Jennings - Cumberland Ale

Spare a thought for my poor mate Rog. At the weekend he was out for a blast through the Hertfordshire countryside on his trusty road bike when he came upon a patch of black ice...he's currently laid up in Welwyn Hospital having had his broken femur screwed together.

Cycling aside, Rog has two main loves in life (well, three, but this isn't the website to talk about the other stuff) - beer, and saving money. So tonight's update is dedicated to Roger, and in his spirit, pay heed to this Jenning's Cumberland Ale:

As a teenager I would spend a week each summer at Bassenthwaite Lake with my pals, ostensibly to sail in their annual regatta, but really in order to drink vast amounts of booze. The local sailing club served Jennings Bitter, which I'd guess was about all the Cockermouth brewery produced in those days - now there's a full range of ales and many seasonal brews alongside. But hey, bitter's much trendier now...and Jennings is owned by Marstons, rather than the one-man-and-his-sheepdog I expect it was in 1991 (subs - check this).

Anyway. This particular bottle is being sold at Lidl for a whopping £1.29, which is even less than I was paying for a pint in 1991. Rog loves a bargain; he needs to get down to his local German discount supermarket.

But as we've seen before, cheap beer does not necessarily equal good beer. Would this brew cheer up Rog from his broken-legged misery? 

Well, yeah - I mean it's not amazing, but it's well balanced, malty without being overbearing, floral and fruity and rather bitter. It's nothing special, but at £1.29 you really can't grumble.

Even with a shattered femur.

Get well soon, Rog.