Happy International Beer Day! 🍺 Today is a day of global celebration of beer (website). The first Friday in August has been International Beer Day since 2013, before that it was August the 5th, confused?!? Anyway, now just remember it's the first Friday in August! A celebratory day created by Jesse Avshalomov at his local bar in Santa Cruz in California in 2007, you have to love those Americans for suggesting I celebrate beer regularly, cheers!
The purpose of the day is to gather with others and enjoy a few beers, indeed, to celebrate the variety of beers, and to celebrate those who brew, manage, and serve beer to us, not to forget the wonderful pubs and bars where we drink. As Simon Difford suggests, let's raise a glass "to Beer, a drink that brings the world together." (diffordsguide) 🍻
And yesterday was IPA Day 2024 (daysoftheyear), apologies I forgot to say before, a day to celebrate India Pale Ales, and how they've been heavily influenced in recent times by craft brewers and hops from the USA. IPAs were originally brewed in England in the 18th century to be transported by boat to India, hence the name and, consequently, they had plenty of strength and were heavily hopped as a preservative, so that the beer could survive the long journey. The origin of IPA Day was 13 years ago in 2011, and the brain child of the American beer enthusiast and author Ashley Routson, who has written an excellent beer guide* and to whom I have to thank for making me also take advantage of the day over here in Britain, cheers m'dear!
To celebrate I drank a couple of pints of Hopback Summer Lightning (5.0% - website) This always excellent pale (originally a summer ale, but now brewed all year round) is brewed using East Kent Golding aroma hops (hopslist). I have used this ale to tempt lager drinkers into drinking cask conditioned ales over the years (plus Thornbridge Jaipur works very well too 😉). Light, dry, and refreshing with a bitter finish, it still hits the spot, cheers! 🍺
* Ashley Routson, The Beer Wench's Guide to Beer: An Unpretentious Guide to Craft Beer (2015), Voyager Press, Quarto Publishing Group. My Review.
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