Indian Pal Ale

Bottling my 'authentic' IPA gave me the chance to try out another idea I'd had.

Thanks to the combination of a misunderstanding and a typo we were once sent a pump clip design for an 'Indian Pal Ale'. This got me thinking. If India Pale Ales were exported from Britain to India, what might an Indian pal send back? And so a plan came together...

I made a concentrated extract of curry spices in vodka and dosed some of the IPA with 0.5, 1 and 1.5 ml of the extract on bottling.

The result was not quite what I'd expected. At the lowest dose you can't really taste the curry, but the bitterness is greatly diminished and there's a slight curry burn on swallowing. With increased doses the curry taste becomes more apparent and there's more heat when you swallow.

I'm not sure why curry spices in beer reduce the bitterness. Maybe your tongue gets overloaded. I know alcohol is meant to be good if your curry is too hot but I didn't know curry was a cure for over hopped beers.

The Indian Pal Ale is certainly different but I have to say a prefer the uncurried original.