India Pale Ale History

Shipping by horse and boat was a bit slower, sure.
The IPA was more than likely sour and "infected" to begin with because the beers themselves were kept much differently and in ways that might shock most people these days. The shipping conditions probably also allowed a healthy amount of additional fermentation and microbes that could tolerate the hopping and Brett were just part of the bill.

 

Yep

 

I thoroughly recommend this book for IPA history

http://www.amazon.com/IPA-Brewing-Techniques-Recipes-Evolution/dp/1938469003

It seems the term IPA originated mostly out of competition among brewers to ID their product

 

What you say about the action of hops is quite true, but things that inhibit bacterial growth are considered to be preservatives by the food science type folks.

http://pubs.acs.org/cen/science/8045/8045sci2.html

 

They are a preservative in that they inhibit bacterial growth. But they don't prevent other effects of aging, such as oxidation or other ongoing chemical changes associated with maturation/aging of the beer.

But the changes in hoppy beers with age are sometimes desirable which is why there's a whole forum on cellaring beers. For example, condsider SN Bigfoot, strong hop flavors when fresh, but still a great beer after 3-4 years in the cellar.

Some breweries deliberately age their hops before use so that the hops don't contribute to the flavors of the beers, but the anti-microbial effects are still there, e.g., Cantillon.

 

IPAs were also higher in alcohol than standard British beer to aid in preservation as well.

 

Indeed. Also for domestic consumption we'd want to add in a bit more, such as dryhopping the barrels as part of loading them on the wagon for shipment to the local pubs in the area (some withing sight of the brewery). In those local pubs the beer was served at cellar temperature (no refrigeration) and unpressurized from the cask without anything much to prevent air replacing the liquid as the beer is pumped into glasses.

 

And they made it to India with beer? Anyway, I think the majority of English beer sent to the colonies was a darker, more travel resistant variety.

 

As a biologist/microbiologist, I wouldn't consider it to be a "preservative" because it doesn't really "preserve" the beer.

 

Mitch Steele of Stone Brewing researched the history of the IPA for his book "IPA: Brewing Techniques, Recipes and the Evolution of India Pale Ale", he came to the conclusion the story of hops being added to preserve the beer for the long journey was not true.

 

How about we split the difference and call it a "partial preservative?"

 

How about "antibacterial agent"...that's scientifically more correct than the term "preservative"

 

I always figured that a properly kegged and transited 17th century IPA would probably taste about the same as an Alexander Keith's that's been sitting on an Atlantic's shelf for eight months to a year would today.

 

Works for me.

(Definitely more precise, but as to whether it is scientifically more correct or not you have to take that up with the Chemists, Food Science folks and brewers who call it a preservative... )

 

For anybody interested in the history of IPA I would strongly recommend Mitch Steele’s IPA book.

In Mitch Steele’s IPA book he mentioned: “IPA was aged in wood casks at least nine months before it was shipped to India…”

If you assume a ship passage of 6 months this would ‘translate’ to about 15 months of aging before consumption.

Cheers!

 

This is actually the most common myth that has been shown to be completely false. British beer was generally much stronger in the 18th and 19th centuries, and IPA was a moderate-strength beer, actually near the bottom of common gravities. Even now, traditional IPAs in the UK are not stronger than standard pale ales. The idea of IPA as a strong beer is an American creation that came about when small brewers here started to revive the style a few decades ago.

 

Already noted, not true. In fact IPAs were very often the weakest beers in a brewery's range. Few were over 7% ABV and as time went on many were about 5.5% because that was the lowest strength of beer which could attract a tax rebate on export.Brewers actually felt that lower strength than this would make better IPAs.
It's woth remembering that IPA was just a name (and in fact the beers had been brewed for decades before they were called IPA) , many brewers such as Bass simply named them Pale Ales. IPA also appeared on the domestic market where it was different again. So to tie things down is a difficult job

 

I was able to have conversations with Mitch Steele (author of the IPA book) and Frank Clark (beer historian at Williamsburg, VA) at the 2013 National Homebrewers Conference in Philadelphia. I asked both gentlemen questions concerning the ‘first’ IPA of Hodgson’s Pale Ale circa 1800.

Mitch Steele expressed his opinion that the Original Gravity of Hodgson’s Pale Ale was around 1.070. He emphasized that there are no know written records (e.g., logbooks, recipe, etc.) that documents this value but he thinks that that this value of 1.070 is valid.

Frank Clark discussed with me his opinion on what the Final Gravity would be of the Hodgson’s Pale Ale. He stated that the Final Gravity would have been below 1.010. For discussion purposes he made mention of 1.007. He emphasized that this low Final Gravity was likely since there would have been some Brettanomyces present in the wooden vessels utilized in the beer making/storage process. He reminded me that Brettanomyces is a Greek word which means British Fungus.

So, if the Original Gravity of Hodgson’s Pale Ale was 1.070 and the Final Gravity was 1.007 then the alcohol content of that beer would be around 8.3% ABV.

Cheers!

 

Ok, so the real person to thank would be George Hodgson of London. It was his idea to produce a pale ale of greater strength and bitterness than those he sold in London in order to survive the trip to India when many soldiers stationed there during England's occupation. He aged this beer in London for months until the yeast had consumed almost all the sugars in the beer, leaving little left for spoilage organisms to eat. He also added even more hops to each hogshead of beer to add another degree of protection from spoilage. Originally, all of this new and improved ale was bound for India only. However, in 1827, a ship bound for India was wrecked in the Irish sea. around 300 hogsheads of that IPA was recovered and sold at auctions. Soon after, people all throughout Europe were mind blown over this new style of ale and wanted to get their hands on it. The rest as we all know is history ^_^

 

It's very difficult to draw conclusions. Ron Pattinson notes from his analysis of brewery records that gravities always fell sharply doring wartime and 1800 was of course just that. It is of course true that IPAs were highly fermented and ABV would be higher than normal for the OG.