“Brewed in collab” with Connor Deuchars, head brewer at Black Lab Brewing in Toronto, this nerd project is an attempt to recreate the first Pale Ales shipped to India. Quotation marks because I just came up with the idea and Connor adjusted recipe, sourced ingredients and watched over barrels for 12+ months ☺️

For our beer we took Bass’ “Continental” recipe as described in IPA: A Legend In Our Time by Roger Protz, adjusted it to Black Labs’ system and included a few pointers from Travis Rupp and Butcher’s Tears Brewery.

Our grain bill consisted of mainly Marris Otter with some 2row and dextrose. Yes we Burton-ized. We did a decoction mash, boiled for 90 minutes and added EKG for bittering.

3 weeks later the beer was done it’s initial fermentation and transferred into oak barrels. The latter were painstakingly stuffed by hand with 10kg(!!) of whole cone sasquatch hops. Sasquatch as the was the only whole cone available that somewhat resembles a traditional European variety.

During it’s long “voyage” in barrel the ale yeast and Brettanomyces chewed away at all the complex sugars, resulting in a slow but continued fermentation.

Fast forward to today and after a bit over a year in barrel it’s ready for your enjoyment! I haven’t been able to taste the finished beer myself but Connor says it’s big on stone fruit and funk.

It’s on tap now at both Black Lab Brewery and Bang Sue Bar. If you decide you’d like to find out why the Brits in India couldn’t get enough of this stuff and try a pint, please let me know what you think of it!!