Gillman
06-21-2011, 04:40
Wade and I were discussing these beer styles recently. A point came up I thought useful to mention here, which is that India Pale Ale is an English style of beer originally. It was a relatively pale coloured beer, strongly hopped with quality, English hop varietals to allow it to last the voyage to India. It was popular there with various parts of the British administration when India was under British control. Before that, pale ales were known in England but seemed to be stronger and not necessarily highly hopped - the innovation of the first exporters was to take that beer, bring it down from barley wine strength, make it very bitter and send it off in ships. In America this (English) style took root from the 1800's. Ballantine IPA amongst others were examples. They may have used English or American hop varieties, probably both, but the taste - I recall it well - was in the English tradition of pale ale/IPA.
In Canada, before the craft beer era, Alexander Keith's India Pale Ale was in production in Nova Scotia and now is made both there and elsewhere in Canada. It is an excellent example of a commercial IPA, i.e., it's relatively light-bodied and refreshing but with a noticeable flowery hop taste and estery quality.
In 1974, Anchor Brewing, a long-established regional brewery in San Francisco, released Liberty Ale. It wasn't styled an IPA, but it was similar to an English IPA in that it was top-fermented and light-coloured - not black like porter and stout and not brown like a brown ale. Its hopping though was different, it used hops grown on the West Coast - a traditional hop growing area - but in large amounts and the Cascade hop figured in its production. This is a hop with a big grapefruit-like taste, some people say deeply citric or piny. Apparently, homebrewers had been making strongly-hopped ales with locally grown hops, and Liberty Ale possibly was inspired by them, or may have been a truly original type.
Starting around 1978 with the revivalist U.S. craft brewers, a style emerged called pale ale or IPA which is now called APA - American Pale Ale. This ale similarly used large amounts of American hops, either Cascade or sometimes Centennial or other varieties which to many have a kind of "house" similarity. Liberty Ale is the grandfather of this style IMO. The best known example today is probably Sierra Nevada Pale Ale which started around 1980 and still is one of the best APAs around. But there are hundreds of APAs now available, and a recent trend is double IPA - bigger in every way than the regular APA i.e., in alcohol, body, hops.
Thus, APA is in the English pale ale/IPA tradition, but became a recognized sub-style in the 1970's. In essence it is a regional variant of English pale ale, just as Alexander Keith's IPA is a surviving Canadian example of IPA as made by a large established brewery.
And so when we speak of liking "hoppy" beers, a further distinction should be made between the English and American pale ale/IPA types. The English type can be bitter indeed but tends to a softer, more flowery taste than APA. However, APA has taken root in England recently, not just as an import but in the form of a local production which use American-grown hops. Brew Dog in Scotland makes a well-known example. And so America has returned the favor of pale ale you might say.
Gary
In Canada, before the craft beer era, Alexander Keith's India Pale Ale was in production in Nova Scotia and now is made both there and elsewhere in Canada. It is an excellent example of a commercial IPA, i.e., it's relatively light-bodied and refreshing but with a noticeable flowery hop taste and estery quality.
In 1974, Anchor Brewing, a long-established regional brewery in San Francisco, released Liberty Ale. It wasn't styled an IPA, but it was similar to an English IPA in that it was top-fermented and light-coloured - not black like porter and stout and not brown like a brown ale. Its hopping though was different, it used hops grown on the West Coast - a traditional hop growing area - but in large amounts and the Cascade hop figured in its production. This is a hop with a big grapefruit-like taste, some people say deeply citric or piny. Apparently, homebrewers had been making strongly-hopped ales with locally grown hops, and Liberty Ale possibly was inspired by them, or may have been a truly original type.
Starting around 1978 with the revivalist U.S. craft brewers, a style emerged called pale ale or IPA which is now called APA - American Pale Ale. This ale similarly used large amounts of American hops, either Cascade or sometimes Centennial or other varieties which to many have a kind of "house" similarity. Liberty Ale is the grandfather of this style IMO. The best known example today is probably Sierra Nevada Pale Ale which started around 1980 and still is one of the best APAs around. But there are hundreds of APAs now available, and a recent trend is double IPA - bigger in every way than the regular APA i.e., in alcohol, body, hops.
Thus, APA is in the English pale ale/IPA tradition, but became a recognized sub-style in the 1970's. In essence it is a regional variant of English pale ale, just as Alexander Keith's IPA is a surviving Canadian example of IPA as made by a large established brewery.
And so when we speak of liking "hoppy" beers, a further distinction should be made between the English and American pale ale/IPA types. The English type can be bitter indeed but tends to a softer, more flowery taste than APA. However, APA has taken root in England recently, not just as an import but in the form of a local production which use American-grown hops. Brew Dog in Scotland makes a well-known example. And so America has returned the favor of pale ale you might say.
Gary