NZ Herald reporter Belinda Feek and Kevin Holmes discuss the intricacies of everything beer during a tasting of IPAs. Photo / Mike Scott
NZ Herald reporter Belinda Feek and Kevin Holmes discuss the intricacies of everything beer during a tasting of IPAs. Photo / Mike Scott
Herald reporter and beer aficionado Belinda Feek is on a mission - to sample as many fine summer brews as possible and educate her sceptical mate Kevin along the way. Welcome to day four: IPA.
The IPA, the beer that cemented my love of craft brews.
What's not to loveabout that grassy, citrus bitterness?
As for how IPA-style beer came about, the story is British sailors, while sailing to India, loaded up barrels of beer with hops - hops are a preservative.
The hops were infused with the beer for so long that the beer turned bitter, losing its original fruity flavour.
Many years on and my Christmas Day beer basket is always brimming with IPAs and its cousin, Hazy.
My VB-drinking mate, Kevin Holmes, hadn't delved far into the craft beer scene prior to this mammoth tasting session. In fact, when I would go on about a good beer, he'd always pipe up and say, "ah that stuff's just overpriced homebrew", as he sipped on his VB or Waikato Draught.
But as this tasting session continues, it seems any arm can be twisted.
