Badger Golden Glory, Thwaites Wainwright, Everard's Tiger and Black Sheep - 4 great beers for £5.50

On Sarah’s request I popped in straight off the bus on Tuesday night for some naan bread and as I headed from checkout to door I couldn’t help but be drawn towards the beer and wines section (our Morrison’s is one of those odd divisive ones with a separate alcohol area fenced off from the main supermarket floor).

First off I was impressed with their range and I was overcome with an urge to try old favourites and classic British beers. Thai green chicken curry was on the menu which called for something a little exotic, plus I needed a pick me up after an arduous day at the office: a refreshing and zingy Golden Champion would do just the trick.

Castle Rock's Harvest Ale nestled next two of the beers Alan and I grew up with

Castle Rock Harvest Pale almost leapt off the shelf so that too went in the basket. Two down, might as well take Morrison’s up on the 4 for £5.50 offer, so after my usual beer aisle procrastination a Titanic Stout and JW Lees Brewer’s Dark joined the party.

Morrison’s has had a long term beer offer for a long while now and 4 for £5.50 isn’t too shabby (although you can grab twice as many tins of Carlsberg for 50p less most of the time). These days our local store has 3 large shelves of beers priced at £1.67, all of which are on the offer. These are dominated by Hall & Woodhouse, Marston’s, Wychwood and Greene King. It seems over the last year a few more regional beers are popping up – Castle Rock, White Horse, Hook Norton and JW Lees this week – which I’d like to see more of.

The top two shelves belong to beers outside the offer, priced almost exclusively at £1.85 or £1.99 and include the likes of Fullers ESB and Vintage Ale, Old Crafty Hen and a handful of regional beers that I guess either command a higher price or would represent lower margins as part of the offer.

Unfortunately I picked up the only beer on the offer shelves that was unmarked, the Brewer’s Dark. I shouldn’t complain – it scanned through the till at a wallet-pleasing M&S-rounded £1 – super. Except that I didn’t notice until I read the ill-printed receipt and only realised I’d made no additional savings on my way to the lottery kiosk (of course the cheaper bottle wasn’t part of the offer).

Cue increasingly exasperated conversation with not one, not two but three of the checkout women who eventually managed to work out that I wanted to grab another beer for an extra £0.49 (an Everard’s Tiger at a nice price!) but that I wasn’t going to pass on the opportunity to try the Brewer’s Gold for less a fraction of the price of a half pint in the city centre.

So despite the kerfuffle it was worth popping my head in the beer aisle, 5.99 for 5 bottles in the end and some inspiration for catching up with some of the beers that got me blogging in the first place (but not until the bank balance looks a bit healthier!)

RULE #3: You must drink at least two servings of a beer before you pass judgment on it (Appellation Beer) - as such Ringwood's Old Thumper will be getting a second chance! Plus going to try Moonraker and refamiliarise with some of the London classics