Beer of the Week

All Day IPA – Founders, US (4.7%, £2.25)

QUITE often when I’m in the mood for a hoppy beer, it can be tough to find to get the fix I’m after without accidentally drinking a beer in the 7 per cent plus bracket.

It’s tough, I know, but Founders brewery of Grand Rapids, Michigan, appear to have come up with the solution.

The concept behind this beer is to give the intensely aromatic, refreshing hoppiness of an American style India Pale Ale without necessarily clubbing the drinker, or their tastebuds, senseless.

In other words, it’s an American pale ale, but All Day IPA at a much more sessionable strength than most, making it ideal now that Spring has apparently sprung.

Pouring a brilliant copper, a tight white head unfolds with a delightful, heady aroma of passion fruit, lychee, and tangerine peel. Light bodied, crisp and clean, the malt only comes through as a touch of initial sweetness, and a brief flash of burnt toffee before fading beneath a blanket of juicy late-hopping.

A gentle peppery bitterness lays the groundwork for subtle spice and pine to play across, a sappy sharpness cuts through, and a little mango rounds out the finish. A crisp and moreish American pale ale, perfect for those long days in the sun we probably won’t get for another few months.


We’ve stocked up on cans and bottles though, just in case, and if you make the pilgrimage we’ve got a few kegs too so you can enjoy this classic pale ale on draught too.

Recommended by Michael Bates, Trembling Madness, 48 Stonegate, York, YO1 

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