TOPIC:

"KeeganAles":utqsni53 wrote: Not necessarily - I read that BL is bottle-conditioned while IPA may be pasteurized.
I find Bengal Lancer much nicer as well.[/quote:utqsni53]

Nope, the IPA is also bottle conditioned.

I haven't done a side-by-side tasting, but it would seem unlikely that the same brewery would make two different bottle conditioned IPA's, both of which happen to weigh in at exactly 5.3% ABV.

"Ruben Remus":3n5z646k wrote: ... it would seem unlikely that the same brewery would make two different bottle conditioned IPA's, both of which happen to weigh in at exactly 5.3% ABV.[/quote:3n5z646k]

About as unlikely as putting the exact same beer from the same brand under different labels into the same market.

Rebadging doesn't really happen in the US, so maybe I'm missing something here.
I can buy both of these beers off the shelves in Dublin right now - if they are indeed identical, are there any circumstances where this makes sense?

"KeeganAles":14pw0ypd wrote: I can buy both of these beers off the shelves in Dublin right now - if they are indeed identical, are there any circumstances where this makes sense?[/quote:14pw0ypd]

I can't argue that it makes sense, but my guess is that Bengal Lancer is intended for the domestic market in the UK, the 'IPA' branding is intended for the overseas market, and Dublin has wound up with a mixture of both.

Incidentally I've never seen Bengal Lancer for sale outside of Dublin, but the IPA is widely available in Tesco, Dunnes, etc, nationwide.

So... who's going to put this to rest once and for all with a blind tasting?!

"Ruben Remus":4d92ccmh wrote: I can't argue that it makes sense, but my guess is that Bengal Lancer is intended for the domestic market in the UK, the 'IPA' branding is intended for the overseas market, and Dublin has wound up with a mixture of both.

Incidentally I've never seen Bengal Lancer for sale outside of Dublin, but the IPA is widely available in Tesco, Dunnes, etc, nationwide.

So... who's going to put this to rest once and for all with a blind tasting?![/quote:4d92ccmh]

That does sound plausible - the IPA is labelled in Swedish and other languages while the Bengal Lancer is the normal UK wording.

But both of these are for sale nearly side by side in Molloys. Surely if there's a single distributor for Ireland it behooves them to not (knowingly) provide a single outlet with redundant beers?

Being suspicious by nature, I volunteer to participate in the blind tasting.