Empire State of Mind: Launch event at Villages Taproom, London
Sometimes it feels like everything that can be said about beer has been said. But then something comes along that fundamentally changes the way we think about a style, or our culture. For me, that recently took place with David Jesudason\u2019s GBH story, Empire State of Mind \u2013 Interrogating IPA\u2019s Colonial Identity.\xa0
Today\u2019s hop-forward beers are so divorced from the original 18th century IPA that it\u2019s rare to even hear the acronym spelled out \u2013 India Pale Ale. And until now, I\u2019d never given much thought to how the marketing of IPA could reflect our modern understanding of empire \u2013 or lack thereof.\xa0
Empire State of Mind combines personal storytelling with historical reporting, and in the space of a few thousand words, IPA goes from a symbol of craft beer\u2019s revolution to one of colonialist invasion, exploitation and erasure. The article was mostly born out of David\u2019s frustrations at having to educate himself about this important and dark part of British history.