Putting the P into Pilsner …
If all goes to plan I shall be in Brussels when this is posted, in the country of moules, frites and bière – especially bière.
It may be sacrilege to admit it, but personally, I’m not overly fond of many of the Belgian beers. I do like some, but the naturally-fermented lambics and most of the beers brewed by Trappist monks are imho either distasteful or overly strong or both.
So, in general, I find it wise to avoid the beers that have pictures of monks or monasteries on their labels. And I’m always careful if asking for a large bière blanche; in some bars it is very large indeed and arrives in what is, effectively, a glass bucket!
It’s possibly the after effects of drinking such a bucketful that inspired the creation of the Manneken Pis, the famous Brussels statue of a small boy peeing eternally – it’s not (but it should be) and that is the thought that inspired this week’s limerick …
It’s a question that’s hard to dismiss
But the answer is quite simply this:
‘It’s palpably clear
That an excess of beer
Is what makes the Manneken Pis!’
