A Big Reason To Fear Climate Change

The evidence is incontrovertible that Mother Earth is slowly warming and the consequences will be catastrophic, but now there is even more disturbing news: Climate change is bad for beer.

Case in point is the Saaz hops used to make pilsner lager beers. A Czech research team has found that increased air temperature is to blame for the declining quality of those delicate hops, which go into great pilsners such as Urquell, which has a strong floral hops aroma that unfortunately is pretty much dissipated in bottled U.S. imports because of lengthy travel and storage periods.

Sigh.

Photograph by Aaron Lynett/National Post