Kilkerran Wee Heavy

Stouty McStout Face

NAO Lanzarote

Blindsided

All Blacks:Caledonian

Estrella Damm

B is for Beer

Beer. It has been around for ages & comes in so many forms it can make your head spin. But what makes a beer good? If you have come here looking for the answer sadly we will disappoint you. As with so many things in life, your definition of good will be subject to your own tastes & expectations. When deciding on a beer’s drinkability we need only ask, can I actually drink this to the bottom of the glass, would I buy another one, & occasionally perhaps, will I need to sell a kidney to pay for it?

Like so much of our image obsessed world the appreciation of beer seems to have become about flash & not so much the substance. Less about the appreciation of its simplicity & more about impressing those around you with your knowledge of industry buzzwords. Beer was meant for the working class. I recall the days of old when we would pound back a few & laugh at the wine connoisseurs, with their ponce descriptions & pretentious tastings. Unfortunately, they have stealthily invaded the land of our working class forefathers with their pontification & snobbery. It is time to take back the sacred drink of Ninkasi & reclaim our heritage!

Beer is something that you can make at home. It is not some mystical unattainable craft that requires one part sorcery & a backroom deal with the devil. From what I hear, my grandfather used to make homebrew & hide it so the local authorities wouldn’t find out. I bet you have similar stories from your past. It is in our blood. It is something that you can do with simple ingredients and a little ingenuity. I embrace chaos brewing in my home endeavours. I am not so great with the math or the science (which is why I have a day job), but I enjoy the creative process. Will I ever scale up to mass production? Not likely, but if I do any of you that are mathematicians or scientists can send me your resume!

Our aim is to share with you our beer drinking adventures. To tell you what we like & what we don’t like. You in turn can call bullshit at anytime or agree with us. That is the point. We are not spending your money to drink beer, YOU spend money to choose your own. You get to choose what you like & dislike based on your own criteria. Help us on our quest to break the cycle of fakery & snake oil salesmen! There is nothing wrong with enjoying a well crafted beer, be it homebrew, from the local Brewhouse, or even from one of the big corps. It is your money, your free time, your birth right as humans. Embrace it!

As we begin this adventure, we will be sharing the beers we are trying with you & giving you our thoughts. Our rating scale will be as follows: straight in the toilet, nice in a pinch, or pour me another. Occasionally as the mood hits we may advise if a brew has hints of sadness or fresh cut grass, but that should make you wonder how in the hell we know what fresh cut grass tastes like. We will be posting vlogs & assorted musings on our blog & through our Instagram & Twitter feeds if you care to follow along. If any of this has offended your beer sensibilities & assaulted your foundational knowledge of the craft, then you have our apologies, but you may need to see above. Beer is to be enjoyed. Beer brings us together. Beer will set you free. Adventure is out there, so let’s crack on shall we? Cheers!

"All we have to decide...

... is what to do with the time that is given to us."

Let us start at the beginning. Our tale involves two lost souls who happened upon each other by chance and have managed not to drive the other mad over the last 15 years. Both had traveled around their homeland but neither had crossed the pond to explore what was on the other side. Constrained by their own self-imposed limitations & maladies, they could not have dreamed what awaited them. Limitations were shed one by one, excess weight shed after gastric-bypass surgery freed their bodies, steady employment & managing finances freed their pocketbooks. So in 2007 these two dreamers embarked on their first adventure into the great unknown. 1st stop? Scotland. On a 10 day vacation they rented a convertible Peugeot (in October) & drove over 1600 miles. They were unshackled & hellbent on seeing all they could in the short time allotted to us all. Since that fateful first trip they have been on many adventures, now having visited a ton of countries & had a boatload of beer since that fateful escape.

This blog and subsequent videos are meant to share that adventure with you in the hopes that it may inspire you, help give you ideas, or just make you laugh. What we do with the time we are given is up to us and should be defined by what we value. We value travel & exploration, but not everyone goes all in like we do & that is ok. What is important is that your experiences help to define you and fulfill you. Nobody can tell you who to be when you grow up (if you ever do)! Our travel mantra is to go with the flow. We (Aaron) prepare with google maps of things we might see & then we just let the adventure take us. We have just as much fun walking around a neighborhood & happening into a joint getting to interact with the locals. We like to think of our weekender trips as samplers, testing out locales and seeing how we vibe. We distract easily, so if you want organized tour info, better check out Rick Steeves. Now let us formally introduce ourselves & get this party started!







First up, Michelle (Mitch). Originally from Tampa Florida, Michelle loves Disney, miniature ponies, & pandas. She also loves our (fur) children Emma & Jenga, who are less than impressed when left alone for extended periods of time with a sitter. She is currently in the final year of her PhD at the University of Stirling in Scotland & plans to contribute to the world as a Professor of Hidden Mickeys.

Next is Aaron. Born in Arizona, grew up in the Dakotas, & ended up in Seattle for a good chunk of his adult (or not so) life. He is obsessed with NASA, space, science, & finding creative outlets. He also loves the (fur) children but can be heard telling them to "get a job" when his spot is occupied on the recliner. Working as an Administrator at the University of Edinburgh, he is counting down the days until he begins his own PhD journey, where he hopes to be the first person to submit his dissertation with a make-your-own tin foil hat. When he finishes he plans to purchase a drool cup and hang out at the beach.





So that is the gist of who we are currently. Identity is fluid and can change with time so who knows who we will be the older we get? We are both big time nerds who love Star Wars, LOTR, all things Marvel, and other classic nerdy things. There may be a Stormtrooper or Boba Fett helmet that shows up in our pics from time to time, and our videos will likely cause you to want to drink heavily, but we are going to give this a go & at the very least if you get nothing from this, at least we know our parents will follow along.

Unfortunately with poor planning & follow through this project is being undertaken after we have visited a great many places, but being a bit OCD & having raging ADHD Aaron may have made google maps of many of the places we visited so he promises to try to recall as much as possible when filling in the blanks. When we moved to Scotland 3 years ago the ease of getting around caused us to jet off on many weekenders. Here are a few of the places we have been so far:

London

Isle of Skye

Paris

Amsterdam

Brussels

Berlin

Gran Canaria

Athens

Rome

Lisbon

Dublin

Thailand

Cambodia

Geneva

Prague

Barcelona

New Zealand

Iceland

On the agenda for this year will be the start of our video exploits and more detailed blogs are:

The Shetland Islands

Hong Kong

Shanghai

Tokyo

German/Austrian Roadtrip

London x2

In the Shetland Islands we will be going to Up HellyYa (the southern island version), visiting Socks the Moonwalking Pony & exploring the island. 

Hong Kong, Shanghai & Tokyo represent the culmination of Mitch's 40th birthday celebration where we will visit the remaining Disney parks on the master list. We will also be exploring the cities as well.

The German/Austrian Roadtrip is for Aaron's birthday. Going to go ride an alpine roller coaster, go to some castles, & see Carmen performed on a lake. 

In London we are headed to the Nocking Point wine tasting with Stephen Amell (the Green Arrow) & then round 2 is to see Phil Collins in concert. Should be interesting.

We will post more details as we get underway and if Aaron can figure out the tech behind sharing his Google Maps we will make those available as well. Thanks for taking the time to read this rambling narrative. We promise future installments will be more concise. We hope you come with us as we adventure through this amazing world of ours!