New beer! New beer!

I feel like Sr. Walter Raleigh when he discovered spuds. He might not have known it at the time but it would prove a stupendous moment on the road to our modern society with its eventual nutritional cornerstones of mash, basil mash, creamed potatoes, chips, wedges, crisps, jacket potatoes, sauteed potatoes and potato bread. That's alot of corners. What can I say, it's an odd-shaped world.

Of course potatoes are also high in carbs which is a major no-no in our multi-cornered society, and just slightly worse, they were the root (giggle!) cause of a major famine in Ireland, bringing with it disease, death, mass emigration, alot of kitchen sink literature by bad playwrights and worse than all that, latter-day bizarre outbursts by Sinead O'Connor. So to sum up: Spuds - both a good and a bad thing - but mostly good since 1847.

But what's all that to do with beer and Walter Raleigh? Well, I'd like to think that just as the bearded medieval one in pumpkin-lke pantaloons arrived back to his Queen, to triumphantly reveal a Maris Piper to the civilised world, I too arrive in the court of beer-jesting aficionados (that'd be you down the back, Radge and Mardzord) and direct you to the presence of a new and worthy beer in our realm.

It is called Brahma my friends. On the sixth day (yesterday) I tasted it and saw that it was good. You will too. It's even got a curvy little bottle design so it sits snug in your hand, like it belongs there. Permit me to be wanky a moment and quote Seamus Heaney - "snug as a gun," he wrote. He was referring to a garden spade, which doesn't taste at all like a beer if you lick it and won't get you remotely pissed, but you get my drift. All things considered, that's just clever bottle design whatever way you look at it.

Naturally, it tastes good too. I'm no fan of Heineken and Stella etc., much too harsh and strong-tasting for my cultured palate, so it follows then that Brahma is nothing like those coarse offerings or their ilk. I'm a Smithwicks (I've agricultural leanings) , Budvar, Michelob, Corona man, and this one is right up there in that exalted pantheon.

You'll get 455cl in a bottle and 4.8% as well. Sure what more would you want. It's now becoming widely available in more mainstream off-licences, expect it to hit the pubs soon. Remember where you heard it first.