For IPA Day 2015, celebrate with a pint of Barclay Perkins

Thursday, Aug. 6, is IPA Day, and you can celebrate this year with a unique pint from MacLeod’s Ale Company that draws attention to the often misunderstood history of the India Pale Ale.

IPA — the favorite style of the American craft brewing industry — has a long history that’s considerably more complex than the romantic story about a beer made to survive the long ocean journey from London to India.

Beer historians Ron Pattinson and Martyn Cornell have dedicated considerable effort to researching the history of brewing in the U.K., and the latter author has a lengthy and well-sourced investigation into IPA’s foggy past that debunks every facet of the IPA’s mythology, from the supposition that Hodgson Brewery invented the style to the chestnut that a shipwreck off the coast of Scotland led to the export brew’s popularity in Britain.

The short version is that hoppy and pale ales were being brewed and enjoyed in England long before the supposed 19th century birth of the India Pale Ale, and IPA wasn’t even the most popular style of British beer exported to the Indian colonies. The workmen’s favorite ale — porter — holds that distinction.

Regardless of the history and the myth, modern IPAs are strong and flavorful with an intense bitterness that’s only matched by the intensity of the hop aroma that is both beguiling and polarizing.

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Some locally-brewed standouts of these west coast IPAs are El Segundo Brewing Co’s Mayberry, Beachwood Brewing’s Thrillseeker, Three Weaver Brewing’s Expatriate, and Hello L.A. from Highland Park Brewery.

One local IPA that breaks the West Coast mold is the Barclay Perkins 1939 IPA from MacLeod’s Ale Co. in Van Nuys. This brew is a taste of the past that underscores just how murky the history of brewing can get.

MacLeod’s is known for making traditional English beer styles and serving them in the traditional fashion of hand-pumped casks, but this new (old) beer takes tradition to the next level. The IPA was based on a historical recipe unearthed and published by Ron Pattinson, and it’s wholly unlike modern takes on the India Pale Ale.

The beer is a pale gold and has a sweet, graham-cracker aroma with background of herbal hops. It’s brewed with some interesting ingredients, like a dark brown sugar syrup more common in Belgian brews than English, and the result is complex and delightful. The ale is just 4.5% alcohol, putting it closer in strength to today’s session IPAs, and it showcases the definitive qualities of English hop varieties.

Barclay Perkins 1939 IPA is available for a limited time at the MacLeod’s tasting room in Van Nuys, and while you’re in for a pint and a growler fill, be sure to taste the other historical brews on offer.