Greene King IPA English Bitter at 3.6% ABV ($4.00 at Dominion Stavanger, 500ml, best before 1-Jun-2015)
Pours clear pale amber with two fingers of off-white head diminishing quickly to a thick cap, minimal lacing. (3/5) Nose is bready malt, grassy weedy hops. (5/10) Taste is medium bitter, mild sweet. (5/10) Thin watery body, moderate to low carbonation, semi-dry finish. (3/5)
This makes me feel better about Canada. For the longest time, I’ve been deeply annoyed by the naming of Alexander Keith’s “IPA” – which is categorically not an IPA in any sense – and felt it to be our unique national shame. No more! No, if the ancestral home of IPA can call this malty mild bitter an IPA, then our guilt is expiated. Even allowing for the less aggressive, maltier characteristic of the traditional English IPA as compared to the A/IPA, this is pretty weak sauce. And if this really is the way IPA was traditionally brewed, I guess you have to count me among the rebellious colonials. “I’d rather laugh with the sinners than cry with the saints. Sinners are much more fun.” (10/20)
5/10 #ryansbooze ryansbooze.com
