Without wanting to labour any point about 'types' of beer, I think it's reasonably important to mention the different types of IPA. (Genre definitions are the bane of electronic music aficionado's lives, and I suspect that they're a point of issue for beer geeks too.) Anyway, Much like the
Sainsburys TTD IPA, the Empire Strikes Back from
Moor is a UK IPA, brewed to deliberately (I imagine) stand apart taste-wise from the US varieties. No tropicality, only a faint and delicate nose, extremely pale and massively hoppy. (Actually, what this UK IPA does share with it's US sisters is it's extreme hoppiness.) There was a touch of fruit coming through in the aftertaste (alongside the longlasting big bitterness stinging my gums) but the major flavour was that earthy/grassy one from that Joker hop they use. As with all Moor beers, this is unfined (which again I understand has come to be a talking point for beer lovers:
Mark Dredge via
Matt Curtis) - for me this is important and a selling point for good beer. The Moor advocation of unfined beer is
here. I love the Moor branding btw, it really stands out.
Ps - Yesterday was a Moor day: 1 x pint of Sloe Walker, 1 x 0.5 pint of Dark Alliance (many thanks to the discerning manager of my excellent local
Westow House) and then my bomber of Empire. Spoilt rotten with excellent beer!
