What were YOU doing on the hottest day EVER (EVER)

I’m curating this blog using photos taken the best part of three (3) months ago, and wondering what on earth to tell you.

But as it’s a diary, you ought to know that on the hottest day in UK history I was in a pub.

Not by choice, oh no. Look at this message exchange which I have anonymised;

There’d be some predictions the temperature in Sheffield would top 40 degrees, but 35.7 was enough (20 is plenty, as they say). I was in Cambridge when it recorded the UK’s previous highest score (100 in US money), and that was tough.

It doesn’t pay to neglect the Sheffield classics, particularly when they open up especially.

What a pub the Blake Hotel is, a great place to drink beer and talk stuff. It seemed appropriate to have been here on Christmas Day AND the hottest day, almost symmetrical.

“Do you have any low alcohol beer ?” I asked, hoping he’d say no.

“No…“

Oh well, the Damarri is only 4.7%, practically a Table beer in this weather.

What can I tell you ? You will struggle to fall below NBSS 3.5 in Sheffield’s GBG pubs, and this was a 4/4.5.

Just look at it.

I know I got there on the dot of 3. I know from that clock above I was still there at 4:28. And I know from the photo below that I was tipping the keg beer into the cask pint glass to enhance it.

And I know my anonymous drinking companion refused to join everyone else outside in the sun.

He/she is very sensible.

Unknown's avatar

Published by retiredmartin

Retired NHS, doing long walks around UK and the world to record the great bits. Focused on Good Beer Guide pubs and live music.

12 thoughts on “What were YOU doing on the hottest day EVER (EVER)”

  2. I know what I did, ticking six pubs on the way. I did a Thames pubcrawl from Wapping to Tower Bridge. I’m usually not a lager man, but the lager never tasted so good neither before or after.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

  5. Once the temperature dropped a bit I took the most shaded route down to Tyne Bar with the dog, where we flaked out in the shade under the bridge drinking well cooled key Two By Two House Pale. I don’t remember murk tasting quite so good for some time.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

  6. We sat under a canopy at purportedly Marston’s Best For Drinks pub 2022. I had Brains Bitter and it was perfectly cellared.

    A builder from Darwen turned up on his push bike at the end of his day, dressed in black, and sat there in the full sun.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

  7. The Blake Hotel was almost certainly the coolest place in Sheffield at 15:03 on 18th July when I turned up. (I know because I tried to get into my fridge-freezer but there was no room.) No way was I going to sit outside in that heat!

    Anonymous? Even if you hadn’t used my given name in the above exchange of text messages, I think my pedantry regarding the comma would have been a give-away for anyone who knows me.

    Like

    Reply

Leave a comment