Thetownend.com

What a thicky i am at times...in my early years i drank lots of IPA.....had a nice bottle of Staffs IPA earlier,very nice then realised after all these years IPA stands for Indian Pale Ale :-[ :-[

Because it took so long to go off it was sent to India for the British soldiers to drink,just thought you should know peeps..so it goes on my list of Leefers thick moments,it is starting to get very long :D

We'll both be thick together then, I didn't know that.

Also, Brain's SA, is that simply Strong Ale (the Taffs call it Skull Attack).

I knew about the 'Indian' and 'Ale' part but for some reason I'd always assumed the 'P' stood for Premium.
I stand corrected.

Where I live there used to be a Greene King brewery in town. There now stands an Asda in its stead.
For shame.

I knew what it stands for. What do I win?

A bottle of F.Y. ;D

Always thought it stood for Isopropanol Alcohol

[pedant] India, it's India [/pedant]

Everyday is a schoolday

I knew that, but I'm just sad.

I've really got in to IPAs a lot in the last few years.  A few years back I used to favour more malty beers like Young's Winter Warmer, especially in winter.  But now I seem to prefer the hoppier taste of lighter beers such as IPAs.  In fact, I think I'm going to have one now.

Summer Lightening (Hop Back Brewery) and Hopping Hare (Badger) are both well worth a try.

The Yanks seem to be knocking out some decent IPAs at the moment. This one's available in that Wood St off licence and is well worth a go:

[url width=120 height=428]http://www.ratebeer.com/beerimages/86882.jpg[/url]

Off the top of my head (I will check it out later):

IPA's were originally really strong - the alcohol content was in part the reason for them lasting the voyage to India. Some breweries have started making stronger ones again - between 7% and 9%.

When IPA was developed it caused a lot of fuss in the brewing world. Up until then all beer had been made by the Burton Union method, and the existing breweries lobbied Parliament to have the newly devised method outlawed. Now nearly all beer is made by the method the original IPA's used. IPA was developed as a result of a competition funded by the government/army to devise a way of making a beer that could be exported to the army in India.

Turns out I am largely talking bollocks:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/India_Pale_Ale

Had Hopping Hare...very nice indeed.......just a quick question though.....why Staffs IPA if brewed by Marstons in Burton?......just copying an old beer?

True to the '...80% bollocks' strapline.  Well done, Sir.

It's all about the dark stuff...winter is good for dark beer.

Had a cracker last night, Thriller in Vanilla, and the vanilla really worked.

I'm not a fan of American IPA's in general. Many of them seem to be locked into an arms race of seeing how much late-hopped brutality they can get into some 10%er. They cauterise the taste-buds rather than exhibite genuine skill and inegunity of the brewer.

Not all of them, some are very nice.

Despite saying that IPA is an American style IPa and it is lovely. Much better than Brewdog's version.