Then pour it down the sink and go buy yourself a Stone Ruination!
I think IPA's have a certain cachet about them so I 'spose people are just making stuff and calling it IPA.
I've often though about protected status for beer. There are organisations like the International Trappist Association, which specify exactly the criteria for a Trappist beer, but they have no legal clout. As far as I know the only beers with protected status in the UK are Rutland bitter and Kentish ale. I mean no offence to breweries that brew that, but its not a touch on the AOC designation that protects French cheeses, wines and more. Yanks aren't allowed to make any old fizzy grape drink and call it Champagne, but they've appropriated "IPA" and turned it into something that barely resembles the original. I love American IPA, and I'm not suggesting that we go full reinheitsgebot or start banning EKG if its grown in west Kent. However perhaps a little tighter regulation of trades description would help breweries call their beers by whats in the bottle, and not whatever the whim of their marketing department is? Lambic is Lambic. Gueuze is Gueuze. Berliner Weisse is Berliner Weisse. All are sour beers. If you want to make something similar but add a tonne of Yakima Valley hops, by all means call it a sour beer, but don't call it a Berliner Weisse. But... they do anyway. Breweries have failed at self-regulating. I can't help but think that AIPAs are so good that they would've prospered anyway without riding on the back of British IPAs, and that the we would be more in touch with brewing traditions if they had been enshrined in law. Perhaps if we took a little more care about our traditions CAMRA wouldn't have needed to 'save' British beer, and I wouldn't have to read threads telling me that Boddingtons, or Tetleys or whatever used to be good.
I think style names have lost all meaning now. If I make a beer with Marris otter and EKG, is it a SMaSH, a blonde ale, a bitter, a golden ale or a EPA (English Pale Ale), none of the above or all of the above?
I think style names have lost all meaning now. If I make a beer with Marris otter and EKG, is it a SMaSH, a blonde ale, a bitter, a golden ale or a EPA (English Pale Ale), none of the above or all of the above?
Enter your email address to join: