- If you like IPAs enough to click on this video,
you probably know IPA means India Pale Ale.
You also probably know that in the past few decades,
the IPA has risen from relative obscurity to the
increasingly double hopped, fruit-accented
darling of the craft beer movement.
Something you can basically find everywhere beer is sold.
But the commonly held belief that the IPA was invented as a
miracle beer that would stay fresh on the long journey from
England to India is.. not entirely accurate.
Well, sort of.
In the early 18th century, people in
England love their beer.
And one of the preeminent styles
of the time is the pale ale, brewed with coke-fired malt
leading to a lighter complexion.
And throughout the century, England routinely
ships beer to several different continents,
including India, via the East India Trading Company.
The preferred style is an ale called October Beer
with a high hop content and
aged for months before shipping.
One of the main suppliers is a brewer named George Hodgson.
Hodgson, who operates Bow Brewery, sends thousands of
barrels of beer to India every year,
with his massive supply inspiring
the song "99 Bottles of Beer on the Wall,
99 bottles of beer." Just kidding!
But that does bring us to two other myths
we have to promptly debunk.
Myth number one: IPAs were invented
specifically for the months long journey to India.
There's evidence that breweries were encouraged
to add extra hops to beers that would
be sent to warmer climates, but this applies to all beers
and was as much about taste as preservatives.
Around this time England was
sending porters, ales, and basically all other
styles of beer to Australia, the Caribbean, and India,
all of which did fine on long sea voyages.
And in terms of alcohol content,
the pale ales of the time actually had a relatively low ABV.
So the idea that an ultra-hopped, high-alcohol beer
was invented specifically for long-term transport,
doesn't add up.
Myth number two:
George Hodgson invented the IPA.
While he eventually became the big dog of the brew world,
English breweries were sending barrels of highly hopped
pale ale to India well before Hodgson.
And his dominance in the market likely
stemmed from the lucky coincidence of his brewery being
super close to the merchant docks and the general popularity
of his refreshing well crafted beer.
He's like the McDonald's of IPAs.
He didn't invent the format,
but he did it well and definitely made it a thing.
By the 1800s, Ballantine Brewery in New Jersey, USA
begins brewing an IPA,
possibly becoming the first American brewery to do so.
But the American IPA boom is not due for..
about another century. Sorry Ballantine.
Fast forward to the 1970s.
Disco is alive and well, everyone loves Happy Days. Ayyy!
And American beer is pretty much dominated by light,
Czech-style lagers made by giant corporations.
But this starts to change when the USDA Breeding Program
at the University of Oregon develops
the Cascade hop, a sweet, floral, extremely aromatic
hop that would soon be adopted by San Francisco's
Anchor Brewing, who in 1975 released the
Liberty Ale on the 200th anniversary of Paul Revere's
"One if by land, two if by sea" ride.
It uses the new Cascade hops,
becoming the first modern American IPA.
By the 1990s, the emergence of
what would come to be known as
craft breweries become synonymous with IPAs.
Small operations on the West Coast, like Lagunitas,
in the Midwest, like Bell's,
and on the East Coast, like Harpoon,
bring IPAs to every corner of the States.
And as the decade progressed,
the popularity of the American IPA increased.
At the dawn of the new millennium,
Russian River's Pliny the Elder,
with a hardy 8% ABV and tasting like a pine tree
(in a good way), brings the double IPA
to the forefront of American brewing.
The IPA is a format that lends itself
extremely well to getting weird.
And it spins off into a seemingly infinite number of
subsets including: the West Coast IPA,
Session IPA, Hazy IPA, New England IPA, Triple IPA,
and Double Dry Hopped IPAs.
By 2011, Vermont's Alchemist Brewery
releases their legendary Heady Topper,
which helps prove that IPAs indeed can,
and maybe should, be drunk directly from the can.
Also in 2011 Anheuser-Busch purchases
Chicago's Goose Island for 38 million smackeroos.
As craft beer grows in popularity,
the brands all get snatched up by giant beer corporations,
for better or worse. Probably worse.
By 2015, Ballast Point's Grapefruit Sculpin is released,
spurring the emergence of fruity IPAs.
And craft beer sales, largely buoyed by the IPA,
make up about 20% of the American beer market.
And by 2021, we have IPAs made with
both Lucky Charms and Key Lime Pie.
Not together. Thank God.
And it still remains the most popular style
for nearly every craft brewery.
So much so, that we routinely need to ask ourselves,
"Hey, what's the next IPA?"
But we salute you IPAs! Because the next IPA
is probably just another variation of the IPA,
which is a confusing way to say, that the IPA
is here to stay.
And I'm just now realizing all that rhymed.
Sorry..
I've had a few IPAs while we were taping this.
Oopsies.
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