1800's IPA

[old faithful]

The story of what India Pale Ale was originally like is complex, entertaining, revealing, and yet still full of mystery or rather imponderables.

Noted beer authors such as Martyn Cornell and Pete Brown have investigated the style and added significantly in my view to the knowledge previously available.

For some time, period (1800's) brewing texts by authors such as Roberts, Loftus, Reid, Tizzard have been available but their analysis and comparison, especially by people who understand beer brewing technics, have seemed less than complete until recently.

Beer historian and beer blogger extraordinaire Ron Pattinson's work in this area is very informative and persuasive. (He has a book coming out soon which should be path-breaking). Here is a link to the IPA thread in the blog:

http://barclayperkins.blogspot.com/search/label/IPA

One should read to the end (or perhaps in reverse by date) because Ron repeatedly returns to the subject and keeps adding knowledge and insight.

What I get from his discussion is that India Pale Ale was a medium-gravity ale (around 6% ABV on average and therefore sometimes less), higher-hopped than pale ales but not greatly so, made from pale malt and best quality hops (at its best anyway), and highly attenuated which would make its taste fairly dry (not sweet and malty that is).

Also, even by around 1850 IPA seemed as popular in England as India.

He gives a link to Pete Brown's blog where Pete describes taking two 6% ABV IPAs to India by sea-travel and he describes the taste both at the end and beginning of the voyage, stating the beer was rounder and better knitted in India than when tasted new in England.

This is a good start for anyone seeking to understand what 1800's IPA was like, how the beer was prepared for shipment to India (note the suggestion by interpretation of a period author that the beer was sent over bright not on the lees), and how it might have tasted.

Ron as I read him concludes that contrary to the view of some beer fans, modern British IPAs such as Greene King's are quite historical in make-up.

I believe St. Peter's is, too.

Of course, then as now there would have been a range of qualities and tastes: this is evident from Ron's discussion of the range of gravities set forth in Robert's text. But still, it seems that the idea held by many that IPA is some massively hopped, 7% ABV or more, very malty dark-coloured beer is simply wrong. Of course, for those who like those beers, that's great, but they are not necessarily how IPA tasted in the 1800's. It was withal a more highly hopped pale ale intended to last longer because exported.

I think Liberty Ale of Anchor is one of the first if not the first attempt to re-create in modern times an IPA (even though not styled as such). It is notably pale in colour, about 6% ABV (this from memory), hoppy to be sure using American varieties, not bottle-conditioned, and not notably malty although with a decent barley character. It would have travelled by truck or train I would think from Potrero Hill to the LCBO's depots. And I think it tastes quite a bit like the historical IPAs would have on arrival in Bombay and other country ports. Yes, it uses American hops but hop flavours vary anyway even in one country and Cascades certainly make a good IPA or a valid sub-set of the style. Other IPAs came later from the microbrewers, some similar, some quite different. Some probably laid better claim to the title IPA (in its historical sense) than others. It doesn't matter, of course, if they are good beers.

The English IPAs we have been getting lately seem to me all fairly representative of the historical style as explained by specialists such as Ron Pattinson, e.g., Wells IPA is notably sans a big malty taste. St. Peter's ditto. True, some are perhaps darker than the style often was, but again colour can vary and the term pale has sometimes comprehended hues extending to amber. Ballantine IPA was fairly amber in tone, for example. Certainly the Granite's IPA here in Toronto seems to me both an excellent historical interpretation of IPA and an excellent beer!

Gary

[pootz]

Good link and an interesting discussion but a distinction should be made between the IPAs sold domestically in the UK and the export variety. The export IPAs were from Burton brewers that made them to some pretty high gravities (7-8%/60+ IBU/16Plato) that were NOT to the liking of the every day palate of the domestic consumer.

Stronger pale ales came to replace export IPA as a predominant style which was called IPA .

Great article that ads fodder to the debate about IPA having 2 sub-genres the Export style that the US micros replicate and a domestic golden pale which took on the branding of "IPA" in 19th century domestic UK markets.

Good find OF