Beer, History, IPA

The IPA: Origins and Developments

Article written in collaboration with Alexandra Berry.

Everyone knows the IPA by now. Known for its bitterness, this style has developed and declined in recent years to satisfy different palates, between the resinous English IPA, the American hopbombs, the dry Kveiks IPA or the juicy and fruity NEIPAs, there is something for everyone!

This is obviously not the first time that IPA has seduced the world, but the very first wave of IPA fashion came not from the United States but from England; setting sail to seduce distant continents through the British colonies.

A look back at the past

In the early 19th century, England was fascinated by Pale Ale from the town of Burton. With the rise of glass containers, the golden colour and white foam of Pale Ale flourished, particularly in the town of Burton Upon Trent, whose sulphated water enhanced the local hops in the brews*.

*Ales glasses were engraved with barley and hops and this beer became very popular in the 1830s.

This particularly hard water brings out theAromatic of the hops and contributes to the dryness perceived on the finish. In addition, these minerals help to preserve the beer during its travels, which also contributed to the development of Burton's beers in the Baltic trade from the 19th century onwards, starting with a major export to Russia.

The chemical composition was so appealing to brewers that some wanted to replicate it, adding calcium sulphate to their water to reproduce the so-called 'Burton Snatch'.

In addition to the quality of its water, Burton Upon Trent had the great advantage of being criss-crossed by canals, linking it to major port towns. Local breweries quickly won over enthusiasts across the country, and then in Europe especially, thanks to the "Trent Navigation Act" of 1669, opening up the river to the public. Trent Navigation Act "In 1669, the river was opened up to a number of shipping systems, linking the ports of Hull and Gainsborough, major export points for the Baltic market at the time.

The power of hops

When Napoleon obstructed the Baltic ports to prevent British imports, the impact on Burton's brewers was enormous and many breweries closed. The survivors had no choice but to turn to their British Empire to continue their growth and just as well, the settlers were thirsty for their native beer!

George Hogdson, who founded the Bow Brewery in 1752 on the docks of the East India Company, was able to respond. He initially sent casks of his Porter and October-ale to the 'Raj' and governors in India, before offering a paler, lighter and more digestible beer, better suited to the Indian climate. A phenomenon was born.

In 1809, the Calcutta Gazette advertised this beer: ' Hodgson's very best Pale Ale, Brewed for this Climate and warranted of a Superior Quality '.

Originally simply Hogdson's Pale Ale, already found in Calcutta in 1801, was a slightly more hoppy version of October-ale, created to satisfy the tastes of the English colonists in India. Given the climate they endured, they wanted a beer that would be thirst-quenching and easy to drink. How do you make a beer stand up to months on a ship in an extreme climate? You add hops... lots of hops. This not only preserves the beer, but also hides any defects or infections when it arrives!

In addition, this long journey at sometimes very high temperatures sometimes had the effect of pasteurisation, heating the beer to temperatures around 60° to stop fermentation. 

In 1827, following the sinking of a Hodgson Company ship, many casks were salvaged and sold at auction under the name of " Indian Beer " because they were destined for the Indian colonies. This particularly hoppy style of beer was named India Pale Ale. This name was also chosen to recall the power of the British Empire and its colonies in India, known as "The Jewel of Great Britain".

To find out more about the journey that IPA barrels took, I highly recommend reading Pete Brown's book, Hops & Glory, in which he sets himself the enormous challenge of brewing an IPA in Burton Upon Trent, and taking one of the barrels all the way to India. He takes exactly the route that a cask would have taken in the 19th century!

However, although it reigned in England and its colonies during the 19th century, the IPA faded away at the beginning of the 20th century, giving up its throne to German Lagers. These fresh, thirst-quenching golden beers conquered the market at the expense of the breweries producing IPAs, none of which survived the next century.

The Cascade, hero of the return of the IPA to the American brewing scene

A style that was rather put aside in the early 20th century in favour of the much lighter, thirst-quenching and aesthetically pleasing Lagers, it came back into the spotlight in the 1970s thanks to the craft beer revolution in the United States. With a melting pot of brewing influences from the cultural mix of its population, American brewers had a real blank slate to explore new styles. As a result, many brewers reinvented themselves, drawing inspiration from foreign styles but also from their hop-rich homeland.

One local hop variety quickly stood out and put hop styles on the American map: Cascade.

In 1971, Cascade hops were certified by Dr. Stanley Nelson Brooks and Jack Horner at Oregon State University. Developed from the 1960s onwards, Cascade (originally simply 56013) is a cross between English hops Fuggle, Russian Serebrianker and a male variety. It was designed to be mould resistant and is named after the Cascade mountains that run through Washington, Oregon, California and the Canadian province of British Columbia.

It became popular very quickly, thanks to its powerful citrus and grapefruit aromas, which lend themselves perfectly to the Pale Ale style. The first beer marketed with this hop was Anchor Brewing Company's American Pale Ale in 1975, a lovely amber-coloured beer that is still produced today:

Cascade will also be the source of a new style of IPA, Cascadian Dark Ale, better known as Black IPA, which we will explore in a future article.

Later, Ken Grossman and Paul Camusi, founders of Sierra Nevada Brewing in 1979, brewed a Pale Ale in 1981 with Cascade. Inspired by the British style, they wanted to promote the American terroir with this local hop. Thus, the bitterness is accompanied by an explosion of fruits and citrus fruits, a highly appreciated novelty which is deployed on the North American continent... then throughout the world.

Many brewers are exploring this 'new' style of IPA, playing with the aromas of different hop varieties to produce powerful and highly aromatic beers. This has led to a multitude of interpretations of the IPA and the creation of new styles which we will explore in a later article.

Initially an English style, the IPA has survived its wrecks thanks to American beers and is now interpreted in very different ways according to the local terroir and culture, seducing ever more hop lovers!

Sources :

Berry, A., 2020, De la Terre à la Bière, l'Expression du Terroir dans le Verre, éditions Baudelaire.

Brown, P., (2009), Hops and Glory, Macmillan, London.

Cornell, M., (2003), The Story of the Pint, Headline Book Publishing, London.

Grossman, K., (2013) Beyond the Pale: The Story of Sierra Nevada Brewing Co, John Wiley & Sons.

Mosher, R. (2004), Radical Brewing: recipes, tales and world-altering meditations in a glass, Brewers Publications, Division of the Brewers Association, United States of America.

Payton, J., (2013), Beer O'Clock, An Insider's Guide to History, Craft & Culture, SkyHorse Publishing.

https://www.porchdrinking.com/articles

https://beerandbrewing.com/an-ode-to-sierra-nevada-pale-ale/

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