I've already accumulated a reasonable body of books (and other literature) on IPAs but this was a must-have addition to my library.
The historical context is very well set out and there's been an exceptional amount of input into this from a wide body of contributors. I thought some of the writing on the history of Burton, the development of the shipping and trade routes very evocative. It wasn't hard to imagine barrels of beer being loaded on to canal boats... onto seafaring vessels at Liverpool and then off into the yonder. Great stuff.
Now, for home brewers... the fun bit. There's a lot of interesting recipes in the book. A good selection of historical beer recipes are covered and a very good roundup of 30-odd contemporary IPAs (Double IPAs, British, Black etc.) . The recipes give the grist breakdown by percentage and there's metric coverage for many of the mineral additions and hops used in g/litre.
So, looks like a good read for those long winter nights and a jolly good stocking filler for xmas. Hop to it. Geddit!
I'll tackle a few of the recipes head on over the next few months and will update accordingly. My journey into IPAs has come on in leaps and bounds over the last couple of years, I'd hope to apply some of the knowledge gained here to my brewing and make even better beers.