Classic Old School IPAs in London?

Hi. I will be visiting London from the US in about a week and want to add a little history lesson to my trip. I am a big fan of IPAs brewed with American hops, but on this trip I am hoping to find some IPAs that are closer to the style of the ales that actually sailed to India in the Nineteenth Century.

Does such a brew still exist? I posed this question on TripAdvisor, and many of the suggestions I got were either modern craft beers or else beers that seemed to bear no resemblance to an IPA. The ones that sounded most promising to me were Worthington White Shield (sad about its ownership), Meantime London IPA and St Peters IPA.

Are these good examples, and are there others? Also, what are good places to find the first two? My flat will be about a block from the Jerusalem, so I have the last one sorted, but I have little idea how to find the White Shield, and it would be great if I could find the Meantime London IPA without traveling all the way to the Greenwich Union. They don’t seem to answer inquiries, just invite them.

Advice, please.

They sell bottles of white shield at the national brewery museum in burton on trent. Unfortunately they dont have it on cask at the moment due to closure of the brewery for health and safety reasons according to the local newspaper in the area.

Originally posted by whovous
Hi. I will be visiting London from the US in about a week and want to add a little history lesson to my trip. I am a big fan of IPAs brewed with American hops, but on this trip I am hoping to find some IPAs that are closer to the style of the ales that actually sailed to India in the Nineteenth Century.

Does such a brew still exist? I posed this question on TripAdvisor, and many of the suggestions I got were either modern craft beers or else beers that seemed to bear no resemblance to an IPA. The ones that sounded most promising to me were Worthington White Shield (sad about its ownership), Meantime London IPA and St Peters IPA.

Are these good examples, and are there others? Also, what are good places to find the first two? My flat will be about a block from the Jerusalem, so I have the last one sorted, but I have little idea how to find the White Shield, and it would be great if I could find the Meantime London IPA without traveling all the way to the Greenwich Union. They don’t seem to answer inquiries, just invite them.

Advice, please.

You can get the White Shield at Waitrose as well...and then when you are finished jerking around spend some time drinking the amazing beers that London is brewing in the NOW!

Closed for health and safety? That is reassuring, but I guess you only live once. Any other old school IPA suggestions, or perhaps pubs that serve these? Or has it simply gone completely out of fashion.

And fear not, thepeter. I have no intention of neglecting the London craft beer scene. I chose my flat in part for its proximity to CraftBeerCo Clerkenwell, and I may just trying walking the Bermondsey Beer Mile blindfolded this time.

Brewdog does an ’Old World IPA’, but it’s not that regular. You might be able to pick it up at Bottledog.

Originally posted by whovous
Any other old school IPA suggestions, or perhaps pubs that serve these? Or has it simply gone completely out of fashion.

I think it was more of a building and workplace safety issue for the staff than a problem with the brews. Coors have probably decided it is not financially viable to sort out the repairs. I occasionally pop in for a drink after work and see many disappointed visitor from UK or abroad who cant get any white shield or any of therir other brews on cask and end up drinking a pint of cask they could get anywhere else in the UK.

Trumans have a beer around at the moment based on an 1883 recipe
http://www.ratebeer.com/beer/trumans-ben-truman-pale-ale/293268/
They describe it as an "Export Pale Ale" but it’s probably fairly close to an historic IPA. Your best chance of finding it is probably at Truman’s brewery tap, the Cygnet

There’s Sam Smith’s India ale, maybe some of the fullers past masters knocking about to educate you in other historic styles. Marstons old empire may be about somewhere. Most traditional ipa s are probably no longer called that and will be masquerading as premium bitter. There are very few around now that don’t use at least some US hops

My trip starts in a week, and you guys have almost convinced me to abandon this quest out of boredom. Were the export ales really that uniformly dull?

I have another question. The IPA legend has it that ordinary ales went bad after months spent rocking in the holds of sailing ships, but that IPAs, distinguished mostly by their extra dose of hops, actually improved on the voyage. Is there any truth to this rumor, or any point to putting aside a few of, say, the Meantime bottles?

Modern IPAs make an obsession of freshness. Stone even makes an "Enjoy By" series intended to be consumed no more than two months after manufacture. Did classic IPAs really improve with time, or was there something of a talking horse effect at play, i.e., it was not that they improved, but simple amazement that they were still drinkable at all?

The Jerusalem Tavern will be less than a two minute stroll from my door, so I guess I have to try at least one of the old school style.