The IPA Debate

I've been thinking about Indian Pale Ales - so it's timely that the very nice people at Boundry Road Breweries are about to release an IPA and are asking for tasters. You can get in on this by answering a few simple IPA questions here.

But I digress...

IPA's were famously developed because regular ale wasn't lasting the long trip from Great Britain to India in the 1800's. Brewers made the brew stronger and added more hops to preserve the beer and hide any off flavours picked up in the long voyage fraught with poor cask storage conditions. When it arrived it was watered down for the enlisted men (though officers were still allowed the higher strength)... or so the story goes. Demand in the homeland grew shortly thereafter and the IPA legacy was born.

So if we take the style to be full strength, pale ale that's both bitter and aromatic with hops we come to Fullers IPA.

Definitely full and hoppy, this is my flagstone IPA. Lovely body, beautiful fruit aroma, bottle conditioned. The only thing that's missing is good head (pun only partway intended). This is fantastic drinking.

So what ISN'T and IPA? Well, Tui for one. Lacking any notable hops, sweet instead of bitter and brewed as a Lager, Tui has no place calling itself an IPA. Tui is in fact, a good example of a New Zealand Draught - and Draught is the topic of an future post (and thanks to Randolf von Stagg for the suggestion).

There are of course in this brave new world of craft breweries, many fine examples of great IPA's - both classic and modern. Dunedin crowd Emerson's 1812 is a good traditional IPA, Epic (who can do no wrong) make a pretty stunning Armageddon IPA. I've yet to taste the open source beer from Yeastie Boys - Digital IPA, but judging by the Hop's bill that's going to be a mighty, mighty interesting experience... if anyone knows a shop or pub in Auckland selling it I'd be one happy, hoppy beer drinker.