IPA: England vs. New World

I tend to view English and American IPA's as two different animals. But, if you think too much about it you can drive yourself nuts. IPA's in General can be so different from one another even in the US. West coast vs East coast as an example.

 

American Brewers tend to go sky high with the hops...different hops, different hopping techniques...so AIPAs tend to be sweeter maybe?...the higher the IBUs , the more ABV, the more sugar. And I love my sugar! So, I am partial to the AIPAs.

 

This is a good comparison. Put another way:

U.S. IPAs are more about thrill-seeking and UK IPAs are more about daily drinking.

 

The fact that they're listed as two separate styles on this very site should more than answer your question.

 

English have breweries that dont brew IPA's and that would be unthinkable in America.

 

But which IPAs ?They changed significantly as you would expect over the century and a bit that they were shipped out.And there were the domestic versions too.
The characteristics were ; low ABV by the standards of the day, often the weakest beers from a brewery,highly attenuated ie dry as dust,highly hopped, matured and as a consequence usually Brett infected.It's true to say that nobody these days brews anything like this , perhaps Orval is closest.
Throw in the fact that styles were a long way into the future and beers were simply given names.Some brewers never used the term IPA for their versions.By about 1920 IPA was just another word for bitter or Pale Ale.This is something the style ****s can't get their heads around and they insist that beers like Greene King IPA are wrongly labelled.But they are no more removed from the originals than present day West Coast versions.
Worthington White Shield (now owned by Coors) has been brewed since 1829 but like my Dad's broom which has had three new heads and two handles it isn't the original article
By the way, don't forget that Edinburgh was the world's #2 brewer of IPA.Forget the myth that Scots used few hops, they brewed by the quaysides and used literally ship loads of hops.Often they used Saaz or other continental hops as well as English ones and also from the US.So "English" IPA is a misnomer.
Heerburgess is right too.British beer drinkers on the whole have different drinking habits, good beer is centred round the pub and bottles form a tiny proportion of craft beer sales.They want beer you can drink by the pint, several in a session,so drinkability is important.
So which is the "true" IPA ? None of them and all of them.Don't worry, you will be able to find one to suit you and that's all that matters.

 

Hopping levels and varieties are major differences. As is the method of dispense.

 

What's English IPA? Greene King IPA? Worthington's White Shield? Magic Rock Cannonball? Fuller's Bengal Lancer?

I'm not sure it's possible to pin down English IPA as a style in the same way as you can with American IPA.

 

They're owned by Coors? I had no idea. I enjoyed their Red Shield.

 

Well put. I enjoy American IPAs, but I prefer UK IPAs. I can actually taste the malt.

 

A number of US brewed IPAs have a noticeable malt backbone: Victory HopDevil, Sierra Nevada Celebration, Southampton Burton IPA, Dogfish Head 60 minute IPA, Deschutes Inversion, ….

Cheers!

 

They are owned but not run by Coors. Coors financed improvements and modernisation of the brewery , engaged a very good brewer and lets him get on with it.

 

Trumer pils?

 

There were no original standards. 19th-century British IPAs were totally unlike modern British IPAs and modern American IPAs.

British IPAs also varied over time and geography. In London and parts of the Southeast, IPA was often weaker than Pale Ale.

And the hopping levels of British IPAs and Pale Ales was often totally crzay in the past. When I pump 19th century recipes through BeerSmith - even knocking down the quanitity for deterioration in storage and assumiing just 4% alpha acid - they average over 150 IBUs. Typical would be about 7 pounds of hops per 36-gallon Imperial barrel. The equivalent of about a pound of hops for 6 US gallons.

 

No, and I am against the judgement of them by some sort of universal bar as well. It's just not wise because there are far too many variables and most importantly among them is that there are regional tastes and preferences, and history is not going to be friendly to this either because of the same thing.