IPA- Spawn of Pale Ale

Recently, a friend wrote concerning the difference between pale ales and India pale ales. Upon first thought, I supposed that the true difference between the two was that an IPA is usually hoppier, and has a higher alcohol content. Although this is true, there is a way more intriguing story behind it all. In the beginning, there was English pale ale. Pale, being mostly a color distinction between a light beer and darker stouts. Then came the colonization of India. And, as everybody knows, you can't properly colonize a country without beer. So, the English were understandably peeved when they found out that their beloved ales were arriving in India sour and undrinkable. Due to the fact that India was seen as a huge new open market for beer, English brewers scrambled to solve the problem. After many failures, a fellow by the name of George Hodgson surmounted this challenge with beer's two best preservative friends: Mr. Hops and Mr. Alcohol. And voila, IPA was born! Due to the huge temperature fluctuations in carrying ale aboard ships, the beer was probably still arriving skunked. However, due to the magic of heavy hopping and heavy alcohol (up to 10%) no one really cared or could taste the sourness. Thus, the Limeys were free again to subjugate the masses, unimpeded by lack of beer. If you would like to read the whole interesting story of how the British learned how to ship good beer to India, etc. visit this site, http://brewingtechniques.com/library/styles/2_2style.html where you will get a far more detailed, and politically neutral version of what went on. It really is very interesting. Almost as interesting as actually drinking an IPA- well not really. If you are ambivalent about which IPA to sample while reading the story- and it will make you want a beer- try Stone Coast's extra hoppy 420 IPA or, the safer, more popular, and easy to find Dogfish 60 minute. Dogfish also makes a 90 minute IPA (9%) which is pretty close to the alcohol strength of the original IPAs shipped to India and 120 minute IPA that is very very strong (20%) and a could make you act like an English soccer hooligan if you had too many. I think it would be great experiment to try carrying around a Dogfish 90 minute in the trunk of a car for a summer and seeing if it holds up to it's well-preserved heritage. Now that would be impressive.