At four yesterday afternoon, the radio said there was a tornado in Tompkins County, NY, 20 miles west and headed my way. This is NY, not Kansas, but the sky had that boiling look and the rain and hail and wind started, and I battened down the hatches and unplugged everything. It was a whopper of a storm, but the tornado and damage did not amount to much at my house. I was hoping the neighbor's leaning tree would fall over into my yard and crush the old car, resulting in a large cash payment and a new car, but it didn't happen this time.

Despite that, it was still a perfect evening to try Keegan Ales's Hurricane Kitty. As my wife said later "It is the best beer to pack into the cooler and head for the safety of the basement." Calling itself a coppery IPA, it is certainly dark colored and pours with a huge foamy head and the scent of a million hops. This is one of the strongest IPAs I have tasted, thick bodied in feeling and taste, like sitting in a field eating fresh cut hay. I have often tried an otherwise good ale and asked why they couldn’t have thrown in a couple more hops, but in this case they threw in the whole bushel. Turns out they have opened a brewpub. I suggest that a field trip to this place would be in order for all readers of the beer blog. Pubcrawler tells us this is a good idea. "The perfect drink for a severe storm" says the wife, and indeed, maybe for other times too.