London Fields Brewery Easy IPA

London Fields Brewery Easy IPA (500ml, 5% ABV)

Born in 2011 in the London borough of ‘Ackney, the London Fields Brewery (or LFB to their friends) makes a range of beers including IPAs, a porter, wheat beer, red ale and craft lager.

Not content just to brew beer, they also have a taproom which serves food and doubles as a 500-capacity music venue, as well as offering homebrewing classes and brewery tours.

Easy IPA is a warming amber colour and the big pillow of head slowly reduces to a thin film of foam as the bubbles pop, giving off a pungent, spicy hop aroma.

It’s a fruity number, with orange, apricot and spice to the fore. There isn’t, however, any big grapefruit hit as you might expect from an IPA made with US and New Zealand hops (which are typically more in-your-face than the European varieties). It’s still hoppy, but it’s a relaxed lounging-in-a-chair kind of hoppiness. The finish has a frizz of spice, with a developing bitterness and a slightly woody aftertaste.

It’s mellow, yes, but doesn’t that make it more of a pale ale than an IPA? Ah, but then there would be no excuse for the label, which features a funky four-armed guru with a handlebar moustache – part of LFB’s recent re-branding. Groovy.

Written by Richard Salsbury