The hoppy beer style known as India Pale Ale, or IPA, was born of necessity, and has remained a favorite ever since.
It was an age-old story – travelers and adventurers thousands of miles from home, looking for a bit of something familiar. During the 1700s, many of those adventurers were British, living and working in India, and what they wanted was a beer.
A nice English ale or porter, however, couldn’t be found in India. Efforts to import them failed miserably. Even with today’s modern brewing and refrigeration, transporting beer can be a challenge, and 250 years ago is was basically impossible. After making the trip through the Atlantic, surviving passage around the Cape of Good Hope, and two rounds of tropical heat, beer arrived in India sour, flat, and just generally impossible to drink.
Higher Alcohol Content
British brewers, however, were nothing if not persistent, and about 1780, George Hodgson at the Bow Brewery in London hit upon a solution. Hodgson brewed his beer with a higher alcohol content, and more significantly, massively increased the amount of hops. Intended specifically for export, the style became known as India Pale Ale, or IPA.
The hops were important for two reasons. First, hops added to beer act in a small way as a preservative, slowing the growth of the microorganisms responsible for spoilage. Probably more important, the bitterness of the hops would help to cover some of the stale flavors. The beer undoubtably arrived in something less than ideal condition, but since the style caught on, obviously it was drinkable.
Over the years, there have been some stylistic changes. The original English IPAs were very strong and extremely hoppy, running 7-10% alcohol by volume. Brewers soon began producing similar ales for domestic consumption, but toned down both the alcohol content and the bitterness. This was partly as an effort to cater to consumer wishes, and partly because of the English taxation system. Until 1880, taxes were charged based on the raw materials used in the brewing process, but with passage of the “Free Mash Tun Act,” the tax assessment became based on the alcohol potential of the brew. Higher strength beers were taxed at a considerably higher rate, so lower strength beers became popular.
English, American and Imperial Style
There are now considered to be three IPA styles. The first is the English IPA, which is a much more subtle brew than the original export versions. It’s still a hoppy and moderately strong pale ale, and is made with English malt, hops, and yeast. They may be anywhere from a golden amber to a light copper in color, but are most commonly pale to medium amber with a slightly orange tint.
Over the years, an American IPA style has emerged. American IPAs tend to be a slightly darker, medium gold to a medium reddish copper. Brewed using American hops and yeasts, they’re decidedly hoppy and quite bitter, more so than the English IPAs now in production.
The last sub-variety is the Imperial IPA, so named because the beer was originally produced for exportation to czarist Russia. The term Imperial now is generally used to refer to stronger versions of an IPA, both in alcohol content and in the hop level. These beers are also sometimes referred to as Double IPAs. With the popularity of “extreme brewing” in the craft beer industry, beers in this category are becoming more common in the United States.
