Slow boat to India

If you read my last post, you are expecting another description of a brewery and/or tour.  Unfortunately the tour was sold out (45 minutes in advance!) and I was not able to make it.  So instead I decided to talk about IPAs.  I brewed an IPA on Saturday and thought that it would be fun to look into the history of the style.  I have heard the basics about shipping the beer to India, but wanted to dig a little deeper.  Thanks to Ray Daniels and his book “Designing Great Beers” and Wikipedia for the details…

The British Empire appointed its first governor to India in 1774.  With this event, ships began to regularly travel back to England with spices and silk.  Since India was self-sufficient, the ships often traveled from England to India without any cargo.  George Hodgson of the Bow Brewery in East London recognized an opportunity to take advantage of low freight rates on these empty vessels and began shipping his specially developed IPA in the 1790’s.

Why the special formulation?  The long, hot journey proved a difficult one for the dark ales and porters that were common in England at that time. Ships typically left London, sailed south past the equator along the coast of Africa, rounded the Cape of Good Hope and then crossed the Indian Ocean to reach India.  It was a 6 month trip across many climates and the rough waters of southern Africa resulted in an extremely violent voyage.  The standard, sweet ales and porters of England surely would have spoiled along the way.

In order to make the trip, Hodgson modified one of his existing “paler” ales.  First, the new beer was highly hopped to take advantage of the preservative nature of the hop acids.  Whole hops were often added to the pitch-coated casks for additional protection during the journey.  The second change was to reduce the original gravity of the beer and to use paler malts.  Doing so created a more fermentable wort allowing the yeast to consume a larger amount of sugars. The finished “dry” beer contained less sugar for bacteria and wild yeast during the long voyage.

Fast forward 200 plus years and the style is still alive today.  Many of the IPAs available in Britain today are actually closer to a regular pale ale than their cousin of the past.  In America, however, the style has taken firm roots among the craft and microbrew communities.  And in typical American fashion, they have pushed the limits of bitterness and alcohol content to the point of creating a new category, Double IPA.  Another interesting note about modern day… from what I can tell, IPA is not sold in India today. They are drinking lagers almost exclusively.  Their loss!

So here is the low down on my American IPA.  A slight modification on one of my regulars that has a bit of a following among friends:

• OG: 1.065
• Malts: Pale (American), 60 L Crystal, Cara-Pils, Biscuit
• Hops: Chinook (A strong hop to help give me the bitterness necessary for the style), Cascade (For flavor and aroma, dry hopping to follow) 
• Yeast: White Labs California Ale Yeast – High attenuation (Ferments up to 80% of sugars)
• Vessel: Glass with heater and jacket to help keep the yeast happy, no wood or pitch!