What is an India Pale Ale?


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. The pale ales of the early 18th century were lightly hopped and quite different from later pale ales. 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. 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.

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 consumers in India. 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, Allsop brewery developed a strongly hopped pale ale in the style of Hodgson's for export to India. Other Burton brewers, including Bass and Salt, were anxious to replace their lost Russian export market and quickly followed Allsop's lead. Likely as a result of the advantages of Burton water in brewing, 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. Some brewers dropped the term "India" in the late 19th century, but records indicated that these "pale ales" retained the features of earlier IPA. 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.

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. The common story that early IPAs were much stronger than other beers of the time, however, is a myth. 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. 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.

Monday, June 13, 2011

A fantastic IPA weekend...hop heads rejoice!

If you enjoy your IPA, really enjoy it, this past weekend would put a smile on your face. First Kirk came down to San Diego to hang out and check on some home brew supplies. Our first stop Friday was a restaurant a block from my house which has a surprising 3 IPAs on tap. Surprising because it is a Mexican restaurant. I believe Kirk went with the Long Hammer while I decided to go with a new favorite, the Green Flash West Coast IPA. My next was the Sam Adams Summer Ale. Yeah, not so much.

We had debated whether to go to the new Green Flash tasting room in Mira Mesa or to The Urge in RB. The Urge won out. The place is always packed so we had to wait for a table. Perfect time to enjoy our first beer. First up was the Bear Republic Apex. This is what it's all about. Delicious hoppy flavor, but not too dry. No objectionable aftertaste. Smooth, great color. We got our table ordered food and our next round. Stone's Cali- Belgique. After such a fine IPA, the Cali- Belgique kind of fell short. The taste was a bit wimpy when compared to the Apex. Now, I've enjoyed the Cali- Belgique in the past, but when drinking the stonger Imperials or Doubles, it kind of falls flat. I wish I could spend a day having tasters at the Urge. Great, great place.

Saturday morning and Kirk and I headed out to look at home brewing kits. We found a very friendly store and the staff was great and willing to help us out. We decided on a basic brew kit and the Rogue ingredient kit. Doing a kit seemed like a good idea for our first batch, allowing us to get our feet wet. With everything sanitized we were ready to rock and got it going on the stove. It took about an hour and change and we have it in Mark's garage, and hope to bottle in a couple weeks.

I did enjoy some IPA while brewing. I had a Port Brewing Mongo IPA. Excellent, bold hoppy flavor. A great beer to drink while brewing beer. I also had a pint of Bear Republic Racer 5 and a half pint of Rogue.

A great weekend. We'll keep you updated on the progress of our first batch, and I'm hoping we get a good one on our first attempt. We'll work up to our own recipes in the coming months, and we'll see how that works out.
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