It's all about the double drop

On Sunday we set off towards Witney in order to claim the spoils of the Oxford Ale Trail (see earlier post).

The day started out lovely and sunny, and it really was a nice day to go out on a local trip. After meeting up with Diego, Hannah and Francesco, we caught the bus across the Oxfordshire fields, passing through some really typical little villages, and arrived at our destination in good time.

 

The Wychwood brewery was a little difficult to find (we should have followed our noses) but we made it in time for the grand tour. This consisted of being given a swift half before entering the premises (point to not - we didn't pay for the half, so I remain free from having ever bought a half pint). We were then shown around the different areas of the brewery, explained how the process takes place, what (and why) ingredients are used, and what the difference is between the various hops. We were then explained about the famous "double-drop" method, used by Brakspeare, before being taken back to the tasting room.

 

We tried the draught Hobgoblin first, then the bottled version (which tasted much fizzier and stronger in comparison). We then tried the draught version again, this time noticing that it seemed to taste like water. This is the reason why if you start on the bottles, you have to keep doing them for the rest of the night. Next up was a paler ale, which was quite refreshing. We then went on to the 6.75% ABV bitter, which was surprisingly very tasty (but I wouldn't want to have to drink a pint of it). In order to take away this taste so that we could go back to some of the more 'normal' ales, we had a mouthful of the Ginger Beer, which was very tasty indeed.

  

We then continued to finish up the bottles and pitchers that were started for our tasting, until we were called away by the ladyfolk for dinner. This was taken at the Hollybush, which was recommended by a local couple who were also on the tour. We had a delicious meal, with extremely friendly staff and good ambiance. Definitely a place to come back to!

If you are wondering where the photos from the brewery are - there are none. I had my hands full with all that beer...

Cheers !

Science and Technology Roundup

After the fallen snow of recent times (I kept on saying we would get the proper winter in February...) one ends up reading a bit more of the news. This has actually led to me being impressed by a few things I've found recently.

Google's search algorithm has been used for a much better purpose - to find molecular links that would work better for medicine. This seems such an amazing use of an until now controversial bit of maths, and if you think more along these lines, you should be able to do a lot more investigation in a chemical model. In fact, think a bit further, and you can probably use it for physics too.

3D printers. I never thought much of them. If someone had invented a printer that could produce any object, then surely it would change the whole world around. Well, they do exist, and they have been recently used to do something miraculous. Instead of having to go through a lot of microsurgical reconstruction, not being able to talk or swallow for a good few days, a new jaw was printed for this 83 year old, and she was using it just like normal within a day. Think about this a moment. Something printed, from your computer, and replacing a part of your body you use for many daily tasks...very impressive!

Sometimes technology can also go wrong. We all know what bad things can happen when you end up losing control of vehicles and other potentially dangerous objects. This time it was a lot less damaging. Those captions that appear at the bottom of the screen when someone is being interviewed. When these system get things wrong, they can also cause a few chuckles, like here, where a young girl was labelled as a recovering alcoholic...

And to leave you with an interesting link. Ever feel like your eyes are tired and hurting, and the screen too bright in the evenings? Well, that's because the ambient light changes in tone through the day and especially at night, when it's all artificial. Try this program on your computer to change your display to be more natural to the surrounding light. Great idea !

Here's hoping for many more good scientific advancements...