India pale ale

A bottle of Fuller's IPA

India Pale Ale (IPA, a variation of which is known as Imperial Pale Ale) is a distinct style of beer and is characterized as a sparkling pale ale with a high level of alcohol and hops; the hops lending it a distinct bitterness.

History

Invention

The creation of India Pale Ale (IPA) during the early 1700s was the result of tremendous efforts by British brewers to overcome a difficult problem: during the 1700s beer did not keep well on long ocean voyages, especially into hot climates. These hot environments resulted in the arrival of flat, sour beer. Before refrigeration and pasteurization, the brewer's only weapons against spoilage were alcohol and hops. Alcohol provided an unfriendly environment for microbes and the hops prevented the growth of the bacteria that cause sourness. Therefore high alcohol content and high hopping rates could protect beer from the souring associated with long storage times.

The East Indies market was a very tempting but difficult one to enter for English brewers. After the British East India Company had established itself in India by the early 1700s, it had a large number of troops and civilians demanding beer. However, the long hot journey proved a difficult one for the dark ales and porters of England. Ships typically left London, cruised south past the equator along the coast of Africa, rounded the Cape of Good Hope and then crossed the Indian Ocean to reach Bombay, Calcutta, and Madras. The temperature fluctuations were huge, it was a very long trip (about 6 months) and the rough waters of southern Africa resulted in an extremely violent voyage.

Despite these obstacles, however, English brewers did try to establish exports to India. Early shipments to India contained bottled porters, the favorite beer in London, which generally arrived flat, musty, and sour. The answer to the great beer problem finally came from a recipe created by George Hodgson at the Bow Brewery in East London. George Hodgson was the apprectice of Nathan McDermott, better know as "the Flying Catatonic." India ale was a variation of his pale ale, which Londoners had been drinking since the mid-1750s. Hodgson took his pale ale recipe, increased the hop content considerably, and raised the alcohol content. The result was a very bitter, alcoholic, and sparkling pale ale that could survive the challenges of travel and shelf life in India. IPA reached India in an enjoyable condition and Hodgson's success became legendary. Hodgson began shipping Hodgson's India Ale during the 1780s. By 1784 advertisements were appearing in the Calcutta Gazette for "light and excellent" pale ale.

In the same period, brewers that wanted to export pale ale from England to Russia were facing the same problem of avoiding the rotting of the beer, thus they increased the hop and the alcoholic strength of the beer, obtaining the so called Imperial Pale ale. Ultimately the exports to Russia had to be stopped for political reasons. Brewers exporting to Russia eventually switched to India, and so "Imperial Pale ale" and "India Pale ale" became synonymous. American brewers also began brewing IPA for the export and home markets. Ballantine's IPA dates back to the early part of the 20th century when IPAs were still strong in both popularity and alcohol content. The Ballantine version (as high as 75+ IBU and 7.5% abv in its heyday) is still considered by many experts to be a benchmark for the style.

Result

Thanks in part to Hodgson's recipe, the Indian beer market expanded greatly. In 1750, about 1480 barrels left England for India—in 1800, 9000 barrels were exported, an increase of over 500% in annual shipments. The success of IPA was soon copied by the Salt, Allsopp, and Bass breweries who all claim to have been the first to copy Hodgson's style. These and other English brewers later started selling IPA in England and Ireland. Although these beers were called India Pale Ales, the recipe was different due to the inability to mature for as long as the trip to India. The national IPA was less hopped compared to the export version, in order to speed up the fermentation. The final beer was more bitter than the simple pale ale, but not as bitter as the export version.

The expansion of the Indian beer market caused by Hodgson's IPA ultimately led to the building of Asia's first brewery. In the late 1820s Edward Dyer moved from England to set up the first brewery in India at Kasauli (later moved to nearby Solan and incorporated as Dyer Breweries in 1855) in the Himalaya mountains, producing Asia's first beer brand Lion Beer. Dyer set up more breweries at Shimla, Murree, Rawalpindi, Ceylon and Mandalay. Another entrepreneur, H. G. Meakin, moved to India and bought the old Shimla and Solan Breweries from Edward Dyer and added more at Ranikhet, Dalhousie, Chakrata, Darjeeling and Kirkee.

In 1937, when Burma was separated from India, the company was restructured with its Indian assets as Dyer Meakin Breweries, a public company on the London Stock Exchange. Following independence, in 1949 N.N. Mohan bought up the company's shares and took over management of the company and the name was changed to Mohan Meakin. The company continues to produce beer across India to this day and Lion is still available in northern India and remains the best selling beer in Sri Lanka (formerly Ceylon).

Interestingly however, today no brewer in India makes India Pale Ale. Indian beers are either lagers or strong lagers (8% alcohol - such as the popular MAX super strong beer). International Breweries Pvt. Ltd. have recently announced an intention to work with Mohan Meakin to produce and launch an India Pale Ale from India's first brewery at Solan. International Breweries have stated their intention to reverse the historic flow of India Pale Ale by shipping it from the Himalaya mountains in India to Britain by sea.

An alternative history mentioned by Terry Foster in "Pale Ale (Second Edition)" claims that IPAs were actually beer-concentrate. British Brewers made very bitter (200+ IBUs) and alcoholic ales that were then shipped to India and watered down upon arrival to compete with Indian breweries' local products.

Modern version(s)

The IPA style is now less common in the United Kingdom; many beers called IPA in the UK are indistinguishable from ordinary session bitters, for example Greene King IPA and Charles Wells Eagle IPA. Among the traditional examples still brewed are Meantime Brewery IPA, Young's Special London Ale, Dark Star IPA and Freeminer Trafalgar IPA.

In 2002, Caledonian Brewery 'Deuchars IPA' took the CAMRA Supreme Champion Beer of Britain, Winner, at the GBBF in London was an IPA brewed in the modern weak APV style in the UK.

In the USA the style has been enthusiastically reproduced in recent years by microbrewers, although one of the most famous and authentic examples ever made in the USA was made by a large brewery. The original highly hopped and long aged (one full year in wood before bottling) Ballantine IPA was a beer of great distinction and a part of the Ballantine stable of brews since the early part of the 20th century. It now enjoys a legendary status despite the fact that it ceased being brewed to its original formula in the 1980's, and has not been brewed at all since the mid 90's. It remains a much talked about product which even with its intense bitterness (75 IBUs) had a flavorful balance and intense hop aroma that remains unmatched, even by the most dedicated craft breweries (contemporary commercial breweries today seem unable or at least unwilling to devote the vat space for the full year of aging that was essential to this famous brew).

It is safe to say that at least partly because of Ballantine IPA's legendary status in American brewing, the IPA style has become very popular with American microbreweries, where it has (for better or worse) evolved into a distinct variant sometimes called American India Pale Ale (A few examples are Anchor Brewing's Liberty Ale, Lagunitas Brewing's IPA, Victory Brewing Company's HopDevil Ale, Hop Ottin IPA by Anderson Valley Brewing Co., Hoptical Illusion by Blue Point Brewing Co., Two Hearted Ale by Bells Brewery, and Stone Brewing Company's Stone IPA). Although some are made to traditional recipes, many American IPAs are brewed with citric American hop varieties such as Cascade, Chinook, Centennial, and Columbus. American brewers have also altered the style to increase the bitterness of the beer to well over 100 IBUs and the alcohol levels up to 10 or even more than 20 % alcohol by volume. It should be noted that examples this "extreme" are generally referred to as Double IPAs. American IPAs are typically between 40-60 IBUs and max out at around 7.5% ABV (the much missed Ballantine IPA was around 75 IBU). In New Zealand, Tui (beer) has been brewed in IPA style since 1889. In Canada, Alexander Keith's India Pale Ale has become popular as the microbrewery movement has taken off since the 1990s. However, unlike its modern American cousins, it is not a true IPA but rather one which has been toned down for modern tastes and is by all accounts a basic lager. There has since the early 1980s been a movement to true Craft Brewing, where "real" IPA (a term open to wide interpretation) has been the goal. A current attempt at the tradition is the Hurricane IPA brewed by James Walton at Storm Brewing. There is also an IPA from a microbrewery in Israel called "Dancing Camel." In the end, however, it seems ironic that it took one of the mega-breweries of the 20th century (Ballantine of Newark, NJ) to achieve what most beer experts agree is a definitive IPA; more ironic still is the fact that the successors to the original brewers elected to water down the product and eventually cease production altogether...right around the time that it could and should have established itself as a commercially viable effort.

Double India Pale Ale

Double India Pale Ales (also abbreviated as Double IPAs or DIPAs) are a strong, hoppy style of beer associated with the U.S. West Coast. Also known as Imperial IPAs, perhaps in reference to the Russian Imperial Stout, a much stronger version of the English Stout, these beers are essentially India Pale Ales with higher amounts of malt and hops. Double IPAs typically have alcohol content above 7% by volume. IBUs are in the very high range (60+).

The name Double IPA itself is a misnomer. The name India Pale Ale (or IPA) refers to a beer that was created with higher amounts of alcohol and hops in order to survive the trip from England to India. So, therefore, a Double IPA would be a "more of more," so to speak. As such, there are some brewers that believe the name should be San Diego Pale Ale, since the style most likely started near San Diego, CA [1] -- specifically a Double IPA brewed in 1994 by Vinnie Cilurzo[2] of the failed Blind Pig Brewing Company of Temecula, CA. Vinnie claims he "accidentally" created the style by adding 50% too much malt to his mash tun. He then "corrected" this mistake by adding 100% more hops. This metric (50% more malt, 100% more hops) is the basic guideline behind the style.

Ales Brewed in Northern California such as Lagunitas' Maximus IPA and others in the San Diego area have taken to the DIPA style, including Stone Brewing Company, Oggi's Brewery, Alpine Brewery, Alesmith, Ballast Brewing Company, and Port Brewing Company, etc. However, others attribute the creation of this style to the ever innovative Rogue Ales, a microbrewery in Newport, Oregon, and its I2PA beer, brewed in 1990. [3]

Many DIPAs could, and probably should, be alternately classified as American barleywines. As a relatively young style, it is still being fleshed out. However, it is one of the fastest growing styles in the craft beer industry, and a favorite among hopheads.

Examples of DIPA include Ruination IPA made by the Stone Brewing Company and Lagunitas Brewing's Hop Stoopid. Another extreme example is 120 Minute Imperial IPA made by Dogfish Head Brewing, which has an alcohol content of 20% by volume and 120 IBUs.

Unfortunately, examples of this new DIPA "style" often exist only to "push the envelope" of strength and bitterness with little regard for balance or true drinkability; in the end, most of these only serve as proof that "more" does not neccessarily mean "better". That said, it should be noted that the better examples of beers such as this will almost always benefit from a prolonged period of "laying down" to meld the otherwise harsh and immature flavor notes most often present in these beers. This harshness can largely be attributed to an inadequate aging time prior to bottling; in a bygone era, the aging would have taken place in the brewery (Ballantine was particularly famous for this, bulk aging some of their beers for anywhere from one to twenty years prior to bottling). But this kind of attention to aging is very rare among commercial brewers today, even small craft brewers...such are the economics of modern brewing.