India Pale Ale

India Pale Ale or IPA is a style of beer within the broader category of pale ale. It was first brewed in England in the 19th century.

The first known use of the expression "India pale ale" comes from an advertisement in the Liverpool Mercury newspaper published January 30, 1835.[1] Before January 1835, and for some time after this date, this style of beer was referred to as "pale ale as prepared for India", "India Ale", "pale India ale" or "pale export India ale".

Contents

History

IPA descends from the earliest pale ales of the 17th century. The term pale ale originally denoted an ale which had been brewed from pale malt.[2] The pale ales of the early 18th century were lightly hopped and quite different from later pale ales.[3] By the mid-18th century, pale ale was mostly manufactured with coke-fired malt, which produced less smoking and roasting of barley in the malting process, and hence produced a paler beer.[4] One such variety of beer was October beer, a pale well-hopped brew popular among the landed classes, who brewed it domestically; once brewed it was intended to cellar two years.[5]

Among the earliest known named brewers whose beers were exported to India was George Hodgson of the Bow Brewery, on the Middlesex-Essex border. Bow Brewery beers became popular among East India Company traders in the late 18th century because of the brewery's location and Hodgson's liberal credit line of 18 months. East Indiamen transported a number of Hodgson's beers to India, among them his October beer, which benefited exceptionally from conditions of the voyage and was apparently highly regarded among its consumers in India.[6] Bow Brewery came into control of Hodgson's sons in the early 19th century, but their business practices alienated their customers. During the same period, several Burton breweries lost their European export market in Russia because of new tariffs on beer, and were seeking a new export market for their beer. At the behest of the East India Company, Allsopp brewery developed a strongly hopped pale ale in the style of Hodgson's for export to India.[7] Other Burton brewers, including Bass and Salt, were anxious to replace their lost Russian export market and quickly followed Allsopp's lead. Likely as a result of the advantages of Burton water in brewing,[8] Burton India Pale Ale was preferred by merchants and their customers in India.

Demand for the export style of pale ale, which had become known as "India Pale Ale," developed in England around 1840 and India Pale Ale became a popular product in England.[9] Some brewers dropped the term "India" in the late 19th century, but records indicated that these "pale ales" retained the features of earlier IPA.[10] American, Australian and Canadian brewers manufactured beer with the label IPA before 1900, and records suggest that these beers were similar to English IPA of the era.[11]

Hodgson's October beer style clearly influenced the Burton Brewers's India Pale Ale. His beer was only slightly higher in alcohol than most beer brewed in his day and would not have been considered a strong ale; however, a greater proportion of the wort was well-fermented, leaving behind few residual sugars, and the beer was strongly hopped.[12] The common story that early IPAs were much stronger than other beers of the time, however, is a myth.[13] Moreover, porter shipped to India at the same time survived the voyage, and common claims that Hodgson formulated his beer to survive the trip and that other beers would not survive the trip are probably false.[14] It is clear that by the 1860s, India Pale Ales were widely brewed in England and that they were much more attenuated and highly hopped than porters and many other ales.[15]

Great Britain

The term IPA is common in the United Kingdom for low-gravity beers, for example Greene King IPA and Charles Wells Eagle IPA. IPAs with an abv of 4% or lower have been brewed in Britain since at least the 1920s.[16]

United States

IPA has a long history in the USA with many breweries producing a version of the style.[17] American IPAs are brewed with a single hop variety or a blend of varieties including Cascade, Centennial, Columbus, Chinook, Simcoe, Amarillo, Tomahawk, Warrior, and Nugget. This is in contrast to the Fuggles, Golding and Bullion hops of British styles.

IPA type beers brewed in the United States include Brooklyn East India IPA, Dogfish Head 60 Minute IPA, Sierra Nevada Torpedo, Lagunitas IPA and Goose Island IPA.

Double India Pale Ales are a strong, very hoppy style of pale beer that typically have alcohol content above 7% by volume.

References

  1. ^ Brown, Pete p 426. "Hops & Glory: One Man's Search for the Beer That Built The British Empire"
  2. ^ London and Country Brewer, Anonymous, 1736, pages 38-43.
  3. ^ London and Country Brewer, Anonymous, 1736, page 73.
  4. ^ Foster p. 13 and Daniels p. 154
  5. ^ Cornell p. 97-98
  6. ^ Cornell, p. 98
  7. ^ Foster, p. 26
    Cornell, Martin. p. 102
  8. ^ The water of Burton on Trent contains a very high concentration of sulfate which accentuates the bitterness of beer. See Daniels, Foster and Cornell.
  9. ^ Daniels, p. 155
    Cornell, p. 104
  10. ^ Foster, p. 65
  11. ^ Daniels p. 157-58
    Cornell, p. 112
  12. ^ Foster p. 17-21 discusses the hopping rate; Daniels p. 154 discusses the high level of fermentation.
  13. ^ Foster, p. 21
  14. ^ Myth 4: George Hodgson invented IPA to survive the long trip to India
  15. ^ Daniels, p. 156
  16. ^ Brewing records. London Metropolitan Archives: Whitbread and Barclay Perkins. 
  17. ^ Jackson, 210.

Bibliography