Blog #50. Steam Brew Session IPA. A walk in the park.

I have had some hit and miss beers from Lidl's in the last few weeks and I wasn't sure what was in store for me here.

The smell is soft, with hints of fruit and for me quite a big hit of sweet maltiness.

I'd love to tell you what the colour was, but I was swilling this from the can whilst on my lockdown walk, in a vest and decorating shirt, looking like one of the undesirables that Dan describes so eloquently in a previous blog.

It is a very soft tasting drink, what you'd expect from a session IPA I suppose - something you could have long into the night. To compare it to another drink, and don't hate me for saying this hardcore craft drinkers, it is similar to Amstel, my go-to lager, but with far more malty sweetness across the taste range. No bitterness here sir. The flavour seems to drop off here and become quite watery - as if it run out of steam (pun carefully crafted here. And here). Again, not a necessarily a bad thing if looking for an all-night drink.

As my walk developed and my beer warmed up, the maltyness intensified, along with a pine-y taste - but still no bitterness at all.

A good session drink - would I drink it over an Amstel? possibly/possibly not. It all depends on what was on offer in Lidl's/Sainsbury's (other supermarkets are available I suppose).

6/10.

Now, for some history.

The SessionIPA sits proudly atop a 'single'

Our walk took us past the 'chalky' in Seaford, a council owned bit of land was that hidden from the road and houses by surrounding trees.

My friends and I (including blogger Dan) used to make mountain bike jumps and 'rhythms' here, getting SICK air and generally messing about. The last time I visited the Chalky on my mountain bike with Dan and others was the moment I lost my bottle for jumping.

We had done a huge session at the jumps and had been there for quite a few hours, and had decided to go back to Dan's house, who lived less than 5 minutes away. Having gained quite a lot of confidence over the past few weeks, I had developed the gonads to attempt the 'rhythms' - 3 4ft high doubles, with a 4-5ft gap and no 'middle'. If you had the speed and nailed the first one, the rhythm of the jumps took you across them.

But, I decided that as we were leaving, I would have another go. I didn't wear a helmet then - they looked silly. How silly I looked afterwards. I jumped the first, then the second, but my back wheel hit the back of the jump killing my speed and as I hit the third and final jump I didn't make it all the way across and my front wheel fell into the void between the ramps and the first thing to make contact with the ground: my face. When Dan and others had woken me up I was feeling pretty lousy and Dan couldn't look at me.

We got to Dan's house, his mum tidied me up a bit and called my dad (thanks Jane!) and after a visit to A and E, where I had 4 internal stitches and 4 external on my eyebrow which had split to the bone, and the same on my tregus which was hanging off, and after picking up my dad, mid-stitch who had fainted when they started sewing me up, I never jumped any jumps at the chalky again. Bottle gone. But, I did continue to do a bit of downhill on the x-trails at Friston Forest. With a helmet from now on. There is my section on memory lane.