India pale ale (IPA) is a hoppy beer style within the broader category of pale ale. It originated in the United Kingdom, to be exported to India, which was under the control of the British East India Company until 1858. The higher hop content acted as a natural preservative, preventing the beer from spoiling during the long shipping voyage.
IPA declined in popularity in the late 19th and mid 20th centuries. Since the 1970s, it has regained significant popularity, being associated with homebrewing and craft beer.
History
The pale ales of the early 18th century were lightly hopped and were quite different from modern pale ales. By the mid-18th century, pale ale was often brewed with a coke-fired malt, which produced less smoking and roasting of barley in the malting process, and hence produced a lighter hued pale ale. One variety was Old ale, a pale well-hopped brew popular among the landed gentry, who brewed it domestically; once brewed, it was intended to age in a cellar for two years.
Among the first brewers known to export beer to India was George Hodgson's Bow Brewery, on the Middlesex-Essex boundary. Its beers became popular among East India Company traders' provisions in the late 18th century for being two miles up the Lea from the East India Docks,