Beer n a Big Nosebag!

It was a fun day. I was at Stirling Crucible, a learning programme for early career academics to encourage collaborative research. It's really good because there's such a mix of disciplines from economics to aqua-culture.

The speed academic dating was intense and tiring but fun all-the-same. It's funny having come from a job in which I was seen as 'academic' to being the baby of the bunch. Most people have been post-docs or research assistants and I'm just trying to find my feet. 

In the evening we headed to Allan Water Brewery for a beer tasting and dinner in this great little micro-brewery pub. I really enjoyed geeking out with the brewer, in which I talked about how there were many commonalities with coffee production. I think he's going to book up on a barista course now.

Dinner came and wow.......I needn't have worried about being a veggie as I was served 3 veggie kebabs with spicy tofu, 3 veggie sausages, a chickpea burger and salad. The meat plates for everyone else were ridiculous, a side of beef, a lamb burger, a pork chop, sausages and chicken and salad! 

The beer tasting involved 8 different ales and then two ciders. We then got to have a whole pint of our favourite beer. We were promised that we wouldn't get a hangover as the beer was so natural and pure! Needless to say, I was a bit tiddled. It was good having a folk singer too!

We were all staying at at the hotel on campus and as it was Joanna's birthday (a vet who's expertise is fish pathology) the majority decided to go for a fine night-cap!