India Pale Ale did not get its origins in India nor did any Indian for that matter have anything directly to do with the brewing of this beer style.
Back in the 1800s, British beer drinkers stationed in India found their beer stale or skunked whenever it reached their location. Imagine the distance that a bottle of beer would need to travel from Britain going around Africa across the vast Indian Ocean before reaching the pubs in Bombay and Calcutta. Not to mention the extreme temperature it has to endure while traveling and the kind of storage condition the tradesmen used.
That and all, would only mean beer gone bad. No matter how beer-deprived those British soldiers and citizens were, they could not take the taste and so George Hodgson of Bow Brewery thought of brewing the pale ale into something stronger that its taste could survive the extremely long voyage and so he mixed an abundant amount of dry hops with increased level of alcohol.
The taste indeed survived the distance traveled and the British community was ecstatic to receive the beer and enjoy drinking each bottle. The higher level of alcohol probably worked even more to the British soldiers as they could get intoxicated quickly to forget that they are halfway across the globe from their home and family.
George Hodgson's new kind of brewing was then known as India Pale Ale. It was given that name to differentiate it from the original pale ale. After that more and more beer exporters modified their brewing styles so each bottle of beer would be able to withstand the long journey.
Today, many variations have been concocted to satisfy different cravings of many beer drinkers and can be found in almost all bars and pubs in different parts of the world. However, there are only few IPAs brewed today that has the same level of alcohol content and hops used by Hodgson back in the 18th century. Unfortunately there are brewers who either put higher or lower content of alcohol on each bottle and still label it as IPA.
However, there are still some beers that are brewed near to the original taste like the Burton Bridge Empire India Pale Ale, Fuller's IPA and the Pride of Romsey I.P.A all from England breweries. There is also McEwan's IPA from Scotland and a couple from the U.S., the Tremont's Brewery's IPA and Shipyard Brewing Company's Fuggles IPA.
Back in the 1800s, British beer drinkers stationed in India found their beer stale or skunked whenever it reached their location. Imagine the distance that a bottle of beer would need to travel from Britain going around Africa across the vast Indian Ocean before reaching the pubs in Bombay and Calcutta. Not to mention the extreme temperature it has to endure while traveling and the kind of storage condition the tradesmen used.
That and all, would only mean beer gone bad. No matter how beer-deprived those British soldiers and citizens were, they could not take the taste and so George Hodgson of Bow Brewery thought of brewing the pale ale into something stronger that its taste could survive the extremely long voyage and so he mixed an abundant amount of dry hops with increased level of alcohol.
The taste indeed survived the distance traveled and the British community was ecstatic to receive the beer and enjoy drinking each bottle. The higher level of alcohol probably worked even more to the British soldiers as they could get intoxicated quickly to forget that they are halfway across the globe from their home and family.
George Hodgson's new kind of brewing was then known as India Pale Ale. It was given that name to differentiate it from the original pale ale. After that more and more beer exporters modified their brewing styles so each bottle of beer would be able to withstand the long journey.
Today, many variations have been concocted to satisfy different cravings of many beer drinkers and can be found in almost all bars and pubs in different parts of the world. However, there are only few IPAs brewed today that has the same level of alcohol content and hops used by Hodgson back in the 18th century. Unfortunately there are brewers who either put higher or lower content of alcohol on each bottle and still label it as IPA.
However, there are still some beers that are brewed near to the original taste like the Burton Bridge Empire India Pale Ale, Fuller's IPA and the Pride of Romsey I.P.A all from England breweries. There is also McEwan's IPA from Scotland and a couple from the U.S., the Tremont's Brewery's IPA and Shipyard Brewing Company's Fuggles IPA.