These are the opening couple of lines from his most famous song: “I like beer, it makes me a jolly good fellow. I like beer, it helps me unwind and sometimes it makes me feel mellow (Makes him feel mellow).’’ 

Like our great friend, Tom T, we like beer. In fact we’ve had an on-going relationship with beer that stretches back to the late 1970s. Unlike our other relationships, this one has endured and indeed, our bond has grown stronger. Love at first sight? Perhaps. We remain confident that we’ll continue our fascination with beer until we draw our last breath. And then, if there’s a heaven (and we doubt there is), it will be a packed hotel, with sport going 24/7 on the telly, attractive and affable female bar attendants, an agreeable publican (which just goes to prove there isn’t a heaven) and reasonably priced schooners of beer. Oh, and no poker machines. Or St George supporters.

In our formative beer drinking days Tooths Old (aka Brown) was our preferred tipple. As Brown became increasingly scarce in local hostelries, we switched to Tooheys New. We do admit to having a brief flirtation with VB back in the 1990s for reasons we can’t explain. Our paternal grandfather once told us that there’s no such thing as bad beer, there’s just some that are better than others. However, VB comes perilously close to Very Bad Beer (VBB).

However, just to prove you’re never too old to fall in love, this correspondent has found a new suitor. We’ve developed a taste for the exotic brew known as Asahi.

We’re not too sure where we first sipped Asahi. It originates from Osaka, which is in Japan for those unaware. Given that we’ve never been to Japan it’s reasonable to assume Osaka wasn’t the first place we experienced Asahi.

Perhaps is was a restaurant. However, where we tried Asahi for the first time is of little consequence. The fact remains we are now an Ardent Asahi Admirer (AAA). We can’t get enough of the stuff.

Again proving the course of true love never did run smooth, to borrow from Shakespeare’s Midsummer Night’s Dream (who said this correspondent isn’t cultured), there is one problem with Asahi. An exhaustive search will show that it is not freely available at the ale houses we frequent in this area. It certainly isn’t on tap and that is bordering on a crime against humanity.

And it’s not as though there’s any shortage of inferior brands on offer – see our comment regarding VB. So we plead with local publicans to embrace the Asian lifestyle and get Asahi flowing immediately. And get rid of poker machines as well, but that’s probably asking too much.