Beer when you've got a cold

On Thursday night I felt very tired and sluggish when I was training with my Thai boxing club. I got hit a lot more than I usually do too, which I suppose is unsurprising, but it didn't do anything to improve my spirits. When I woke up on Friday morning I was aching all over and had a runny nose. Despite feeling really grotty I did feel a bit happier knowing that I could blame my poor performance on being under the weather. Perhaps I'm not past it after all. 

I was left with a very tricky situation for Friday evening though. I eventually resigned myself to the fact I wouldn't be going down the pub but I couldn't bring myself to not drink at anything, it was Friday after all! What's the best thing to drink when you've got a cold though? I was tempted to have some Fullers vintage ale as it's a good warming brew. It's also 8.5% ABV though and would I be able to stop at having just one bottle? I didn't really want to get a hangover.  Instead I started on my latest home brew, a best bitter. It was OK but not really assertive enough for my dulled senses. So I moved on to Belhaven Twisted Thistle one of my favourite IPAs (I wish they sold the export version in Britain). This was sadly wasted as I couldn't really get the hop flavour and it just seemed a bit thin. I needed something with a bit more body but the only dark beer I had available was my homebrewed porter which is still conditioning.

So once more I was on the horns of a dilema. As a dedicated beer nerd I really shouldn't drink anything before it's ready. But as a dedicated piss head I really wanted to. Then I remembered I hadn't checked the gravity for a few days so I poured out a generous measuring cylinders worth, recorded the gravity and guzzled it down. It went down very nicely, confirming that dark beers are what you need when you have a cold, I'd also managed to maintain my status as a proper beer nerd and satisfied my piss heads need for beer. Hurrah!