Battle of the IPA's

This is the story of two IPAs. The first of them is Palmers Traditional IPA. Although it is described on the label as a "full-drinking, well balanced beer with a delicious hop character" I found it to be rather more on the malty side. This could be because I have recently been drinking a number of golden ales which have been very hoppy, so this seemed malty by comparison. Palmers are loacted at The Old Brewery in Bridport, which has been in operation since 1794. This makes Palmers one of the few United Kingdom producers able to claim continuous production for over 200 years on the original site; indeed, part of the Brewery Building is still thatched. Founded by the Gundry family, local rope and net makers, the business was subsequently acquired in the late 19th Century by the Palmer brothers, John Cleeves and Robert Henry. Since then, it has been growing steadily whilst being handed down from generation to generation. Today, two more Palmer brothers are running the business. More details if you interested at www.palmersbrewery.com. No technical details available about the beer, other than it contains malted barley. ABV is 4.2%.

The second beer is Pride of Romsey IPA, which is made by the Hampshire Brewery. This has a powerful hop aroma, citrus and fragrant, through to the aftertaste, with distinctive bitterness complemented by good malt character - much more to my taste. It contains berlry malts and Challenger, Golding and Cascade hops. It is 5% ABV and bottle conditioned. I was very disappointed to discover that although this beer won a gold medal in the Brewing Industry International Awards in 2000, the brewery, which opened in 1992 and was located in Romsey, closed in 2008. I was unable to find out any more details but it is a great pity when they made beer as good as this!