From Nederland to Scotland.

There is a first time for everything and this sure was fun.

For the love of beer and whisky!

As you may, or may not, know, our fellow Steemian @meesterboom does a beer-review every Saturday. Personally I spit in beer, yech, and do not even get me started on whisky: Mèh! Okay, that is quite a bit besides the truth. And if I would have been known as Pinocchio my nose would have already destroyed my laptop screen by now. As a matter of fact I love beer, well the special brew kind. Whisky I did at one time in my life prefer over beer. Not the blended kind of junk, but the single malt. At some point in time-space I did discover the special kind of beer. Not the pilsners, especially not the famous Nederish brand, with the green bottle. That comes out afterwards, when I had actually had some real well crafted beer. The green bottle only makes my breath smell bad en it gives me a headache right after the first drop. Anyway back to the real quality brew. Good fellow Boom knows his beer and presents it with joy. The videos really are the cream on top of the cake!

Almost every thirst-day a good friend of mine and I do some beer-testing our-selves. Not like wine testing, where people stick their nose in a glass, take a sip and then spit it out again. Maybe it is because they caught a bun in their mouth. But what a waste of a drink, it could not taste that bad now would it? My good friend and I never spit. And there has been only one time that we actually flushed a beer down the drain, instead of drinking it. Think it was an Irish one, with chocolate, or something, but it was awfully bitter, as if there was only that. You know, like when you do a 'Madam Jeannette' chili eating challenge (totally being a noob) and your life completely exists of this extreme burning sensation. Well, somehow like that, but then with bitterness. And because I am curious about all kinds well crafted beers I do love the Saturday beershow with the Boomerman in the flesh. He would even try stuff that I would not even consider. Would not be surprised if he one day would find some that were subtle flavored with a horse-dong or some cat-spunk. Okay, I admit, that might be a bit over the top. But he sure does have an open mind when it comes to tasting beer.

Let me send you some.

The Saturday before yesterdays the choice was not that satisfying for Meesterboom. And I shared my drink for that evening in a reply. It was a Belgian beauty known as the: 'Gouden Carolus', the whisky infused one. With their own Single Malt whisky that is. The brewery is called 'Het Anker' and can be found in Mechelen, Belgium. The Gouden Carolus does have a certain oumph to it, at a 11.7% alcohol level. It is like the perfect marriage between beer and whisky. Silk smooth with a nice sweetness to it. If you ever enjoyed an Innis & Gunn (a very fine Scottish brand) whisky barrel riped beer, then you will kind of know what it tastes like. And I know Meesterboom most certainly can appreciate a beer like that. Unfortunately it is difficult to find a Gouden Carolus within the Scottish low- and highlands. Just like it is difficult to get the Whisky Infused version of it over here. But I happen to know this store that has it on its shells now and then. And this one even comes in a lovely 750ml bottle. The beers he tested last Saturday were not really well suited enough to celebrate his Steemian three year anniversary with.

So, I proposed to send a 'Gouden Carolus - Whisky Infused' over the muir {sea}. Mailing it from Nederland to Scotland, while the UK was still part of the EU, that should be quite simple. A first time for me actually. Not sending a package over to another country, but mailing a box containing liquid filled glass, now that was something else. It would certainly need a tight fit, yet still be flexible enough. My better half had saved up some plastic that did the job and a lot of tape did seal the whole thing up really well. This already was part of the fun. Boxing two presents, to be send abroad. Besides the Carolus I also put a 'La Trappe - Quadrupel' in, another one of my favorites. It is made by one of the last remaining Nederish Abbey breweries, known as 'Koningshoeven' located in Berkel-Enschot, Nederland. A fine roasted malty sweet beer with a soft bitter and a beautiful amber color. Quite strong in the alcohol department, with its 10%, but not at all dominating. This was the added surprise, as mister Boom did only know about the GC. Now, would the package make it all the way to Scotland in one piece?

To the post-office!

Already I had asked Meesterboom to send me a personal message at Twitter. And through that we moved over to Telegram. He already had found my Oaldamster (brandname) account there. And now he also knew my real life name and I visa versa his. (Which we will keep to ourselves, because, as you may know by now: a gentleman never tells.) All was set, the package was ready to be send off to Scotland. From the post-office I got a code for a 'track n trace', which is quite handy. Also knowing where it is can be somewhat nerve wrecking too. At some point it seemed to be stuck in Nederland for more than a day? Did something happen, did it break and so on... Then all of a sudden it was in the UK somewhere. That was a kind of exiting, maybe that is a bit nuts, but I guess it is the track n trace thing that does that with a human being. Meesterboom had the track n trace as well, so he could also watch the box move. And then on the third day, Friday, it actually was on its way to be delivered! So we could watch live how the delivery guy (it was our guess it was one of the male sex kind) would make it all the way to Meesterboom his doorstep. (We kept each other posted using Telegram.)

Tour de France !? Who cares, this was the real excitement! Was the delivery dude going to deliver 'the goods'? And then a shock, clearly the delivery car stopped at a park. Wait a minute, that cannot be right!? Why on earth would one stop there, come on man, deliveries have to be made! Meesterboom and I were worried, this was it, the driver knew what was in the box and had taken the content out and drank it. Minutes passed, no movement, what was happening? Yes, he must have taken it out, probably pished by now. Oh no, look, look, he is moving again! ... In the wrong direction. The driver was swarming all over town, this made no sense at all, to deliver goods like that. And we almost gave up hope. Then the driver stopped at a house address, now that took an awful lot of time. Sure, after drinking beer he must be taking a piss and who knows what else. Telegram was our witness as we shared our imagination. Which was quite a lot of fun actually.

The eagle has landed!

What a relief, I shouted "YES, YES, YES!" as I made some karate-kicks (sorry about the crystal glasses dear, I'll buy you a new set), finally it was where it had to be! And for Meesterboom there was another countdown, as weekend had not started for him yet. The present was there, but he was not there yet to open it. Finally a couple of hours later he could unbox the two bottles. And I'm happy to know that it lifted his mood.

Luckily both beers tasted good, that was a bonus. It was fun to do and I had a great time with the build up, during the delivery run and with the all's well that ends well_. Now if they only could stop that BREXIT nonsense (before the NHS gets destroyed next), this could be done more often, by me and many others. And if not for the economy it must be good for something, right?

Have a great one!

The Gouden Carolus - Whiskey Infused made it over the muir

Image cc-by-sa @oaldamster