moorsd wrote:I just wanted a light session beer with an IPA character!
That is an oxymoron
IPA = India Pale Ale, or East India Pale Ale as it was originally. Early to late Victorian brews, massively hopped strong and pale in the OG1065 - 1075 range, brewed dry, often hitting 8+% abv. To keep them pale they used a special pale malt that was dried but not otherwise kilned for colour, called East India Malt, or White malt. Hop rates were up to 6x what you might get now..imagine 12-16oz hops per 5 gallons! IBU's in three figures..I saw 180IBU on one recipe. The beers were matured here for up to a year then sent principally to India by boat but also to USA, Australia, etc. By the time they got there they were sublime, the huge hop presence and bitterness having mellowed and been replaced by a palette of exquisite flavours and aromas, or, if they'd gone off - dumped into the harbour!
Returning Ex-Pats wanted their treasured brew back in Britain, so IPA was then also brewed for the domestic market, slightly weaker...hey, 1060, weak eh?
and less heavily hopped, as it didn't have to last the sea journey, though still heavy.
Come the 20th century real IPA stopped being brewed and the name was stuck on brews that were a mere shadow, if even that, of the originators of the style, but traded on the once famous name. Modern examples of this are Greene King IPA, and the utterly vile Charrington IPA. Deuchars isn't an IPA either, although it's a very good beer.
Worthington White Shield is a descendant of real IPA, though not as potent.
The IPA that comes closest to the original style and is fairly obtainable is Meantime Brewery IPA, available at Sainsburys. Try their Porter too, for a look at what an old porter might have tasted like. Those beers were created with the help of the Durden Park Beer Circle...and they know their stuff!
The best example of original style IPA I've ever tasted was also the best beer I've ever tasted full stop, which was an IPA faithfully brewed to an 1820 recipe and matured for 14 months, by the Durden Park member who also helped Meantime.
If you want to recreate a true IPA then use a grist of 100% LOW COLOUR Maris Otter pale, as opposed to the normal one. This is available from Hop & Grape, for one. Use 3.8LB per gallon (@61% efficiency- the intention is to sparge until enough is extracted, rather than max it out). Crystal malt was never used in IPA. Mash at 66c, stiff mash, for 3Hrs, in well burtonised liquor, you're aiming for max fermentability. Then raise to 77c for 30 mins. Sparge at 82-85c to collect enough wort for a SG of 1070 at your desired FV volume. Copper hop with 2.5oz goldings per gallon. (whahey! 12.5 oz for a 5 gallon brew). Cool, strain off, and rinse hops. Ferment with a good well attenuating Ale yeast. Dry hop with goldings at 0.5oz per 5 gal. Give it minimum 8 and ideally 18 months maturation.
Ooops, gone on an IPA rant.
Like everything beer evolves as peoples tastes and preferences change, if we all liked the same the world would be a very boring place!
