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Hops and Glory: One man's search for the beer that built the British Empire
India Pale Ale is pure gold in a glass: a semi-mythical beer that was specially invented, in the 18th century, to travel half way around the world, and arrive in perfect condition for a long, cold drink on an Indian verandah. For the men and women of the British Raj, sick of warm madeira wine and the questionable local drinking water, IPA was a safe, clean drink - and a morale-boosting taste of home. For the first time in 140 years, a keg of unfermented Burton IPA has been taken to India by canal and tall ship, around the Cape of Good Hope; and the man carrying Britain's best beer is Pete Brown, Britain's best beer writer. Weaving first-class travel writing with assured comedy, a raucous history of the hard-partying Raj and a fantastic sense of adventure, 'Hops and Glory' is, quite simply, one man's quest for the beer that built the British Empire.
480 pages, Kindle Edition
First published June 5, 2009
23 people are currently reading
384 people want to read
About the author
Pete Brown
18 books62 followersThere is more than one author with this name
Pete Brown is an English writer who has written extensively on the subject of beer and drinking cultures around the world. He has written three books; Man Walks Into a Pub, Three Sheets to the Wind, and Hops and Glory. Brown was born in Barnsley, South Yorkshire and now lives in London.
Above bio is from Wikipedia. Photo is from Flickr user epicbeer.
Pete Brown is an English writer who has written extensively on the subject of beer and drinking cultures around the world. He has written three books; Man Walks Into a Pub, Three Sheets to the Wind, and Hops and Glory. Brown was born in Barnsley, South Yorkshire and now lives in London.
Above bio is from Wikipedia. Photo is from Flickr user epicbeer.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 59 reviews
January 8, 2013
I should start by letting you know that I am a complete beer nerd. I’m a biochemistry professor and part of a brewing science program at our university and have been an avid homebrewer for over twenty years. I love craft beer and even more I love learning about the history of beer. Thinking about my brewing forefathers stirs up deep, profound feelings of brotherhood whenever I brew up a 5 gallon batch. So, “Hops and Glory” by Pete Brown is definitely my kind of reading.
The story details Brown’s adventures as he attempts to recreate the historic journey that gave India Pale Ale it’s name. From replicating a historical batch of beer at the Museum Brewery in Burton-on-Trent, Brown recounts his journey by sea to India lugging along an uncooperative barrel of beer in an engaging, and humorous narrative. Every other chapter focuses on the history of India Pale Ale written in a highly readable and witty form. This dual coverage of both the travel account and the history works brilliantly. Much more than just outlining how India Pale Ale came to be, the historical chapters serve to give a great deal of insight into the authors motivation and the kind of person he is. Pete Brown is an excellent writer. Also, he’s obviously a hopeless beer geek like me. He seems like someone I’d love to meet and have a few beers with. We would likely be fast friends if we lived in the same town.
I consider "Hops and Glory" a ‘must read’ for all beer nerds, homebrewers and craft beer enthusiasts. Also, I would highly recommend it to those who enjoy travel writing. I am admittedly biased, but I would put “Hops and Glory” on the same list as other great travel books that I’ve enjoyed like Bill Bryson’s “A Walk In The Woods”. I’m very much looking forward to reading more from Pete Brown … “Three Sheets To The Wind” is next on my list.
I raise my pint and toast you, Pete … keep up the excellent beer writing. Cheers!
The story details Brown’s adventures as he attempts to recreate the historic journey that gave India Pale Ale it’s name. From replicating a historical batch of beer at the Museum Brewery in Burton-on-Trent, Brown recounts his journey by sea to India lugging along an uncooperative barrel of beer in an engaging, and humorous narrative. Every other chapter focuses on the history of India Pale Ale written in a highly readable and witty form. This dual coverage of both the travel account and the history works brilliantly. Much more than just outlining how India Pale Ale came to be, the historical chapters serve to give a great deal of insight into the authors motivation and the kind of person he is. Pete Brown is an excellent writer. Also, he’s obviously a hopeless beer geek like me. He seems like someone I’d love to meet and have a few beers with. We would likely be fast friends if we lived in the same town.
I consider "Hops and Glory" a ‘must read’ for all beer nerds, homebrewers and craft beer enthusiasts. Also, I would highly recommend it to those who enjoy travel writing. I am admittedly biased, but I would put “Hops and Glory” on the same list as other great travel books that I’ve enjoyed like Bill Bryson’s “A Walk In The Woods”. I’m very much looking forward to reading more from Pete Brown … “Three Sheets To The Wind” is next on my list.
I raise my pint and toast you, Pete … keep up the excellent beer writing. Cheers!
December 28, 2017
Quite possibly one of the best books I read this year, this is not only a novel to make a food & drinks fan avidly wait another paragraph that deals with beer (and other drinks, such as madeira, which are also described when pertinent), but also one to entice the reader to await the next chapter that once again speaks of the East India Company and the British Raj.
I have, this far, not mentioned the scope that this work has as a modern travelogue, and one should definitely also keep this aspect in mind. A journey from Burton to Calcutta is an adventure any way one describes it, and Mr Brown's one even more so than the usual.
The other thing that definitely needs to be mentioned is the light-hearted approach that the author has taken. This makes reading easy, and it also makes a lot of topics that can be very controversial, such as the British Raj, less so as nothing is deemed too "important" to impugn. The author achieves the goal of writing about the social aspect of history without making the reader bored and while encouraging them to think.
Overall, the above aspects come together in a novel which describes food & drinks, the history thereof, as well as the history of the peoples who consumed these. The gritty pictures are painted where the topics call for these while the characters Mr Brown mentions - whether from three centuries ago or yestereve - come alive in all their faults and merits. Read it!-- there's something in this book for everyone.
I have, this far, not mentioned the scope that this work has as a modern travelogue, and one should definitely also keep this aspect in mind. A journey from Burton to Calcutta is an adventure any way one describes it, and Mr Brown's one even more so than the usual.
The other thing that definitely needs to be mentioned is the light-hearted approach that the author has taken. This makes reading easy, and it also makes a lot of topics that can be very controversial, such as the British Raj, less so as nothing is deemed too "important" to impugn. The author achieves the goal of writing about the social aspect of history without making the reader bored and while encouraging them to think.
Overall, the above aspects come together in a novel which describes food & drinks, the history thereof, as well as the history of the peoples who consumed these. The gritty pictures are painted where the topics call for these while the characters Mr Brown mentions - whether from three centuries ago or yestereve - come alive in all their faults and merits. Read it!-- there's something in this book for everyone.
September 4, 2017
The Times Literary Supplement called Pete Brown, "The beer drinker's Bill Bryson." This book weaves the history of how IPA, India Pale Ale, was born and its significance to professionalizing brewing worldwide. The hoppy style that dominated 1800's brewing was all but dead by the late 2000's, when a resurgence in North American microbreweries brought it back. Writer Pete Brown discovered a few American IPAs and was smitten. Stunned at the brew's absence from its birthplace in Britain, he researched the drink. A crazy idea hit him: what if he recreated IPA by brewing with an original 1800s recipe at a brewery using the famous waters of Burton, England, and then brought it by ship on the long journey to India? Half of the book is his unusual quest to see if months of tropical heat and rolling of the pale ale would result in the fabled original taste. We find out when he arrives in Calcutta.
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February 4, 2018Did not finish.
Barely got beyond chapter one. Could not work up the enthusiasm to read it.
Barely got beyond chapter one. Could not work up the enthusiasm to read it.
October 30, 2017
Hops and Glory tells the story of one man quest to recreate and replicate the epic journey that turned swill into the glory that is IPA. Pete Brown book is a masterful melding of a travelogue, history and damn good story telling.
From the moment I started reading this book I knew I was in for something special and a little off the beaten track. The authors love for his subject borders on severe OCD at times and the cast of characters we meet along he way are larger than life.
So join the author on this trip of a life time and take back a step in time as well as getting a look at the rise of the beer to it's new heights.
From the moment I started reading this book I knew I was in for something special and a little off the beaten track. The authors love for his subject borders on severe OCD at times and the cast of characters we meet along he way are larger than life.
So join the author on this trip of a life time and take back a step in time as well as getting a look at the rise of the beer to it's new heights.
February 19, 2014
Hops and Glory, One Man's Search For The Beer That Built The British Empire [2009]
Being the our book club is called the Ale-Literate Book Club, and is sponsored each month by the 8th Street Ale Haus in Sheboygan, Wisconsin, it seemed only fitting that after several years of the club we read a book, well, about beer. In this case, the beer is India Pale Ale, or IPA, as it is known, and my absolute favorite style.
Pete Brown, a travel-writing, beer-loving, writer from the UK decided one evening, while, of course, drinking, to brew an original recipe India Pale Ale and then take it by ship on the famous journey from England, around the Horn of Africa, to India, just the way it traveled in those glory days of the British Empire. Reason? To write a book about it, of course, but to see, once and for all, if the legend was true that the beer actually took on an amazing quality by virtue of the journey, the months spent at sea, sloshing about in varying weather conditions.
Very quickly, Brown realizes that he just may have swigged more than he can swallow. So we follow Pete as he: searches for the beginnings of pale ale in the breweries of England, most notably of Burton-on-Trent, once the brewing capital of the UK; tries to find ships that still follow the traditional ocean route to India; brews the beer; and makes his way, not without considerable incident, to Calcutta, India. And how has the beer survived? You'll have to read it to find out.
Hops and Glory is also full of brewing history, history of shipping, empire building, the clashing of cultures, greed, wealth, and intoxication. Brown roughly alternates chapters from his current exploits with those chapters telling the history of the beer and its journey he's attempting to recreate.
All around, it's an easy read, enjoyable, full of interesting history and facts, particularly if you're a fan of IPAs.
Being the our book club is called the Ale-Literate Book Club, and is sponsored each month by the 8th Street Ale Haus in Sheboygan, Wisconsin, it seemed only fitting that after several years of the club we read a book, well, about beer. In this case, the beer is India Pale Ale, or IPA, as it is known, and my absolute favorite style.
Pete Brown, a travel-writing, beer-loving, writer from the UK decided one evening, while, of course, drinking, to brew an original recipe India Pale Ale and then take it by ship on the famous journey from England, around the Horn of Africa, to India, just the way it traveled in those glory days of the British Empire. Reason? To write a book about it, of course, but to see, once and for all, if the legend was true that the beer actually took on an amazing quality by virtue of the journey, the months spent at sea, sloshing about in varying weather conditions.
Very quickly, Brown realizes that he just may have swigged more than he can swallow. So we follow Pete as he: searches for the beginnings of pale ale in the breweries of England, most notably of Burton-on-Trent, once the brewing capital of the UK; tries to find ships that still follow the traditional ocean route to India; brews the beer; and makes his way, not without considerable incident, to Calcutta, India. And how has the beer survived? You'll have to read it to find out.
Hops and Glory is also full of brewing history, history of shipping, empire building, the clashing of cultures, greed, wealth, and intoxication. Brown roughly alternates chapters from his current exploits with those chapters telling the history of the beer and its journey he's attempting to recreate.
All around, it's an easy read, enjoyable, full of interesting history and facts, particularly if you're a fan of IPAs.
August 7, 2014
Before refrigeration it was impossible to brew beer in India, which was a serious issue for the early ex-pats. Beer could be shipped out but it took a long time (9 months via the Cape) and was frequently spolit by the time it arrived. Brewers realized that beer which was high in alcohol abd stuffed full of hops, which are a preservative, had the best chance of making it. Indeed for beer like this a 9 month journey wasn't an obstacle buy an opportunity for marvellous flavours to emerge. India Pale Ale (IPA), the world's finest beer style and Britain;s greatest contribution to world cuisine, was born.
Pete Brown had the marvellous idea of recreating this journey taking a keg of specially brewed IPA by sea to India. In between recounting his adventures he tells the history of the beer style and its connections with the Raj, the famous brewery town Butron on Trent, and the syle's disappearence and re-emergence thanks to the micro brewers of the US. If you don't like the subject you might find the somewhat coloquial style irritating, but you have to admit the author has a great eye for a story - he also wrote a history of The George Inn in Southwark.
Pete Brown had the marvellous idea of recreating this journey taking a keg of specially brewed IPA by sea to India. In between recounting his adventures he tells the history of the beer style and its connections with the Raj, the famous brewery town Butron on Trent, and the syle's disappearence and re-emergence thanks to the micro brewers of the US. If you don't like the subject you might find the somewhat coloquial style irritating, but you have to admit the author has a great eye for a story - he also wrote a history of The George Inn in Southwark.
July 7, 2009
Hops and Glory is a rich and delightful read, combining insightful historical research with a madcap travelogue, and the anthropomorphism of a beer keg. The essence of craft beer appreciation is captured by tying contemporary innovation and insanity within tradition and historical context. What could be wackier than making a beer that is too strongly flavored, sending it by sea around the cape of Good Hope, and hoping it is drinkable in India's sweltering climate? What could be more traditional? There are few beer styles with such a popular, proud and misunderstood story than the India Pale ale. Peter Brown follows the East India Company, both literally and figuratively, to give context to the development of this beverage and globalization in general, while sparing no criticism of the faults and flaws of British colonialism.
The author also transformed oft pedantic footnotes into glorious comedic asides.
The author also transformed oft pedantic footnotes into glorious comedic asides.
September 15, 2018
Very interesting book. Goes over the story of the Indian Pale Ale (my favorite type of beer), while at the same time accounting for the author's attempt to recreate the trip of the original IPA barrels. Pete Brown travels from England to India by boat, making this book not only historically interesting, but also a rather entertaining "travel book" of sorts. Very entertaining, if only a bit long towards the end.
May 20, 2014
Brown did a great job of balancing the history of IPA within his personal journey to take a keg of IPA (brewed as close to the original recipe as possible) from England to India by boat. His humourous style keeps the book from becoming too dry when covering historical details and makes you laugh along with him when he recounts obstacles he faced.
I'd recommend this book for people who love beer and/or humour writing.
I'd recommend this book for people who love beer and/or humour writing.
April 27, 2013
Part beer history, part travelogue, this book is a fun read that often had me laughing. It was especially good as a drive time book in audio. More about one man's journey to follow the sea routes from the UK to India than a story of beer, it will have you smiling at the author's dry wit while learning about the vagaries and pitfalls of modern sea travel.
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November 19, 2016I enjoyed this!
September 3, 2015
I need a beer and a curry now
May 27, 2024
Pete brown is a fun writer. I have enjoyed his three sheets to the wind. I can’t quite remember if I have read his other book,… but I might have… or just imagined I read it in a beer fuelled delusion. But this one I definitely read. I mean listened to.
It’s a rather Dave-Gorman like approach to collating material. Go off on a whacky adventure and then present it to the audience. Except, the adventure here is not as eventful as brown thinks it is. Easy for me to say… typing this review out on my phone, undermining the culmination of centuries of sea-faring, with all its ails and travails, dangers and drudgery and their achievements and advancements for humans as a species.
Still, Brownian drama isn’t quite as riveting as gormanian. Even though there is quite an unexpected murder mystery with a locked room death of a beloved character.
The writing is an absolute breeze though. The interspersing of history with the present day is very, very much like the Bollywood movie “Rang de Basanti” - which also involved a few folks from British era, not quite from the era of the introduction of the IPA… but well, close enough. The movie didn’t really talk about the drinking lifestyle of the brits however. Might have been a very different movie.
The tale of India Pale Ale is a tale worth telling. It’s fascinating to see a business evolve through an age like this. I am sure every sector will have such stories. But hard to be fascinated by improvement in production of concrete, unless it’s wrapped with a story. And somehow, I feel like story writers about concrete might be hard to come by, at least as compared to beer. (Wait, peppa pigs daddy is in concrete business. So there might be hope)
If you enjoy beer, and enjoy Indian pale ale, you will like this book a fair bit. I was chuffed that dogfish head ipa finds a mention - I loved that ipa, and was a regular purchase in my Amtrak trips to Boston. To think of the legacy, and the renaissance that the Indian pale ale had to undergo for me to enjoy it is rather incredible. I always thought that IPA isn’t all that pale to be called that. Aren’t pilsners and wheat beers a lot paler? But I have always enjoyed the taste. When it started off, it was a specific brewing water from burton, and specific conditions of adding hops to withstand the rolling and fermenting in the ships to india that granted it the flavour. Eventually, it got scaled up, became competitive with multiple brewers entering the fray, and eventually was replaced by by lagers. But meanwhile there were soldiers queuing up for it. As much for the taste as it was to not get blinded or killed by local drink, arak.
Pete brown, wanting to experience the journey of tradesmen plying the casks of beer concocted this weird project of getting a beer brewed for himself, and subjecting it to some sort of a voyage to India. Intent was to replicate the ship route to India around cape of good hope, but he was clearly not too fussed about being too exact about the details. A journey of self discovery commences, and between that and the history of the beer, it’s a compelling read. Brown even channels the romance of shantaram, if not quite so saccharine infused, while navigating the chaos of India. Heck, he even meets his own Prabhakar!
In the end, fun read. Easily recommended while sipping an IPA!
It’s a rather Dave-Gorman like approach to collating material. Go off on a whacky adventure and then present it to the audience. Except, the adventure here is not as eventful as brown thinks it is. Easy for me to say… typing this review out on my phone, undermining the culmination of centuries of sea-faring, with all its ails and travails, dangers and drudgery and their achievements and advancements for humans as a species.
Still, Brownian drama isn’t quite as riveting as gormanian. Even though there is quite an unexpected murder mystery with a locked room death of a beloved character.
The writing is an absolute breeze though. The interspersing of history with the present day is very, very much like the Bollywood movie “Rang de Basanti” - which also involved a few folks from British era, not quite from the era of the introduction of the IPA… but well, close enough. The movie didn’t really talk about the drinking lifestyle of the brits however. Might have been a very different movie.
The tale of India Pale Ale is a tale worth telling. It’s fascinating to see a business evolve through an age like this. I am sure every sector will have such stories. But hard to be fascinated by improvement in production of concrete, unless it’s wrapped with a story. And somehow, I feel like story writers about concrete might be hard to come by, at least as compared to beer. (Wait, peppa pigs daddy is in concrete business. So there might be hope)
If you enjoy beer, and enjoy Indian pale ale, you will like this book a fair bit. I was chuffed that dogfish head ipa finds a mention - I loved that ipa, and was a regular purchase in my Amtrak trips to Boston. To think of the legacy, and the renaissance that the Indian pale ale had to undergo for me to enjoy it is rather incredible. I always thought that IPA isn’t all that pale to be called that. Aren’t pilsners and wheat beers a lot paler? But I have always enjoyed the taste. When it started off, it was a specific brewing water from burton, and specific conditions of adding hops to withstand the rolling and fermenting in the ships to india that granted it the flavour. Eventually, it got scaled up, became competitive with multiple brewers entering the fray, and eventually was replaced by by lagers. But meanwhile there were soldiers queuing up for it. As much for the taste as it was to not get blinded or killed by local drink, arak.
Pete brown, wanting to experience the journey of tradesmen plying the casks of beer concocted this weird project of getting a beer brewed for himself, and subjecting it to some sort of a voyage to India. Intent was to replicate the ship route to India around cape of good hope, but he was clearly not too fussed about being too exact about the details. A journey of self discovery commences, and between that and the history of the beer, it’s a compelling read. Brown even channels the romance of shantaram, if not quite so saccharine infused, while navigating the chaos of India. Heck, he even meets his own Prabhakar!
In the end, fun read. Easily recommended while sipping an IPA!
June 21, 2018
Today – at least in the US – one of the most popular beer styles in the craft brewing scene is IPA, or India Pale Ale. The story goes that this style (high in alcohol and hops, which gives it a bitter flavor) was invented during the early days of British colonialism in India, since it was the only sort of beer that could actually make the journey. In the early 1800s, it could easily take six months to get from England to India, on a constantly bobbing ship, that crossed the equator twice and in between cruised south of Africa where it gets quite cold – an endurance trial of motion, time, and temperature that few brews could endure. And so IPA was invented and beloved. Brown sets out to discover if this often-told legend is actually true, and if so what caused IPA's fortunes to fall. Because it nearly disappeared during the 20th century, and still today is fairly unknown in its former homes of the UK and India.
Hops and Glory is half travelogue and half historical nonfiction. Brown – with the surprising assistance of the Coors multinational company – brews a keg of IPA to an authentic 1800s recipe, and then sets out to give it the same "ripening" process all IPAs once received. This involves sailing from Spain to Brazil on an actual wooden three-masted ship, getting from Brazil to India on a container ship, and going by train from Mumbai to Kolkata, lugging the unopened keg all the way. Unsurprisingly, there are an immense number of mishaps involving lost visas, the lack of internet connection, delayed flights, annoying co-passengers, people falling off boats, accidental smuggling of alcohol across international borders, along the way. Brown makes for a hapless but good-humored guide through it all, given to self-deprecating humor rather than mocking others.
Brown intersperses the story of his modern-day journey with chapters detailing his research into the history of IPA, which gets into topics as various as the Industrial Revolution, individual British brewers, the East India Company, madeira wine, Victorian sensibilities, arak, water quality, the temperance movement, the opium wars, and Peter the Great.
Overall it's a funny, informative story, told in a friendly style that reminds me of Bill Bryson or Tony Horwitz. Definitely recommend if you have any interest in the topic(s).
Hops and Glory is half travelogue and half historical nonfiction. Brown – with the surprising assistance of the Coors multinational company – brews a keg of IPA to an authentic 1800s recipe, and then sets out to give it the same "ripening" process all IPAs once received. This involves sailing from Spain to Brazil on an actual wooden three-masted ship, getting from Brazil to India on a container ship, and going by train from Mumbai to Kolkata, lugging the unopened keg all the way. Unsurprisingly, there are an immense number of mishaps involving lost visas, the lack of internet connection, delayed flights, annoying co-passengers, people falling off boats, accidental smuggling of alcohol across international borders, along the way. Brown makes for a hapless but good-humored guide through it all, given to self-deprecating humor rather than mocking others.
Brown intersperses the story of his modern-day journey with chapters detailing his research into the history of IPA, which gets into topics as various as the Industrial Revolution, individual British brewers, the East India Company, madeira wine, Victorian sensibilities, arak, water quality, the temperance movement, the opium wars, and Peter the Great.
Overall it's a funny, informative story, told in a friendly style that reminds me of Bill Bryson or Tony Horwitz. Definitely recommend if you have any interest in the topic(s).
April 12, 2020
'Tis done! I had not planned a protracted reading such as this, but COVID-19 worked against me here. BC (Before Coronavirus), I was embedded at Edward Hand Middle School (EHMS), the very place that my late-Pops, my paternal aunt & my late-paternal uncle (Colby's dad) all attended, as a Building Substitute.
It was a great gig with the two 8th grade science teachers, one being a former colleague & the other a former classmate in grad school. My backpack held my lunch pail & at least a couple of books, some perhaps destined for a return to the library on the way home. The S/s would marvel, asking such things as "You really like to read, huh, Mr. C.?" or "I see you reading ALL the time, Mr. C. What do you like to read?" or "You read comic books?!? Mitou! Who's your favorite?" I had a LOT of time to read since the S/s mostly had iPad-based assignments. I miss that kind of time as, I'll admit, lots of stuff to watch & surf at home.
Before we broke on H, 12 March 2020, I had started, the day before, the third of a triumvirate by Pete Brown. By that evening, the school was closed on Friday for a "deep-cleaning". This have spiraled & we are now closed for the school year. I was having a tough time at first, but finally decided to buckle down & finish reading it.
I am a retired U.S. Navy sailor & I speak the lingo, having begun as a general Deck seaman & I even visited Mumbai (Bombay) in 1987. The voyages undertaken in this book were not unfamiliar to me. Nor was its focus - India Pale Ale or IPA. I was an underage beer drinker since ~ 14 y/o & I discovered non-American made inexpensive Lagers during my first overseas liberty port visit to Barcelona, Spain in January 1985. An awareness of better beer led to my being at the forefront of the craft beer revolution. After retiring in late-1998, I began to really immerse myself in craft beer, realizing that I preferred IPAs during my first visit to Victory B.C. in Downingtown, PA. I have that date recorded in a copy of fermentor Lew Bryson's "Pennsylvania Breweries [1st Ed.] & once I knew what I truly like, I was off & running.
This book was both travelogue & history lesson, interwoven as the author attempted to recreate the original around-the-horn journey of the beer that would eventually become to be known as IPA. It was a phenomenal read & I am only saddened that I cannot share it with the students.
It was a great gig with the two 8th grade science teachers, one being a former colleague & the other a former classmate in grad school. My backpack held my lunch pail & at least a couple of books, some perhaps destined for a return to the library on the way home. The S/s would marvel, asking such things as "You really like to read, huh, Mr. C.?" or "I see you reading ALL the time, Mr. C. What do you like to read?" or "You read comic books?!? Mitou! Who's your favorite?" I had a LOT of time to read since the S/s mostly had iPad-based assignments. I miss that kind of time as, I'll admit, lots of stuff to watch & surf at home.
Before we broke on H, 12 March 2020, I had started, the day before, the third of a triumvirate by Pete Brown. By that evening, the school was closed on Friday for a "deep-cleaning". This have spiraled & we are now closed for the school year. I was having a tough time at first, but finally decided to buckle down & finish reading it.
I am a retired U.S. Navy sailor & I speak the lingo, having begun as a general Deck seaman & I even visited Mumbai (Bombay) in 1987. The voyages undertaken in this book were not unfamiliar to me. Nor was its focus - India Pale Ale or IPA. I was an underage beer drinker since ~ 14 y/o & I discovered non-American made inexpensive Lagers during my first overseas liberty port visit to Barcelona, Spain in January 1985. An awareness of better beer led to my being at the forefront of the craft beer revolution. After retiring in late-1998, I began to really immerse myself in craft beer, realizing that I preferred IPAs during my first visit to Victory B.C. in Downingtown, PA. I have that date recorded in a copy of fermentor Lew Bryson's "Pennsylvania Breweries [1st Ed.] & once I knew what I truly like, I was off & running.
This book was both travelogue & history lesson, interwoven as the author attempted to recreate the original around-the-horn journey of the beer that would eventually become to be known as IPA. It was a phenomenal read & I am only saddened that I cannot share it with the students.
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August 14, 2022My whole universe changed when I first discovered IPA beer a few years ago. It was one of those milestones that split life into "before" and "after". So, my interest was peaked when I saw there's a book about it.
Hops & Glory is about one man's quest to recreate the journey that IPA beers made back when they were brewed especially so that they can travel from England to India. Along with recounting his experiences throughout this endeavor, the author also provides historical information on the conception, rise, and fall of this magnificent beer.
And yes, both parts of the book, the current and the historical, were indeed very interesting and fun to read, however the book suffers from very bad structure. For some reason, the author decided to blend both parts, by switching from present to past to present and so on with each chapter. This broke the flow of both stories, and made the book easier to put down than it should have been, as the narrative never managed to take off.
The structure should have been: Part 1: History; Part 2: Quest. And there's even a chapter which bridges those two, which should have been placed in between, but instead is an Appendix. I guess one could try and read the chapters out of order, so that they read the book as it should be read, but that's not something I was willing to do.
In a nutshell, good book, marred by bad structure.
Hops & Glory is about one man's quest to recreate the journey that IPA beers made back when they were brewed especially so that they can travel from England to India. Along with recounting his experiences throughout this endeavor, the author also provides historical information on the conception, rise, and fall of this magnificent beer.
And yes, both parts of the book, the current and the historical, were indeed very interesting and fun to read, however the book suffers from very bad structure. For some reason, the author decided to blend both parts, by switching from present to past to present and so on with each chapter. This broke the flow of both stories, and made the book easier to put down than it should have been, as the narrative never managed to take off.
The structure should have been: Part 1: History; Part 2: Quest. And there's even a chapter which bridges those two, which should have been placed in between, but instead is an Appendix. I guess one could try and read the chapters out of order, so that they read the book as it should be read, but that's not something I was willing to do.
In a nutshell, good book, marred by bad structure.
July 24, 2018
Lovely read about the history of our beloved IPA.
That is to say, the original India Pale Ale. The beer behind that story we all love to tell about how IPA came about and where it got it's name. The beer which by now hardly shares any characteristics with our modern IPA but was as influential in the development of beer a couple of centuries ago as the modern day IPA has been in the last couple of decades.
The author sets out to recreate a mid-nineteenth century IPA (or just Pale Ale as it was called back then) and take a keg of it on a journey to India. A journey as closely as possible resembling the journeys the Bass and Allsopp beers took in their days.
The story of that journey, which involves a narrow boat, a cruise ship, a Dutch tall ship and a freighter, is interwoven with the history of the IPA, beer in general and a lot of history about India and the British.
Brown has an entertaining style and especially the travelogue parts are most enjoyable. The history, and there's quite a lot of it, can drag on a bit but the author fits in enough dry and sometimes dark humor to keep me entertained. And i like me some history anyways.
That is to say, the original India Pale Ale. The beer behind that story we all love to tell about how IPA came about and where it got it's name. The beer which by now hardly shares any characteristics with our modern IPA but was as influential in the development of beer a couple of centuries ago as the modern day IPA has been in the last couple of decades.
The author sets out to recreate a mid-nineteenth century IPA (or just Pale Ale as it was called back then) and take a keg of it on a journey to India. A journey as closely as possible resembling the journeys the Bass and Allsopp beers took in their days.
The story of that journey, which involves a narrow boat, a cruise ship, a Dutch tall ship and a freighter, is interwoven with the history of the IPA, beer in general and a lot of history about India and the British.
Brown has an entertaining style and especially the travelogue parts are most enjoyable. The history, and there's quite a lot of it, can drag on a bit but the author fits in enough dry and sometimes dark humor to keep me entertained. And i like me some history anyways.
May 19, 2019
I last read Pete Brown's "Man Walks Into a Bar" and remember really enjoying it. It's one of the few books I recommended to people (or more specifically, beer drinkers) because I thought if you were interested in pubs, drinking and the UK's historical association with booze, then you'd like the book. I can say the same about Hops and Glory. This is the story of Indian Pale Ale, written slightly before its recent resurgence, and it's a story worth telling. It certainly meant I supped my most recent pint with more appreciation and respect for the beer and its past. But it's credit to Pete Brown for bringing this story to life in a way that involves you in his quest to recreate the journey that brought the birth of IPA. In doing so this becomes a modern travelogue intertwined with some serious historical research that lends a depth and entertainment to a subject that you never knew had quite so much in it. When I finished I went straight to Amazon to see what else Pete Brown had written and placed his books on my Kindle Wish List - and there are very, very few books I do that with, so that's about as a high a recommendation I can give to both this book and the author himself.
April 29, 2024
Definitely recommended to IPA fans and drinking history nerds; I for one had never thought to question the IPA myth before! Brown's quest to recreate the IPA's journey is full of interesting characters and tense moments as he attempts to manhandle the brew into planes, trains, and ships at a time in history when no one was moving beer that way. Also, his recounting of the horrors of the East India Company/British colonists in India specifically through a lens of drinking was disturbingly revealing: absolutely wild to realize how many of those horrors were perpetrated by people who were constantly blind drunk. Just poisoning themselves with whatever fermented substance they could find, blaming the climate for their untimely deaths, and thinking of themselves as the most civilized the whole time.
It was disappointing to see not much of an Indian craft beer scene to explore at the end of this book; I imagine many microbreweries have filled that gap since Brown's visit and I hope they are reinventing this beer style for a new generation of drinkers!
It was disappointing to see not much of an Indian craft beer scene to explore at the end of this book; I imagine many microbreweries have filled that gap since Brown's visit and I hope they are reinventing this beer style for a new generation of drinkers!
November 10, 2022
Probably one of the first beer related journey books I have read.And although it seemed a little bit of a challenge to push through the story sometimes I felt overall it was very enjoyable.Unfortunate the original keg didn’t go to plan for Peter.It was more set out as a dairy at sea.I learnt a fair few things about the British beer industry story to and I have also visited the national brewing centre in burton and they did build that museum which was good.
Good book for recommend for any beer nerd.
Good book for recommend for any beer nerd.
May 20, 2025
A fun combination of travel book and history of the intertwining stories of beer and the British Raj. The author and narrative travel from Burton on Trent to Calcutta, via a list of ports that were essential to the Empire. While this book is light hearted, an easy read, and genuinely funny in places, the trick of using one single commodity (beer!) to tell a world history of imperialism brings to mind the critically lauded Empire of Cotton.
A decent book for a beer snob, it’s also a human story that can be enjoyed by anybody.
A decent book for a beer snob, it’s also a human story that can be enjoyed by anybody.
April 23, 2018
Ай файно пише. Не впевнена на 100% у історичній достовірності, але в будь-якому разі титанічна, цікавезна, прекрасно написана і прописана подорож маршрутом ІРА. Всім поціновувачам пива і гарної словесності рекомендовано
May 25, 2020
Gives a huge amount of information and insight into the history - both of IPA and also The Company - East India Company.
The humour is a hook and the history of East India Company and IPA inter-twined is the lure and there you are in...hook, line & sinker!
The humour is a hook and the history of East India Company and IPA inter-twined is the lure and there you are in...hook, line & sinker!
December 17, 2020
Half the book is an historical book about The Company, India and the birth, life and death of historical IPAs; half the book is about the journey of the author to India trying to follow the rout of the East India men. It both entertaining read and gives a good historical view of the IPA.
November 12, 2021
I love IPA. But apparently, I don't love reading about its history. Pete Brown came across as a very likeable chap. But he went on for far too long about things I don't care about. And he didn't actually pull off his quest.
January 7, 2022
Absolutely fantastic. I loved finding out about things I thought I knew but had no idea. You assume the book is simple. Guy take Keg from Burton. Drinks it in India. Think again. Highs and lows. Swings and roundabouts. This is fantastic.
April 4, 2023
I really enjoyed reading this. As well as Pete's journey from Burton to Calcutta, Pete takes the reader on the historical journey of IPA including the history of the British in India. A great read, not only for beer lovers, but if you don't drink beer, this book will encourage you to do so.
May 13, 2017
Different than expected, but a travel history as well as a beer history rolled into one novel, told in a self-depreciating manner. Lots of humor added in with a good story telling style.
July 31, 2017
A delightful history of India Pale Ale -- with plenty of humor and travel adventures thrown in for good measure.
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