This is not a blog post about drinking ten pints a night, three nights a week. It’s not that take on moderation.
 
It’s a post about drinking one beer, 80 nights running.

It’s a post about killing a passion.

​It’s a post about how an idea can sound great in principle but becomes a bind in practice.
 
It’s a post about having to find something interesting to say about a beer and make it coherent – including at times when you have an hour in a hotel room to shower, change, drink a beer, photograph it, write about it, post it and share it across social media.
 
It’s a post about trying to be organised and drinking and writing about three beers on a Sunday afternoon so you can have a couple of nights off.
 
It’s a post about fatigue.
 
It’s a post about losing your pride in your blog.
 
And, hopefully, this is a blog post to clear the fog and start anew.

#AroundTheNorthIn80Beers was an idea inspired by the Great Exhibition of the North, an 80-day celebration of the North of England’s heritage.
 
I thought I would celebrate its beer.
 
And breweries very kindly engaged, some sending me beers that I might otherwise not have tried. I revelled in searching out new beers. It all seemed like a great idea. That was nearly two years ago, and it pretty much ended my blogging days.
 
Since September 9, 2018, or “Day 80”, I’ve written two posts for this blog (prior to this one). One was because a friend asked me to try his mate’s brew. The other was related to my day job. The last was more than a year ago.
 
But looking back at the last few posts from the blogathon, I can see just how little my heart remained in it. I was clearly copying the format each day, which is visible in the way the posts look. I was leaving typos uncorrected, lacking creativity.
 
I was disappointing myself and I was just getting through it. I was blogsick, fed up of writing about beer.
 
Having sampled countless different styles over the 80 days, from saisons to stouts, I resolved by the end that the ones that had brought me the most enjoyment were good old Yorkshire bitters.
 
At the time, I put that down to them being nice, refreshing pints. On reflection, some 17 months later, I realise it’s because I didn’t have to think about them. Having worked with Black Sheep and Jennings in the past, they were familiar old friends, easy drinks.
 
Unadventurous, they may have seemed, but I knew what I was getting. Ok, so they are also still refreshing, I’ll admit that’s also true.
 
Millions of column inches, and online paragraphs, have been written about drinking in moderation. I’m no doctor, I won’t be giving advice on that, other than to say that if you think you have a problem, seek help and don’t struggle on alone.
 
However, most articles will talk about heavy drinking in terms of binging multiple drinks a night, or over a weekend. In retrospect, my 80 days was no less of a binge, it was just drawn out.
 
There was at least one weekend where I’d had a couple and written them up on the Friday, then had a few on a big day out with friends on the Saturday, then returned to the daily routine on the Sunday. I certainly went a few past the 80.
 
I wasn’t, am not, sliding towards alcoholism. That’s not denial. I was drinking because I had to see my idea through. You know how you are more likely to stick to something if you’ve told someone – like a New Year’s Resolution? That! And because others had bought in.
 
The result was that I simply got sick of beer. And I definitely got sick of writing about it.
 
I started this blog because I loved beer and thought I had something to share. The name, Poet’s Day Pint was to reflect a plan of one post a week, written over, and often about, a pint, bottle, can, whatever.
 
That seemed, and still seems, like a sensible level of moderation to me, so maybe it’s time to refresh and get back to that.
 
I’ve had a little bit of a life “moment” recently, which is why moderation is on my mind in a different context. And that, coupled with a conversation I had earlier this week about what caused me to stop blogging, is what’s inspired me to think about this, and write this post.
 
So, keep an eye out and, hopefully, I can get back to making this blog enjoyable again. Even if just for me.

Beer: Camden Pale Ale Clone

Brewery: Wolf of the Wood 

ABV: 5.4%
 
This is a bit of an unusual one for me. A friend dropped a couple of bottles around, brewed by a mate of his, who seems to sit somewhere between home brewing and microbrewing.

As a supporter of both entrepreneurial spirit and brewing, I decided to give them a try and last night I thoroughly enjoyed a bottle of Wolf of the Wood’s Camden Pale Ale Clone.

It was also my first time with a clone beer, so it was interesting to see how this tasted.

Happily, it was a very enjoyable drink. Having dabbled in some home brewing myself, there was a familiarity there, but not to say that it lacked any quality – you could enjoy a pint of this in the pub.

Smooth, but with enough flavour and texture to keep it interesting, it went down a treat.
With a bit of luck, things will take off for Wolf of the Wood and we might start seeing their beer around commercially.

​Beer: Ratty

Brewery: First and Last Brewery

ABV: 4.1%
 
Sorry for the silence, folks. I’m alive and well and still enjoying my beer.

I have to say, the blogathon took it out of me a bit, in terms of wanting to sit down with a beer and write. That and a very busy non-beer-related schedule, which really took over, right through until Christmas.

I hope you all had a chance to try out a few new beers over the festive period.

Personally, I’m feeling refreshed and ready to tackle Dry January – head on. That’s right. I’m staring right down the barrel of the much better Try January and tonight I’m having my first beer of 2019.
 
The beer
Those who know me outside of the Poets Day Pint will know that, as well as beer, I have a real love for my native North East of England, and a particular fondness for the Kielder area of Northumberland.

Over the last couple of years, the area has seen the reintroduction of water voles. Having previously been a common site in the area, they have had a serious decline over the last 30 years, and Northumberland Wildlife Trust, through its Restoring Ratty project, has been at the forefront of the species’ return.

All cute, cuddly, heart-warming stuff, you say. But what does this have to do with beer?

Well, imagine my surprise, when perusing the fridge in the shop at Kielder Waterside, to find bottles of Ratty – a collaboration between the Northumberland Wildlife Trust and the First and Last Brewery, funded by the Heritage Lottery Fund (yes, when you bought that Lotto ticket, you were contributing to the brewing industry – well done, you!).

Of course, I brought one home, hoping very much that it would not be as furry as its namesake.

And finally, tonight, I’m getting to try it. So, what’s it like?

It’s got a very fresh, fruity aroma, probably very unlike what you get if you hold a real live water vole up to your nose, but I don’t intend to test that theory.

And, in terms of flavour, it’s very light. Unlike many pale ales, it’s also not too sharp – personally, I prefer them this way.

It’s not a beer that gives your mouth a pounding when it comes to flavour, but it’s certainly a very enjoyable beer and, because of this mildness of flavour, it’s probably one you could call “sessionable”, which is no bad thing.

​If you like beers like Ilkley Brewery’s Pale Ale, then you’ll love this, knowing you’re supporting a great cause, because a donation from every bottle goes towards the Restoring Ratty project.

#AroundTheNorthIn80Beers – Day 70
 
Beer: 01_18 Off Tempo DIPA

The Brewer: Bad Co
 
Ok, so it's day 80 of 80 and I'm sitting down with double IPA to wrap up #AroundTheNorthIn80Beers. Here goes...

The beer

Unsurprisingly, there’s a strong smell of hops that hits you as soon as you open the can. 

The taste is really powerful and a touch harsh, but it settles down and te aftertaste is far more pleasant than that first hit.

Unfortunately it seems for a while like every mouthful is the same, so if that first hit isn’t to your taste, it’s something you’re going to have to put up with to get that delayed gratification.

But then your palette adjusts and gets used to it. That "pow" moment feels less jarring and it settles down and becomes a more enjoyable, rounded beer.

Overall, it’s not my favourite Bad Co beer, but if you’re sipping away on a Sunday night, you can do a lot worse. 

Where in the North?

Ok, so this is an unusual one. The brewery is based at Dishforth Airfield, an RAF/Army station in North Yorkshire. Hard to imagine the pilots or soldiers going into battle after a few Wild Gravitys.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dishforth_Airfield

Fun fact:

Dishforth was the first base to receive the Apache helicopter and had 16 of them, divided between two squadrons.

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