The strange world of beer

Each issue we feature some of beer’s stranger and funnier stories as well as all sorts of other nonsense

Pints of style
For anyone who just doesn’t feel comfortable without a pint in their hands, and yet isn’t ready to drink tea or coffee in such quantities, BOTW may have the solution.

Homewares designer Innermost has come up with a perfectly formed piece of glazed earthenware, or glass, shaped just like a pint but thanks to an ingenious twin-wall design, the vessel holds less than it appears to, nearly half a pint.

This mug-within-a-mug system helps insulate your drink, thus keeping it warm. It also means you can hold it without burning your hands if said liquid is hot.

Supping from the Half Pint Mug is also strangely satisfying. It’s a peculiar but highly entertaining paradox that invariably causes the drinker to let out a post pint ‘ahhhh.’ Mug are available in white or black ceramic, and a glass version is available too! Details at www.innermost.co.uk or buy yours at www.firebox.com Holy Grail presented to pope When meeting the Pope it is customary to offer him a gift, and Benedict XVI has amassed many tokens of esteem. Tony Blair gave him a painting of the Catholic convert Cardinal Newman and Saudi Arabia’s King Abdullah presented him with a jewelled scimitar.

But when the Archbishop of York, John Sentamu, met the pontiff he gave him the Holy Grail, a beer brewed by Black Sheep Brewery in Masham, Yorkshire.

It was the highlight of the archbishop’s first trip to Rome to celebrate the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity and to cement cordial relations between the Roman.....

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By Sally Toms

Section : Beer Matters

Page number : 40