1) Back in the ancient history that was my uni days, the campus bar had a top shelf where they displayed a selection of what were then known as “boutique beers”. And that word didn’t make me cringe like it does now.

2) On that shelf were mainly international beers, which prompted me to devise a plan to go “around the world with beer”, where I would drink one of each beer and take the empty bottles home to display somewhere in my bedroom. Come on, I was an undergraduate – interior decorating in those days doesn’t go much beyond finding a traffic cone on your way home from the pub and thinking it’s a tops idea to put it in the lounge room.

3) Let’s see if I can remember what the beers were. There was Redback – when the label was painted on the glass and not stuck on with paper – San Miguel and Grolsch (which seemed supremely fancy with its ceramic swing-top lid. Corona was there too and I don’t think anyone drank it with lemon back then.

4) My favourite beer on that shelf was Moosehead lager (yeah, Redback was on the shelf and I chose Moosehead. Clearly I was a moron).Once I’d gone around the world, I went back and started drinking Moosehead pretty regularly. For a while it was also stocked at the Oxford Tavern, what passed as the only fancy bottle shop in town. And then it completely disappeared for nearly two decades. Until last week, when I walked into my local First Choice and there it was, right next to cans of Moosehead pale ale, a beer I didn’t know existed.

5) So of course I bought a bottle – not a six-pack as I guess I must have been doubtful that I’d still like it all those years later. Good call on my part for, while it was nice at the start, with a clean sweet malt character and some bitterness floating around at the back, I got tired of it by the time I’d made it halfway through the glass. So I poured it out and went looking for something more interesting.

Free or paid for?: Paid for. Saw it at First Choice and I had to buy it.