Reasons for Going to England #4: Local Brews

Converting temperatures has been a challenge here in the UK, especially since I bought a beer the other day and it says, "Best served at 13 degrees." I figured that had to be Celsius since there was no popsicle stick in the bottle. I put the bottle in the fridge, went to metric-conversions.org and found out the formula for converting, which is:

To convert from Celsius to Fahrenheit you must multiply by 1.8 and then add 32. For a weather temperature you can make a rough estimate in your head by doubling the Celsius value and adding 30.

Of course, I just used their instant calculator to find out the temperature is supposed to be  55.4 degrees Fahrenheit. Guessing that's warm for refrigerator temperature, I left the bottle out to warm up a bit when I got around to drinking it the next day.

The beer is Black Sheep Ale made in Masham, North Yorkshire, i.e. it's a local brew. And a yummy brew. The flavor is much like Guinness, though not as harsh. The beer was a little darker than in the picture you see here. That's what I get for stealing a photo from their glossy web site!

We may have to go and take one of their shepherded tours of the brewery. [Editor's note: bad pun was stolen from the brewery's web site] We will definitely report back if/when we do.

The next day I had a Samuel Smiths Organic Lager, also brewed less than 10 miles away.  It was delightfully crisp and refreshing after a long day of running errands with the children. I was in a sort-of fancy restaurant and tried to take a picture stealthily:

Not a very flattering angle, though I like the reflection on the table. That's what you get for trying to be sneaky. I wasn't very sneaky, though, because the flash went off.

I'm looking forward to other local brews as well as traveling to other regions and countries and trying their fare as well!