The Connectness of all Things

Well, that was weird.  Weird in a really good way, but definitely weird.

It starts with a conversation about a conversation about beer.  The conversation in my previous blog.

S is my mentor in beeriness (in other things too but this blog's about beer, innit) so we're walking through the woods,  chatting about the keeping of beer, the selling of beer and the economics of beer.  By the time we got to The Lamb, we're reasonably thirsty so we swing by the "locals'" bar for swift one.
Hunger set upon us so we naturally gravitated to Eastern Wok for dinner where we drink some chenin blanc...all the while talking about lots of things, but quite a lot about beer, still.
Somewhere in the conversation we talked about the enjoyment of things, and how context has a big part to play in sensory enjoyment.  How The Royal Oak in Southwark/Bermondsey is the nicest place to drink Harvey's and how Jaipur was very briefly my very favourite beer but that might have been related in part to the circumstances of the first time I drank it.

We finished our dinner and repaired "next door" to The Crown who, we are coming to believe, is probably the most consistent keeper of beer in Eastbourne.

Now, Andy has some staples he serves:  Wadworths 6X and Shepherd Neame Spitfire.  Neither of these tickle my fancy but clearly they do other people's.
Then he usually has Harveys Best (of course) and Hophead in casks in the cellar.  So we typically drink Hophead.
Frequently, he also has another guest beer in the cellar.
For this visit, we were staggered to see he had Jaipur on.

I've drunk Jaipur from a handpump in the Cask and Kitchen, from the cask at the Bristol Beer Festival, from a bottle from Waitrose and I've even had a taster of a keg version but I have to say this was the nicest pint of Jaipur I've had.  Well, two pints, actually.

So good was it, that we went back the next evening.

It's not for the faint of heart - at 5.9% it packs a wallop but it really is a good beer and I'm delighted that my local had it.

Here's to coincidences, to Jaipur and to the Crown (and if the Crown's not in the GBG this year, then I'll be having a word.)