I am back in the UK for a few weeks from Wednesday / Thursday depending which part of the world you are in, so this weekend has been spent catching up with people and sorting the diary. Last night I ‘caught up’ with the Queensland Roar who were taking on Adelaide Utd, a fixture I have seen before but with two new look teams it was a much better game.

Still Roar have the knack of creating but not finishing, and their ‘marquee’ signing of Craig Moore ended in misery after he was sent off. Whoops!

So ignoring the air fare, $21 (£8.60!) to go and see a decent game of football compared to £17 to see league two dross or £33 to sit in comparable seats in Mold Trafford… I know what I would choose! Roar have all the chokeability of Wrexham in fluro orange rather than dragon red, yet without the cold trudge home as this is Brisvegas where the sun always shines, even at night

Here is the beauty of our Pilsner craft beer:

Tonight we were due to have a taste of the Pilsner and the head off to the football (that is round balls not the AFL nonsense down here) however due to a change of plan I was left to crack one open on my own. The beer has been bottled for only twelve days so it is a little early, yet I am not disappointed.

It is a nice rich copper colour with a faint hop aroma, tastes wonderfully clean and refreshing. We went with 50g of saaz hops and it seems the fermentation and racking must have taken some of the strength out as there is a hint of saaz but inside a rounded pils taste. As you might have guessed I am a very happy brewer!

We deliberatly under carbonated this with the aim of trying to get the head spot on, the one I opened was a smaller bottle and was lightly fizzy yet the head did not retain well. The glass I was using has been through a normal dishwasher so that could have been the cause.

I cant wait to get Co-Brewer Nick to try one of these as I know he will be over the moon. So cheers to Nick, the bloke on the homebrew forum who mentioned the foundations of the recipe (”try it, its filth”), the Czechs for having a place called Pilsen , to ‘good’ King Wenceslas as well who in 1290 persuaded the pope to allow brewing again and then granted 260 Pilsen families the right to brew!

All of whom in a roundabout way have led me to having a nice half this afternoon

This is the Gippsland brewery’s extra strong ale, and by that its not your poncey 7% but a whacking great 11%. On pouring its a dark burnt wood colour, with light carbonation almost as if the bubbles are fighting through the liquid to escape. The potency of this could be seen by one line of bubbles zipping around as though they had drunk some of the ale and had forgotten which way gravity works!

The first sip is a powerful one. Malt and caramel with a punch in the mouth and a treacle syrup aroma.

In the mouth it is smooth and interestingly sweet. Oddly enough this beer makes me think of roasting a chunk of meat as it would make an excellent accompaniment to some beer or lamb.

At £2.40 a 330ml bottle it sounds a ‘doable’ price, however out here where bottles are usually $3 it is over double the usual figure paid. I bought four bottles, the aim being to add the other three to the collection and try them in the coming years as at 11% it ought to do well.

Due to the recent sub prime crisis in America the worldwide backlash has started. This is good news for me being a Brit down under.

After being hammered on the exchange rate recently (£1 = $2.32ish) it is now back up to the respectable £1=$2.5 as of the tail end of last year

Saying that, I met a bloke in Sydney the other week who was telling me when he first moved out here it was closer to £1 = $3.5! Wow.
On the flip side I do a fair bit of work online, so a weak USD$ does mean that earnings drop from one particular source, thus why it is always good to be deeply embedded in a market with a decent currency ie. the good old British Pound!

The worrying thing is how the world markets have reacted to what is in effect quite a small part of the whole problem, with the real fun starting later this year and into 2008. It is worth a read of this article which gives a great insight into the credit issues and housing bubble across the pond. Fun times ahead!