At the age of 40 I left a small English village and headed for a new life in Australia. Being like many I used to pop down to the local village pub about 9:30pm most nights for a couple of pints of Real Ale and a yarn.
Being a small village of about 300 people you get to know most of them by name and of course there are very few secrets about who’s doing what.
My local pub was tied to a brewery the beer was just OK. So used to visit some of the other nearby villages in the ‘Vale of Belvoir’ for the Real Ale. If it was a nice evening I would cycle the 7 miles there and back. I can remember Haley’s Comet back in 1986 you could just see the glow in the pitch black of the countryside. Being narrow country lanes one had to be careful not to end up in the ditch after a few to many. I would be lucky to see any vehicles late at night and if one approached you just jumped off and stood on the side until it passed.
I also live in the Australian countryside, 50 km from Melbourne 20km from metropolis. But we do not have villages or pubs as most people around here live on a few acres with the nearest Shops & Hotel (Aussie name for pub) a few Km’s away. So there is no popping down the pub for a quick one and even if you could there is no Real Ale. Well that’s not quite true, a few small boutique pub brewery’s have started up over the last few years. However most are around the City areas or a long drive and then you have to get some one else to drive.
In Melbourne their are a small number of pleasant pubs that serve English Beer. I can travel into town on the country train, it takes 40 mins, being retired it only costs $5 (half a pint) return. I may do this 2-3 times a month and the rest of the time I drink ‘Coopers Mild’ at home, fire up ‘Skype’ and talk to one of my friends in England and have a Beer.
Why don’t I brew my own, well that’s another story for a later post (I used to and have all the gear).
Off to the fridge for a beer! to be continued.