IPA is the perfect beer is the perfect drink for Gloucester Tall Ships Festival because of its maritime history origins.
India Pale Ale, to give it its full name, is one of the most popular types of beer in the UK today but dates back to the 18th Century.
With Gloucester Tall Ships Festival taking place between Friday June 3rd and Sunday June 5th, here is a guide to all things IPA. Our venues have a great selection of the beers at Warehouse 4 taproom and Tank bar. You can also buy online shop while stocks last.
Our bars are open throughout the Tall Ships Festival. They are the best places at Gloucester Docks to view the vessels and take in the action with our stunning waterfront locations. We will have an outside bar and barbecue at Tank. Warehouse 4’s beer garden will be open and we will also have food trucks there on Friday and Saturday.
So, what is an IPA beer?
India Pale Ale was first created in the late 18th Century. It was produced to provide a long-lasting beer to take on ships to the Eastern countries of the British Empire. The beer was heavily-hopped to help preserve the ale on the long journeys.
Weaker, less hoppy English pale ales have been brewed for generations ever since then. But it wasn’t until American craft brewers began creating the hoppy IPAs in the 1970s that it really grew in popularity once more.
Jared said an IPA beer is a great drink to try during Gloucester Tall Ships Festival not just for its history but for its great taste.
“These days, you have the English style IPAs which tend to be classic bitter style beers and then you have the American-style and New England IPAs .These are super juicy, super hoppy and all about the tropical fruit character and the flavour of the hops,” he said.
“For us, IPAs have been a fast growing part of our business. Our traditional beers such as Gloucester Gold still take up a big proportion of our trade, but we’ve introduced a lot of IPAs, such as our Session IPA, to the market which have been very successful.
“Historically a beer needed to have an ABV of six per cent or above to be classed as an IPA. But the rules have relaxed a little. You also now have double IPAs and even triple IPAs with more hops and more alcohol.”
A selection of the IPA beers available at Gloucester Brewery
Here are some of the brewery’s IPA beer available at Tank and Warehouse 4 at Gloucester Docks:
- Session IPA – Award-winning IPA. A huge aroma of juicy tropical fruits burst out of this easy drinking and ultra pale, well rounded session IPA. (4.5%)
- NEIPA (New England IPA) – A very hopped beer boasting an unbelievable tropical fruit aroma and almost no bitterness. Showcasing the amazing flavours from Citra, Ekuanot, El Dorado and Mosaic hops (5.2%).
- American Pale Ale – National gold award winning pale ale with huge amounts of mango and grapefruit on the nose followed by loads of tropical fruit flavours throughout. (6.4%)
- Double IPA – The biggest juiciest IPA we have produced yet. Citra and Mosaic give a familiar base to our tropical hop bill. They are joined by Sabro cryo hops for a big fruity punch. (7.5%)
- Perfect 10 – Brewed for our 10th anniversary in 2021, this juicy IPA packed full of Australian hops including Galaxy and Nelson Sauvin (6%)
Tank also has a selection of some of the best IPA beer and others on a rolling guest beer menu.
You can also order our IPA beers and we also have IPA beer gifts available on our website to try at home. Just visit our online shop.