I always like reviewing beers and so it was great news to hear about this new beer being brewed in the UK by the Punjab IPA Beer Company. After receivng an initial sample, I purchased a pack of six to give the beer a proper try when I matched it with a whole salmon massala, courtesy of a recipe by Nadia Hussain.

IPAs come in a huge variety of styles and a wide variety of strengths and wouldn’t necessarily be my first choice to have with a fish based curry as the stronger IPAs would definitely overpower the flavour of the fish. However as I had already had a sneak peek at this one, I knew it was going to to go well with spicy food.

This is a lightly falvoured IPA, not cloudy, more like a lager in appearance than a cloudy craft brew – as you can see in the photo where the chef was sampling a bottle while cooking. It’s a session strength at only 3.8% ABV. This is ideal for me as I don’t want to be downing 6 or 7% strength pints while I’m eating, I would never make it to the end.

The taste of this beer is light and crisp with a slight IPA tang but not an overpowering one. It’s not overly gassy which again is a plus when you are eating and I think they could maybe push the hops a bit harder to give it a bit more bitterness, but that is just personal prefernce. Overall it’s a great beer to have with a curry or spicy food as it compliments the meal rather than smothering it, which is exactly what it was created for.

I don’t have the details yet of where you can buy the beer, but as soon as I do I will add a link and please do leave comments below letting us know what you think.

Note: We have no affiliation with the Punjab IPA Beer Company and received the first bottle as a free sample but then paid for the next pack of six.