My daughter now lives near Kirkstall Abbey in Leeds, which is not far from where I grew up. Over Christmas the family met up at her house, and she suggested that we visit her local beer shop. I liked the idea; I sometimes yearn for the Yorkshire bitter that I used to drink as a young adult.
We got in the car, drove a couple of miles and stopped by corner shop in Bramley. The shop sold nothing but beer, most of it in cans, but some in bottles. I started to look round for a recognisable Yorkshire bitter.
There were several hundred beers on display, many of them craft beers from small scale local breweries. Most of them seemed to be made from fruit with no barley or hops. The cans were brightly coloured, and often featured cartoon pictures, as if targeted at children. Most of the beers were 6 or 7% proof. Many of them claimed to be “sour”.
I started to feel bewildered. I asked the man in the shop if he had anything like a traditional Yorkshire bitter. He directed me to a bottle called “Three Swords” from the nearby Kirkstall Brewery. “This one’s got hops in,” he said, “but the flavour is still citrus.”
My daughter had lots of suggestions, “Oh, you must try this one! Goose Willis sour beer made from gooseberries.” I was relieved to notice that the four pack was £3.70, but then she assured me that it was the price of a single can. The man in the shop explained to me that just as I can buy a bottle of wine for £5, but might sometimes choose to pay £20 for a special bottle, so paying £4 for a special can of beer was really a perfectly reasonable thing to do.
I left the shop feeling shell shocked, and carrying a bag of five different beers, which cost me £15. My daughter, and my son, left carrying bigger bags that they were very excited about. I could not believe how profoundly the culture of beer drinking has changed since my youth.
The Pope said, “We live not so much in an age of change, but in the change of an age.” But what is this new age towards which we are travelling? What will the beer be like? What do we hold onto when everything around us changes? I find myself making a renewed commitment to the Gospel and the life of love; living for the good of God and neighbour. Everything changes, but some things have eternal value.
With best wishes for 2020, Fr Patrick
Prayer from the hymn by Henry Francis Lyte 1793-1847
Abide with me; fast falls the eventide;
the darkness deepens; Lord, with me abide!
When other helpers fail, and comforts flee,
help of the helpless, O abide with me.
Swift to its close ebbs out life’s little day;
earth’s joys grow dim, its glories pass away;
change and decay in all around I see;
O thou who changest not, abide with me.