Smoking Bishop isn't beer, but it sounds yummy.

Get your Smoking Bishop recipe right here. 

File under Quintessentially English: Spiced and warm alcoholic drinks known as "ecclesiastics."

However, lest we forget, the story of Port in this context isn't merely about finding other sources of wine to replace unavailable French Bordeaux.

It's what had to be done to stabilize the Portuguese wine. Distillate (aguardente) was added to wine to arrest fermentation, adding residual sweetness and potency, and creating a transportable alcoholic beverage with added shelf life -- and in certain instances, the ability to be aged.

This is a fine article nonetheless. Thanks to the missus for pitching it, and follow the link under the photo above for a recipe. It sounds perfect for a Feast of Fools libation.

Smoking Bishop: A Boozy Christmas Drink Brimming With English History, by Anne Bramley (NPR)

In Charles Dickens' famous tale A Christmas Carol, Ebenezer Scrooge's spectral-induced transformation leaves him with a longing for an old-fashioned Christmas drink.

"I'll raise your salary and endeavor to assist your struggling family," Scrooge promises his much-abused employee, Bob Cratchit, "and we will discuss your affairs this very afternoon, over a Christmas bowl of Smoking Bishop, Bob!"

But there's a whole lot more than just goodwill toward men brimming from a cup of this rich holiday quaff of orange- and clove-spiked mulled port. It's a drink chock-full of English history and what it meant to be a patriotic, Protestant Victorian of the merchant class.

"What's the matter, Lagerboy, afraid you might taste something?"

It's been a while since my subscription to CAMRA's newsletter expired, but I've tried to keep up with the "real ale" scene from afar. During our visit to Plymouth in 2009, I was gratified to find so many excellent Bitters from the new generation of small breweries described here, and to read that Milds and Porter may be making a comeback seals the deal.

Cheers! It's a real ale renaissance; Despite pub closures and a dwindling lager market, record number of microbreweries are opening, by Jon Henley (Guardian.CO.UK)

... Hunter's is part of a remarkable early 21st-century flowering of traditional British ale. Helped by an increasingly enthusiastic public and a handy excise duty relief that effectively halves your tax bill as long as you make no more than about 3,000 barrels a year (thank you, Gordon Brown), some 50 new small breweries are expected to open around the country this year.

There are now, in fact, more breweries in Britain than at any time since the end of the second world war: well over 800, against half that number, of all sizes, less than a decade ago, and a mere 140 in 1970. And we clearly like what they're brewing: sales of "live", cask-conditioned ales, which ferment a second time in the barrel, have surged by 25% over the past five years.

British "malt manifesto" in an American context?

There's plenty to think about in this piece. Not all of the points therein are applicable to America or to our craft beer culture, but some points are well taken, and when there is time, I hope to return to them.

I have a manifesto of my own in the works, although it remains sketchy.

The malt manifesto, by Tony Naylor (Guardian Word of Mouth blog)

Current efforts to portray traditional beers as modern unisex drinks seem to be missing the point. It's not bitter on Twitter or the 'ale' in 'female' that counts if you want to turn young, funky types on to cask ales