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.

Thursday, July 28, 2011

Homebrew Batch #2 Tasting

I divided up the beers for the second batch for me, Mark and Kirk. We gathered at Mark's for a tasting, and he also smoked salmon and Kirk did chicken thighs wrapped in bacon. Yes, it was as good as it sounds. An old friend who I hadn't seen in a while, Marxsen, was also there hanging out and also got a taster of batch 2. I wasn't able to be at the first tasting, but Kirk brought me down my share from that batch from his house in Dana Point. He put one up in the fridge to cool for us to have later on in the afternoon.

The second batch's was carbonated well, almost too well. The first pour into our tasting glasses produced big foamy heads. The beer color was a deep, rich amber. The taste was good, but not as hoppy as I was hoping. We failed to take the gravity while we were brewing, so we can only estimate the ABV. I would guess it is in the low 5's.

Later on I did get a chance to have a pint of batch 1, and it was not carbonated as well (at least in this bottle). It also was not as hoppy as even batch 2 was, and probably was in the low 5's for ABV as well.

All in all I'm very pleased with these 2 efforts. I think we are getting more confidence and may want to try to do our own recipes and try different hop combinations. We have to work on the beers we have now and start brew cycle #3!
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