UK India Pale lager

Our barley is much better suited for brewing ales and stouts than for lagers.Whenever a UK brewer offers a "lager" (not counting the macro breweries) it seems to end up a bit like a light mild.

 

I enjoy Williams Bros Caesar Augustus, not sure about availability in the US though.
http://beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/12142/73039

There are a few others that I know are not available in the US.

 

I would reckon the east of England is one.

 

East Anglia has the perfect climate for malting barley.Although good barley can be and is grown in many areas ideal conditions are relatively localised. I have a cousin who has an arable farm only a few dozen miles north of East Anglia and he doesn't consider attempting barley for malting though he does grow it for cattle feed .

 

I'm not an agricultural expert but East Anglian farmers point to the lowish rainfall (the driest part of the UK) , the soil , the latitude which means long, long summer days with hours of daylight during the ripening process and lack of exreme temperatures.
Interestingly at one time it was considered good to use some imported barley as "it needs some sunshine" but with new varieties plus the Clean Air Act (since we stopped burning coal in open fires the amount of sunlight has markedly increased) and we're now exporting barley to sunnier countries!

 

India Pale Lager -whether as a 'sub-style', or hybrid style, or bastard style or whatever-- is a new thing, indeed. But as I understand (after reading posts U.K.-based BA users, as well as meeting some brewers who grew up there, but now brew here) British drinkers really don't care for hoppy industrial lagers, so "IPL" as a distinct style may not be a "thing" there -- yet.

There have likely been examples of American-style "hoppy" lagers brewed in the U.K. and even Ireland in the past couple of decades which were somewhere along the lines of an "IPL", but which were not marketed as such. There was a brand from a boutique brewer/vintner called "Curious Brew" (I tried the whole line) which was hoppier than your average Pils but also "dosed" with Champagne yeast! Definitely unique, and could almost fill-in for an IPL... almost.

There are a few U.K. breweries that make it to the U.S. in bottled (and sometimes draught) form that could brew a rather nice I.P.L. if they wanted to (Samuel Smith comes to mind -- they could easily adjust the hopping in their "Pure Brewed Lager".)

But hoppy, pale lager brewed in the U.K. need not be considered "IPL", unless perhaps a brewmaster or brewery is aiming to catch lightning in a bottle in terms of a new, American trend. In which case, wouldn't "EXPLOSIVE!" use of West Coast C-hops factor-in as the prerequisite for the style, and be more important than any other raw ingredient or step in the process?

 

Here we would call a hoppy pale lager a Pilsner.

 

To the best of my knowledge there is no ‘official’ definition for the IPL style but all of the IPL beers that I have had to date (only a handful of beer brands) have been hoped with American aroma hops. They tasted closer to being an IPA (except with a crisp character) than a Pilsner.

An example of an IPL that is available nationwide (I presume) is Sam Adams Double Agent IPL.

Cheers!

 

Can't imagine that with all the great ales of England that 1) you seek an English lager 2) you seek a style that is American from an English brewers, who largely don't do lagers.