https://barclayperkins.blogspot.com/2009/10/lets-brew-wednesday-1941-whitbread.html#google_vignette Here you go. This beer looks a little under attenuated for the style. If it finished as dry as other IPAs, the ABV would have been over 8% which I think qualifies it as a modern double IPA. Note that this was a test beer that Ron Pattenson found in a brewery log, so it wasn’t shipped to India. I remember reading one of Ron‘s post about a 19th century IPA that was similar in strength to this beer, but cannot find it now, I believe that beer did shipped to India.
LOL! There was no dipa style category when Bigfoot was first produced. I've always argued that if there was, SN very likely would have called it that rather than a BW.
There were some legal labeling restrictions on the term "barley wine/barleywine" in the US at the time, so the earliest Bigfoot labels called it simply a "Strong Ale".
Perhaps us beer geeks should give the label of "First DIPA" to Bigfoot? It's kind of like labeling certain musicians as pioneers of rock n' roll even though the term "rock n' roll" wasn't even around when they were making their music.
Proto IIPA? I was just reading how Hank Jr saying that his dad‘s “Move it on Over“ is the first rock song ever,
went to blind pig before it opened in temecula not far from the family winery. can attest to it being janky, really janky. plastic fermenters and i believe the mash tun was some sort of cow feeding trough that have been welded and had a spring loaded handle to dump. remember trying some beers any being blown away by how bitter they were, for then, and how many flaws were being masked by the hops. also remember really liking the beers anyway. aloha.
That's a great example of what I'm getting at. A song like "Move it on Over" probably has a decent argument as the first rock song ever, much like Bigfoot might have a decent argument as the first DIPA ever. It's fun to debate such things, as it forces you to operationalize terms (ie, what makes something a DIPA or what makes something rock n' roll).
