Do You Remember Your First IPA?

About 6 or 7 years ago someone in work gave me a Heady, I had never heard of it and always thought that IPA were bitter and I wouldn't drink them. My beer of choice was always a lager or pilsner. Oh boy how the worm has turned.

 

My guess is it was an IPA from either Troegs, Victory or Weyerbacher...too far back ro remember

 

That was my wife's attitude until a bartender gave her a Green Flash Double IPA that a customer ordered but declined. I laughed and told her I'd drink it after she tasted it and hated it. That was 10 years ago and she still prefers very hoppy beers.

 

Do you know if the first IPA was created just for shipment to India, or did it exist in Britain before that? If the first existence was shipped to India, did it also become a regular style in Britain at that time?

 

There is great discussion on the 'origins' of IPA in the Mitch Steel IPA book in Chapter 2.

George Hodgson brewed a Pale Ale that he exported to India.

A few snippets from that Chapter:

“Despite the evidence that George Hodgson did not “invent” IPA, it is indisputable that the Bow Brewery was the most renowned brewer of pale beer or pale ale for export to India in the late 1700s and early 1800s, and that it dominated the market.

And:

“There much evidence to substantiate the theory that Hodgson’s India beer was a standard Pale Ale.”

If you are interested in learning more about the IPA beer style I would highly recommend this book to you. Lots of great information in it and it is well written (a joy to read).

Cheers!

 

Boulevard Single Wide, circa 2011. Was instantly hooked on the bright bitterness. Haven't bought any since maybe 2014, but at the time it was a helluva gateway

 

Thanks, Jack. I have bookstore credits on Amazon to use, so I'll look it up.

 

One of my favorite anecdotes from the early days of craft beer and people discovering their preferences was on a business trip to San Francisco.

At a lunch break in the Bridgeport Brewing SF branch a co-worker ordered the IPA and proceeded to tell me how much she disliked "bitter beer." I laughed and explained that was probably the most bitter beer on the menu.

What she meant was that she didn't like the bitter roastiness you get in a Stout or Porter -- which makes sense, but it was just funny that she couldn't (or could) differentiate at that point.

 

Can't remember my first ever, but I do remember that 60 Minute is the one that turned me around into actually liking them. That was probably 15 years, and many many gallons of hop juice ago.

 

I doubt that it was a standard Pale Ale because it was normal practice to hop beers more heavily when destined for hot climates. And IPAs were weak beers by the standards of the time.

 

Yeah, I am gonna go with Mitch Steele's research here.

Happy New Year!

 

Victory Hop Devil from a 21st birthday mixed sixer in 2007. Followed by DFH 60 Minute and then a ton of the (much missed, hazy before it was cool, enamel-ripping) Hops^2 DIPA at Harvest Moon brewpub in New Brunswick, NJ.

 

Google Martyn Cornell and some of his articles on the history of IPA -- very well researched and informative.

 

The first one that didn't taste like bitter beer piss? Ballast Point's Habanero Sculpin. My bartender assured me I'd like it. I didn't drink IPAs at the time. I liked it and still do but haven't seen it in a few years. Still don't care for Grapefruit Sculpin. Then I got turned on to a 120 Minute IPA (that's 10 bucks man) and somehow I got over the IPA bitterness and began my IPA journey. Have not looked back. I used to be all messed up on stouts. Now I'm all messed up on IPAs. Juice bombs are, well the Bomb. And the (Prairie Artisan) Bomb has it's own story.

 

I got my wife liking the juice bombs but it's a rare occasion for her drink a whole one.

 

Harpoon IPA in ~1995 or so. It was all my Dad was drinking at the time and it started my IPA journey...east India style to west coast to NEIPAs. Love 'em all.

https://www.harpoonbrewery.com/beer/harpoon-ipa/

 

I think my first one was Boulevard Double-Wide in maybe 2010 or so. I remember the person recommending it to me, and I had no idea what "craft" beer was. I was just buying things I'd never had based almost entirely on label art. And Red Stripe. I really liked Red Stripe at the time.

Anyway, I don't remember what I thought about it, and I wasn't using untappd at the time, so I can't look back and see anything. I do remember drinking it straight from the can, which seems weird looking back on it, but I didn't know any better.

 

This WAS my first IPA and it ROCKED!

 

The first one that truly grabbed me was Sierra Nevada Celebration

 

I don't remember my last one.