Beer Vendors in Bay Area

Link?

Not to imply in any way that I disbelieve you and more that I would love to read that.

 

Part of it was a link to this: http://zythophile.wordpress.com/2011/08/04/four-ipa-myths-that-need-to-be-stamped-out-for-ipaday/

 

Who cares. Drink your beer and shut up already. So it's a week old, go cry about it at home or just make your own. Geez.

I'm writing this sarcastically with a grin. So take it light heartedly and not personally.

 

I actually take issue with his method of debunking of one of those myths, the one which is probably the most popular here (myth #3), and replied accordingly.

 

Well, really there are two issues with the myth. One is that it's not literally true, from my understanding it's not actually clear that people increased alcohol/hopping in order to preserve the beer, vs creating it for home consumption and also shipping it and finding that it kept better.

The second thing is that it's a big, stupid non-sequitor. It's like elementary-school-level logic here. The fact that something was created to last months on a trip at sea* doesn't imply at all that that's the best way to consume it, or an acceptable way given modern advances in shipping/storage, even ignoring the fact that modern IPAs are a lot different than those ones.

*(I'm not saying it's true, I don't really know, I'm just granting the premise to show that, even if it is true, saying it in the context of these discussions is remarkably stupid.)

 

Due to the murky history of the first "india pale ales," i.e. pale ales with a larger hop bill which would end up being sent to India and elsewhere, it is impossible to say whether the first ones were brewed specifically to withstand the voyage or not. However, as the author of the blog post states, it did not take long for extra hopping to become standard (and deemed necessary) for beers which were sent around the world, and were produced, as his evidence seems to suggest, primarily, if not solely (at least for a significant period of time after their "invention"), for the overseas market.

I am personally not arguing anything about modern IPA consumption, purely its history. Ive got no dog in this second fight.