The difference between Pale Ale and IPA

All about that bitterness

 

It was always so, even in the 19th century many beers sent to India were simply labelled Pale Ale and some beers brewed for home consumption were labelled IPA.
As the weakest beers in the brewery range IPA eventually became of session strength, under 4%ABV.
Often overlooked was the fact that three times as much Porter was shipped to India as Pale Ale, the Porter was also massively hopped. The troops drank Porter, the administrators drank IPA.

 

So, IPA was for snobs even then!

 

Didn’t know that, what might today’s equivalent be to that massively hopped Porter the troops drank? Is there such a thing?

 

Entitled.

 

First, err... Third World Problems.

 

What do you suppose Gandhi's tipple might have been?

 

Not this one.

(The name of which I never quite "got" - is it some kinda Star Trek/Wars thing or maybe a video game reference or somethin'? Went over my head. There isn't a fine line between "clever" and "stupid".)

NBC's article also notes Gandhi was "against the consumption of alcohol". Probably would have made non-violent protest difficult for some folks.

 

A lot of brewers have a hazy (pun intended) line bridging the two. I find regular pale ales should be softer with more balance though

 

One example would be Kernel Export Indian Porter (EIP):

https://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/23249/69303/

Below is some background on this beer:

“The Kernel Brewery’s Export India Porter clone

This recipe is based on some of the Barclay Perkins (1855) and Whitbread (1856) porters that were sent out to India nearly two hundred years ago. Of course, elements of the ingredients, equipment, and processes are different, and tastes have also changed over time, so in keeping with The Kernel’s philosophy, they have made a beer that contemporary beer drinkers want to drink, rather than a blindly faithful copy of a 19th century recipe.”

https://byo.com/recipe/the-kernel-brewerys-export-india-porter-clone/

Cheers!

 

Have you had something along this line of beer?

 

Wait, this discussion again?
The answer for the cut-off is 6%
And that's my final answer, Regis.

 

No, I have not had a beer like Kernel EIP.

Now, I have had hoppy Stout/Porter type beers with one example being Victory Storm King. That beer was a favorite of mine but unfortunately it is now discontinued by Victory. I purchased a case (24 bottles) of Storm King five years ago and I have one bottled from that case left which I will be drinking in the next month or so. Needless to say but this last bottle will not be as hoppy as the first bottle I drank from this case five years ago.

Cheers!

 

Why does everyone call their session beers IPAs and not PA? I don’t think it’s anything but brewers preference, it’s still a Pale Ale, the India part only serves for a marketing advantage, other than that England isn’t ferrying beers to India or Burma any more.

 

I think the IBUs put these session IPAs out of the realm of session Pale Ales. The ABV aside, load up a beer up hops, either aroma or bittering and many people are going to figure it is an IPA because Hops = IPA.

Even still, "IPA" has drifted away from a stable style to mean mostly anything that is loaded with hops, not pale and not NEIPA.

That is how I see it.
Cheers

 

It's interesting how you allow the meanings of some beer terms to drift away, but take a hard line on other terms.... very interesting...

@marquis

FWIW, I think you're both right, but who is more or less right depends on the context or purpose of the discussion at hand.

 

Quite the opposite. My opinion is far from a hard line but an observation. I'm not suggesting any one usage is wrong. Could you imagine if we all spoke and wrote like Shakespeare, desperately trying to hold onto some idea of what is the correct usage of words?

I have stated that the meaning we assign to English words is free to change. There is no word police. And more specifically one nation or cultural group really doesn't get any more say in the matter than another. Both can be correct.

So if for example a New England IPA becomes the standard IPA in the next few decades then what we know as a NEIPA will be known as an IPA.

That is just the way language works.
Cheers

 

And within the realm of beer and brewing America has a beer history over 400 years old and while some other countries may have beer history longer than this does not anoint them with being the complete arbiter of beer terminology. A beer history of 400+ years and evolving language around this which may differ from other countries/cultures does not make it 'wrong'.

Cheers!

 

Probably not because of the circumstances of the time. Beer for export to hot countries risked infection so it was generally aged before shipping, very often with brettanomyces doing its work. Beers in India were aged to dryness and not to the present public taste.

 

What if I told you lagering is a process that occurs after fermentation? What if I told you the last lager I brewed had a rather large yeast cap on top of the beer which only settled to the bottom of my fermenter after I transferred the beer to its lagering vessel? You're right. We shouldn't hold on to old nomenclature and definitions.