But perhaps I should begin at the beginning, in the pubs and, yes, the car parks of youth. My appreciation of hops, malts and ale began about twenty years ago, back in what I'm tempted to describe as the dark ages of beer. The brews we drank were often shit, to put it mildly. Dull, crappy lagers such as Carling were the norm. The beer equivalent of boy bands or the Liberal Democrats, they were piss weak and devoid of character. If you were lucky you might just have got a pint of John Smiths or flat, flowery real ale. For a while the latter filled the gap and we drained jars of this traditional tipple feeling like we were on to something. Not with little clipboards, because we were clever or anything, but often because it was cheap and actually tasted of something, other than chemicals and domestic violence.
As the years have poured by however, we now find ourselves in a golden age of beer. Something strange and exciting is happening. No longer is beer the preserve of balding, tattooed yobs or men with scruffy jumpers and CAMRA memberships. Beer is hip. Beer is booming. Craft breweries are everywhere and the results are scarily varied and high quality. It is no longer a thing of shame to describe yourself as a beer connoisseur. Grown men are permitted to not only taste and enjoy beers with a righteous verve, but even sniff them before taking a swig. Lord almighty, you even see little taste descriptors on beer labels, reassuring drinkers that the beverage contained won't bugger up the flavour of their pasta dish.
The IPA or India Pale Ale is at the forefront of this revolution in beer. What is IPA? We'll delve into its origins on another occasion, but in a nutshell these are strong, heavily-hopped beers. Quality IPAs are like beer with everything turned up to eleven: heady, complex, malty, sweet and bitter. Like spicy food, they can take a little getting used to. But once you get a taste for them they become habit forming, until nothing else quite hits the spot.
But I digress. Because this is taking ages and for those who haven't scarpered for the pub it is time to commit our first ever beer review to virtual ink. And we'll start as we mean to go on, because our IPA reviews begin with a slice of super-hopped, under-processed and under-marketed brew by the name of IPA Garage. Shouldn't that be Garage IPA, you ask? Probably, but the brewers are Spanish and might well have had a few.
The bottle itself is cool. This might seem like a vacuous comment, but I wanted to make the point early that this can sometimes be a trap, because like a good book cover, a funky label makes the drinker want to like the beer before he or she has tried a drop. Pop the top though and it smells like a winner: peachy and with that tropical sort of tang so many potent IPAs possess. In fact, you can often spot the IPA addict at the bar by looking out for the guy who jams his nose in the neck of the bottle.
As dense and cloudy as homebrew, the colour of this stuff fits the "garage" moniker. This is sweet, unpasteurized beer that has fermented in the bottle. If you don't dig sediment or little bits in your beer, this particular garage isn't one you'll want to drive into. Get a first taste though and it's a good hit with a few layers and subtleties. There's a big whack of mellow, hoppy sweetness. Lots of fruit flavour but quite rounded rather than sharp, with a taste not unlike melon at the back. There's no fizz whatsoever either, which lends it a not unpleasant heaviness on the tongue.
There's also a nice, mouthwatering middle to the beer, once the sweetness thins. It's thick and dark stuff, with good depth. Nor is the finish too predictable. It has that pokey IPA bitterness, but is not too dry and leaves the back of your tongue wet and wanting more, if only to try and fathom out exactly what it reminds you of. You wouldn't want to drink crates of the stuff, but a bloody nice drop to pop the top off this new blog.
RATING: 8/10
IPA MONSTER SUMMARY: Fragrant, flat as a pancake and peachy in more ways than one.
So, that just about wraps up the first blog entry. Do stay tuned for the second, on the way soon. You're welcome to agree, disagree or recommend any beers you like-just drop me a line. I'll be cracking open everything from supermarket IPAs to international craft beers in an attempt to find the monster of all ales. Hope you can join me.
