Drinkers of Beer, your attention please
- Thread starter shouldbeinbed
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In a time of poor sanitation and often contaminated water supplies beer was often a safer drink as the brewing process removed many of the bugs
Small beer was a weaker version suitable for kids and women
IIRC IPA was in fact an ordinary pale ale that was exported for the middle and working classes in many hot climates including India for many years developing a specific taste then becoming a particular product and given the name
It was no different from the pLe ale sold in the UK
PS the soldiers used to prefer Porter
Small beer was a weaker version suitable for kids and women
IIRC IPA was in fact an ordinary pale ale that was exported for the middle and working classes in many hot climates including India for many years developing a specific taste then becoming a particular product and given the name
It was no different from the pLe ale sold in the UK
PS the soldiers used to prefer Porter
contadino
Veteran
- Location
- Chesterfield
I've heard it several times, including on a BBC documentary series about the East India Trading Company recently. If I'd read it once, I'd be dubious, but it hasn't been just a single source. I'm a homebrewer, so I'll check some of my brewing books when I'm next in the store room.
I'm not sure of the details, but I know that IPA was originally loaded with hops and had a higher alcohol content (both have preservation characteristics) so that it wouldn't go off during shipping, and then diluted at destination. I doubt there were the same high-tolerance strains of brewers yeast available in the 19th century that we have now so I can't imagine it being brewed strong enough to have a significantly longer shelf life. On the flip-side, if the beer was dehydrated, the alcohol would evaporate before any water, so I can't see how that would have worked.
contadino
Veteran
- Location
- Chesterfield
"The common story that early IPAs were much stronger than other beers of the time, however, is a myth"
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/India_Pale_Ale
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/India_Pale_Ale
Mad Doug Biker
Banned from every bar in the Galaxy
- Location
- Craggy Island
Arrrgghhh!! Looks like fizzy pish to me!,
We sent all that IPA to India and what has India given us back?
Cobra.
Blurgh.Just industrial Europiss.
THANKYOU!! I was beginning to think I was the only one who hated the stuff judging by the way people go on about it!
Globalti
Legendary Member
I'd have thought that to dilute the beer locally would have risked mass diarrhoea in the ranks. The very reason why beer is such a historic drink is that the production process sterilised the water, making it safer to drink than water before chlorination. In a typical village in pre-industrial Britain there would have been a dozen public houses where the farm worker could sit down at the end of a day in the fields and slake his thirst cheaply with beer brewed in the back room. I recently discovered that my neighbour's bungalow, rather curiously built on a hill with a cellar, was once a public house.
As a footnote, clumps of stinging nettles would denote the places where the farm workers would stop to relieve themselves on the way home as nettles thrive in nitrate-rich soil.
As a footnote, clumps of stinging nettles would denote the places where the farm workers would stop to relieve themselves on the way home as nettles thrive in nitrate-rich soil.
nickyboy
Norven Mankey
- Location
- You want hills? We got hills
IPA or India Pale Ale was a pale ale that was heavily hopped to survive the long voyage to India. We sent all that IPA to India and what has India given us back?
Cobra.
Blurgh.
which is brewed in Burton on Trent anyway
AndyRM
XOXO
- Location
- North Shields
IPA or India Pale Ale was a pale ale that was heavily hopped to survive the long voyage to India. We sent all that IPA to India and what has India given us back?
Cobra.
Blurgh.
Give Lion Beer a shot, it's properly Indian and very good.
U
User169
Guest
In this instance though, Wikipedia is likely correct given it referred specifically to early IPAs. Hodgson's original pale ale shipments to India weren't especially strong: about 6/6.5%, so the same as porter. They probably weren't more highly hopped either, at least not more than existing similar strength beers, although possibly more attenuated.
The watering down thing is a myth too - there's no evidence for it and the troops drank porter in any event.
threebikesmcginty
Corn Fed Hick...
- Location
- ...on the slake
I went to an IPA tasting a while back and the journo giving the talk was a guy called Tiermey-Smith who writes a bit about beer amongst other things, he talked about the IPA myth. Here's some other stuff on it for those interested, there's links to other articles/evidence, etc. quite an interesting read anyway...
https://zythophile.wordpress.com/2010/03/31/ipa-the-executive-summary/
https://zythophile.wordpress.com/2010/03/31/ipa-the-executive-summary/
nickyboy
Norven Mankey
- Location
- You want hills? We got hills
At the risk of being labelled a Subcontinental beer know-it-all, Lion is from Sri Lanka. Son#2 came back from a cricket tour there a couple of months ago singing its praises (the beer that is, not Sri Lanka, although he liked the country too). You're right, it's decent enough lager
AndyRM
XOXO
- Location
- North Shields
Ah, is it? I have been lied to! Stern words will be had with my Indian mate when I see him this afternoon.
U
User169
Guest
AndyRM could be talking about "Lion Beer" from Mohan Meakin.
AndyRM
XOXO
- Location
- North Shields
That's the one. There must be a Sri Lanka upstart trading under the same name, my mate claimed Lion Beer as the oldest beer from Asia.
