Robert Knops of the Knops Brewery explores the history of IPA
The beginnings
Pale ales probably started to appear after the invention of coke (not the drink but coal with its toxic elements removed) in the 1640’s. Prior to this maltsters used wood or straw to kiln their malts. Temperatures were difficult to control and the malt produced using this method was relatively dark in colour. The use of coke allowed the maltsters to more closely control the temperatures in the kiln and produce a much lighter coloured malt. However, coke was more expensive than other fuels and so was the resulting malt. In general this pale malt was used by the gentry who brewed strong, pale, heavily hopped stock beers in October for keeping. In those days before refrigeration the brewing season was from October to March and beers would be brewed that could be stored for consumption over the summer months. Often these beers would be matured for several years before drinking.
In the early 18th century excessive taxation on common brewers to fund the wars with France further encouraged landowners to brew a house beer for private use. In general these beers were brewed on a small scale and with the finest raw materials.
Demand for a similar product when the gentry were in town meant that commercial brewers responded by producing paler, more heavily hopped beers. These pale ales, also known as Bitters were particularly popular with young middle and upper class men. Gradually pale ales began to replace porter as the beer of choice. Porter was developed in the early 18th century and had become the first truly global beer brewed and enjoyed around the world. However, after scandals involving adulteration of porter this style started to become increasingly unfashionable. Also, increasingly glass was being used to construct drinking vessels rather than pewter or leather and this meant the customer could see what they were drinking resulting in an increasing demand for pale, bright, sparkling beers.
The East India Company & George Hodgson
The East India Company, founded in 1600, had been granted a monopoly over trading rights between Britain and India. It became the most potent economic, political and military force in the sub-continent. Trade was carried on ships called East Indiamen and the captains of these ships were allowed to conduct their own lucrative private trade shipping goods from Britain to India to sell to the company’s civil servants. One of the goods transported was beer. There are records of pale ale being drunk in India as far back as 1716 when Burton Ale and pale Beer are mentioned.
In the 1750’s a small London brewer called George Hodgson was either lucky or had the foresight to build a brewery near to the East India Company’s docks at Bow in London. Hodgson was attractive to the captains of the East Indiamen not only because of his proximity but also due to the fact that he was willing to extend lengthy lines of credit of up to 18 months. This must have been appealing when it was going to take around 6 months before your products even reached their market. The captains bought a range of beers from Hodgson including porter, small beers and October beers. It became evident that the October beers with their high levels of alcohol and elevated hopping rates underwent some sort of accelerated maturation perhaps due to the constant movement and elevated temperatures during the voyage and arrived in India with a depth of flavour that took years of maturation at home to achieve. It took a while for Hodgson to build up his trade and although there was competition from other London brewers his name eventually became synonymous with quality pale ales. His was the first to be mentioned by name in the Calcutta Gazette which advertised the contents of the East Indiamen’s holds which were for sale. One advert from 1822 says “Hodgson’s warranted prime picked pale ale of the genuine October brewing, warranted fully equal, if not superior, to any ever before received in the settlement”. It would appear that Hodgson was onto a good thing and the volumes he was exporting steadily rose. And then in 1821 Frederick Hodgson and his partner Thomas Drane made the disastrous decision to cut out the East Indiamen’s captains and export their beer to India themselves. In addition they cut the lines of credit and increased their prices. They believed they had a product of such superior quality and reputation that any competitors would be unable to stand against them. If any competition did appear they would undercut their prices until the competition gave up.
Understandably the East India Company was somewhat pissed off with this approach. In 1822, Campbell Marjoribanks, one of the main men at the East India Company invited a Burton brewer, Samuel Allsopp to dinner. He asked if Allsopp could recreate Hodgson’s beer and sent him some samples of Hodgsons to copy. Allsopp’s maltster, Job Goodhead, experimented in a teapot and eventually came up with suitable malt for making the beer. Brewed in Burton with its hard water profile especially suited for this style of beer the resulting beer was almost universally preferred by the Indian colonials to Hodgson’s. Hodgson’s beer had probably never been that highly regarded in India anyway and had been described as “thick and muddy” and has having “a rank bitter flavour”. It had probably been the best of the limited choice available.
And so began the rise of Burton as the major brewing centre of the Empire. By 1849 Hodgson had gone from the Bow brewery and their near monopoly of the Indian market had been well and truly broken. Apparently Hodgson ran away to Paris with the wife of an Indian Army officer.
Burton-on-Trent
The waters around Burton-on-Trent are naturally high in calcium sulphate (gypsum) and are ideal for brewing strong pale ales. The high mineral content aids the coagulation of proteinaceous material which can cause cloudiness in beer and allows higher hopping rates without the harshness that can be caused by waters with high carbonate levels. Burton brewers had a good export trade with the Baltic states but during the early 19th century, thanks to Napoleon, this trade came to an abrupt end. The Burton brewers had to look elsewhere and fortuitously the recent advent of the railway system allowed them to access the markets of London, Birmingham and other parts of the UK. However, the real prize lay in the colonial export market. The opening of these markets resulted in massive growth of the burton brewers. During this time names such as Allsopps, Bass and Worthington started to emerge as brewing giants.
For example Bass in the years 1830-34 averaged around 11,000 barrels annually. Immediately after the opening of the railways in 1839 their volumes had risen to 20,000 barrels. By 1864 this had risen to 400,000 barrels and by the end of the 19th century output was approaching 1 million barrels per annum. It is interesting to note that there was a sharp rise in volumes exported to India between the years 1858 to 1860 which coincided with the increase in British soldiers sent to India during the Mutiny.
Edinburgh brewers are also fortunate enough to sit on natural supplies of water suitable for brewing pale ales. An underground ring of water bearing sandstone known as the “charmed circle” which is rich in gypsum allowed the Edinburgh brewers to become the only serious rivals to Burton for the production of IPAs. William Younger was one of the more noted of these brewers and produced IPAs from at least 1849.
India Pale Ale – the name.
Interestingly the term India Pale Ale does not appear until the 1830’s some 50 or so years after pale ale was being exported to India. Prior to this it was known by various names including Indian Beer, Pale Ale as prepared for the India market, India Ale, Pale Export India Ale, Pale India Ale. In 1835 an advert in the Liverpool Mercury uses the term India Pale Ale. In 1841 Bass advertises East India Pale Ale.
Domestication
IPA as a style of beer became popular back in Britain probably as a result of returning colonials although one story attributes the first tasting of IPA in England to a shipwreck in the Irish Sea around 1827 of a ship carrying 300 hogsheads of Burton bitter beer which were auctioned off in Liverpool. The beer was highly popular and its fame spread. However, it would appear that IPA didn’t really take off in Britain until the 1840’s. When it did it became a style that would dominate the market. Pretty much every brewer included an IPA in their portfolio. It would appear that certainly some of the domestic IPAs were brewed to be less hoppy and strong than their true export counterparts. One person describes them as being “less bitter and spirituous than that which is prepared for exportation to India”.
The great gravity drop and the decline of IPA
During the First World War taxes on beer were greatly increased. Also raw materials became more scarce, the temperance movement was in full swing and as a result brewers started to drop the strengths of their beers, a trend which continued until recently. IPA originally had a strength around 5 to 7%. After WWI the strength and hop rate of IPA’s fell until they were a shadow of their former self. Often IPA’s were the same or lower strength and hoppiness than best bitters.
IPA as a name and a style was in danger of disappearing entirely. Fortunately some brewers kept the name alive albeit brewing a style that was no longer recognisable as the original India Ale. Greene King continued to produce an IPA, and still does, at 3.6% abv. I notice, bizarrely that they also have an export IPA at 5%! Deuchars IPA at 3.8% on cask was introduced in the 1990’s and has become one of the most successful IPAs.
A few great examples of the original IPAs still exist. Perhaps the oldest and most famous one is Worthington White Shield. Originally called Worthington IPA. The IPA bit was dropped as it was felt that the term was obsolete.
IPA around the world
During its heyday IPA was never brewed around the world as widely as beers like porter or lager but there were other countries that made their own version. In Australia Coopers brewed an IPA in the 1870s as did Castlemaine around 1900. However, North America picked up on the style and breweries such as Labatts and Molson were brewing IPAs during the 19th century. There were also many brewers in the United States brewing IPA. One of the more notable ones was Ballantines IPA brewed from 1890 through until the 1990s. Peter Ballantine was a Scottish immigrant born in Dundee. His version of IPA was 7.5% abv and had a bitterness of 60 IBU (International Bitterness Units). It was aged in oak tanks and hop oils were distilled from Bullion hops to add to the maturing beer. Over time the bitterness of the beer fell as did the strength. The hops were changed and after a number of changes of brewery sites the beer ceased to be produced in the 1990s. However, this beer perhaps over all others encouraged the resurgence of the style in North America.
In the 1980s a number of American brewers looked to IPA to provide a style of beer that would showcase American hops which tend to have a more intense flavour and aroma than European hops. They were looking to produce big-hopped, strong, aromatic beers and IPA was the perfect style. American IPAs have continued to evolve and the desire for hoppier and hoppier beers has led to Imperial IPAs or Double IPAs which come with absurdly high hop levels. Most are relatively high in alcohol (5-7.5%) much like their ancestor. In the US duty is charged on the volume of beer regardless of strength unlike the UK where duty is related to abv. This makes it more economic for US brewers to produce higher alcohol beers.
A bright future and still evolving
There is no doubt that American brewers have helped to reinvigorate the style and give it a new lease of life. They have evolved it to suit the hops that they grow. However, a quote from the Oxford Companion to Beer has me a bit worried. It says “the British-derived India Pale Ale has essentially become American”!!
Recently British brewers have started to fight back and push up the hopping levels and abv of IPAs that they produce. Many use American or New Zealand hops to create intense bitterness, flavour and aromas.
IPA is now one of the most brewed styles of beer in the world particularly among craft brewers. It has had a turbulent history and been re-invented many times. It is difficult to define exactly what the style is. Brewers are now making Black IPA – confusing or what!?
I would propose breaking it down into a number of sub-styles. Each one is relevant to a particular stage in the evolution of IPA. There are plenty of grey areas but during the 30 days of IPA perhaps you will recognise some of the styles and appreciate the rich history that has influenced them.
