It wasnt the start of craft beer in London or anything like that but the launch of Kernel’s first Black IPA(6.8%) at the Rake in Borough Market on Sunday 9th January 2011 was a landmark.
It was perhaps the first time some had ever tasted the style which was then controversial since clearly IPAs weren’t meant to be black
I was there with Megan Davies and I’ve been reminded by Hazel Potter (who was there with Ian Marriott and no doubt others) that on that day I was beardless. I had shaved my beard off the previous day for some socialist good cause or other.
Fortunately for all concerned,and a warning to archivists and historians, while news of my shave and a picture of it did appear in the press, the interweb record of it has been deleted. If I feel sufficiently energetic I may seek out the print copy in the British Library at some point (when it recovers from the hack).
In the meantime, what a beer it was..
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