Aside from pilsener, there is probably no beer style that is more misunderstood or misinterpreted than India pale ale. This disconnect between what an IPA is believed to be versus what it really should be is especially strong in Canada, where the marketing might of Labatt has made millions of people believe that Keith’s IPA is the epitome of the style. In actual fact, Keith’s is nothing more than a mass produced golden ale that bears as much resemblance to a real IPA as Labatt Blue does to a real pilsener - that is to say, not much resemblance at all.

Of course, it doesn’t help matters any when we get beers at the LCBO from the UK - birthplace of the IPA style - that are labelled as being IPAs when they’re really not. One particularly egregious example of this is Well’s IPA, a beer from Bedfordshire, England that’s available to Ontario drinkers in 500 mL cans and 2 L plastic bottles (always a sign of quality, that). Despite the moniker, the brew is actually a fairly average bitter (a style that has it’s own set of classification problems, but let’s not get into that now). But at least it’s a bit closer to the real thing than the so-called Pride of Nova Scotia.

Now, before I get to the beers I actually intend to review this week, I should come clean and mention that it’s difficult for us to be completely sure today what the original IPAs tasted like when served in their intended form. The style was created in the early 1700s when British brewers realised that increasing the amount of hops and alcohol in their pale ales would allow them to survive the months-long journey in unrefrigerated ships from England to India. While the strong and assertively flavoured pre-shipped version became popular in England, and provides the template that most IPAs follow today, it is likely that the flavour of the version enjoyed in India was quite different due to the length of time between brewing and tapping, and the pitching and rolling that the casks went through during the journey by boat.

Still, it’s probably a safe bet that a beer like Deuchars IPA (LCBO 697649 - $2.60/500 mL can) from Edinburgh’s Caledonian Brewery doesn’t resemble what they were drinking in India 300 years ago, let alone what most craft brewed IPAs are like nowadays. Deuchars is a bright, light golden colour, with an aroma of flowery, heathery hops and a bit of honey sweetness. The flavour has some caramel and sweet fruity notes to start, with hints of peach and orange, and a finish of those flowery, heathery hops suggested in the nose. It’s not a bad beer, but it’s not really an IPA. As with the inferior Well’s IPA, I’m more inclined to consider it a bitter.

Also brewed in Scotland, and a bit closer to what I expect from an IPA, is Belhaven Twisted Thistle (LCBO 676957 - $3.50/500 mL bottle). This brew has a darker colour that the Deuchars - more of an orange-amber - and the hops are much more prominent in both the aroma and flavour. Belhaven uses Challenger and Cascade hop varieties for this beer, the former being an English variety with a pine-like character, and the latter a popular US variety that imparts strong citrus and pine notes, especially in the aroma. This makes Twisted Thistle similar to a lot of the IPAs being brewed on the west coast of North America, albeit more subdued in both alcohol and flavour than many of the New World examples.

Deuchars IPA and Twisted Thistle are both available now at selected LCBO outlets as part of the Autumn Ales promotion.