Schloss Eggenberg Hopfen Konig (Germany) By @SpectreUK

Before I start writing about this lager beer I hope that you don't mind, but I'm just going to say a few words about the scary times we're having at the moment. I say; "we", because we're all in this together; the whole world. I know that many of our readers are from many different countries and we appreciate all of your support in these troubling times. We appreciate every single one of you. When Cinabar told me that she had created a bog with a friend from work all those years ago I remember saying that no-one would ever read it. I was clearly wrong. We have a community of over 3000 readers a day. We always have appreciated you over the last ten or so years since this blog was created and we always will. It can be difficult to admit, but we are all scared. We are scared of catching this terrible bug and equally scared of passing it on to someone else that may lose their lives to it, or pass it on to someone else that does. We are all strong. No matter who you are or where you are from.

We will carry on with daily posts as best we can. Even if we end up writing about a tin of beans - we will carry on… So during this troubling period I'm likely to be switching to blogging about beer a bit more. Much to my chagrin I'm handing over many of the items I have for my own greedy self in the Foodstufffinds's storage cupboard to Cinabar. She can write about those, just as long as I get a nibble… er… on the snacks or whatever, and I will switch over to my beer supply in my cavernous beer fridge. I have plenty to write about in there just as long as I don't get ill in the meantime.

They were keeping my gym open with social distancing guidelines, but they have closed that now. After a lot of consideration I have worked out an exercise regime that I can do in the house. I have free weights I can do upper and lower body exercise three times a week. I have learnt a few yoga moves I can do three times a week, and I have my crazy abdominal burnout sessions that I can do for an hour or so every day. YouTube is very good at showing you all manners of exercises if you want to keep fit indoors. I'll miss the bike and swimming, sauna and steam room at the gym until it reopens, but can jog for several minutes now, so will do that around the estate unless they stop us going out and I'll have to jog around in circle in the back garden.

Anyway, after all that babbling on I'm pretty thirsty… I was brought back this beer and a few others from Germany a few months ago before this scary virus closed all the borders. Google reliably informs me that Eggenberg Castle is a castle located in Vorchdorf, in Northern Austria. The castle is famous for its brewery. The label is almost completely in German or Austrian, depending on how you look at it, so you may have to bare with me…

At 5.1% in volume, Schloss Eggenberg Hopfen Konig is a lager beer, so I'm hoping it's not too bubbly otherwise I'll be burping all night from it. It has an ingenious pull open bottle top that puts my bottle opener out of business for tonight. Made with barley malt there is more of a slight hint of pils to the hoppy smell underneath the sweet malts in the aroma. On pouring this lager beer, there was quite a fizz and the bitter hops hit my tastebuds first, which were then smoothed out by the sweet barley malts. This is a very flavoursome bubbly lager beer and should go well with my fried chicken dinner, which I've just been called for…. So, cheers to all of you and please take care where ever you are in the world over the next few weeks and months.