Boozer & The Brain Chris Mason and Matthew Juggins

今週は日本を訪問します! [Konshū wa Nihon o hōmon shimasu!] And in other news, Brain has figured out how to use Google translate and is all excited (other internet search engines are available). In case you hadn’t surmised, we’re making our first foray into the fabulous world of Japanese craft beer, with two brewtiful beers from Hitachino Nest, the beer arm of Kiuchi Brewery. So sit back and wallow in our enjoyment of their Lacto Sweet Stout and Chocolate Berry Ale, and listen with bated breath to find out whether Brain can contain his inner otaku. Probably not, though.

Get ordering your favourite orange Chinese takeaway, because today we’re going sweet and sour! It’s a visit to New Bristol on the cards for us (not old Bristol, or contemporary Bristol, just to be clear), and we’ll be turning the heat back up on our old debate about whether it’s pastry or dessert sours as we sample their Cherry Pie & Vanilla Ice Cream Sour and Blueberry Pancake & Maple Syrup Sour. Yes, we’ve been good boys and eaten up all our greens, so it’s pudding time! We come to - I think - quite an interesting and perhaps slightly unexpected conclusion… find out all by pressing play. Or skip straight to the end for the spoiler if you can’t be bothered with all the fluff. And who can blame you, it’s mostly the Brain talking total flowery bollocks, as usual…

Right. Best behaviour. Definitely no lazy stereotyping this time, definitely. Today, children, we’ll be sampling a couple of double delights from our good friends North Brewing. We’ll be looking for a DIPA understanding of North’s beers, and hoping that Watching Light Move can lead us beyond our Fading Frontiers. In other news, I will once again be consulting with my legal team to make sure the Geneva Convention doesn’t cover puns. Chuffin’ grand beers though, like. Oh, damn and blast!

What’s that coming over the hill? Is it a monster special? Is it a monsteeeeer special? Yes, it is! We have no fewer than - wait for it - EIGHT beers on the menu today, a Boozer and the Brain record, because… well, any guesses? No, actually: it’s our first ever non-alcoholic beer episode! Take five, Boozer. Today we’ll be showcasing a range from non-alc specialists Big Drop, taking in - deep breath - Double Strike Sour, Uptime Craft Lager, Pine Trail Pale Ale, Paradiso Citra IPA, Fieldhopper Golden Ale, Woodcutter Brown Ale, Galactic Milk Stout and Off-Piste Hazelnut Porter! While I hyperventilate from saying that all in one go, why don’t you crack on and have a listen? Go on, you can even listen to this one while driving! Wow, even I think that gag was bad…

We’re back, baby! Yes, our hiatus is over, and your favourite beer-swilling pillocks – sorry, I completely misspelled ‘beer-appreciating connoisseurs’ there, didn’t I! – make their magnificent and eagerly awaited return to the airwaves as the Brain re-joins the waking world (sort of) and Boozer re-joins the drinking world. No, I don’t mean ‘re-joins’, do I? Anyway, we’re back with a bang and some Funky Fluid (dear God, please don’t read too much into that sentence). Today there’s a Modern Polish IPA and some Brown Sugar on the menu, so we’re going to polish them off and ask how come they taste so good… ah, it’s good to be back!

An announcement from Boozer (and not The Brain...)