I had this beer for the first time when my friend Bryan and I went to a Scottish bar on Clark Street in Chicago one night to pound back a couple after another day of oh-so-exciting law firm work. My usuals were Newcastle and Harp, then maybe Bass if that's the only one around.
Well, they were _all_ gone that night; a big crowd had just swept through there and cleaned almost all the easy choices on tap right out. The place was almost bone dry. Except for three choices, none of which I'd heard of [pardon my ignorance, for those of you more into zymurgy]: McEwan's, Brains, and Belhaven.
The bartender poured us small glasses of all three or them and let us try them out -- and it was freezing cold outside, so we weren't about to go anywhere. The first was acceptable enough, the second a bit bitter and kind of watery, and I was starting to think I'd just have to down some scotch and move on. Then I got to the Belhaven.
Whoa.
Have you ever tasted anything so good that your mind goes blank, time stops, and your life just seems stupendously good? Well, this was better. _Way_ better. Unbelievably better. It had the creamiest head I've ever sampled short of a Guinness -- but the brew itself went down like a mellower Newcastle or Bass, with all the smoothness and rich taste without any of the bitter edge. If I'd ever had a finer beer, I must have forgotten it long before, because nothing I could recall even came close.
That beer was so good, I was afraid to leave for fear I'd never get another. It was just about all Bryan and I could talk about -- and as we got progressively more soused, the teetotalling folks who joined us later on were wondering what we were so giddy about.
I've had it a few times on tap since then, and while none of them were as good as the first, they've all been better than any other beer I've ever tasted. Bryan swears by the stuff now; he says it's almost better than sex. Me? I won't go that far -- because I know that sex isn't even in the same league. =,
Find some wherever you can, and drink up. Quickly.
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