So hot...
It's hot in the UK right now. Not hot on the global scale but certainly hot for a relatively northern island used to a temperate climate with an old, old infrastructure that isn't set up with AC in houses etc. I'm sticky and a little grouchy but I've not blogged in awhile so this will help lift my mood a little!
The weather should break later this week, hanging around long enough to make everyone unhappy but not so long that we shift our behaviour patterns or infrastructure. The same could be said for our winters, where the UK shuts down at a level of snow The Canadian would find baffling if not for our limited snowplough capacity, rock-salt stores and lack of winter tyres. I wonder when/if the predicted intensification of the hydrological cycle from anthropogenic climate change will alter our preparedness to relative extremes, be they heat, drought, flooding or cold snaps?
I miss the pool we had in our Californian apartment complex right now and the cold six-packs of craft beer in the fridge that were part of that life. My favourites when it got hot were:
- Deschutes Chainbreaker IPA, a now discontinued “White IPA”, one of the few I've tasted to successfully blend the wheat beer and IPA styles, perfect for BBQs
- Trumer Pils and Firestone Walker (the Pivo Pilsner or the 805 Blonde Ale?) for clean but tasty and refreshing lagers
- One of the variations of a cold Stone IPA or Lagunitas IPA.
- Occasionally a Widmer Hefe – the brewpub Jupiter in Berkeley also brew a nice one.
We lived in Walnut Creek, a lovely town the other side of the hills behind Berkeley, which could be somewhere between 30oC and 40oC while San Francisco was covered in fog in the lower 20s. It was a dry heat though, not like this muggy stuff we're having in the here and now! When the walk back from the BART station was just too hot, I used to dive into Øl, a fantastic love-poem to beer, where I'd sit at the bar in the cool and order a Berliner Weiss, the tartness a perfect relief to the heat.
Right, to the fridge it is then. I might not have a six-pack of Chainbreaker or Pils but I do have a nice cold 0.5% Big Drop beer that'll hit the spot and still leave me able to take the late night/early morning shift with my six week old daughter!
Quick update from the fridge! – Since I mentioned Firestone Walker, I found a can of their collaboration with British craft brewer Thornbridge in the fridge. It's a 6.7% West Coast IPA called Pondera and too good to resist after the Big Drop! Had to take a break from finishing off this blog to cook dinner, watch the Umbrella Academy and look after daughter, fitting the beer into the breaks. The sun has gone down now and it's time to publish the blog. Hope to be back again soon...
Entry 23 of my participation in the “100 Days to Offload” challenge – find out more and join in!
2020-08-11 #100DaysToOffload #BayArea #beer #weather #climate