Altight, I can take a joke.
My point was that a well-hopped beer will taste different months after shipment in a small rocking craft moving through different climates than shortly after brewing.
Hop character lifts off quite dramatically even when beers stay in one place let alone when rocking like crazy for months on a leaky sloop. Hop resins drop out and the flavors just seem to go into the ether. This has been proven (to me anyway) time and again with North American craft beers. Keep that 90 minute Dogfish for two years and see what it tastes like then.
Hops were strictly a preservative back in the early 1800's. Once they did their job they weren't wanted in excess amount; fortunately maturation blunted their worst effects (i.e., unpalatability)
The local beers of England, those meant for quick consumption, to this day are not strongly hopped, they are and were only "slightly bitter" (according to an early 1800's description for new porter). Keith's may not taste today like it did in 1850, but my point was that from the outset it was likely an emulation of landed, shall we say, not shipped, IPA. The naval and military elements in Nova Scotia and probably some of the Colonial administration had experience in East Indies and expected a palate such as was landed on Indies' docks, not as sent off from the Thames wharfs..
Gary
