July 3rd is a big day: A new beer is seeing the light…
America is the birthplace of the craft beer movement and IPA, India Pale Ale, is the flagship beer of the movement. As is true about many things in America, 961 Beer’s version of IPA is bigger, bolder and simply contains more stuff: more hops, more malt, more intensity, more flavor. 961 Beer’s American IPA is not your weekend at the beach beer, it’s not your grandfather’s beer; it’s real beer. Made in Lebanon.
India Pale Ale has an interesting history. The story starts back in 1700’s when English soldiers stationed in India required beer to be shipped from England to India because the Indian climate is too hot to produce the main ingredients found in beer: malt and hops. Typical English Pale Ales were sent, but upon arrival in India they were discovered to be oxidized and sour tasting. To combat this problem, brewers in England began making their Pale Ales with more hops and more alcohol. Both hops and alcohol act as natural preservatives against spoilage. When the soldiers rotated back home to England, they found the traditional English Pale Ales to now be too mild and insipid. They demanded brewers to begin serving the ales destined for India at home as well. Thus creating a new style of beer, India Pale Ale.
Flash forward 200 years to America of the late 70’s and early 80’s, the American beer scene had reached its nadir:
- There were less than 70 breweries left in the United States
- Most were producing light, fizzy, tasteless beer
- A small group of independent individuals working on their own started experimenting with making beer in their kitchens and garages because they couldn’t stand drinking the industrial watered down versions of beer
- Most had no training and very little experience with beer outside of America
- This lack of experience is what gave them the freedom to experiment and play around with different formulations and different techniques for making beer. For them, there were no rules
- What they discovered was that there was an incredibly large group of people out there who liked what they were making
- So they just kept pushing and pushing the boundaries of what was acceptable until they created: The American India Pale Ale.
More flavorful than English IPA, made with America Hops than tended to big herbal and strong citrus character, and a lot, a lot more bitter. They have never looked back since. There are now more than 2,700 breweries in America.
