Round the horn (or at least over the Khyber pass)

I have been reading Hops and Glory by Pete Brown over the past few weeks. In it he charts the history of India Pale Ale (seemingly an oft mis-told tale), and attempts to carry a barrel of traditional IPA by boat "round the horn" to Calcutta.

I don't want to spoil the end of the book, but the general principle is that IPA was brewed in Burton to survive a sea journey half way around the world. The myth is that the hops and strength helped preserve it. The truth is that normal beer survived the journey fine way before IPA was created. But, this mix of heavy hopped beer really changed during the journey, and turned into something very special. Also, it seems to be perfect with a curry. Maybe it was the fluctuation of temperature; maybe it was the movement of the boat; maybe it's just cos they left it long enough to condition properly? But it got me thinking.

So I got on amazon maps and put in a route from my hometown to Calcutta. Google map route. Seriously who fancies a road trip? Across Germany, Ukraine and Russia before hitting the 'stans. I particularly like the idea of a road trip from Tashkent to Peshawar. Watch out for IED's; but the foods great :) The route reckons it'd take 6 and a half days. But, I assume that's without any breaks for sightseeing, beer drinking, toilet stops, kidnapping etc.

Anyway, I'm not proposing the trip (although I am tempted to go from the UK to China by train - apparently it is possible), but it got me thinking how I could try and reproduce it here. My plan would be to brew a trad English IPA (none of your bonkers US super hopped malarkey), put it in a keg, put in the boot of the car and leave it until I've done 6,500 miles. That's for the road journey. The sea journey would probably be more like 10,000! Anyway, I figure it may be worth the effort. It may even be worth putting it in mini kegs so we can do a comparison between the ones which have done the mileage, and those which have been pampered at home.

As someone commented today when I told them this plan - "it must be a very weird inside your head".

You can read Pete Brown's Beer blog at:  http://petebrown.blogspot.com/