CulturAle Press

Far From India: India Pale Ales in the 21st Century. Dartmoor IPA, Dartmoor, UK

Date:  March 23, 2019

The Story—  We’ll have more to say about why so many “India Pale Ales” in England are low in alcohol and less abrasively hoppy than their American cousins.  The short story is that tax laws depressed alcohol levels in most British ales in the 20th century and only recently have new craft breweries pushed the traditional British beer drinkers into realizing that what they grew up with was not their great grandfather’s beer.

The Beer—  A long walk from India but a decent sweet UKIPA.  Some tobacco and brown sugar.  Floral and herbal hops do last.

Value — Good.  We paid three bucks of a third-pint pour at the Plymouth Beer Festival.

Values:  “fair” is a good beer at an above market price, “good” is worth the money, “very good” is a bargain, and “excellent” is a steal.

In mid-March we’re taking a look at the incredible variety of IPAs.   The style is by far the biggest seller among craft beers in the US and probably in Europe as well.   Even century-old breweries in Reinheitsgebot-narrowed Germany are brewing IPAs (if the brewer calls it “ale” it doesn’t have to conform to the strict purity law).   But you have to ask these days: What is an IPA”?  We’ll take a look at almost a dozen recognized and semi-recognized styles of IPAs in the next couple of weeks.

 We’re often asked to share our tasting notes on over 33,000 beers; this blog is in answer to those requests.   Not all our notes, though.  The great beer writer Michael Jackson admirably followed the Thumper Rule, and we’ll try to do the same.  (“If you can’t say something nice, don’t say nuthin’ at all.”)   All the beers we post are from the top half of our ratings and most are from the top quarter.   Of greater value, we think, are the stories behind the beers,   and we try to give you enough about the brewery, the style and the places to find great beer to help you on your own beer journeys.   At CulturAle Press we try to write books and publish posts that will help you “Drink Well and Travel Safely.”