India pale ale

Lore & Background

The pale ales of the early 18th century were lightly hopped and quite different from modern pale ales. By the mid-18th century, pale ale was often brewed with a coke-fired malt, which produced less smoking and roasting of barley, yielding a lighter hued beer. One variety was Old ale, a pale well-hopped brew intended to age in a cellar for two years. Among the first brewers known to export beer to India was George Hodgson's Bow Brewery, on the Middlesex-Essex boundary. Its beers became popular among East India Company traders' provisions in the late 18th century, helped by the brewery's location two miles up the Lea from the East India Docks and Hodgson's liberal credit line of 18 months. Ships exported his old ale to India, which benefited exceptionally from the voyage conditions and was highly regarded. The brewery came into the control of Hodgson's son early in the next century.

Burton breweries lost their export market in Continental Europe when the Napoleonic blockade was imposed and sought a new export market. At the behest of the East India Company, Allsopp's brewery's chief maltser, Job Goodhead, developed a strongly-hopped pale ale in the style of Hodgson's for export to India. Other Burton brewers, including Bass and Salt and Co, followed Allsopp's lead, taking advantage of Burton water. London East End brewer Charrington's trial shipments of hogsheads of 'India Ale' to Madras and Calcutta in 1827 proved successful, and a regular trade emerged with key British agents and retailers. Early IPAs were only slightly higher in alcohol than other beers brewed then, but more of the wort was fermented, meaning few residual sugars, and they were heavily hopped. By the 1860s, India pale ales were widely brewed in England and were much more attenuated and hopped than porters and ales.

Demand for the export style of pale ale, which had become known as 'India pale ale', developed in England around 1840 and became a popular product there. Some brewers dropped the term 'India' in the late 19th century, but records indicated that these 'pale ales' retained the features of earlier IPAs. American, Australian, and Canadian brewers manufactured beer with the label IPA before 1900, and records suggest these beers were similar to English IPA of the era. IPA style beers started being exported to other colonial countries, such as Australia and New Zealand, around this time, with many breweries dropping the 'I' and simply calling them Pale Ales or Export Pales.

Reader's Guide

India pale ale was well known as early as 1815, but gained popularity in the British domestic market sometime before then. By World War I, IPA in Britain had diverged into two styles: premium bottled IPAs of around 1.065 specific gravity and cask-conditioned draught IPAs which were among the weakest beers on the bar. Like all British beers, their strength declined during World War I. Worthington's White Shield, first brewed in 1829 principally for export to the British Empire, became a cult drink by the 1960s and found renewed popularity in the early 1970s when demand for real ale grew in the UK. The revival of IPA in modern times dates to a seminar on Burton pale ales in 1990, leading to a pale ale festival in 1992 and an IPA festival in 1993, for which Bass brewed a 7.2% beer inspired by Bass Continental. An IPA conference in 1994 was attended by brewers from both sides of the Atlantic, and its influence persists. In the 21st century, US-influenced IPA is one of the most popular beer styles in the UK.

In the late 20th century craft beer revolution in the United States, brewers sought out old beer styles; Ballantine IPA, made in the U.S. since 1890 until the 1990s, proved inspirational. The traditional IPA style was well-suited to model the intense flavour and aroma of American hops. Bert Grant of Yakima Brewing and Malting found that Cascade and Chinook hops, grown locally in Yakima, Washington, provided strong flavours when showcased in an IPA. The boom in popularity for IPA spread down the west coast of the United States, then across the United States and eventually the world. It is estimated that over 40% of craft beer brewed in the United States can be classified as an IPA. As the Oxford Companion to Beer notes, 'IPA is now the signature of craft brewers worldwide.' American varieties include West Coast IPA (or Classic IPA), which is hop-forward, typically very bitter between 40 and 70 IBUs, and often tastes of resin, citrus, and tropical fruit. Black IPA (also known as Cascadian Dark Ale or American Black Ale) is not pale in color but shares the bitter hoppy flavors of other IPAs, using dehusked roasted malts for a darker color and somewhat coffee or roasted flavor. Its origin lies with Vermont Pub & Brewery in Burlington, Vermont, where in 1989 or 1990 owner Greg Noonan created a strong, roasty 'winter IPA' called Tartan IPA, inspired by a local, hoppy, dark red ale.

Did You Know?

• George Hodgson's Bow Brewery was among the first known to export beer to India, helped by its location two miles up the Lea from the East India Docks.
• Ballantine IPA was made in the United States from 1890 until the 1990s and proved inspirational for the craft beer revolution.