The launch of Kernel Black IPA at The Rake. 10 years have gone. What a long strange trip it’s been
It wasn’t the start of craft beer in London or anything like that but the launch of Kernel’s first Black IPA(6.8%) at the Rake in Borough Market on this day in 2011 was a landmark.
The actual date was 9th January 2011 but it was the second Sunday of the New Year and crucially a long Sunday afternoon…
It was perhaps the first time some had ever tasted the style which was then controversial since clearly IPAs weren’t meant to be black
I was there with Megan Davies and I was reminded subsequently by Hazel Potter (who was there with Ian Marriott and no doubt others) that on that day I was beardless. I had shaved my beard off the previous day for some socialist good cause or other.
The manager at the Rake back then was of course no less than RabidBarFly (Glyn) who appears to have consumed a few pints of it. Those were the days etc.
Fortunately for all concerned, and a warning to archivists and historians, while news of my shave and a picture of it did appear in the press, the interweb record of it has been deleted. If I feel sufficiently energetic I may seek out the print copy in the British Library at some point.
In the meantime, what a beer it was.. Kernel don’t currently have a Black IPA listed but surely its time for an anniversary edition. A reminder that ten years ago in beer, all things became possible.
Leave a Reply