Hey Steve, nice to see you. Part of the other reason may well have been the temprementality of said jukebox as well, which was doing the admittedly bargain deal of five song for a quid which would skip the odd track or three programmed in out of capriciousness (what it has against Pulp’s Common People I have no idea). Nevertheless it was nice to have the choice of banging Scooter on loudly. The pub itself has not changed an awful lot since Shepherd Neame took over with the obvious exception of the much, much better beer on display. Though this brings us to “Alcopop hell….”
We are pastr the heyday of the alcopop where every Professor Brainstrawm in the country was mixing colouring, flavourings, sugah and alcohol to try and make the youth of Britain go blind. These days new products are sophisticated blends owned by existing brands, most recently being the Gordon’s Edge (Lemon or Lime). But does the Holstein brewery fit into the illustrious grouping of Bacardi, Gordon’s, Smirnoff or Archer’s? I would suggst not. Holstein Fusion are a range of -not as I orignally guessed – fruit beers. Instead they are fruit alcopops mixed with a twist of refreshing lager. WHich make the apple one snakebite, the blackcurrant one snakebite and black and the lemon one – well the lemon one tastes exactly like Top Deck lager shandy. But at 5%. Which would be dangerous if it came in pints but in 275ml bottles its finished in a matter of seconds.