Take American Originals recipe and slightly increase amount of base malt. The result was a 6–7% beer that was largely similar to the American Originals, but bolder in flavor and aroma.ĭry Hopping Rate: 0.5–1 oz./gallon (4–7.5 g/L) With increased alpha acid concentrations, brewers boosted bitterness and gravity to compensate. Switch to Cascade hops, 2X dry-hop rate.Īs more aromatic American hop varieties were released like Chinook (1985), Centennial (1990), and Columbus (1990s), brewers quickly found a place for them in IPA. Take Mid-Century Modern recipe and increase malt by 50%, switch to American pale malt and add crystal malt. Many breweries still added gypsum, but generally not to the same levels as Burton’s water (600+ ppm sulfate)įermentables: American pale, medium crystal Cascade hops’ grapefruity flavor became the signature of the style all because they were cheap and accessible when all the bigger breweries wanted European-style hops and alpha acids.
The most significant change they made to IPA was to substitute in American ingredients. Take Burton Recipe and cut ingredients in half, shorten dry hop to one week, and no Brettanomyces.ġ970s – American Originals (Anchor Liberty)Įarly American craft brewers adopted and adapted beers from all over the world, often looking to extinct or endangered styles for inspiration. The eventual result was something that was closer to what we think of as a bitter with ABV under 5%.ĭry Hopping Rate: 0.25 oz./gallon (2 g/L) Ron Pattinson, Martyn Cornell, and others have done a fantastic job tracking how recipes changed by studying brewing logs. World Wars, ingredient rationing, and changes to alcohol taxation resulted in the slow erosion of the original gravity, hopping-rate, and aging time. “Burtonization” of water allowed IPA brewing to spread around Great Britain. (142 g) East Kent Golding (dry hop) Brettanomyces claussenii added with dry hops Age 6 months before packagingġ950s – Mid-Century Modern (McEwan’s IPA) (64 kg) Maris Otter malt 70 IBUs East Kent Goldings 30–90 minutes English Ale Yeast 5 oz. Yeast: English ale (optional Brettanomyces claussenii)ġ4 lbs. 46) High-sulfate water was a natural feature of Burton-on-Trent where the style was primarily brewed. More than anything “India” was a marketing term from the start, according to Mitch Steele in his book IPA: “This would imply that the original IPA was a standard pale ale-style beer that was already being brewed.” (pg.
It is likely that wild yeast played a role during the long aging time, interacting with hops to create a dry, bitter beer of considerable strength. The original IPAs grew out of the pale ales created after the invention of pale malt. I included an example for each - they aren’t necessarily the first or best, just a classic. Here’s my take on each of these “periods” of IPA. The data points are estimated averages, so don’t be worried if your favorite recipe doesn’t fit exactly.
The two graphs above show how IPA evolved in terms of malt sweetness (OG vs. There were branches along the way, but I wanted to present a timeline (even if it is dramatically oversimplified). Like most cultural trends, each shift in the IPA style has been a reaction to what came before it influenced by technology, economics, agriculture, and consumer tastes. But how did we get from the dry, herbal, English origins to the juice-bombs and milkshakes of today? The India pale ale “style” has been changing over its entire 200-year history. Where did all the dry, bitter, West Coast IPAs go? Where are the malty, balanced IPAs? Occasionally I hear a beer drinker bemoan that with all the “hazies,” IPA has lost its way over the last few years and isn’t what it is supposed to be. Now what I’m with isn’t ‘it’ anymore and what’s ‘it’ seems weird and scary. “I used to be with ‘it,’ but then they changed what ‘it’ was.