Ben you need a bit of context: when I first started questioning the IPA myths, I received considerable resistance from people who disliked the old verities being questioned, and I had a large number of people attack me and try to tell me that I was “just trying to prove a negative”. While Pacific Northwest farmers are continuing to create new cultivars like tropical star Mosaic, hop growers in Germany, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa are devising varieties such as white wine–like Nelson Sauvin and orange-y Mandarina Bavaria that help brewers broaden IPAs’ delicious definition. My latest book, Complete IPA, is a headlong dive into a mosh pit of hops and IPAs, covering the latest trends and crucial brewers to know, as well as deflating persistent falsehoods. Pale ale was already being brewed in England before Hodgson. I’m surprised to see you taking part in the obnoxious IPA Day nonsense, though. It makes me wonder if most of what we read about pale ale in contemporary (1800’s) writings was puffed up or actually invented by creative writers. So what IS the difference between a pub and a bar? Hodgson may have been […]. Your email address will not be published. Notify me of follow-up comments by email. I have to admit I didn’t do any research myself but, if the […], […] originally brewed in England and evolved from the Pale Ale, and was created some time during the mid 17th to early 18th centuries. Good day and a great article in any case! Yes over the time the story simplified and steered a bit, but the original article is just aggressively tearing it apart without even considering that basically the “myths” are fact based and it’s not all made-up rubbish. Let’s call this a half-truth. For more than a decade, Cornell has been sharing IPA truths and shooting down many aspects (although not all) of the “ships to India” story, …read […], […] their beer to India by boat, they would add extra hops for better conservation, although I read on another blog that this is actually a legend. – I.P.A’s | The Barley Men, Exploring Historic Beer Styles: The Porter, Beer Experts: How to Become a Certified Cicerone, IPA is doomed (well, sort of) • The Drinking Classes, Tamamura Honten Africa Pale Ale / Tamamura Honten Africa Pale Ale Harvest Brew | beereast, Risotto met witloof, champignons en bier – Feestje in mijn mond, The Real Origin Story of IPA - Thorn Brewing Co. San Diego Craft Beer, https://history.stackexchange.com/questions/14343/did-ancient-medieval-indians-produce-and-consume-alcohol, https://www.gourmetads.com/about/privacy-policy. Protz in his article on IPA in the latest Beer magazine seems to be moving away from Myth 1 (citing you) but is still sticking to Myth 3. They say that they drank rum, arak or Porter. Your rebuttal first deals with the alcohol aspect, but then makes it seem like the entire statement is false, by emphasizing the non-unique nature of IPA in the international beer shipping trade, whereas the myth as stated by your imagined speaker is actually not false in its entirety. Martyn, sorry if I placed my comment in the wrong place in the blog, please feel free to right that. The beer became very […], […] do Beercast e do 700 Cervejas sobre o assunto, bem como nos posts originais do Zythophile (aqui, aqui, aqui e […], […] grew more fanciful over time. This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. by email. References for all would be great. However, the no-hops-spared approach has gone viral, marvelous modern IPAs brewed in Buenos Aires and Brussels, Tokyo, and London. Oh, indeed, the hops were for preservation, but the myth claims this only applied to IPA, and was an idea invented for IPA, whereas this was a general recommendation, not limited to IPA and not invented by the Hodgsons. So IPA in fact was invented for the occupants (or let’s use nicer term troops here) In IPA-bier of India Pale Ale-bier zit veel hop en dat maakt IPA-bier bitter. Today, this ghost pepper–like blaze toward intensity has, for the most part, flamed out. Zythophile er sitet at læse for historien om IPA. That seemed even on face value to be highly risible ……. […] lovers like to tell a tall tale about the history of the IPA name. […] Yep, apparently it’s IPA day today. And all beers and ales exported abroad were more highly hopped to help them survive, including porters. Back then IPAs were blitzkriegs of bitterness, the IBU arms race great for media attention, terrible for many taste buds. Amateurs get all this fancy stuff, profi brewers don’t need much more than the teapot. I have to admit, I was one of those uninformed people who believed in myth 2. Indeed, there is no evidence that IPA was “invented” at all. EPA – export pale ale ( meeting the eaely export requirements of alcoholic beverages shipping), […] 1709 when pale ales first began being sold in London. No journalist worth his salt would react so badly to being asked the sources of your decrees from on high regarding what is correct in beer lore. […] Izvor: http://zythophile.wordpress.com/2011/08/04/four-ipa-myths-that-need-to-be-stamped-out-for-ipaday/ […], […] Izvor: http://zythophile.wordpress.com/2011/08/04/four-ipa-myths-that-need-to-be-stamped-out-for-ipaday/ […], […] doesn’t just taste great – the IPA has history! Lot’s of decent size breweries actually and simply don’t have small brewing kits (ours included until recently). Meanwhile, get the low-down on this fab beer style here. Learn how your comment data is processed. It’s got intrigue, danger, excitement, and somehow a boat trip from England to India by way of Scotland. You can’t prove that I didn’t, so it must be plausible. Oh, I tried. This would have been 2003. Martyn – It wouldn’t let me reply to your most recent response so I have left it here. IPAs are big business and growing bigger, accounting for more than $800 million in sales last year and counting.. Hit any bar or brewery, and the tap lines are likely dominated by IPAs. Thanks for the clarification. Well, then, I guess I am fine dealing with these 9-10% US IPAs tonight, not dealing with insanely over strength beers – just a foolishly over strength ones. My first question, whilst reading your “Myrthbuster” pronouncements, was, what makes Martyn correct in this matter. And you can also read my book, Amber Gold and Black: see the column on the right for details of where to obtain it. In fact, consumption of the historic style (complete with a hokey and apocryphal origin story) has increased so much that doctors are concerned the bitter flower has an addictive substance […], […] depending on who you listen to. Läs gärna lite av någon som kan betydliget mera än jag om IPAns myter. Today it is hard to tell the difference between bitter, pale ale and IPA in the mother […]. Let’s start with the definition: IPA stands for India pale ale, a construct as loose as XXXL sweatpants. It belongs to the world. sometimes the stories we make up are so darned fun though!! The pale ales exported by Hodgson, Bass, Allsopp and others were drunk by the middle and upper classes among the Europeans in India, the military officers and the “civil servants”, the civilians who worked for the East India Company, trading, administrating and collecting taxes. 1) The pale ales exported to India were NOT higher in alcohol than those sold at home. Does that make it taste any better? Pale ales began to be increasingly brewed after the invention of coke, which made the production of pale malt much easier. […] in the first place, and he stories of a stronger beer brewed especially for export to India are bunk. It even has its own quirky and very well-written biography. But I did put two links at the bottom of this post to previous posts which DO have proper references, in particular here, which is 4,000 words on the early days of “pale ale as brewed for India”, and I wrote a lengthy post here about pale ale brewing before IPA. Today, the IPA might as well be America’s national symbol, the bald eagle in the beer aisle. During the heady days of the early millennium, brewers added ever-more hops to their beer, an arms race of IBUs—that is, International Bittering Units—designed to lay waste to palates and serve as a counterpoint to lagers sold by the 30-pack. I’ll definitely have to share this. “When one states, empirically, that there is no evidence, evidence to that claim requires the light of day.”. Would love to try some English IPA? Sometimes the legend is more interesting than the facts… ignore that man behind the curtain! If the myth were stated instead as “British brewers discovered that if they put lots of hops in the beers they were sending out, the hoppy beer wouldn’t go sour on the four-month voyage around Africa,” then you would have an entirely valid statement. Hoppy is a lazy adjective, one I’ve been guilty of using on multiple occasions. A fine example of the reborn IPA is Jaipur by Thornbridge. The ordinary soldiers were recruited from the working class, and they drank porter. Perhaps incomplete, as it should read “the hoppy beer wouldn’t go sour on the voyage to warm-climate British territories,” but nonetheless, not inaccurate at all. Oh well, guess you learn as you go. If the myth were stated instead as “British brewers discovered that if they put lots of hops in the beers they were sending out, the hoppy beer wouldn’t go sour on the four-month voyage around Africa,” then you would have an entirely valid statement. Use the phrase if it floats your boat, just never as shorthand for bitterness.