GIGGLE DON'T FIGHT

Was this test really done and if so what could have been it's purpose?

I saw a TV programme ages ago about the Zulus in the Boer War and the fact they were such a fearsome enemy because they never felt pain or fear.

Apparently, they were drugged up and it was because they were under the influence of hallucinogenics that they could continue fighting even when mortally injured.

Perhaps that's why the British Army tested the effects of LSD on troops. Maybe they wanted to see if the drug would create war machines instead of soldiers.

As the video shows, it had the opposite effect. The test revealed that if the world was on LSD, there would be no war.

Has anyone thought of slipping it into the watering holes in the Middle East?

H/T My son

* UPDATE : I just received this. Seems military history is not my area of expertise :)

The Zulu wars were in 1879 and the boer war was in 1900, the documentary you saw was about the battle of islandwana which was January 21st 1879. Involving the 24th foot and the Zulus. They believe that the Zulus had been taking drugs before the battle and many warriors said they felt invulnerable to the British martini Henry rifles.

Wells & Youngs - a summary

In conclusion, the bottles I was kindly given to sample by Wells & Youngs represented a varied range of quality beers that were all distinctively different and avoided having an obvious house character*. If they do have something in common, it is that they are all to a greater or lesser extent malty but dry. All of them are beers that I have bought myself in the past.

Bottle-conditioning can often be problematic in quality terms, but Wells & Youngs seem to have got it right, with the beers (unlike some) having noticeably conditioned in the bottle, but all the yeast sticking to the bottom and not ending up in the glass.

As an everyday drinking beer the Wells Burning Gold is probably my favourite, but the Young’s Special London Ale is well worth saving for a cold night or a special occasion. Directors is the one where the tasting most improved my previous opinion.

The only one of the five beers I found a touch disappointing was the Young’s London Gold which, while pleasant enough, was lacking in distinctiveness and, as I said, maybe too subtle for its own good. Although it looks the part, I kept searching for something flavour-wise that I couldn’t quite find.

This will also motivate me to look out for the bottle-conditioned Young’s Bitter. The last time I remember having some on cask was probably in 2008 but it was always one of my favourite “ordinary” bitters. The bottled version is, however considerably stronger at 4.5% ABV rather than 3.7%.

* To be honest I quite like the Greene King house character, but all of their beers taste somewhat the same.

Crafty keg

My poll asking the question ‘Would you drink a keg “craft” beer from BrewDog or Thornbridge in the pub?’ has now finished. There were 81 responses, broken down as follows:

Definitely: 34 (42%)
Probably: 12 (15%)
Maybe: 17 (21%)
Unlikely: 14 (17%)
Absolutely not: 4 (5%)

This clearly suggests sufficient interest to make the idea a goer, with over half pretty keen, and very few totally setting their face against it. It doesn’t need a majority, just a significant minority who are willing to try it. I don’t see it replacing cask on any kind of large scale, but it could be a way of getting craft beer into trendy bars that don’t have the facilities or throughput for cask, or who don’t see cask as fitting in with their image.