30 Days of IPA: Time to Hop On

Fat Tug and a whole lot more …

I’m intrigued by the notion of the “public palate”—the way in which ‘normal’ people grow into and adopt new ideas and tastes, as opposed to the geekery into which most of us food and wine types fall—because we’re immersed in it every day.

A story that’s not going away any time soon is the boom in craft breweries. It’s one that appeals to me on several levels, from artisans, to sustainability (local is good; growlers are great!) and history, if you will. It shows there’s been a definite maturing of the public palate.

Fire up your time machine to flash back 20 years or so and you’ll find that Canada’s major brewers, smugly content in their stranglehold on a market dominated by bland homogeneity, paid little heed to the handful of smaller competitors starting up.

They were convinced that the Canadian drinker had little appetite for such things as hops and malt, or serious flavour. Let alone adopt the notion that maybe drinking less and drinking better was also an option. They apparently also underestimated the significant impact of folks like CAMRA.

Happily, times change.

2nd. Annual 30 Days of IPA looks set for a good run

There’s no better measure of that than than this cool celebration upcoming in August—where a major Vancouver pub group is offering its patrons the chance to taste a different, freshly tapped IPA every day.

30 Days of IPA is the brainchild of Trevor Kallies, Beverage Director at Donnelly Group, which will tap a new keg every day throughout August, at one of its ten draught locations.

Donnelly’s Trevor Kallies pulls a pint… Oh, wait! Could that be Fat Tug? (supplied)

Of note is the fact they’ve chosen to go with IPA—an assertive, usually quite hoppy style that’s gained tremendous popularity in the last few years. (Full disclosure: the Hired Belly has contributed more than a few pints to that market share.)

Kallies says it was the success of events such Vancouver Craft Beer Week that last year convinced him to get on the phone with producers and see what he could find; and organize the first festival.

The result is a wide array of IPAs, from here and abroad (Portland, for example) poured at pretty appealing prices. There’s plenty here (from Gigantic Double to Deschutes, Bomber, Begbie, R&B and more) that should appeal to even the most demanding IPA aficionado. Plans are also being finalised for an ‘IPA Finale’, Aug 31st.

Here are the kegs by location and date: 30 days.

More info here