Hoppy IPA Day

I honestly do not know who declared that today is National IPA Day. I could probably look around the interwebs for a bit and find out if this is government-recognized national holiday or just something a bunch of beer geeks dreamt up in their mom’s basement. It really does not matter though… I am celebrating and I don’t care why.

When it comes to beer I want India Pale Ale, the hoppier the better. Pale ales, stouts, and porters are all delicious and have their own special places in my diet but ultimately I want hops, hops, and more hops. So if somebody has declared today as the day to recognize my favorite style of beer then I am all in. I am typing this at 10 AM… Is it too early to get this party started?

First a bit of history… The IPA is a great example of the old proverb about necessity being the mother of invention.  In the 1700’s British beer drinkers were wetting their whistles to their standard ales. Since England was a world power and had men all over the world, really important supplies like beer had to be shipped to whatever new land thirsty Brits were claiming as their own. 

India posed a problem though: It was too far away for the beer to travel without spoiling. Since it is a scientific fact that it is impossible to take over faraway nations without a good beer in hand this was a major dilemma. Science came to the rescue, though and it was soon discovered that hops had a preservative effect on the beers England was shipping to its men in India. More hops were added to the brew and it traveled safely to India without spoiling. 

The imperialists were free to conquer India with a good buzz and all was right in the world once more. That is, unless you were a native of India, but I suppose that is another matter altogether. The point is that eventually beer drinkers in England took notice and decided that even though they did not give a flip about preservative effects, the hopped up beer tasted delicious. The IPA became a hit and (thankfully) became a fixture in the beer world for centuries to come. 

Does anyone else want to drink a good IPA and conquer something right now, or is it just me?

Anyway, our actual IPA Day celebration kicks off at The Community Tap for their IPA Day tasting. I have no idea what those guys will have featured for this celebration but I know I am excited about it. It starts at 5:00 which means we will be there around 4:45ish because you just cannot be too early for a tasting at TCT. 

From there we head over to Quest Brewing Company for their new Thursday night concert series. Quest’s Ellida IPA is a great beer and I would be satisfied just having that as my celebratory beverage on this great day. However, there is a limited supply of Ellida that was aged in a freshly dumped Buffalo Trace Bourbon barrel and I am pretty sure that this will have the majority of my attention as long as it lasts.

Quest will also feature local guitar prodigy Marcus King making Quest’s third attempt to stage a performance outdoors without getting rained out. Performances were moved indoors due to showers on the grand opening and Darby Wilcox lasted all of two and a half songs last Thursday before a monsoon nearly swept her away. We worked pretty damn hard building that stage in time for the grand opening and it would be really nice to see someone actually perform on it... here’s hoping tonight is the night.

Also, Neue Southern Food Truck will be in the parking lot slinging their delicious fare. I am still dreaming about their BLT that I devoured on Sunday and cannot wait to see what they are serving up for dinner tonight. 

A tasting, a brewery, a concert and great food… yeah, I would say we have a good day ahead of us. This is going to be fun. Happy IPA Day, folks!