6th August is IPA day. Enjoy but keep in mind the imperial heritage
I tend to view it primarily as a commercially focused opportunity to promote IPA but I’ll be drinking a glass of St Austell, Proper Job, which was the Champion Bottled Beer of Britain 2025, a bottle conditioned IPA
The link with various aspects of far from always great British imperial history is difficult to avoid.
What did the ships that took IPA to India return to Britain laden with? As often the sadly late Martyn Cornell had an answer, in relation to a ship returning from Calcutta in 1838:
cargo including raw cotton, 83 elephants’ tusks, coffee, wool, pepper, ginger – and opium
http://zythophile.co.uk/2015/10/12/the-ipa-shipwreck-and-the-night-of-the-big-wind/
In other words profitable parts of British imperial rule that should have gone to those who laboured to produce them in India.
In short, enjoy the IPA but keep in mind its history and that Black Lives Matter
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