Friday, June 20, 2008

Refuge From The Heat

The heat today during the daytime was incapacitating. The digital thermometer inside my car clocked in at 113' F (45' C)! As I'm writing this (11pm), the weather.com has my area at 91'F (33' C). Too much of a good thing.... And there is going to be more of it since today is the first official day of summer season for Southern California.

There was no mood whatsoever for any tea or red wine (I ran out of white wine at home...need to replenish the wine fridge). So I took refuge from the heat by staying mostly at home and with some beers.

One of my all-around favorites is the Sierra Nevada Pale Ale. It’s nicely malty, hoppy, with a full body taste. Pretty excellent.

Grolsch is an occasional favorite of mine. It’s a rather light lager from Holland. It's got a good toastiness to it and also a bit of hoppy-ness that's refreshing. Good for a hot sizzling day such as today. It's not as good as Pilsner-Urquell, another favorite, but certainly better than most mass-produced domestic beers.

6 comments:

Wes Crosswhite said...

SNPA is great stuff.

~ Phyll said...

Indeed!

Proinsias said...

I picked up some of the SNPA a few days ago at the supermarket along with a few other random bottles.

On the few occasions I've had it I've found it rather pleasant.

Two of the other random bottles I picked up at the time really overshadowed the SNPA. They were both from an up and coming Scottish company named Brewdog. I read of them a while ago saying local bars wouldn't even accept free samples from them so they sent out the samples marked for the local area to beer bloggers. The orders came flooding in from around the world and then eventually, pretty much lastly, from the bars in the local area.

My favourite was the Punk IPA and I forget the name of other which was also top notch stuff. If you get the chance I heartily recommend trying out something with the name BrewDog printed on the Bottle.

The labels are a little unconventional for this genre but it seems they are dedicated to disassociating themselves from much of the stuff usually tied to ale drinking around these parts - knights, monks, old guys with beards and obscure references to legends. Or so I read in the newspaper a few weeks ago.

I'm enjoying reading about Phyll's adventures in more than just tea and wine.

Proinsias said...

Oh, I just found out they have a website:

http://www.brewdog.com

~ Phyll said...

Hi Proinsias,

Thanks for the recommendation. England is certainly a land where many great beers come from. My source of better beers is usually the Whole Foods Market around the corner of my home or BEVMO...they do carry some nice ones from around the world and local microbreweries, too.

I don't think I have seen Brewdog's label before, but I'll be sure to grab some if I see it.

Also, I've heard that bars and pubs in England serve beers at room temperature (warm and sans any fizz, the way beer is supposed to be drunk, they say). Do you happen to know what kind(s) of beer is served warm / room temp over there?

Thanks for the kind words.

Martin Hill said...

Grolsch is definitely nice, but Pilsner-Urquell has its own charm. It has a good refreshing taste and much better mouth-feel than others. You can also buy cigars and try it along with that. It would definitely feel nice.