ThisDrinkingLife and The World Cup: England
Things appear to be a little different this time with England. Under Gareth Southgate their seems to be far less pressure and expectations on this team from the media and the general public. A team that qualified with relative ease, 8 points to spare and unbeaten, Southgate has done well since he took over the hot seat from Sam Allardyce.
There is a quiet confidence with this England team and the manager has also done very well to blood the team with a lot of new young players and letting some big names retire early. This is an England team without the big stars and big egos of English teams past. Wayne Rooney is finally gone, thank Christ, and there are no Beckham, Gerrard, Lampard, Owens type players to raise expectations. Ok Harry Kane could arguably fill that bracket, but he is still relatively unproven at international level, and with him we have Raheem Sterling, Marcus Rashford, Danny Rose and Dele Alli, a bunch of players who have had good seasons with their clubs the last few years, and who if they gel together can propel England far in this World Cup.
They are in a relatively easy group. Ok Belgium are tough, but England should have too much for Tunisia and Panama, and I’d fully expect them to come out of the group without too much bother. Their last game against Belgium should be a great head to head to see who gets to play either Colombia, Senegal or Poland in round two, all beatable teams for England either way. But after that it is either Brazil or Germany in the last eight awaiting, and both teams are tough to break down. But the good thing for England is that Southgate has the team well drilled on penalties, a nice change from previous managers who didn’t think it necessary! England should get to the last eight, but after that they might need Kane to hit the form of his life to go beyond that.
Please check out a very enjoyable chat I had with Tom from the excellent new football fan site Worldwide Terrace Culture who over a very pleasant twenty minutes or so told me how England are going to do in this years World Cup!
Called “Kabinet”, to reflect a cabinet of curiosities or wonders of life, “a collection of distinctive, unique items, all that is rare, strange and precious, finest handicrafts, natural wonders, usually received and gathered from the exotic travel as an examples of the natural, geological, religious, ethnological and artistic value”. Founded by a Serbia couple, whose “wish is that the Kabinet Brewery, as a cabinet of curiosities, gathers in one place all the amazing tastes and smells of the beer world that has long inspired us”. It certainly sounds all great. 
The smell is very nice, a typical IPA style smell, very fruity, very hoppy and very strong on the nose.
Again a strange looking logo, a modern art kind of thing, is interesting enough but I am not sure its the best looking logo for a simple beer. Apparently, according to the artist who designed it, it is meant to represent the evoking of our sensations after drinking a Mozaik.
Typical IPA taste, hoppy and bitter, fruity, citrusy, get it all at the start, lingers too especially the caramel on the tongue. 
They brew quite a wide and exciting variety of beers, and also some unique collaborations. For example, their PMPRNL (Jessenhofke Pimpernelle) is in collaboration with a herbalist Sanguisorba from Ranst, while they also brew Blueberry beers, Chocolate beers, beers brewed with beautiful Mont Roucous spring water, and so on. That is part of the attraction for the brewery, you just never know what they will come up with next, but as they are a Belgian brewery you can be assured they will be at least quite hoppy!!
But what does it mean to be a bio beer? To achieve the bio label is not easy, they don’t hand it out to any brewery that fancies going eco friendly! You really have a lot of tests to go through and reports to be filled in, certain strict conditions in the company have to met, and all the time, checked regularly by independent supervision agencies, and they check on everything from the raw materials to the production process. No chemical products are to used on the product, no artificial smells, colours or sweeteners, and, of course, no genetically modified ingredients. This extra mile that the company goes through results in a beer that is slightly more expensive than a regular brew. But I think most consumers can accept this extra expense when they realise that if more breweries cared about the well being of the environment and ultimately the health of their customers, then everyone would benefit so its really a small price to pay for, in reality, a better, cleaner product. Hats off to Jessenhofke and to Gert and Christel for giving the market a real alternative. 
Coming in a lovely little stumpy black bottle with RSRV in big white distinctive lettering. The RSRV signfies Reserva, i.e higher quality than usual. An organic beer that is of high fermentation.
On the taste, the initial mouthful was lovely, brilliant, creamy and definitely the beer started with the “wow” factor. 
The taste was very silky on the tongue, smooth, and easy to sip and enjoy while sitting down to view the football.
As a light blonde, you get that usual light pale yellow golden appearance, that one would expect, also a little hazy with some small carbonation. A white head that is small but sticks around. Not a bad looker, looks nice.
On pour get a thin white head with a nice looking golden yellowish coloured beer, looks ok.
The beer is re-fermented in the bottle and all ingredients are organic. The little stubby bottle with BRWN spelled out in big lettering as the logo. 
On the taste opened up with nice big sweet mouthfuls, got the flavours of malts, caramel, of the chocolate, sugar, the barley, all nice at the start, all very refreshing in the taste.
Lovely big mouthfuls to begin with, very nice on the tongue, sweet and fruity.
Looks good on pour, with a nice hazy white head, and a nice golden colour, looks very good in fact. 
The 
I can certainly can see the attraction in these beers. Experimenting with exciting new styles, they are very unconventional in their style and approach, so much so that they consciously violate the purity law that German beers hold so dear. Breaking rules and doing something new, I love it! The traditional Bavarian wheat beers and lagers were a thing of the past, here they tried to do it differently. No beer styles are off limits. they brew IPA’s, Stout, Porter, Red Ale, Belgian beers and some specialty wheat beers, and more. Easy to see how spending time with Brewdog, one of the brothers (Tobi) came back a changed soul full of creative ideas and an action plan. In the beginning of 2013, Giesinger Bräu in Munich gave them an opportunity to brew a 5 hl brew of their finest IPA in their brewery, and the rest the say is history. Now the boys have a collection of beers, bottled and on sale ready to dominate the World, one town at a time.
On pour get a nice frothy head, with a very cloudy golden orange coloured beer. A good bit of carbonation resulting in quite a big white head. 
The logo for this one has a sleepy village and a church, with a nuclear power station in the background. Impending doom perhaps? The calm before the storm?
Aroma was strong, definitely could smell the bourbon aroma. I found it quite strong on the nose, also got some smokiness and an earthly feel from the beer. 
Motor Oil, what a great name for a beer, and especially for a stout, very good. “200% Stout, Guaranteed satisfaction” written on the bottle, ok I guess but a 100% would be good enough for me!
On the taste, I get the chocolate, the dark malts and the caramel, some licorice 
From the Brauer and Co in Leipzig, in the eastern German state of Saxony, in what was part of eastern Germany, I got two unique looking beers. One a pilsner called Funky Forelle (Funky trout!), a Pils coming in an equally funky bottle with a rather pop art design of a fish on the long necked brown bottle, looks great. The other beer was a radler called Pretty Potwall (Pretty sperm whale!), also coming in a rather trendy looking design. We get the sperm whale enjoying himself with a nice big yellow lemon! Other than that I dont know a whole lot about the beers or the brewery but then I would guess that is part of the attraction of the beers! Mysterious! 
On pour I got a decent sized white headed beer, with a very clear, golden yellowish colour.
Coming in a nice long 5,l brown bottle with a rather cool looking logo of a Sperm Whale in the shape of a glass, eye catching.
Get a hazy looking light golden coloured radler.