Just off to get some milk, I won't be long...

I'm in the pub. Right now. We ran out of milk so I had to go out, didn't I. The Co-op's the nearest shop that's open now, two or three minutes away. But Wetherspoons is a few doors closer to home. Convenient, right. And the beer festival is on, isn't it. This means I literally can't walk past without seeing what's on, just in case that one beer I'm waiting for is now on. That one beer. This year it's Ballast Point's Calico Ale. Ballast Point in a pub a few hundred yards from my flat? I'd never have thought the sweet day would ever come. Never. But there was hope. I knew it was coming. One day it'd be here. One day soon. I checked the taps earlier, about 7pm, and it wasn't on. It's just past 9pm now. It not being on didn't stop me returning as there were a couple of others I wanted to try that are currently on the bar - that smoky Twaites beer, the jamaican stout, something with plums, why not. But I'm back here and guess what... It's on. Ballast Point Calico Ale. A bloody Ballast Point beer served in a pub on the road that I live on. Brilliant. I just don't want it to disappoint. Some of the other brewed-under-license beers end up being dire shadows of what they should be. At Shepherd Neame they usually do a decent job (with other people's recipes, anyway). But this one? I've got one mouthful left in my pint. One glorious gulp. And then? Then I'm going straight back for another.

(Bursting aroma of pithy citrus, slightly burnt; smooth, caramel body, hints of chocolate; a bitterness that clings like silk to a soft thigh. I like this beer a lot)