Lucky Baldwin’s with Douglas

The heat and weather here in southern California has been really unbearable but that did not stop Douglas and myself from enjoying one of the India Pale Ale (IPA) brews at Lucky Baldwins this afternoon. What is an IPA brew you ask. I am here to tell you that Douglas is the master of the hops and can tell you all about them but in his abscence I will attempt to let you know a little about the IPA festival that just finished at LB’s in Pasadena California.

The IPA style of ale has a long and glorious history in England and recently Americans have grown to love the bitter flavor of the brew. Great for the hot days in Pasadena.

Douglas pictured here is one of my Pals from the University of Southern California departement of anesthesia. We are planning a wonderful graduation celebration this coming September 2nd. Now the IPA will be best then but in the mean time a cold ice tea will due. Below follows a historical explanation for the IPA brew curtousy of India Pale Ale: A brief history by George de Piro, Brewmaster, C.H. Evans Brewing Company

The late 18th century presented England with several vexing issues. While the upstarts in the North American colonies were certainly worthy of attention, there were two other matters of even greater importance: how to get beer to the colony in India and supply His Majesty’s sailors during the voyage.

Even today, beer does not travel well. Motion and heat speed the staling of beers brewed using the most modern techniques and equipment. 250 years ago, it was practically impossible to ship beer long distances and end up with a palatable product at the receiving port.

The trip to India was long and brutal; down the Atlantic through tropical heat, around the Cape of Good Hope, and back north into the tropics. (There was no Suez Canal until 1869, and even then it was still a very long, hot journey.) The first English beers arriving in India, porters from London, were usually sour, flat, and unfit for sale. Sailors on station in warm waters resorted to rum, theoretically diluted with water and flavored with citrus, because beer could not keep.

One idea to provide sailors with beer was to brew on ships using condensed wort extracts, just like some modern home brewers. Unfortunately, the conditions in tropical seas made it difficult to produce palatable beers for the sailors. Some London brewers tried to bottle flat porter and export it to India, hoping that the beer would condition on the journey. This method met little success.

At the end of the 18th century, an enterprising brewer named Hodgson, motivated by the wide-open Indian beer market, solved the problem. He invented a new style of beer, brewing it to a high alcohol level and using more hops than any previous beers. While there is not enough alcohol in any beer to offer serious protection from microorganisms, having more of it will certainly not hurt. The real genius of his recipe is in the hops.

High hop levels can preserve a beer’s flavor in two ways: they have a limited ability to protect beer from spoilage by some microorganisms, and, more importantly, their bitterness can mask stale flavors. While the beer arriving in India would certainly have suffered from oxidative staling during the long voyage, it could still taste acceptable because of the masking effect of alcohol and hops.

Hodgson’s export beer was a success, and he worked hard to maintain his monopoly on the Indian beer trade. Eventually, other brewers, notably Bass and Allsop, managed to begin trading their own versions of IPA in India, and some brewers began producing a somewhat more subtle version of IPA for the domestic market. Pale ale was thus born from IPA.

The original English IPAs were strong, very hoppy beers, weighing in at about 7-10% ABV and estimated by modern science to contain an enormous 100 International Bitterness Units (IBU) of isomerized alpha acid (the hop substance that makes beer bitter). Today, some English IPAs are less than 4% ABV! Bass Ale, which declares itself an IPA in small letters on its label, illustrates the general trend of English IPAs toward lower alcohol and hop rates. Even when tasted fresh on cask in its native land, Bass is a relatively subtle brew, with only hints of English hops in the nose and a finish that leans toward bitterness without ever getting too near the edge.