Love in a Cold Climate by Nancy Mitford x Mothership, Brut Pale Ale
This baby got bumped forward for International Women’s Day, so please excuse a second post in a row featuring a fun girly book, but it’s my party and I’ll read novels if I want to.
#musttryhardertobemoreliterarilyimpressive #girlpowerthough
This book has a long, unfinished history on my bookshelf, having been rapturously recommended by a dear friend at the time I left London. He saw me off with the Mitford Omnibus as I moved to Paris (introduction by the equally excellent badass femme, India Knight), I packed that brick of a book up and took it with me, included in my only suitcase of belongings, and dipped frequently but never went deep. An omnibus you see is not a handbag book. Unless you’re like one of Mitfords heroines - a Polly or a Lisa or a Sadie - and lounge around at home all day reading and taking tea and waiting for the next meal, it’s quite impossible to finish.
This Christmas while browsing in my new favourite bookstore for gifts I came across this lovely old Penguin pocket edition and snapped it up immediately. Brian, my bookseller, carefully pasted it back together before selling it to me as it was falling apart from a little too much love in this particular cold climate, before packing me off with instructions not to open it for 4 hours at least.
Remarkably it took my mother in law less than those 4 hours to set fire to it with a Christmas candle, so now poor Nancy’s mug is a black splodge and when I do finally reach the end I’ll have to guess the central words in the top two lines of the last 6 pages.
No matter, because I’m in no rush, especially with this decadent and delicious Mothership Brut Pale Ale, brewed with champagne yeast to accompany my adventures through the debutante balls and manor house retreats of post war British society.
Sharp as Nancy’s wit and as deliciously chuggable as her writing is un-put-downable, this beer pairs so beautifully with this book on every level I’m sad I don’t have a fridge full of it.
Mothership is an incredibly new, all-female brewery making its own debut on the London scene right now. Run by the effervescent Jane le Blonde, the brewery and its beers are quite justifiably turning heads and attracting all sorts of attention, and not just because it’s a cute story.
Why this beer with this book?
Well first of all I was attracted to the champagne yeast fermentation, and implicit dryness of a brut which seemed so perfect for Nancy’s dry humour and the story’s bustling champagne society setting, but under the surface there’s so much more to recommend this pairing. Hopping here is all light and delicate and grapey and wine like - all my favourites are here; Hallertau Blanc, Huell Melon, Nelson Sauvin… fizzing on the tongue and building up through the glass from a subtle backdrop in a tale that I thought was going to be all about the yeast, to a vibrating clear fruitiness that is both mature and frisky at the same time. I feel I could make some delightfully bad decisions after a couple of these beers and giggle all the way to retribution.
A totally sessionable 4.5%, it’s easy to drink while reading without getting too tipsy and accidentally drifting off and nearly drowning yourself in your rapidly cooling bath water. Cold and straight from the fridge it’s a refreshing, light drop that is as bangable as one of Uncle Matthews hunting trips, as it warms in the glass you’ll find those lovely hop aromas and deliciously soft wheaty notes coming through and transforming this beer into something truly remarkable.
A perfect pairing of fun strong bright brilliant women, not afraid to be girly, and yet also a little geeky, blazing trails on their own terms in male dominated industries. Serious beer and serious literature to some, and jolly good fun to others, either way you look at it it’s an IWD beer and book pairing of dreams.
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