Lest you think I drink nothing but cocktails. . .
No, I don't. Sometimes I even drink water. Oh, wait, proving I'm not a constant imbiber wasn't going to be the point of this post--beer is. Or more exactly, beer, games, and summer. When the temp gets above 70 and any outdoor activity is involved, beer is best. Unless you're playing cricket--I'll get back to that.
What's watching a baseball game without the vendor yelling "Millah, Millah Lite, heah." Can you imagine sipping a Cosmo while eating a dog or munching peanuts? If you can, shame on you. Or how do you end a morning round of golf without a stop at the 19th hole for a tapper? A cocktail at noon after hours in the sun--or if you're me, in the shade because you shanked it into the woods...again--just doesn't sit right. I remember my Father playing horseshoes in the backyard with his buds--yes, we had a regulation horseshoe pit in our backyard along with the concrete half-court basketball court and the badminton net (how did I ever grow up to be such a couch potato?)--and while he might have enjoyed a Manhattan after work or an Ouzo with the neighbor lady (see earlier post), with horseshoes, it was always a cold beer.
I'm not as much of a beer snob as liquor snob, so I'm willing to drink the ballpark brew when that's all that's around. But I really prefer something with more "teeth" to it. Beer is, after all, practically food with all those malts and hops and carbs, so it should taste as good as something you eat. I hate that commercial for the 64 calorie beer. If you can't splurge on a few more calories to get some flavor, drink Diet Mountain Dew. And since I'm now a Wisconsin girl, I've become a fan of Wisconsin brews, especially Capitol Brewery's Blonde Doppelbock and Ale Asylum's Nut Brown Ale. (But try an August Schell Pilsner--despite its Minnesota heritage--very nice, more hoppy than a typical Pilsner.)
But on a really hot, really sticky late summer day, Mid-August, when even Wisconsin starts to feel like it's drifted south of the Mason-Dixon Line, I reach for the beer equivalent of Sun Drop Soda. Sun Drop is an outrageously sweet citrus soda that I learned the glories of when I lived in Tennessee. Anytime the temperature and humidity both climb above 90--which is about 5 months of the year in the South--Sun Drop is insanely refreshing, maybe even life sustaining. For me, the beer that matches that profile is Corona. So light you can read through the bottle, nothing challenging about it, no hoppiness, no bite. Just a cool, chuggable quaff that will lower your body temp by at least 10 degrees instantly, I guarantee. Yes, shove the lime wedge in the bottle neck. No, don't even think about substituting one of the big brand American variations that claim to be "lime-flavored." Might as well drink snot.
After that comment, let's get civilized again and back to cricket. I suppose you could drink beer while watching or playing cricket but blimey, man, then what would you drink after the game at the pub while you play darts and skittles. No, a game that lasts literally for days deserves a sipping drink, not a swilling one. Which, of course, means gin & tonic--at least when it isn't tea time. Remember, though, a British G & T is mostly gin with a splash of tonic. So I wouldn't use Tanqueray 10 with its 94 proof. Pick a nice British gin--either Plymouth or Bombay Dry. And take it slow. You don't want the 'sticky wicket' to be you.
