Passage to India Pale Ale
Pete Brown, named Britain's second-best beer drinker last week (see beer awards story below) is set to embark on an amazing voyage not undertaken for nearly 140 years.
Best known for his beer books - Man Walks Into A Pub and Three Sheets To The Wind - Pete has been inspired to recreate the journey of English IPA to India.
He'll follow the route round the Cape of Good Hope, taken throughout the first part of the 19th century before the opening of the Suez Canal in 1869 shortened the journey.
Working with Coors brewer Steve Wellington - another winner last week - Pete will take to Bombay a pint of IPA brewed by Steve in Burton-on-Trent, Staffs, exactly as it would have been in 1820.
He sets off from Burton by canal in mid-October, spends a month on a P&O cruise ship, jumps on a 19th-century three-masted tall ship for the passage round the Cape, then spends a month on a giant container ship before arriving in India in late December.
Pete aims to produce a travel book, rather than a beer book, but clearly beer will figure large.
His working title? Pale and Interesting, naturally.
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