Budweiser's American Ale

American beer has a somewhat undeserved reputation.

Sure, there's the homogenized, branded crap like Budweiser, Coors, Miller and Schlitz.

But there are also some fantastic beers - Samuel Adams Boston Lager, Brooklyn Lager, Sierra Nevada Pale Ale or Blue Point from Long Island.

In fact, American brewing has had a resurgence in recent years as consumers demanded a more sophisticated beverage - leading the pale-and-fizzy crowd to start branching out.

American Ale is Budweiser's response to popularity of artisan brewing. A dark, amber lager with an all-American label, it retails for about the same price as a six-pack of Sam Adams.

But is it any good?

The answer is a resounding NO.

Pop open a bottle of American Ale and pour it into a glass: You'll see the foamy head evaporate in seconds. Artisan ales keep that head for several minutes, if not longer.

While the color is a delicious amber, matching that of Boston Lager, the beer itself is rather tasteless, aggressively fizzy and has the sensation of being watered down. The only upshot is a very sharp malty bite after each mouthful - but that only lasts a second.

America Ale tastes like brown Budweiser lager, if we're being honest. If you like your beer fizzy and easy to drink, you'll be satisfied with this. If you're looking for something slightly more sophisticated, like Sam Adams, you'll be sorely disappointed. Even more so when you see that the price of American Ale is pretty much the same as a six-pack of Sam.

Budweiser American Ale is typical of the big-brand breweries. They'd rather spend marketing money peddling the same old crap than invest the time and effort into producing something special.

Budweiser American Ale? Avoid.

Insert Random Aliteration Featuring the word 'Bootleg' Here

To mark the finish of the epic Bootleg Boys (the writing of it was epic - the book's not) I have decided to produce a brief Frequently Asked Questions fact sheet.

What exactly is the Bootleg Boys?

It's an adventure story! Or crime/adventure. Or something like that.

What's it all about, Alfie?

Did you know 250 lorries and vans cross the English channel every single day STUFFED with bootlegged beer, wine, spirits and cigarettes?

With taxes on beer, for example, being just one SEVENTH in France of what they are in England, there's a lot of money to be made smuggling it - and a lot of unscrupulous types trying to make a profit!

So that's the setting. Big lorries. Bootleg Beer and some unscrupulous types. But unlike previous stories, it's not Eddy who gets on the wrong side of one of these unscrupulous types this time around. They get on the wrong side of Eddy.

What follows is something VERY ROUGHLY like The Italian Job, except with beer instead of gold bricks.

Okay, okay. Adventure Eddy's been to Paris, New York, Germany and Cornwall. Where exactly does THIS story fit in with whatever 'Eddy' continuity there is?

Nice and simply. It's set straight after the last book, Adventure Eddy.

If you're into comic books, you'll have heard of the term 'reboot.' It's a bit like what EON films did in that last Bond movie, Casino Royale. You 're imagine' the origins of favourite characters.

That's what I did with Adventure Eddy - going right back to square one and explaining who Eddy was and how he earned the title Adventure Eddy. Bootleg Boys follows straight on from that - although it's a stand alone book and you don't need to have read 'Adventure Eddy' to understand it.

Wait a second! I thought Eddy lived in Oxford, not Winchester!

Eddy's been adventuring for almost fifteen years now! He's 'lived' in London, Plymouth, Tavistock AND Oxford. But in the reboot, he's moved to Winchester.

And who's Pranay Raj? Whatever happened to Angus Connelly?

Angus was Eddy's oldest and most loyal friend. He was also the dullest, dreariest character in the series. Eddy needs somebody to bounce ideas off, but who said that person can't have his own personality too? Streetwise, unscrupulous Pranay walked right onto the page, fully formed, and quickly booted Angus out of the picture. It's a bit like how Mary Jane Watson pushed Gwen Stacy CLEAN out of the picture in the old Spiderman comic books (no surprise, really. Mary Jane was a ginger and they always come out on top.)

Woah, woah, woah! In Adventure Eddy, his stonking great Firebird is clearly described as having 'pop up headlights' and a five litre engine. Now, suddenly, it's got a 6.6 litre and a four in the floor. How do you explain that?

Ian Fleming used to do it all the time. James Bond's beautiful Bentley would be one car in one book and morph mysteriously into another in the second.

It's a bit like how Felix Leiter, who had his arm and leg chewed off by a shark in Live and Let Die, magically regrew one limb per book and by the time The Man With The Golden Gun wheeled around, his only handicap was a hook for a hand.

It's called creative expression or something. 'Ret-conning,' as the comic masters have titled the phenomenon.

But yes, well spotted. Eddy's Firebird magically and mysteriously changes from a 'Knight Rider' style third-generation Pontiac Firebird into a 'Smokey and the Bandit' style second-generation Firebird during the gap between Adventure Eddy and Bootleg Boys.

But hang on! It still has a 'perspex book lid' and Pranay still refers to it as 'Knight Rider.' What gives?

Well, I know the car has morphed. You know the car has morphed. But nobody told the car.

So are you advocating skirting Britain's tough Customs and Excise regulations via Eddy's activities in Bootleg Boys?

No! not at all! In fact, read the book and you might just see it all as a twisted morality tale in which everybody gets their just deserts.

Will there be sex and violence?

Not really. My parents read might read it! But there's plenty of romance, a bloodthirsty quest for vengeance and enough perilous situations for even Eddy to get nervous.

And where can I read it?

Publication date is set for November 1st! Barring, of course, sudden and horrific realisation that it's crap. I'll even post a link when the time comes!