THE apocalyptic headline that appeared recently in British newspapers, “Beer runs dry at Wetherspoons” (Britain’s largest pub chain), must have evoked among beer drinkers the same fearful, gloom and desperation felt by the inhabitants of Todday, the fictional Outer Hebridean island in the 1949 film, Whisky Galore!

In their case, it was their precious whisky supply that had run dry. Nature came to the distraught islanders’ rescue in the form of a storm-tossed sea and a run-aground whisky-laden ship off their shore. But nature is not always so kind.