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Climbing TWE

Montana rider

Turbo Monkey
Mar 14, 2005
1,769
2,231
Eh, if IPAs were good enough for the OG racist imperial colonizers...

#What Made Milwaukee (Sierra Nevada) Famous Made a Loser out of Me ;)

++++


It is against this backdrop that we are given the history of the IPA. Repeated credulously by family and multinational breweries, still recited today by contemporary craft beer businesses, the story goes that brewer George Hodgson, based in Bow, East London, made a new beer that could survive the long voyage to India, and called it an India Pale Ale. It was a turbocharged version of an English Pale Ale, brewed with greater quantities of hops (whose antimicrobial properties helped prevent spoilage), and a higher alcohol percentage to help it weather the time at sea. Today, that tale is so widely known that it has become a legend, the romantic origin story of craft’s favorite beer style.

Unfortunately, that cozy fairy tale glosses over most of the realities of the era.

It is true that the EIC was involved in the shipping of beers to India for soldiers and colonial administrators, but that’s where the IPA’s connection to Indian identity ends. The British viewed Indians as their inferiors, and IPAs were not drunk by most locals—in any case, they were barred from many establishments where white people would drink.

“Colonials living in these countries wanted a bit of the old home taste, whether it’s food or drink. Making beer [locally] would have been very difficult in terms of managing the process of the malting and the wort production,” says Sir Geoff Palmer, who was recently named one of the 100 Great Black Britons, and in April was made Chancellor of Scotland’s Heriot-Watt University. “Today, IPA is just a brand name which people use to sell them. It can’t be described as like those IPAs in terms of ingredients or raw material.”
 

Poops McDougal

moving to australia
May 30, 2007
1,179
1,241
Central California
Massive market saturation and overmarketing of mediocre IPAs were just what was sold to 25-45 year old white men before bitcoin and NFTs were there to snag their attention.

Fight me.
You're not wrong. As a bearded guy who liked IPA's back when they were bitter, I was suddenly just another guy indistinguishable from all the IPA-drinking, bearded douchebags when beards became popular and IPA's became fruity.

That said, I still like IPA's, and I still have a beard because my genetics gave me a shitty chin.
 

kidwoo

Artisanal Tweet Curator
all the IPA-drinking, bearded douchebags
Place is silly with'em!


I brewed beer pretty incessantly in my 20s. Partially due to the poverty/volume calculation but also due to the fact that sierra nevada was considered 'craft beer' back then.

It drives me fucking insane that every time I go to buy beer, it's like 80% shitty IPAs that rely on a cute graphic to sell. Damn invasive species.

It's literally worse than when the only thing to buy was miller, busch, and budweiser. Because honestly those taste better than a lot of the $15/6pack bullshit IPAs with a cute little hop flower with sunglasses on it lookin sassy.

I'm totally fine with good beer, including IPAs. But when a beer's only supposedly redeemable trait is that "it is an IPA", the world is again lost.
 

Poops McDougal

moving to australia
May 30, 2007
1,179
1,241
Central California
Place is silly with'em!


I brewed beer pretty incessantly in my 20s. Partially due to the poverty/volume calculation but also due to the fact that sierra nevada was considered 'craft beer' back then.

It drives me fucking insane that every time I go to buy beer, it's like 80% shitty IPAs that rely on a cute graphic to sell. Damn invasive species.

It's literally worse than when the only thing to buy was miller, busch, and budweiser. Because honestly those taste better than a lot of the $15/6pack bullshit IPAs with a cute little hop flower with sunglasses on it lookin sassy.

I'm totally fine with good beer, including IPAs. But when a beer's only supposedly redeemable trait is that "it is an IPA", the world is again lost.
Word. The usual place I go to when I want a good beer has a fucking wall of IPA's in cans from breweries I've never even heard of. I'm convinced that there's a windowless concrete tilt-up building somewhere, owned by InBev that's just cranking out IPA's under different labels. I love IPA's, but when I can't find a good (insert any other beer style here) becuase all the shelf real-estate is dominated by IPA's, shit's gone too far.
 

boostindoubles

Nacho Libre
Mar 16, 2004
7,922
6,226
Yakistan
The hop growers love IPA. Without brewers throwing 5x the necessary hops in the kettle, these hop growers wouldn't own nearly as many jet boats and vacation homes.
 

StiHacka

Compensating for something
Jan 4, 2013
21,560
12,506
In hell. Welcome!
Massive market saturation and overmarketing of mediocre IPAs were just what was sold to 25-45 year old white men before bitcoin and NFTs were there to snag their attention.

Fight me.
The real problem is, Americans will *NEVER* learn how to brew proper lagers.
 

StiHacka

Compensating for something
Jan 4, 2013
21,560
12,506
In hell. Welcome!
I don't know what 'proper' means but it's probably some stupid standard of austro-authenticity that involves leiderhosen

I do know I've had some damn good ones.
Fuck the german pale horse piss. Ever been to Prague?
#cantexplainwhatneedstobeexperiencedinperson
 

rideit

Bob the Builder
Aug 24, 2004
23,471
11,632
In the cleavage of the Tetons
Word. The usual place I go to when I want a good beer has a fucking wall of IPA's in cans from breweries I've never even heard of. I'm convinced that there's a windowless concrete tilt-up building somewhere, owned by InBev that's just cranking out IPA's under different labels. I love IPA's, but when I can't find a good (insert any other beer style here) becuase all the shelf real-estate is dominated by IPA's, shit's gone too far.
There was a great New Yorker cartoon a number of years ago. An entire block of midtown Manhattan had different Indian restaurant storefronts, but in the entire middle of the block, there was one big kitchen, making vats of Tikka Masala, Vindaloo, butter chicken, naan, etc.
I searched the entire New Yorker database, but couldn’t find it.

I too was a serious amateur brewer in the late 80’s early nineties, those were dark days. I used to roast my own malts, mash then in a lauter tun, etc, etc. At one point my roommate and I had 52 cases and two full size kegs brewing.
The only decent beers available in Syracuse were Guinness, Bass, Pilsner Urquel, Sierra Nevada, Sam Adams, Samuel Smith, Some Scottish Ales, and some random porters. Honestly, a lot of our beers weren’t much better, but we were proud to share them.
Zymurgy, bitches!
 
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Poops McDougal

moving to australia
May 30, 2007
1,179
1,241
Central California
Fuck the german pale horse piss. Ever been to Prague?
#cantexplainwhatneedstobeexperiencedinperson
There are some decent American lagers out there, but they’re not brewed by the big guys. However, I’m inclined to believe you.

My grandmother was Czech - does that get me into the good spots in Prague? :D
 

StiHacka

Compensating for something
Jan 4, 2013
21,560
12,506
In hell. Welcome!
My grandmother was Czech - does that get me into the good spots in Prague? :D
The Czechs consume the largest volume of beer per capita in the world so chances are, you can't miss the good spots over there. Heck, even McDonalds serves happy meal with decent beer there (and beer is (or was) cheaper than coke).
 

Westy

the teste
Nov 22, 2002
54,614
20,427
Sleazattle
Word. The usual place I go to when I want a good beer has a fucking wall of IPA's in cans from breweries I've never even heard of. I'm convinced that there's a windowless concrete tilt-up building somewhere, owned by InBev that's just cranking out IPA's under different labels. I love IPA's, but when I can't find a good (insert any other beer style here) becuase all the shelf real-estate is dominated by IPA's, shit's gone too far.

My old neighborhood has literally been taken over by breweries and have never found a single interesting beer in any of them. Just waves of IPA. They aren't bad, not hard to make a good one but they are all pretty much the same.

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Still better than than what I had to suffer through in Windsor Ontario. Just big brand Canadian piss. There was a brewery in town but they literally used the same mash for every beer and added artificial flavorings, the Kool Aide of beers.
 

buckoW

Turbo Monkey
Mar 1, 2007
3,792
4,754
Champery, Switzerland
The Czechs consume the largest volume of beer per capita in the world so chances are, you can't miss the good spots over there. Heck, even McDonalds serves happy meal with decent beer there (and beer is (or was) cheaper than coke).
They serve beer at the McDonalds here too. It makes those meals so much more tolerable.
Belgian, Czech or German lagers are all nice and don’t give me the bloated belly like American craft beers. Way better for sports.

Do you guys ever see Jupiler over there?
 

kidwoo

Artisanal Tweet Curator
My old neighborhood has literally been taken over by breweries and have never found a single interesting beer in any of them. Just waves of IPA. They aren't bad, not hard to make a good one but they are all pretty much the same.

View attachment 184622

Still better than than what I had to suffer through in Windsor Ontario. Just big brand Canadian piss. There was a brewery in town but they literally used the same mash for every beer and added artificial flavorings, the Kool Aide of beers.
I think you spelled 'urban renewal' wrong
 

chuffer

Turbo Monkey
Sep 2, 2004
1,582
920
McMinnville, OR
Do you guys ever see Jupiler over there?
It is sold as “boutique” when I see it over here. Drank a lot of it when I lived in Ghent. It was on tap at our local. Don’t think I’ve touched it since leaving…not that its not good, it’s just that there were better options in Germany and it’s not worth the price here in murika.
 

SkaredShtles

Michael Bolton
Sep 21, 2003
65,972
12,893
In a van.... down by the river
It is sold as “boutique” when I see it over here. Drank a lot of it when I lived in Ghent. It was on tap at our local. Don’t think I’ve touched it since leaving…not that its not good, it’s just that there were better options in Germany and it’s not worth the price here in murika.
When were you in Ghent? Wife and I visited for a bit back in '99 on our summer Euro holiday... nice town.
 

Jm_

sled dog's bollocks
Jan 14, 2002
19,091
9,747
AK
6ish hours to ride the loop...FKT "route" somehow doesn't ride back to the start point in town, but ends at the tunnel.


Not sure how the FKT segment is 5hr50, yet her time for the ride was 6hr40...


edit2: messed around for 40 minutes at the start before crossing the segment time and 10 minutes at the end, brings it down to 5hr50...
On a Mach 4 SL.

F-that.