USA Folks - Happy Repeal Day!

Yes, today, for our friends over the other side of the Atlantic, in the USA, it is the anniversary of the end to 13 years of alcohol prohibition in 1933, so Happy Repeal Day! (drink holidays) 🍻

If only they'd have been serving this (website) in my local today... 😉

International Beer Day Today & IPA Day Yesterday!

Kent Prohibition

Yesterday was IPA Day 2023 (daysoftheyear), as I suggested in my blog, and 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 12 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 didn't drink what I thought I would, as mentioned in my blog, as the Citra ran out the night before! Instead I had the even more impressive ale pictured above, from the same brewery (Kent), but their stronger Prohibition (4.8%). This excellent pale ale has a big fruity aroma and taste, tropical as well as the citrus/grapefruit flavours expected (although I still haven't been able to discover what hops are used), refreshing, and a great dry bitter finish. This encapsulates how IPAs have been influenced by brewers and hop growers working over the other side of the Atlantic, and creating what are often called American Pale Ales over here.👍

Random Archive Image😉

And today, as the first Friday in August, it's International Beer Day (website), and has been the first Friday in August since 2013, although from 2007-12 it had been on August the 5th, confused?!? Now, just remember the first Friday in August! Another celebratory day created by another American, 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) 🍻

* Ashley Routson, The Beer Wench's Guide to Beer: An Unpretentious Guide to Craft Beer (2015), Voyager Press, Quarto Publishing Group. My Review.

What can I say? Prohibition, cheers!

So, back drinking a quality real ale at a pub (blog), and gorgeous too, despite the snow yesterday, 😉 which didn't stop the Dolphin Inn in Hastings nearly selling the whole firkin of one of my favourite ales on the first day of reopening, and I returned today too...

And yes, it was the award winning Kent Brewery Prohibiton (website), 4.8% of 'American Pale Ale' style pale dry hoppy bitter that I imbibed, quality! With a variety of hops from the USA, and plenty of them used too, this is, as I've said before, really pale, with a big citrus fruity aroma, grapefruit flavour and dry and bitter finish, refreshing and so easy to drink, quality! 

And the view from my seat on the balcony, the Stacey Marie (facebook page) in the heart of Hastings historic fishing quarter. Oh yes, there were 3 cask-conditioned ales on offer, reduced from the 'usual' 6 due to understandable circumstances these days, including Prohibition, the ubiquitous Harvey's Sussex Best (4.0% - website), and Dark Star Hophead (3.8% - website), 2 from East Sussex and my favourite from Kent, all very local indeed, cheers!