Stephen Beaumont on IPAs

The February/March issue of City Bites recently hit the streets, and in his regular column Malt, Stephen Beaumont tackles the topic of India Pale Ales. He gives a quick history of the style, and explains why local examples like Granite Brewery IPA, Scotch Irish Sgt. Major’s, and (to a lesser extent) Sleeman IPA are keeping the spirit of real IPAs alive, while Keith’s is doing exactly the opposite. As he says in the closing paragraph:

A Labatt’s rep once said to me that Keith’s is representative of “a style of IPA,” which is a bit like saying that Velveeta is “a style” of brie. Both are cheese, just as both are beer, but that’s about where the similarities end.

City Bites is a free bi-monthly magazine focussing on Toronto’s food and drink scene. In addition to his Malt column, this issue also features a short article by Beaumont on good winter beer choices, a feature on artisan breads, installments in their regular columns on cheese, wine & spirits, and much more. Look for it at various locations around Toronto, or download a PDF file of the latest issue (and previous ones) from their website.