. Favourite Beer of the Week
Pliny the Elder was a Roman who wrote a great big book of Natural History, invented the word “hops,” and died while watching Mount Vesuvius erupt in AD 79. At least, that’s what Pliny the Younger said. Whether or not you trust his version of events is entirely up to you.
Pliny the Elder (the beer) was brought to our attention by Erik Marr, master brewer and expert Tater-Mater pie maker, who lives in Texas where Pliny the Elder (the beer) is unavailable, and who requested that we bring some into the state with us, despite it being highly illegal to bring your friends beer in Texas. As the holder of a Green Card I have no legal rights whatsoever, so my plan if caught was to shoot myself in the foot (unlike beer, guns are actively encouraged in Texas) and then sneak over the border to Mexico where I would live out the rest of my years undetected amidst all the other pale-skinned ginger-haired types. Fortunately, our packing skills were way too smart for Walker and his Texas Rangers who never once thought to stop us and search between my underpants for hidden beers, and so Pliny and I made it to Erik’s house completely undisturbed. I do not know if Erik liked the beer. He never said. But then I never told him that it had been packed in underpants.
Anyway, this was all back in September, and my own bottle of Pliny has been sitting in the fridge since then, and on its label I just noticed the phrases “Do not save for a rainy day.” “Age your cheese, not your Pliny.” And “Consume Pliny fresh or not at all!”
Now, you know I’m not going to throw out a bottle of beer just because it tells me to, so I drank it. And I liked it a lot.
Pliny is an IPA, which stands for India Pale Ale, which stands for the beer the English shipped to India so they’d have something nice to drink while they abused the entire subcontinent for a couple of centuries. IPAs were made high in hops and alcohol so that they could survive the long sea journey from England to India. At least that’s what Erik Marr said. Whether or not you trust his version of events is entirely up to you. My own research has proven that beers of all kinds made it to India just fine, and were enjoyed by the English in equal measure as they merrily rode around on elephants while ten million Indians starved to death. God save the Queen.
As a fascinating side-note - the world’s first IPA was brewed by the Hodgson brewery, although customers were eventually alienated by Hodgson’s dodgy business practices, and also by his pale skin and ginger hair.
Labels: beer
posted by anthony at
10:09 AM
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