Last night I took a friend out for an evening drink and some food – and we ventured out to the ‘Marchmont’ in Hemel Hempstead. This place is significant for a few reasons:

• It was my first local when I moved to Hemel Hempstead in 1986
• It became my local again in 2002 when I started working for Ocado
• I had my English Wedding Reception there in 2004
• It was a nice place to stroll too on a sunny day – a good 4 mile round trip

Anyway, with my seafood baguette I had three choices:

• Lager (they had lots of this)
• London Pride
• Youngs Bitter

I’d had a London Pride the previous day – and something was telling me to try the Youngs. Probably the same demon that told me to bet on the Czech Republic and Australia to win !

I’ve never NOT finished a pint of ale before. But there had to be a first time. This stuff was just plain nasty. maybe they mixed up the barrel with the washing up bowl – I don’t know. It just wasn’t nice at all.

Mentioning it to colleagues at work this morning I got the response – ‘What did you do that for’ and ‘I don’t know how Youngs are still in business’.

This ale is plain wrong. Don’t drink it.