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India Pale Ale (IPA, a variation of which is known as Imperial Pale Ale), is a distinct style of beer and is characterized as a sparkling pale ale with a high level of alcohol (modern day versions are usually 5.5% to 6.3% by volume, though the original versions were considerably higher) and hops, thus having an increased bitterness (in modern times typically 35-48 on the IBU scale, though originally probably more than 60 IBU). The creation of India Pale Ale (IPA) during the early 1700's was the result of tremendous efforts by British brewers to overcome a difficult problem: during the 1700's beer did not keep well on long ocean voyages, especially into hot climates. These hot environments resulted in the arrival of flat, sour beer.
History
The East Indies market was a very tempting but difficult one to enter for English brewers. After the British East India Company had established itself in India by the early 1700s, it had a large number of troops and civilians demanding beer. However, the long hot journey proved a difficult one for the dark ales and porters of England. Ships typically left London, cruised south past the equator along the coast of Africa, rounded the Cape of Good Hope and then crossed the Indian Ocean to reach Bombay, Calcutta, and Madras. The temperature fluctuations were huge, it was a very long trip (about 6 months) and the rough waters of southern Africa resulted in an extremely violent voyage.
Despite these obstacles, however, English brewers did try to establish exports to India. Early shipments to India contained bottled porters, the favorite beer in London, which generally arrived flat, musty, and sour. The answer to the great beer problem finally came from a recipe created by George Hodgson at the Bow Brewery in East London. India ale was a variation of his pale ale, which Londoners had been drinking since the mid-1750s. Hodgson began shipping Hodgson's India Ale during the 1780s. By 1784 advertisements were appearing in the Calcutta Gazette for "light and excellent" pale ale.
Before refrigeration and pasteurization, the brewer's only weapons against spoilage were alcohol and hops. Alcohol provided an unfriendly environment for microbes and the hops prevented the growth of the bacteria which cause sourness. Therefore high alcohol content and high hopping rates could protect beer from the souring associated with long storage times. Hodgson took his pale ale recipe, increased the hop content considerably, and raised the alcohol content. The result was a very bitter, alcoholic, and sparkling pale ale that could survive the challenges of travel and shelf life in India. IPA reached India in an enjoyable condition and Hodgson's success became legendary.
Thanks in part to Hodgson's recipe, the Indian beer market expanded greatly. In 1750, about 1480 barrels left England for India -- in 1800, 9000 barrels were exported, an increase of over 500% in annual shipments. The success of IPA was soon copied by the Salt, Allsopp, and Bass breweries who all claim to have been the first to copy Hodgson's style. These and other English brewers later started selling IPA in England and Ireland. Although these beers were called India Pale Ales, the recipe was different due to the inability to mature for as long as the trip to India. The national IPA was less hopped compared to the export version, in order to speed up the fermentation. The final beer was more bitter than the simple pale ale, but not as bitter as the export version.
In the same period, brewers that wanted to export pale ale from England to Russia were facing the same problem of avoiding the rotting of the beer, thus they increased the hop and the alcoholic strength of the beer, obtaining the so called Imperial Pale ale. Ultimately the exports to Russia had to be stopped for political reasons. Brewers exporting to Russia eventually switched to India, and so "Imperial Pale ale" and "India Pale ale" became synonymous. American brewers also began brewing IPA for the export and home markets. Ballantine's IPA dates back to the early part of the 20th century when IPAs were still strong in both popularity and alcohol content. The Ballantine version (as high as 70 IBU and 7.5% abv in its heyday) is still considered by many experts to be a benchmark for the style.
The expansion of the Indian beer market caused by Hodgson's IPA ultimately led to the building of Asia's first breweries. In the late 1820s Edward Dyer moved from England to set up the first brewery in India at Kasauli (later moved to nearby Solan and incorporated as Dyer Breweries in 1855) in the Himalaya mountains, producing Asia's first beer brand Lion Beer. Dyer set up more breweries at Shimla, Murree, Rawalpindi, Ceylon and Mandalay. Another entrepreneur, H. G. Meakin, moved to India and bought the old Shimla and Solan Breweries from Edward Dyer and added more at Ranikhet, Dalhousie, Chakrata, Darjeeling and Kirkee.
In 1937, when Burma was separated from India, the company was restructured with its Indian assets as Dyer Meakin Breweries, a public company on the London Stock Exchange. Following independence, in 1949 N.N. Mohan bought up the company's shares and took over management of the company and the name was changed to Mohan Meakin. The company continues to produce beer across India to this day and Lion is still available in northern India and remains the best selling beer in Sri Lanka (formerly Ceylon).
Interestingly however, today no brewer in India makes India Pale Ale. Indian beers are either lagers or strong lagers (8 % alcohol - such as the popular MAX super strong beer). International Breweries Pvt. Ltd. have recently announced an intention to work with Mohan Meakin to produce and launch an India Pale Ale from India's first brewery at Solan. International Breweries have stated their intention to reverse the historic flow of India Pale Ale by shipping it from the Himalaya mountains in India to Britain by sea.
Today
The IPA style is now less common in the United Kingdom; many beers called IPA in the UK are indistinguishable from ordinary session bitters, for example Greene King IPA and Charles Wells Eagle IPA. Among the traditional examples still brewed are Meantime Brewery IPA, Young's Special London Ale, Dark Star IPA and Freeminer Trafalgar IPA.
In the USA the style has been enthusiastically reproduced in recent years by microbrewers. The original highly hopped and long aged (one full year in wood before bottling) Ballantine IPA has not been brewed for more than 20 years; however at least in part because of that particular brand's legendary status in American brewing, the IPA style has become very popular with American microbreweries, where it has evolved into a distinct variant sometimes called American India Pale Ale (A few examples are Victory Brewing Company's HopDevil Ale, Two Hearted Ale by Bells Brewery, and Stone Brewing Company's Stone IPA). Although some are made to traditional recipes, American IPAs are generally brewed with citric American hop varieties such as Cascade, Chinook, Centennial, and Columbus. American brewers have also altered the style to increase the bitterness of the beer to well over 100 IBUs and the alcohol levels up to 10 or even more than 20 % alcohol by volume. These beers are referred to as American Double India Pale Ales or Imperial India Pale Ales. (However, the former is sometimes considered more accurate, since the word "imperial" originally referred exclusively to the Imperial stout style that was invented in England for export to Imperial Russia).
In Canada, Alexander Keith's India Pale Ale has become popular across Canada as the microbrewery fad has taken off since the 1990s. However, like its modern American cousins, it is not a true IPA but rather one which has been toned down for modern tastes. One of the notable characteristics of this highly sought-after brew is the unique swerve of the bottle, described by some beer connosieurs as "like a finely defined rump." The beer is available across the nation, but is usually sold as an Import or Exotic beer compared to more standard domestic offerings from the likes of Molson and Labatt.
"India Pale Ale"