In a development that will soon make Chico State the premier institution for climate-change research, a Belgian brewery is now making less beer due to the effects of global warming. The Cantillon Brewery in Anderlecht, Belgium has cut the brewing season for its famous lambic beers by a month due to unseasonably warm temperatures. And since Cantillon is renowned for using traditional brewing methods (i.e. no mechanical refrigeration) this is a big problem.
As reported by The Weather Network:
“We are losing more than one month and if it continues we will lose maybe two months and that is certainly due to the global warming,” Cantillon brewer Jean Van Roy told The Associated Press…This year’s temperatures have reached 15 C (59 Fahrenheit) overnight for several days. Since Cantillon doesn’t want to use artificial refrigeration, they’ve stopped the brewing process altogether.
Granted, this development seems to only be affecting breweries with an Unfrozen Caveman Lawyer relationship to technology, and since the Cantillon brewery makes sour beer (more commonly known by non-aficionados as “there’s something wrong with this beer”) perhaps this isn’t such a great loss anyway. But the issue of climate change and beer can still lead to some fruitful discussion.
Because as divisive an issue as global warming is in our nation (and it is), there is one thing that politicians from both sides of the aisle can agree on: beer. Delicious, non-partisan, drunk-Aunt-dance-inspiring beer. So let’s hope our nation’s politicians will raise a glass of Cantillon lambic, put that glass down and exchange it for a beer that doesn’t taste like the urine of an angry cyborg, and then figure out a way to ensure a greener, healthier, and boozier future for our world.
