Don't forget to check out our feature length documentary, also featuring the wonderful Martyn Cornell. If you want more beer history check our his books: www.amazon.co.uk/kindle-dbs/entity/author/B0034PY5ZE
To anyone in London and interested in trying something similar to the original IPAs, I really recommend 1892 IPA by Beerblefish. Its about 7% and has a lot of brett character (brettanomyces claussenii I think the strain is called? Its the strain isolated from an old English ale). Apparently pretty accurate to Victorian era recipes, but without the barrel aging. Very complex and fascinating to drink
Yes indeed. I managed to score a bottle of that at the tap room during BrewCon. Actually mentioned it to Jonny before his IPA talk. Looking forward to trying it soon.
Grewing up in Northern Germany Pils was synonymous to "beer" and thats pretty much all you could get in a pub or bar. Visiting London in 2015, a Bengal Lancer ( in Ye Olde Mitre Tavern of all places, no kidding) was my first IPA and the beginning of my craft beer journey. Great channel btw. And congrats to the UK Craft Beer Scene
Bengal Lancer is a mass market regional beer & a bloody good one. As an ex-brewer, I see "craft" beer as a foreign concept. We just have real beer from different sized breweries!
So good to hear Brett way more often in conversations, in regards to British historical styles, as well as a their influence in Europe, and beyond. Good stuff.
If you guys can manage a trip to the US... Just outside of Asheville, North Carolina (about a 20 minute drive), is one of Sierra Nevada's production facilities. Their website offers tours of the place, and it is fantastic in every way... Plus a tasting at the end of the tour... Freshest beer you will ever have, unless you make it yourself. A history lesson from one of Americas brewing 'Original Gangsters', and a real treat for the eyes, and the nose (Trust me on this - As soon as you step into the main hallway... Heavenly!) But wait... There's more: Asheville, North Carolina is very much a 'Beer Town' that offers something like 20 or 30 breweries, so, a vast array of brewing talents. Well worth the trip, and easily something that you guys could turn into a real crowd pleaser for your channel.
Excellent history: a further point would be that up until the 1980s America there were few beers available to drink that weren't large corporation lagers. The battles amongst those firms revolved around who can provide the weakest tasting and caloric 'lite' beers. But, in the late 1970s home brewing was once again allowed, giving many the chance to experiment with their own. By the time Sierra Navada, etc, came about, the public was right ready for something both full-tasting and quality controlled - perchance missing in home brew...
I've always thought of Orval as a contaminated ESB rather than a 19th century IPA but Martyn makes a great point (as usual). I've visited the Abbey and drank the water from the well. Styrian Goldings was used for years as the dry hop, Strisselspalt is used more recently. At 9 months old it is absolutely sublime
Well the ESB was really invented in the 1970s at Fullers, while Orval goes back much further! So it is probably safe to assume it was inspired by the pale beers of the UK , especially as I believe one of the key brewmasters spent time there
@@TheCraftBeerChannel Would you believe that Fuller's ESB was considered by many to be headbanging juice by many due to it's relatively high ABV back in the 1980s.
Great history. As a Canadian I am familiar with (and enjoy) the us west coast ipas (eg Russian River’s) as well as the east coast and all our locals in Ontario. I recently visited London and really enjoyed the green king offerings. They were a nicely flavored ipa without the ABV. I’ve not found a light ipa with the same good flavour on this side of the pond.
I'd throw Pete Brown's "Hops and Glory" into the mix. He brewed, with Steve Wellington, head brewer at the White Shield Brewery (Museum Brewery at the National Brewery Centre - shut down by Molson Coors 9 days ago) an ale which they called Calcutta IPA that Brown eventually managed to take to India, by sea. The final chapter provides a beautifully succinct potted history of the brewers and politics of Burton.
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Great video! Thanks! Sierra Nevada Pale Ale is my absolute main stay. Has been for several years. I did start out with Liberty Ale decades ago. I have an unopened bottle of Liberty Ale from the 1980's. I kept it because it had an error on the label, i.e. print omitted from banners and anchor. Another good one was Sam Adams Boston Ale (not lager), but I haven't seen that one in about 10 years.
IPA became so popular in the Pacific Norwest of the United States. Particularly in Seattle but more in small towns in Oregon and Washington along the Columbia River. Hood River, Oregon has more breweries than restaurants and when I left, Bingen was a growing IPA, microbreweries.
Your comments about SNPA being not as dry makes me think of what happened with Three Floyds; I find that their hoppy ales (Alpha King, Zombie Dust, Dreadnaught, etc.) are much sweeter than their earlier counterparts. To me, their meaningful innovation was in discovering that sweet malts + fresh hops = juicy, hoppy beer. We are in their debt today with the newest generation of hoppy beers.
Brilliant video. I was drinking Thornbridge's Jaipur while watching this, one of my favourite beers (along with Fuller's Bengal Larncer). could have listened to this all day.
Prior to Prohibition, there were many American IPAs but only one resurfaced after the law was repealed. That beer was Ballantine IPA, a true British style India Pale Ale. Ballantine IPA and their XXX Ale thrived until the 1960’s. They brewed beer until the early 1970’s and unfortunately went out of business after being sold and relocated a number of times.
Great to finally understand the difference and history of English and American IPA. I can’t find Bengal Lancer but Orval and Sierra Nevada can be bought in Australia so will give them a go. Would be good if you can point to a recipe for a homebrew original style English IPA?
Was able to answer my own question. Lots of useful looking recipes on the web. One particularly useful hint is adding untoasted oak chips during maturation period to replicate oak cast storage. Will give it a try.
Really interesting video fellas, nice one. Great choice on Bengal Lancer too. I"m surprised you didn't mention the orange zest that I always get in Bengal Lancer, it's a huge part of the flavour from my experience.
I love love LOVE IPAs. In America we are going through a veritable IPA renaissance. We are spoilt for choice and there seems to be a microbrewery on every corner with at least a couple of really drinkable beers. Thanks for the history lesson. Love you channel.
Great video chaps! Am always drawn back to Sierra Nevada Pale Ale, not because of its significance in craft brewing but because it is such a ruddy delicious beer. However, the SNPA in bottles is 'knocked into touch' by fresh kegged SNPA in the US. Unsure if the kegs reach UK shores but they definitely don't make it as far as Sweden! Recently returned from 2 weeks in USA - Denver, Colorado and San Francisco - a shout out to the American craft scene which is alive and kicking! Didn't make it up to Chico but thoroughly enjoyed the Anchor Brewery tour. Love n Beer!!
As an American, I'm actually a bit dismayed regarding the direction the American IPA has taken here. Most of the enthusiasm is toward a very citrusy and fruity profile, and it has pretty much taken over the IPA shelves. I am not a fan at all of the New England or Farmhouse variants. Finding an IPA in the British style here has become very difficult, especially by American Brewers. I've pretty much moved on from the American IPA, and have focused more on traditional pale ales or stouts. Recommendations are welcome however!
Anchor's Liberty Ale is very underrated and doesn't get enough credit. It's actually a SMASH beer (using cascades), came out in 1976, I prefer it over SNPA. Great episode, enjoy hearing the older generations laying it down.
Great to see the follow up thanks lads really enjoyed, off the back of the last video I've got a St Peters Ipa kit on the go don't have space for all grain equipment in my apartment just small batch biab stuff on the stove or kits so don't be too hard on me, looking forward to tasting some Kent hops again 😀
Enjoyed this video. I live in Northern California about a 2 1/2 hour drive from Chico where Sierra Nevada Pale Ale is made (great tour by the way!). Never considered their pale ale to be an IPA as I’m used to the West Coast-style of bitter+citrus+piney. You should do a video on Pliney the Elder and Pliney the Younger, two epic West Coast IPAs.
In addition to Pliney the Elder/Younger, don't forget: (Bear Republic) Racer 5; (Stone) Ruination; (Stone) Delicious; (Greenflash) West Coast IPA; (Port) Wipeout; (Port) Mongo; (Hop Concept) Dank and Sticky. There are so many good ones out there! They could do a whole video series just on the West Coast Style IPA. Definitely, one of the best American beer styles!
Thanks for this; I've always considered Sierra Nevada to be an 'American' IPA, not just for the high hopping rates (bittering and late Cascade additions) but also the 5.6% ABV gets a tad closer to the original 'India' PAs.
Was stuck having to drink Newcastle last night at a pizza pub because it was the only brown ale they had and everything else was IPAs or industrial lagers. I can’t tolerate the bitterness of IPA and I’m sick to death of it being the only craft selections on menus. Bring back tasty and balanced brown ales!
The IPA craze has become so unhinged, producing ludicrously hoppy IPAs for the sake of out-hopping the competition, that it's not worth trying IPAs anymore. It's sad, really. It has such interesting history, but the hops arms race has ruined craft beer menus the world over.
In the late Eighties, in Boston and Connecticut there was a real micro brewery explosion but everything was very ale like if it wasn't an American style lager. I never came across Sierra Nevada. In '96 I tried my first IPA... a local Washington State brewer that had a pub / hotel chain, McMenamins. Best beer I'd ever tasted and became hooked. Returned to UK, saw Sierra Nevada but it was nothing like McMenamins. Then Punk IPA arrived, very close to McMenamins IPA but not as good.
Maybe you could do a collab brew with Fullers using one of their old recipes under their past masters series. Would be very interesting to see old recipes
Great work on this one. Have watched the channel for a while and was wondering if you gents would ever think about heading down under to Australia and NZ to see and film the craft scenes here? We have thriving scenes across the antidodes and it would be great to see what you guys thought about it all. Maybe time it with a Good Beer Week / Pint of Origin. Just a thought! Keep up the great work. Cheers!
As an American beer drinker, I have to say that I'm rather tired of IPAs. You must understand that I go to the supermarket now, and the shelves are coated in varieties of IPA, often with unnecessary "fruit" variants of questionable character. This is probably still novel to Europeans, but they have quite done it to death here. I can scarcely refer to the industry as craft any more, especially knowing that the major contribution to the recipe was a unique variety of hop. While I will never look askew at the finer classics in the style like Lagunitas or Dogfish 90 Minute, I just pace the beer aisle these days and grimace. I feel much more at home at an alcohol emporium where I spend considerably more time at the European import section, typically the shelves with the Belgian beers. It's time for craft brewers in America to invent something new, and I don't mean a peanut butter IPA with pickle juice or a raspberry seltzer.
Love Martyn's short histories of IPA's and most of his thoughts I totally agree with. But I hope I can make a small addition as a brewer of 43 yrs. The other reason for the success of exporting Pale Ale to India that had been brewed in Burton-Upon-Trent was the high sulphur content of the water. In Martyn's explanation he lists clarity ( normally XS Calcium in the liqour) and spriz? ( lots of carbonate in the same) but the sulphur (normally present in brewing liquor as CaSo4 or gypsum) is possibly the best bacteriostat here and is the reason why Burton beers of all styles suffer from the 'Burton Stench'. So the IPA's from Burton had extra natural preservatives in them than beers brewed in ............Sheffield? Yes......they did and that is probably why the Burton brewed beers mostly survived the boat trip to India without going sour. Burton Stench can be very mild and that is just a slight whiff that you can detect in a well kept pint of Pedegree or Adnams Best . It can also enter the 'Bad Egg Zone' and that is H2S........rotton eggs!!!!! and nobody that I know likes this. Ok my point..........Burton got a reputation for brewing the best beers based on the fact that the IPA's they produced lasted all the way to India but sometime's all that additional flavour from the natural preservatives may diminish the flavour and the moreishness or the drink.
You guys get this so right, Sierra Nevada Pale Ale started the beer revolution in the US, copying, of course, hundreds of years of British and European brewing!
KEN Grossman was a founder of Sierra Nevada Brewing, not Steve as stated at 19:34. Their Pale Ale (and Draught Ale) have been on my "favorites" list since the early '80s.
Hodgsons at Bow Bridge Brewery near St Marys Church brewed an " October Beer " which was ' little different from a good farmhouse beer of old ' which became that which was shipped to India . The strength would have been much higher . For that go to William Cobbett's " Cottage Economy " of 1823 of which half the book is devoted to brewing and fermenting alcoholic drinks including the strong 'farmhouse beers ' using "15 bushels of Malted barley to 15 lb of good Kentish hops" and has included the methods of drawing the stronger to small beers . Also includes other recipes including using sweet peas with malted barley using one of the many pea varieties available in the 18th C like the ' Grey ' pea . Very sweet when ripened in the pod . The yeast is very important for flavour as Adnams found out in the late 70s early 80s when their yeast become sick and they had to go to Greene King to continue to brew Southwold Bitter from Greene King yeast which was not the same product . Greene King had just acquired Rayments in Furneux Pelham in Herts , which was producing BBA , a much better product than anything Greene King produced and promptly closed Rayments down . Allsops was still brewing in the 70s as an independent brewery , but Hodgsons became Hodgsons & Abbott's in around the 1840s and just Abbott's Brewery soon after . The Lea was also a source of distillers of London Gin another (export to malaria infested country's along with quinine tonic waters) , the last one that was situated close to the Les Stort Navigation basin closed in the 80s . For a real IPA or October Beer , grab some S.B. yeast ( which was also used for bread making ) , Golding hops and follow Mr Cobbett's instructions using sweet water . You will need an oak cast ( although much was secondary fermented in bottles ) , dry hop the brew in the cask and roll it from side to side for 6 months preferably in a salty equable climate as this will also change the character of the beer as this ensures the top fermenting yeast is constantly mixed back in and the lees disturbed . Then you can say that this is a real IPA .
I’ve always had the assumption that beer back in the day almost had to have Brett in it because there was no way (to my knowledge) that you’d be able to keep everything sanitized like brewers are able to today with Star San and other products. I also assume most beer was pretty oxidized as well.
It's not a bad assumption, but many beers would have been clean at least to start - back in the 1700/1800s some beers would have been served super fresh before the brett took hold (brett is very slow), while others were aged on purpose to get what they called a "stale" character. Both IPA and Porter would have been aged to be bretty.
The New Albion Brewing Company is known as the first American craft beer brewery. Founded in 1976 by Jack McAuliffe, Suzy Stern, and Jane Zimmerman in Sonoma, California,[1] New Albion is acknowledged as the first United States microbrewery of the modern era,[2][3] as well as a heavy influence on the subsequent microbrewery and craft beer movements of the late 20th century. New Albion was resurrected in 2012 by Boston Beer Company under the supervision of McAuliffe. The current president is McAuliffe's daughter, Renee M. DeLuca.
I just came back here once again cause I'm going to do a tasting about the evolution of the IPA based on this video. But there is one thing I'm still not sure about. Did the 18th and 19th century pale ale also include brett or did this came with the IPA? Love your channel, espacially those history lessons. Greetings from Germany 🍻
great question. THe answer is that the brett was likely in all beers back then, but would only start to show itself after a few months - by which time most beer had been consumed. This goes back to the original idea of "mild" (which was young, sweeter beer) and "stale" which was aged beer you paid more for and had that brett character. So... all beers had brett, but you could only taste it once it had been aged long enough.
@@TheCraftBeerChannel well that makes total sense. Most beers were drank as fresh as possible. Thanks a lot! Probably most people would refuse to believe, that sour/brett IPAs were the ones who started it all. 😂
Ballantine IPA was made in Newark, NJ starting in the 1880's, until about 1990, it was bought by Pabst and phased out unfortunately. My father drank Ballantine IPA in the 50's and 60's.
P.S., I found a bottle of Brasserie d'Orval Trappist Ale. I found it eerily reminiscent of my first home brews. Actually quite good, very complex with layered flavors and aromas. If it’s close to the original India Pale Ales those colonials were pretty lucky. Fortunately German immigrants made English imports unnecessary here…🍺
Interesting stuff! Great work, thank guys. So why did the rank and file get porter while the officers got pale ale? Cos it was nicer or more expensive to produce? Just social convention? Something else?!
The movement in flavor from the British IPA to the American IPA wasn't just the hops, it also was heavily impacted by the different yeast strains as well. Otherwise, a very informative video. Thanks
Great Lakes Christmas ale, Thirsty Dogs Twelve Dogs of Christmas Ale, and Platform Brewery "Odd Future" Imperial India Pale Ale here, it's a beergasbord 😀
For a second I thought this was going to be about the International Phonetic Alphabet until I realised this was the beer and not the linguistics channel.
Great show. When I first tried Sierra Nevada Pale Ale I loved it. Lots of going-on with flavor. But now I'm a West Coast IPA devotee. I can't go back. I've been to Sierra Nevada's brewery in Chico, CA many times, but no longer satisfied. However, I respect everything they did to the craft.
Don’t forget the legendary Russian River Pliny the Elder (north or San Francisco) - it’s been ranked by many as the best example of an America IPA. You guys must try it!
not terrible but many now have brewed better doubles imo. New breweries just don't have the legacy to be widely known, so you have to find them through the wbc or gabf each year. They have one beer aged in wine barrels I tried that I thought was great though.
India has a tradition of brewing that goes back to 1200BCE, so it was a bit of coals to Newcastle, although the first breweries began in the 1830s. I wonder if the hops were imported or grown locally? I'm guessing pales were the most popular
I live in Newark, NJ, USA. I get IPA's made in California, the Northeast US and from a hyper local (Newark Local Beer) everything is "hoppy", bitter and almost tastes warm (not sharp). At the moment, I am happily ensconced in Florence, Italy (2 more weeks of 5). The beer here can be quite nice. There is a craft brewery a few blocks away that makes a couple of really delicious ales. Most of it is bland and disappointing
It's been a long time since I had Orval. The few times I had it I really did not enjoy it, never was a fan of Brettanomyces. It certainly is worth another look, palates change.
I am a fan of Belgian Blond beers. I think the blond beer DUVEL is also a kind of an IPA. It taste very fresh, bitter and hoppy with a bit off sweetness.
Don't forget to check out our feature length documentary, also featuring the wonderful Martyn Cornell. If you want more beer history check our his books: www.amazon.co.uk/kindle-dbs/entity/author/B0034PY5ZE
To anyone in London and interested in trying something similar to the original IPAs, I really recommend 1892 IPA by Beerblefish. Its about 7% and has a lot of brett character (brettanomyces claussenii I think the strain is called? Its the strain isolated from an old English ale). Apparently pretty accurate to Victorian era recipes, but without the barrel aging. Very complex and fascinating to drink
Yes indeed. I managed to score a bottle of that at the tap room during BrewCon. Actually mentioned it to Jonny before his IPA talk. Looking forward to trying it soon.
Grewing up in Northern Germany Pils was synonymous to "beer" and thats pretty much all you could get in a pub or bar. Visiting London in 2015, a Bengal Lancer ( in Ye Olde Mitre Tavern of all places, no kidding) was my first IPA and the beginning of my craft beer journey. Great channel btw. And congrats to the UK Craft Beer Scene
Love Bengal Lancer. Unfortunately I don't think we can get it in the States anymore
Bengal Lancer is a mass market regional beer & a bloody good one.
As an ex-brewer, I see "craft" beer as a foreign concept. We just have real beer from different sized breweries!
So good to hear Brett way more often in conversations, in regards to British historical styles, as well as a their influence in Europe, and beyond. Good stuff.
More Martyn Cornell ~ awesome!!!!
If you guys can manage a trip to the US...
Just outside of Asheville, North Carolina (about a 20 minute drive), is one of Sierra Nevada's production facilities.
Their website offers tours of the place, and it is fantastic in every way... Plus a tasting at the end of the tour... Freshest beer you will ever have, unless you make it yourself.
A history lesson from one of Americas brewing 'Original Gangsters', and a real treat for the eyes, and the nose (Trust me on this - As soon as you step into the main hallway... Heavenly!)
But wait... There's more: Asheville, North Carolina is very much a 'Beer Town' that offers something like 20 or 30 breweries, so, a vast array of brewing talents.
Well worth the trip, and easily something that you guys could turn into a real crowd pleaser for your channel.
It's been on our list for a LONG time! Hopefully one day!
I drive past it a couple of times a year. I'm going to have to make it a stop over on my travels.
These guys always tell me I was drinking great beer. Sierra Nevada was my first independent beer that I loved.
Splendid! Thank you very much guys!
Fantastic video to watch whilst sipping Juipur and traveling to Finsbury park to watch the football this evening!
Excellent history: a further point would be that up until the 1980s America there were few beers available to drink that weren't large corporation lagers. The battles amongst those firms revolved around who can provide the weakest tasting and caloric 'lite' beers. But, in the late 1970s home brewing was once again allowed, giving many the chance to experiment with their own. By the time Sierra Navada, etc, came about, the public was right ready for something both full-tasting and quality controlled - perchance missing in home brew...
I grew up downwind from Sierra Nevada. THANK YOU for recognizing it in this cannon. Amazing video!
Really well put together content. Music, video, script. All solid.
History in a glass… and a little over 20 minutes. If only schools taught history like this!
I've always thought of Orval as a contaminated ESB rather than a 19th century IPA but Martyn makes a great point (as usual). I've visited the Abbey and drank the water from the well. Styrian Goldings was used for years as the dry hop, Strisselspalt is used more recently. At 9 months old it is absolutely sublime
Good point. I've always compared the dark Trappist beers to the English old ale style/barley wine in that it's malt forward and with a high ABV.
Well the ESB was really invented in the 1970s at Fullers, while Orval goes back much further! So it is probably safe to assume it was inspired by the pale beers of the UK , especially as I believe one of the key brewmasters spent time there
@@TheCraftBeerChannel Would you believe that Fuller's ESB was considered by many to be headbanging juice by many due to it's relatively high ABV back in the 1980s.
We don’t really brew bitter’s over here.
Styrian Goldings is, of course, really Fuggles …
Great history. As a Canadian I am familiar with (and enjoy) the us west coast ipas (eg Russian River’s) as well as the east coast and all our locals in Ontario. I recently visited London and really enjoyed the green king offerings. They were a nicely flavored ipa without the ABV. I’ve not found a light ipa with the same good flavour on this side of the pond.
Great video! Thank you! I love Sierra Nevada, too
I really enjoyed this guys! Thank you!
I'd throw Pete Brown's "Hops and Glory" into the mix. He brewed, with Steve Wellington, head brewer at the White Shield Brewery (Museum Brewery at the National Brewery Centre - shut down by Molson Coors 9 days ago) an ale which they called Calcutta IPA that Brown eventually managed to take to India, by sea. The final chapter provides a beautifully succinct potted history of the brewers and politics of Burton.
This is great!! Good job on the video. Learned a lot. This what i have been wanting to do on my channel. Keep it up!
Great video! This goes really well with your brilliant documentary. Fascinating to learn about the history of beer.
My cousin just started drinking Beer 🍻. She just graduated from college! She only drinks IPA Beer 🍻. I will share this Great History you have provided us with! Tucson Arizona Desert 🏜️🙏😎✌️😁❤️
My fridge is full everyday with Sierra Nevada Pale Ale! Great video gents!
Never expected to see an Orval in an IPA video. Very informative video indeed. Cheers.
That was illuminating....and fun. Thanks gentlemen and to Martyn for the deep dive into what is probably the worlds favorite ale.
Very good documentary. Well done 🍻
Fascinating and very informative video guys, Martyn is a great source of information - good work 👏
Great video! Thanks! Sierra Nevada Pale Ale is my absolute main stay. Has been for several years. I did start out with Liberty Ale decades ago. I have an unopened bottle of Liberty Ale from the 1980's. I kept it because it had an error on the label, i.e. print omitted from banners and anchor. Another good one was Sam Adams Boston Ale (not lager), but I haven't seen that one in about 10 years.
Glad there was that one decision to use a different hop. 😀
Facinating stuff you guys. Love these little segments you do.
A very informative vdeo nice that you had a guest expert, thanks guys
Great stuff as always, love an Orval!
IPA became so popular in the Pacific Norwest of the United States. Particularly in Seattle but more in small towns in Oregon and Washington along the Columbia River. Hood River, Oregon has more breweries than restaurants and when I left, Bingen was a growing IPA, microbreweries.
Same in BC. Tons of micro breweries with IPA's or shitty fruity beers. I'd kill for a nice authentic British brown
I really do love the history videos. I like all of the stuff here, but the somewhat deeper history pieces really blow my skirt up. Thanks chaps!
Great content! Huge fan!
I could easily have gone through a hundred guesses before coming up with Orval. Great stuff guys!
Your comments about SNPA being not as dry makes me think of what happened with Three Floyds; I find that their hoppy ales (Alpha King, Zombie Dust, Dreadnaught, etc.) are much sweeter than their earlier counterparts.
To me, their meaningful innovation was in discovering that sweet malts + fresh hops = juicy, hoppy beer. We are in their debt today with the newest generation of hoppy beers.
Great follow up to the Now IPA video, cheers guys!
Brilliant video. I was drinking Thornbridge's Jaipur while watching this, one of my favourite beers (along with Fuller's Bengal Larncer). could have listened to this all day.
I have to say your channel is one of my favorite ones to watch. Thank you for the content you put out and cheers.
Thanks so much!
Prior to Prohibition, there were many American IPAs but only one resurfaced after the law was repealed. That beer was Ballantine IPA, a true British style India Pale Ale. Ballantine IPA and their XXX Ale thrived until the 1960’s. They brewed beer until the early 1970’s and unfortunately went out of business after being sold and relocated a number of times.
Great to finally understand the difference and history of English and American IPA. I can’t find Bengal Lancer but Orval and Sierra Nevada can be bought in Australia so will give them a go. Would be good if you can point to a recipe for a homebrew original style English IPA?
Was able to answer my own question. Lots of useful looking recipes on the web. One particularly useful hint is adding untoasted oak chips during maturation period to replicate oak cast storage. Will give it a try.
Really interesting video fellas, nice one. Great choice on Bengal Lancer too. I"m surprised you didn't mention the orange zest that I always get in Bengal Lancer, it's a huge part of the flavour from my experience.
Gotta be honest, not sure how fresh that bottle was......
I love love LOVE IPAs. In America we are going through a veritable IPA renaissance. We are spoilt for choice and there seems to be a microbrewery on every corner with at least a couple of really drinkable beers. Thanks for the history lesson. Love you channel.
Well-said and agreed!
Great video chaps! Am always drawn back to Sierra Nevada Pale Ale, not because of its significance in craft brewing but because it is such a ruddy delicious beer. However, the SNPA in bottles is 'knocked into touch' by fresh kegged SNPA in the US. Unsure if the kegs reach UK shores but they definitely don't make it as far as Sweden! Recently returned from 2 weeks in USA - Denver, Colorado and San Francisco - a shout out to the American craft scene which is alive and kicking! Didn't make it up to Chico but thoroughly enjoyed the Anchor Brewery tour. Love n Beer!!
We do indeed get kegs in the UK! Happily enjoyed many pints of it tasting fresher than most of the bottles.
As an American, I'm actually a bit dismayed regarding the direction the American IPA has taken here. Most of the enthusiasm is toward a very citrusy and fruity profile, and it has pretty much taken over the IPA shelves. I am not a fan at all of the New England or Farmhouse variants. Finding an IPA in the British style here has become very difficult, especially by American Brewers. I've pretty much moved on from the American IPA, and have focused more on traditional pale ales or stouts. Recommendations are welcome however!
Fantastic video! Did the Brett come from the barrels? Or was it the primary fermenting yeast? Or just mixed in with some Sac strain?
Anchor's Liberty Ale is very underrated and doesn't get enough credit. It's actually a SMASH beer (using cascades), came out in 1976, I prefer it over SNPA. Great episode, enjoy hearing the older generations laying it down.
SNPA is more of an APA than an american IPA
@@disonymity I'm aware, I mentioned it because they used it as a point of comparison/benchmark in the video
Great to see the follow up thanks lads really enjoyed, off the back of the last video I've got a St Peters Ipa kit on the go don't have space for all grain equipment in my apartment just small batch biab stuff on the stove or kits so don't be too hard on me, looking forward to tasting some Kent hops again 😀
Enjoyed this video. I live in Northern California about a 2 1/2 hour drive from Chico where Sierra Nevada Pale Ale is made (great tour by the way!). Never considered their pale ale to be an IPA as I’m used to the West Coast-style of bitter+citrus+piney. You should do a video on Pliney the Elder and Pliney the Younger, two epic West Coast IPAs.
In addition to Pliney the Elder/Younger, don't forget: (Bear Republic) Racer 5; (Stone) Ruination; (Stone) Delicious; (Greenflash) West Coast IPA; (Port) Wipeout; (Port) Mongo; (Hop Concept) Dank and Sticky. There are so many good ones out there! They could do a whole video series just on the West Coast Style IPA. Definitely, one of the best American beer styles!
Don't forget New Belgium's Voodoo Ranger varieties! Excellent stuff from Fort Collins, CO or Asheville, NC.
Thanks great video. Did one myself not long ago but i am just an amateur on you tube lol thanks. Love all your videos
This was awesome!
Thanks for this; I've always considered Sierra Nevada to be an 'American' IPA, not just for the high hopping rates (bittering and late Cascade additions) but also the 5.6% ABV gets a tad closer to the original 'India' PAs.
Was stuck having to drink Newcastle last night at a pizza pub because it was the only brown ale they had and everything else was IPAs or industrial lagers. I can’t tolerate the bitterness of IPA and I’m sick to death of it being the only craft selections on menus. Bring back tasty and balanced brown ales!
The IPA craze has become so unhinged, producing ludicrously hoppy IPAs for the sake of out-hopping the competition, that it's not worth trying IPAs anymore. It's sad, really. It has such interesting history, but the hops arms race has ruined craft beer menus the world over.
@@thefirespectrum agreed!
History and beer, my two great loves. Martyn Cornell is my God.
I hope Martyn doesn't see this comment.
In the late Eighties, in Boston and Connecticut there was a real micro brewery explosion but everything was very ale like if it wasn't an American style lager. I never came across Sierra Nevada. In '96 I tried my first IPA... a local Washington State brewer that had a pub / hotel chain, McMenamins. Best beer I'd ever tasted and became hooked. Returned to UK, saw Sierra Nevada but it was nothing like McMenamins. Then Punk IPA arrived, very close to McMenamins IPA but not as good.
Maybe you could do a collab brew with Fullers using one of their old recipes under their past masters series. Would be very interesting to see old recipes
Hi Guys,
Thanks for another great show. Are you going to release your British IPA recipe. We can’t buy it down here in Australia
We already have released it! It's here: community.grainfather.com/recipes/886090
A few years ago I had bengle lancer on cask and it was amazing, I wish I could find it again.
Not sure it even exists on cask any more sadly
Enjoyed whilst sipping on an Elysian Brewing Altered Contact IPA, a very sour, fruity one from Seattle, Washington.
Those are some tasty breweries mentioned. I agree with you pics but miss that we can’t get dogfishead hear in Ontario to the north
Great work on this one. Have watched the channel for a while and was wondering if you gents would ever think about heading down under to Australia and NZ to see and film the craft scenes here? We have thriving scenes across the antidodes and it would be great to see what you guys thought about it all. Maybe time it with a Good Beer Week / Pint of Origin. Just a thought! Keep up the great work. Cheers!
As an American beer drinker, I have to say that I'm rather tired of IPAs. You must understand that I go to the supermarket now, and the shelves are coated in varieties of IPA, often with unnecessary "fruit" variants of questionable character. This is probably still novel to Europeans, but they have quite done it to death here. I can scarcely refer to the industry as craft any more, especially knowing that the major contribution to the recipe was a unique variety of hop. While I will never look askew at the finer classics in the style like Lagunitas or Dogfish 90 Minute, I just pace the beer aisle these days and grimace. I feel much more at home at an alcohol emporium where I spend considerably more time at the European import section, typically the shelves with the Belgian beers. It's time for craft brewers in America to invent something new, and I don't mean a peanut butter IPA with pickle juice or a raspberry seltzer.
All hands on deck, prepare for the nitpicking storm a-coming!
I pity the person who goes up against Martyn!
I'll be making an IPA this weekend at home!!
I was drinking IPAs while watching this! 🍺
Cheers to the true history of IPA!🍻
Cool stuff
Love Martyn's short histories of IPA's and most of his thoughts I totally agree with. But I hope I can make a small addition as a brewer of 43 yrs. The other reason for the success of exporting Pale Ale to India that had been brewed in Burton-Upon-Trent was the high sulphur content of the water. In Martyn's explanation he lists clarity ( normally XS Calcium in the liqour) and spriz? ( lots of carbonate in the same) but the sulphur (normally present in brewing liquor as CaSo4 or gypsum) is possibly the best bacteriostat here and is the reason why Burton beers of all styles suffer from the 'Burton Stench'. So the IPA's from Burton had extra natural preservatives in them than beers brewed in ............Sheffield?
Yes......they did and that is probably why the Burton brewed beers mostly survived the boat trip to India without going sour.
Burton Stench can be very mild and that is just a slight whiff that you can detect in a well kept pint of Pedegree or Adnams Best . It can also enter the 'Bad Egg Zone' and that is H2S........rotton eggs!!!!! and nobody that I know likes this.
Ok my point..........Burton got a reputation for brewing the best beers based on the fact that the IPA's they produced lasted all the way to India but sometime's all that additional flavour from the natural preservatives may diminish the flavour and the moreishness or the drink.
We mentioned gypsum?!
You guys get this so right, Sierra Nevada Pale Ale started the beer revolution in the US, copying, of course, hundreds of years of British and European brewing!
Huma Lupa Licious, Shorts Brewery, Elk Rapids MI. Best IPA ever
Good job! Interesting…, after sampling hundreds of “IPA’s” I keep coming back to Sierra Nevada Pale Ale. Now I have to scare up some Orval😳
KEN Grossman was a founder of Sierra Nevada Brewing, not Steve as stated at 19:34. Their Pale Ale (and Draught Ale) have been on my "favorites" list since the early '80s.
Yep apologies! Though Steve works for them too
I recommend anyone watching this to read Pete Brown's Hops and Glory. You won't be disappointed.
Important is the age of the Orval. Orval especially changes enormously the first half year after going into the bottle.
Indeed, we made a video on it! ua-cam.com/video/LlIvfdsRvTs/v-deo.html
Hodgsons at Bow Bridge Brewery near St Marys Church brewed an " October Beer " which was ' little different from a good farmhouse beer of old ' which became that which was shipped to India . The strength would have been much higher . For that go to William Cobbett's " Cottage Economy " of 1823 of which half the book is devoted to brewing and fermenting alcoholic drinks including the strong 'farmhouse beers ' using "15 bushels of Malted barley to 15 lb of good Kentish hops" and has included the methods of drawing the stronger to small beers . Also includes other recipes including using sweet peas with malted barley using one of the many pea varieties available in the 18th C like the ' Grey ' pea . Very sweet when ripened in the pod .
The yeast is very important for flavour as Adnams found out in the late 70s early 80s when their yeast become sick and they had to go to Greene King to continue to brew Southwold Bitter from Greene King yeast which was not the same product . Greene King had just acquired Rayments in Furneux Pelham in Herts , which was producing BBA , a much better product than anything Greene King produced and promptly closed Rayments down . Allsops was still brewing in the 70s as an independent brewery , but Hodgsons became Hodgsons & Abbott's in around the 1840s and just Abbott's Brewery soon after . The Lea was also a source of distillers of London Gin another (export to malaria infested country's along with quinine tonic waters) , the last one that was situated close to the Les Stort Navigation basin closed in the 80s . For a real IPA or October Beer , grab some S.B. yeast ( which was also used for bread making ) , Golding hops and follow Mr Cobbett's instructions using sweet water . You will need an oak cast ( although much was secondary fermented in bottles ) , dry hop the brew in the cask and roll it from side to side for 6 months preferably in a salty equable climate as this will also change the character of the beer as this ensures the top fermenting yeast is constantly mixed back in and the lees disturbed . Then you can say that this is a real IPA .
I’ve always had the assumption that beer back in the day almost had to have Brett in it because there was no way (to my knowledge) that you’d be able to keep everything sanitized like brewers are able to today with Star San and other products. I also assume most beer was pretty oxidized as well.
It's not a bad assumption, but many beers would have been clean at least to start - back in the 1700/1800s some beers would have been served super fresh before the brett took hold (brett is very slow), while others were aged on purpose to get what they called a "stale" character. Both IPA and Porter would have been aged to be bretty.
@@TheCraftBeerChannel That’s a good point that Brett ferments much slower than Saccharomyces so it would be pretty clean if served fresh.
The New Albion Brewing Company is known as the first American craft beer brewery. Founded in 1976 by Jack McAuliffe, Suzy Stern, and Jane Zimmerman in Sonoma, California,[1] New Albion is acknowledged as the first United States microbrewery of the modern era,[2][3] as well as a heavy influence on the subsequent microbrewery and craft beer movements of the late 20th century. New Albion was resurrected in 2012 by Boston Beer Company under the supervision of McAuliffe. The current president is McAuliffe's daughter, Renee M. DeLuca.
I just happen to live one town over from the only place serving cask Sierra Nevada Pale Ale
Try the Kona Brewing Hanalei Island IPA!
I just came back here once again cause I'm going to do a tasting about the evolution of the IPA based on this video. But there is one thing I'm still not sure about. Did the 18th and 19th century pale ale also include brett or did this came with the IPA?
Love your channel, espacially those history lessons.
Greetings from Germany 🍻
great question. THe answer is that the brett was likely in all beers back then, but would only start to show itself after a few months - by which time most beer had been consumed. This goes back to the original idea of "mild" (which was young, sweeter beer) and "stale" which was aged beer you paid more for and had that brett character. So... all beers had brett, but you could only taste it once it had been aged long enough.
@@TheCraftBeerChannel well that makes total sense. Most beers were drank as fresh as possible. Thanks a lot!
Probably most people would refuse to believe, that sour/brett IPAs were the ones who started it all. 😂
Are you drinking it warm / room temp?
I always tell people if they like grapefruit juice they may like an IPA.
Ballantine IPA was made in Newark, NJ starting in the 1880's, until about 1990, it was bought by Pabst and phased out unfortunately. My father drank Ballantine IPA in the 50's and 60's.
Quality content
Your bloody steering wheel is on the wrong side of the damn car! 🙃😁🍻
P.S., I found a bottle of Brasserie d'Orval Trappist Ale. I found it eerily reminiscent of my first home brews. Actually quite good, very complex with layered flavors and aromas. If it’s close to the original India Pale Ales those colonials were pretty lucky. Fortunately German immigrants made English imports unnecessary here…🍺
What was the second bottle of beer drunk?
Interesting stuff! Great work, thank guys. So why did the rank and file get porter while the officers got pale ale? Cos it was nicer or more expensive to produce? Just social convention? Something else?!
Price mostly! Porter was significantly cheaper due to the malt used, and was in fact invented to be cheap when duty on malt when up.
The movement in flavor from the British IPA to the American IPA wasn't just the hops, it also was heavily impacted by the different yeast strains as well.
Otherwise, a very informative video. Thanks
Very true, I have brewed some British IPA's using American hops and British yeasts and they are still distinctly British IPA's
Great video! Drinking a Great Lakes Burning River Pale Ale.
Great Lakes Christmas ale, Thirsty Dogs Twelve Dogs of Christmas Ale, and Platform Brewery "Odd Future" Imperial India Pale Ale here, it's a beergasbord 😀
And sadly, Hazy Little Thing, for the first time in Sierra Nevada’s history, now out sells their former most produced beer, Pale Ale.
I just had HLT at the movie theater this past weekend. I much prefer the original PA still because it's not as bitter from what I can tell.
For a second I thought this was going to be about the International Phonetic Alphabet until I realised this was the beer and not the linguistics channel.
Great show. When I first tried Sierra Nevada Pale Ale I loved it. Lots of going-on with flavor. But now I'm a West Coast IPA devotee. I can't go back.
I've been to Sierra Nevada's brewery in Chico, CA many times, but no longer satisfied. However, I respect everything they did to the craft.
I mean, I'd argue SNPA is west coast in style! Do you consider it too malty?
Don’t forget the legendary Russian River Pliny the Elder (north or San Francisco) - it’s been ranked by many as the best example of an America IPA. You guys must try it!
We've had it many times and interviewed the brewer way back in 2016! ua-cam.com/video/5Do0iwtPQh0/v-deo.html
Pliny the Elder represents a new style of IPA in America and is being copied by others.
not terrible but many now have brewed better doubles imo. New breweries just don't have the legacy to be widely known, so you have to find them through the wbc or gabf each year. They have one beer aged in wine barrels I tried that I thought was great though.
Beer bottles sitting in bright sunshine. Dollars to doughnuts that's what is causing the liveliness.
Why the Hell am I watching this whilst trying to do Dry January?
India has a tradition of brewing that goes back to 1200BCE, so it was a bit of coals to Newcastle, although the first breweries began in the 1830s. I wonder if the hops were imported or grown locally? I'm guessing pales were the most popular
The first brewery to be opened in India by a European was in Meerut, in 1825.
I live in Newark, NJ, USA. I get IPA's made in California, the Northeast US and from a hyper local (Newark Local Beer) everything is "hoppy", bitter and almost tastes warm (not sharp). At the moment, I am happily ensconced in Florence, Italy (2 more weeks of 5). The beer here can be quite nice. There is a craft brewery a few blocks away that makes a couple of really delicious ales. Most of it is bland and disappointing
A must for your history of hoppy pale ales in North America: Jack McAuliffe and his microbrewery New Albion, founded 1976
Yes sounds like a second video about the history of specifically American IPA is needed!
It's been a long time since I had Orval. The few times I had it I really did not enjoy it, never was a fan of Brettanomyces. It certainly is worth another look, palates change.
Indeed! Try getting it very fresh, when the brett presents more like sherbet than cider and farmyard
He forgot to mention one notable bit of trade the East India Comany dealt in: slaves.
I am a fan of Belgian Blond beers. I think the blond beer DUVEL is also a kind of an IPA. It taste very fresh, bitter and hoppy with a bit off sweetness.
In London over Christmas (from australia) where are peoples go to craft breweries and pubs?
The Southampton Arms, The Beer Merchants Tap, Stormbird, The Harp for pubs. Taprooms hit up the Bermondsey Beer Mile and the Blackhorse Beer Mile.
@@TheCraftBeerChannel thanks legends much appreciated