My mind is playing tricks on me...

A few years ago I had the great fortune of living in Bellingham, WA.  It is a truly beautiful and unique city and I can honestly say I enjoyed my time there.  I especially enjoyed dinner time!  Living within a very close proximity to work and where you shop has a number of benefits, chiefly among those was convenience.  I usually went grocery shopping every night due in large part to the two minute commute from my apartment to the local Haggen's.  Despite the supposed higher prices as Haggen's, I continued to shop there regularly for three very important reasons:

1.  They have an awesome produce section
2.  They have an awesome butcher shop
3.  They have an awesome selection of single beers

I would often pick up some simple vegetables, discounted prepared meat (like beef stuffed portabella mushrooms) and a good beer.  One of my favorite beers, or so I thought, was Belhaven Scottish Ale.  It seemed like it usually went well with everything, but perhaps that was the problem.  It goes great with everything but maybe it is terrible on it's own?

Last night I ordered a pint of Belhaven from Flying Saucer's in Charlotte, NC.  When Angela, our hostess/server/barmaid/wench/goddess for the evening brought the beverage over I immediately started salivating.  The frost upon the glass was adding a magical glow to the murky reddish-gold tones of this marvelous ale.  The head upon her was just right and everything seemed so perfect... the beer looked good too!

Now maybe it was because I haven't had a drop of alcohol in a couple months, maybe it was because I was hungry, maybe it was because of my fasting diet, or maybe it was emotional problems, I don't know what it was but the first sip wasn't as delightful as I had hoped.  for whatever reason I seemed to remember this beer being a bit less bitter, then again it is Scottish...  Anyhow, once my giant (and overly salted) pretzel showed up with fake cheese dip in tow I think things mellowed out a bit.  One refreshing consistency through it all was the finish.  Belhaven leaves a pleasing aftertaste behind that truly begs you to go in for another sip (gulp).  Now if memory serves me correct the other two drunks that author this blog had enlisted some sort of rating system... I think it was a 1 to 10 scale.  If that is the case, and avoiding the need for fractions of a point, I would rate Belhaven a solid 7 on it's own, but with a hearty meal I would take it up to an 8.