Why did I drink more during lockdown? To break up the monotony

I had an unpleasant encounter with the bathroom scales yesterday: my first weigh-in for months revealed four-and-a-half pounds that didn’t exist in March. Annoying, but not really a shock. My lockdown has been a story of more consumption and less exercise, and you don’t need to be a doctor to know where that leads.

Over the past few weeks, I’ve interviewed people in London’s beer world - two brewers, a pub owner, an importer & distributor, and a bottle-shop owner - about their experiences over the past three months. I wanted to end by interviewing a consumer, but the more I thought about it, the more it seemed cowardly not to write about what’s happened to me, however humdrum or monotone that might be. So here we are.

I’ve drunk more than normal since mid-March. Initially at least, Covid-19 was frightening; I was worried about my six-year-old son, who has quite severe asthma, and beer - with its trademark gentle anaesthetising buzz - provided a daily release. It wasn’t clear to me what Covid-19 meant for him then; it isn’t now, really, but the figures, such as they are, demonstrate that children are far less at risk than adults. (As it happens, his breathing has improved during lockdown due, I’m guessing, to the fact that there were many fewer cars on the road.)

I didn’t change my drinking pattern then, though. After fear came boredom. For the past two months, a few glasses in the evening has helped to break up an extremely monotonous routine.

By many people’s standards, my experience has been ludicrously straightforward: as a freelancer who’s worked from home for eight years, and who qualifies for the government’s self-employed income support scheme (which provides 80 percent of average monthly trading profits), not much has changed. I can’t go out to interview people, which is a bore; I can’t travel, which is even more tedious; and I’ve got less money, but also much less to spend it on. 

The main difference is that my wife and three children, who would normally be out of the house during the working day, are now at home. My wife has an important civil-service job - not as important as a freelance writer specialising in beer and travel, mind you, but quite important - and has been working from 6am to 2pm during lockdown. I’ve then worked from 2pm to 6.30pm, mopping up the bits of work I’ve picked up alongside various other projects, including this blog.

That means most of my time has been spent looking after three small children: feeding them breakfast, watching Bitesize on TV, building Lego, standing on Lego, losing my temper, ‘teaching’ them, feeding them lunch, pretending there’s something important I need to look at on my phone, playing cricket in the back garden, and so on.

All this activity has largely taken place at home. Getting out of the house with three children seemed a little foolish at first, with much of the British population in a state of government-induced nervous agitation, and only a little more appealing now, with all playgrounds still off-limits. Sorties on my own have been limited to running, between eight and 12 miles a week, but the lack of ordinary exercise - walking from here to there - has been a killer.

My routine, often enjoyable but increasingly monotonous, is my explanation/excuse for those extra pounds. Drink (and food, too) has been something to break up the tedium. For the first four or five weeks, I drank beer(s) every night. After a while, acknowledging the physical impact of this extra booze, I switched to gin and tonic, saving beer for the weekend. I’m not sure it helped much. 

What have I drunk? Lager. It might seem a long time ago now, but we enjoyed a golden spring that could have been designed for lager-drinking: I enjoyed Augustiner Helles, Lost & Grounded Keller Pils, and Partizan’s unfiltered Lager. I’ve drunk Five Points Best from a five-litre cask (verdict: v good), and cans of Gadds No 11, my favourite of the ultra-low alcohol options. There’s been some Thornbridge Jaipur, Pressure Drop Pale Fire, and Sierra Nevada Hazy Little Thing, too. (Plus, for purposes of complete disclosure, a fair bit of red wine, & gin, too.) 

I’m a beer fogey, and lockdown has accentuated this inclination. There’s nothing I’ve craved less in the last few months than an adjunct-laden stout, or a sweet and oddly oniony NEIPA. Martyn Railton noted, when I spoke to him three weeks ago, that for lots of punters lockdown has been about going back to the tried and trusted; that’s definitely been true for me. 

These beers have come from a variety of places: my local bottle shop, Salthouse Bottles, which has been delivering virtually throughout, direct from the breweries, and from supermarkets. I don’t think that’s an unusual blend; a few weeks ago, I asked on a well-known Facebook beer forum how the members liked to buy beer, and most said they mixed between direct from breweries and bottle shops. For the less beer-savvy, of course, supermarkets play a bigger role.

One interesting thing: I’ve been sent, unsolicited, more beer during lockdown than I’ve had in the past three years. I’ve had beer from local breweries like Brick, and from multinationals like Asahi. I’ve been sent mini-casks, and 24-bottle cases bottles. I’ve had new releases and old stand-bys. I’d like to think this is a reflection of breweries finally realising how important I am, but it’s probably got more to do with lots of excess stock threatening to go out of date.

A lot of this beer has been shared with my neighbours. Since May, I’ve been enjoying socially-distanced beers with a handful of friends on Sunday afternoons. It’s the next best thing, in terms of socialising, to pubs. I might pop into a pub next week, although I’m cautious: not because I think I’ll catch Covid-19 - although that’s possible, of course - but because they’re going to be in a straightjacket for the next six months or so, at least. So much of the joy of pubs is the spatial freedom they offer; you’re not tied to a table, as in a restaurant. Well, you are now. That will make a big difference.

And anyway, I’ve got a few pounds to lose. I’ve drunk nothing alcoholic since Sunday afternoon, and there’s another appointment with the scales coming up next week. First, though, some sit-ups.