Daylight Savings Eve, @CoopersBrewery Best Extra Stout, BotF Canoodling & @Untappd 400

The BotF calendar is a full one. Winter Solstice, Summer Solstice, Christmas Eve, first Friday of the week etc. A big moment is the commencement of Daylight Savings, which is just around the corner, which means another event – the last ferry trip before the commencement of Daylight Savings. Lamb0 and bladdamasta did the journey and were rewarded with one of finest twilight voyages for some time – well since last week at least.

Daylight Savings means summer is approaching which means that the tourists will start to pack the ferry again. BotF has no problem with that – every should enjoy the delights of Sydney Harbour on the ferry. A couple of evenings ago, we were joined out the back by a couple of backpackers getting in early – like the first cicadas of the season. These backpackers had little interest in the delights of Sydney Harbour and proceeded to put on a show of agility and contortionistic variety. The Back of the Ferry is not large and often one didn’t know where to look as our companions played a game of Twister without a mat. Aah well – that’ll probably bring in more tourists. This couple would have struggled to walk the next morning however, as their denim rash would have been quite acute.

As well as celebrating Daylights Savings Eve, we were able to mark the consumption of BotF’s 400th unique beer since joining @Untappd. @Untappd is 4Square for boozehounds. It is a clever iPhone app and awards badges for various beer drinking feats – like 5 Irish Beers or Drinking a Beer on Ferry (not hard). There’s no badge for 400 (1, 25, 50, 100, 200 and 500) – but there bloody well should be.

We marked the 400th with one of the finest beers that Australia has produced. I’ve loved this beer for ever. Coopers Extra Best Stout is aptly named. It is as meaty as a T-Bone and simply does not muck around with a 6.3% alc/vol. There’s a burnt bitterness, which might sound unpleasant, but in an Australian stout it is damn fine. Australia produces plenty of good stout, and this is one of the benchmarks – can’t believe it took 400 beers to get to it on the Back of the Ferry.