WhoDey78
Active Member
What makes an IPA an IPA? Is it simply the bitterness level, or is it more complicated than that?
What makes an IPA an IPA? Is it simply the bitterness level, or is it more complicated than that?
Great link, thanks!
Glad you like it. Keep it handy, if you plan on entering more compilations the BJCP guidelines should be what is used to judge you entry(s).
It has to use ingredients from India, just like a Black IPA has to be pale. Right guys?
If you buy it,maybe.Addy doesn't even give a little taste as an example. But,it was a higher ABV ale with more hops in it so it wouldn't spoil on it's way to India by wooden ship. The end.
Def not green beer. Just not aged the couple months the trip would've taken. Some of the hop profile would be faded away by the time it got there. That's why they used so much more hops. They were trying to account for that fact during transit. Not to make a richer IPA..quite the opposite in fact.
Ever notice how hop aroma/flavor starts fading at about 5 weeks? Same thing then,just compensated for.
An average gravity beer like IPA's
not different at all. Our IPA's are not "green" merely by virtue of a shorter time line. Theirs is old & faded by unavoidable time. different,yes. Better,likely not. Beer only gets better with age to a certain point,then starts going down hill.
An average gravity beer like IPA's simply will not get way better when they're several months & temp cycles away from what "we" drink. That's proceeding from the false assumption that older is always better.
I guess it depends on how you define "green" then. Since "better" is subjective, I always known it as a given recipe not having aged long enough to meet a given flavor profile. The flavor profile of an IPA was very different back then compared to the flavor profile today largely by virtue of the length of time between when it was brewed and when it was consumed. Thus, modern IPAs are "green".
Imo,higher alcohol does not a high gravity beer make. The body of the beer should be heavy as well,not just the ABV. Most beers used more hops back then. but only because travel/shipping took longer. They didn't make sure their ales were 6 months old by the time they're drunk.
That's what I mean to convey. So you're really just repeating some of the things I said in diff terms.
Which seems to be a myth, at least when it comes to shipment to India.So,as I said,they did more ABV & hops just to make it more shippable.
That's it,period. Ours isn't green,hell my ales take 2 months to be good. Theirs are just older,nearly out dated brews by the time slow poke travel got them there. Not as much carbonation,either. So,in some ways,ours are actually better. AS I said before,older (aged in this case) isn't always better.
Just entered our latest IPA recipe into the Key West Brew Fest (this Labor Day). It is the Wood's Wall, NE 15-20, Voyage Strength IPA.
Until we got central AC the only thing we could brew in KW was IPA because of the high daily temp fluctuations.
On the other points,you're just not reading what I'm saying. Not to mention,mixing my meanings with your words over the course of this conversation. Historical data says what I related.
Ales are not barley wines. They don't need long to mature.
I've seen history channel videos that mentioned how much more hops were used,say,in Victorian times compared to now. I forget the % of difference. This has to have been do to travel times being what they were before the trucks,plains,trains,etc of today shortening those times. Besides the advent of refrigeration in the late 1800's.
And I said they matured more than today do to travel times added onto the normal process times of the day. So it could be rather loosely defined as green. But not in the literal sense. We can deliver faster today compared to then. Thus their IPA's being more matured,to the point of some of that "extra"hop profile fading. I believe,to the point of being more like what they intended if you could get it at a pub closer to the source.
Which could be a negative,depending on temps & other mitigating factors. So it's not like the IPA's today don't age enough,it's more like they no longer need to. So,I've been saying they did mature more than would normally be the case,do to travel being what it was then. We just don't need to take that long anymore. Not to mention,what India Pale Ale is supposed to be,is one where the malt profile is still evident. Unlike the 100 kiloton hop bombs of today.
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