At 7pm on the Saturday evening of the last day of February 2015 the OFs congregated at the Poet & Hack bearing gifts of spring rolls, aged liqueur beer, single malt whisky and anonymous ales in brown paper bags. Pints were poured, spring rolls cooked in the oven and duly consumed to get the evening off to a flying start.
Pizza Time...Thoughts soon turned to a pizza and fortunately thanks to the technical capabilities of one OF, ordering commenced online via an iPhone. Pizzas ordered, the OFs were kept informed by Dominoes (on the iPhone) of the progress of their order from the comfort of the Poet & Hack, as their pizzas progressed from 'in preparation' to 'cooking' and finally 'delivery'.
At this point the OF and landlord of the P&H went to receive the pizza delivery, but 15 - 20 minutes later, it had not reached its destination even though only a mile away from Dominoes. By this time the iPhone was telling the OFs that their pizzas had been delivered, but after only one pint the OFs were sure of their recollection that no such event had taken place!
Concerned about their absent pizzas the OFs got on the phone to Dominoes to enquire of their whereabouts (the pizzas that is, not the OFs). Dominoes explained that their 'online pizza progress app' is only based on computer timings and in fact, as they were busy, they had got a bit behind, and (though not yet delivered) the pizzas were on their way. Fortunately the pizzas arrived a few minutes later and were very good, the OFs wisely restricting themselves to small pizzas in case larger diameter ones would not fit in the Poet & Hack.
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| The liqueur beer, thankfully not brewed in 1488. |
Old Hooky (Hook Norton Brewery)
Gem Bitter - (Bath Ales)
Deuchars IPA - (Caledonian Brewery)
as well as Palmers Brewery Best Bitter and Dorset Gold and Hopback Brewery's Summer Lightning.
(Note that not all these beers were consumed and the OF's drank responsibly).
In addition one OF had kindly brought along a 'vintage' bottle of liqueur beer for everyone to try. It was not fully established how old this beer was (or if it was I can't remember) but everyone hoped it's year of creation was not indicated by the name of the beer (see photo). With some trepidation the OFs gave it a try and concluded that it was unusual but it went down extremely well.
Brown Paper Bags...A new feature for the evening was the Brown Paper Bag Challenge. Whilst this
did not involve a park bench and a can of 'Special Brew', it was an opportunity for the OFs to bring along a mystery beer (concealed in the brown paper bag) for the other OFs to try. This was a resounding success with some very diverse beers sampled as follows:
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| OF demonstrates the sampling technique for the Brown Paper Bag Challenge |
Padstow Pride (Padstow Brewing Co)
Kipling South Pacific Pale Ale (Thornbridge Brewery)
Old Empire IPA (Marstons Brewery)
To round off a very enjoyable evening one OF had generously brought along his Strathisla single malt whisky to warm everyone's cockles for the walk home, which it duly did!
The 'Untitled' title of the evening was decided as: 'The app says my pizza's delivered - where's my b****y pizza!'
