No, we haven’t changed BoB to a blog about baths, this is in fact my friend and extremely fine author Jeff VanderMeer soaking in beer suds rather than drinking them.

On a book trip to the Czech Republic Jeff and wife Ann (literary editor at Weird Tales) were using the trip to take in some of the excptionally good Czech beers. And although here at BoB we are decidedly more biased to real ales than lagers and pilsners but we’ve got no problem with the Czech beers because, lets be honest, they are bloody good and the brewers there take the same pride in them as our beloved real ale brewers do and that and the taste and quality seperate them from the mass market carbonated weewee that many lagers seem to consist of.

So Jeff has posted on his blog Ecstatic Days about the trip and the fine beers and food and since Jeff not only loves his beers but has actually had his own produced – ‘Ambergris Ale’ to go along with his last novel Shriek – I thought we’d give it a mention because fellow beer fiends will enjoy it. And returning to the beer bath its part of the Chodovar Breweries and no, it isn’t a joke, they are, apparently, very good for one’s health.

Check Jeff’s blog for more and his Flickr for more pics, including the disturbing image of Glaswegian author Hal Duncan in a towelling toga about to submerge himself in Czech beer. Yes, that was a new one to us too.