Musings on craft ales and other summer preoccupations

Since it's definitely summer now, high temps, high humidity and thunderstorms, I have switched to pale ale.

Wine works better for me with hot food.

And I've made a a couple of happy discoveries. One is that a glass of ale goes down very friendly, with no agonizing rolling about an hour later, which is why I abandoned my nice glass of red each evening some time ago.

The other is that craft drinks come with their own literature. Get this:

People seriously write this. I thought it was only wine that inspired these purple passages, but it turns out ale does too. Strikes me as a bit beyond the pale..malty undertones shaking hands with the hop character. All sounds a bit Bertie Wooster to me.

Perfect timing since I'm rereading for the nth time Less Than Angels, my favorite of all Pyms, where collecting wine booklets becomes a bond between Catherine Oliphant and an unlikely suitor. I definitely see her point.

My summer entertainment is all set. I wish now I'd noted the similar flowery prose on the craft ale Handsome Son and I had to celebrate his late father's birthday. I could have started my own collection.

I'm easily amused!