same format as we do here: describe your day in a maximum of five sentences, add some info about the beer and a photo or two.
Obscure ales and imports IPAs are always interesting but there’s to be no snobbery here – anything goes, even alcohol-free as we all need a good alternative now and again. We’ll work out the practicalities as we go – but since the first day of the year is nearly over we better get started on this journey around the world – in beer form. Cheers!
Day 135: May 15, 2015
Diary entry:
Today was Harry Potter day – we had tickets for the studio tour in Watford.
We also had to check out of the Hilton as we would be in a different hotel this evening so took our stuff with us as we blasted up the M1.
The tour was even better than anticipated and an excellent accompaniment to our fun in Orlando last summer.
After several hours in JK Rowling’s world we motored back to London and our second hotel, the Hampton at Waterloo.
Dinner at an Indian place then a pub for a pint afterwards before a relatively early night.
The Beer:
Name: John Smith’s Extra Smooth Draught Bitter
Producer: John Smith’s of Edinburgh, Scotland (owned by Heineken)
Alcohol content: 3.6 %
Glass size: 1 pint
Purchased from: Flowers of the Forest pub, Waterloo
#grownupbeerdiary
A taste of my youth – although like most breweries in the UK this one has changed owners (possibly a few times) since the 1980s. Nothing spectacular but I like it, especially as it’s not available in many other places than England.