In a recent comment on a recent bit of blather, my friend Steve Brisendine reminded me of our first trip to London which, naturally, has me thinking about beer.

For me, that trip was a big deal. At the time the farthest I’d been out of the United States was a trip to California complete with a foray to Tijuana, Mexico. Suddenly I was walking in places I’d read about in novels and history books and tracking down traditional English cuisine (fish and chips, curry and Chinese.)

While we were in London we saw lots of theater performances, old churches and random museums and adopted very weak English accents. (Steve is better at cockney; my specialty is upper class twit.) We also took a few walking tours, such as the Sherlock Holmes walk–which must be really annoying now with everyone wearing trench coats and going “Mind Palace” “Mind Palace” and “I’m certainly not a more Aspergery Doctor Who.”

The most difficult part, though, was trying the warm beer. After sticking with cowardly lager for a few evenings out, we finally decided to try a half pint of best bitter. (Best, at least in the mid-80s, meaning it had the highest percentage of alcohol; bitter meaning it was a pale ale.) I remember us staring at the half pints for a minute before trying them.

We were immediately smitten–it wasn’t actually warm and it didn’t lose its flavor as it sat on the table meaning it could be sipped slowly and thus conversation was possible at a lower price. Many full pints were quickly ordered and consumed and much feeling in our feet lost although we were able to stagger back to our rooms. We then spent the rest of the trip acting like drug dealing cult members trying to get the rest of our tour group to try the bitter. We bought lots of half-pints with promises to buy other drinks as necessary. (The first hit’s free. It won’t cost you anything.)

When I got back home, I immediately started experimenting with different dark beers which, while they were weak when compared to best, had the advantage of being the only beer no one in my fraternity house was likely to steal.