Global #IPAday. That's what it needs to be called. I don't like the implications of international #IPAday. It leaves out the stateless and those on ships at sea beyond territorial waters. And, really, isn't that what #IPAday is all about? Inclusion? Or is it exclusion? Who knows. Here are some #IPAday facts:
→ I was an abused IPA youth having grown up in Nova Scotia and having 1980s Keith's IPA foisted upon me, by then well on its way to the macro lager gak it is today and not at all a shadow of the ales that would have been enjoyed by those in one of the few seats of the Court of Vice-Admiralty of the British Empire.
→ Pete says "What actually happens? That's up to you." Sounds a lot like summer-time Festivus with beer. Pete also confirms an important fact - there is IPA and there is American IPA. And what is wrong with that?
→ Martyn tells us there are myths out there, loose rocks on the mountain's face, sharps toothed fish in the river. These, however, relate to it's Indian-ness or rather it's imperial military despot construct within India a couple hundred years or so ago. Do we really care? I mean, it is good that others care but should I? What is wrong if I don't other than to be happy that Martyn cares and better educated because he cares? Not much. Not much at all.
→ The Scoopster, perhaps, has the clearest view of what it means of all of us.
But what does that all really mean? If I was lied to as a youth by IPA, if Pete points out there are parallel tracks of IPA and if Martyn tells us what is and what never should be for IPA... what the hell is it all about?
For me, it is the continuum and branches of the pales ales. IPA is meaningless without low strength pale ales and even now golden ales below it in England. It is equally meaningless without double and even triple IPAs in the US. There is not "that's it" with IPAs. There are just them, they, those - all those. And they come from a long way down to far too far up. Sharing moment: I need no longer have another DIIPA that tastes light a direct spray of furniture polish into the back of my mouth. Yet I crave ESBs, those pale ales smack dab in the continuum with neither "pale" or "ale" in the name.
Me? I started my #IPAday with a Sunburst Golden Ale by Dark Star, one of my government store's nods to the old country. Grapefruit hops with nutty toffee malt. I will work my way up the ladder through the day but that is a great start.
Comments
Alan - August 4, 2011 3:47 PM
St. Peter's English Ale, relabeled Organic for the Canadian market: bread crustiness, marmalade and a lot of black tea tannins. It's like breakfast all jumbled up.
Craig - August 4, 2011 3:49 PM
What the hell is IPA all about? That questions seems vaguely familiar...
http://drinkdrank1.blogspot.com/2011/07/that-certain-something.html
Nobody answered me, so let me know what you find out.
Alan - August 4, 2011 3:58 PM
I am 1/3 of the way into a two week holiday so I am making some careful enquiries into the topic.
BTW, have you have Six Points beer? It showed up in Watertown and I am loving it. Bengali Tiger is on deck after a Victory HopDevil... warning - bright packaging under that link.
Craig - August 4, 2011 4:07 PM
I just wrote a Sixpoint vs. Brooklyn post a week or two ago. We've just started getting it up here. It's good stuff. I have not had the Bengali Tiger, but I've heard it's pretty tasty. Sweet Action was great—a bit of a APA meets a Saison, in my opinion—amazing aroma.
The Lionheart has HopDevil on tap, so that'll probably be my first #IPADay IPA of the day—Then maybe a Long Trail, if I have any left at home!
Alan - August 4, 2011 9:58 PM
A second Scoopstriffic post in one day. My gentle English session ales have given way to 9-10% beers also labeled IPA. I need a rest. And I'd be better off with an Aunt Hilda.
Gary Gillman - August 5, 2011 11:46 AM
Alan, the point about context is a good one - IPA would mean nothing but for the fact of there being sweeter, lighter, darker beers, some stronger, some weaker, some fermented differently.
Perhaps the "typical" IPA (even though there isn't one) hits the sweet spot for a lot of beer fans and gets all the love.
I do feel too though that the romance of the style, i.e., the fact of having been brewed to be sent overseas to a very different place, those pictures of a rocking sailing ship on labels of 1980's Ballantine IPA, the way Michael Jackson wrote about it in his literary, evocative way, and the way finally the current generation of beer historians has explicated it (often with fascinating historical details and period illustrations), is the other part of the story. No other beer style has such a rich history or exotic origins. True, perhaps the average imbiber doesn't know most of this history. But most know I think that IPA is special amongst beer styles, and may be able to recount a detail or two (hopefully accurate!) about its history.
I had an IPA yesterday and it was a real winner: St-Ambroise IPA, at beer bistro in Toronto. A stylish English-type IPA it was, one of the best I've ever had anywhere, and a welcome English-style addition to the pale ale/IPA range which tends towards an American interpretation of the style.
Cheers and have a nice weekend in these hot summer days.
Gary
dansmallbeer - August 5, 2011 4:25 PM
Thing about #IPADay is that it's International Beer Day today and everyone is too bored, tired and hungover to get excited about it.