American beer styles: Further thoughts
Following the pieces earlier by Mario Rubio and Jon Abernathy, I wanted to add my own two cents to the question of American beer styles. Where Mario wonders about what American beer styles would look like if the US was the center of beer style instead of Europe and Jon covers some of the basic US beer styles, I would argue that there is much more to this discussion than meets the eye. If you put these two discussions together, you are lead towards something that I have long been evangelizing – most beer styles today are American. Even the ones we don’t really think of as being American.
I’ll illustrate what I mean. Consider the case of IPA. This is thought of as being an English beer style. The name IPA began in England, yes. The product that was called IPA when the style originated, however, is not the product that is known as IPA today. Not even close. Martyn Cornell covers the description of IPA – Allsopp’s seminal example for example – is his book Beer: The Story of the Pint. This description is of a strong, relatively pale product that is rich with both malt and hop. The style at the time was called October Beer, a robust harvest brew that was produced to last the entire year through until the next harvest. When companies began shipping October Beer to India, it started to acquire the name India Pale Ale, which eventually stuck. But October Beer, judging from the descriptions of the day, was closer to Lee’s Harvest Ale than anything else I can think of today. Indeed, those barrel-aged Lee’s Harvest Ales might be as accurate a replication of the original India Pale Ale as exists.
So IPA as we know it today is certainly not like it was originally. Today, the name IPA is England is just another name for bitter. This almost certainly dates to the First World War. Prior to the Great War, the alcohol content of all English beer styles was higher. Wartime austerity measures decreased the strength of beer from that point onward. So IPA in England today is bitter, cask-conditioned with a low alcohol content not hopped any more than any other bitter. An archaic trade name, at best.
Which leads me to my point. IPA as we know it today is a purely American beer style. Not English. IPA today bears historical lineage to England but stylistically, there is nothing English about it. The alcohol content, malt bill, hop bill, dry-hopping, the yeast – all of it is American, derived from Anchor Liberty Ale, Bert Grant’s India Pale Ale and perhaps a couple of other early examples.
What about “English IPA”? This is an absolute myth. There is no such beer style. Homebrewers developed the idea, and it has been adopted without any critical thought by most other style guidelines. It’s bunk. What the English call IPA is bitter. What the Americans call English IPA is little more than underhopped American IPA. Yet, it is still of a decent strength, a good 50% stronger than English versions but a healthy 25-50% lighter than any reasonable re-creation of October Beer. Consider also that there is no clear cut line between “English” and “American” IPAs. You can mix and match any hops in any given beer. Map out the IBUs and you’ll see a continuum from the underhopped to the overhopped with no clear break. There may be obvious differences at either end of the spectrum – Alpha King is surely no “English” IPA, but neither are many beers that are classed as such by the style gurus. If the demarcations of two styles cannot be easily and consistently applied, then you do not have two styles.
Even if you did accept the existence of “English IPA”, it is still an American style. It was created by Americans in response to and as an interpretation of Michael Jackson’s writings. A few English examples eventually emerged in the late 90s and early 2000s, but those were in response to exposure to American IPA or brews designed for the American market.
Indeed, the IPA argument applies to a number of beer styles that we consider to be English. “English” pale ale in England is bitter. In the US, it is a distinct beer style. Extra Special Bitter is a beer style in the US; in England it is a brand name used by Fuller’s. Scottish Ale is Michael Jackson’s description of the ales of Scotland. Historical evidence shows that his impressions of reduced hoppiness are unfounded. Scottish ale in Scotland is also bitter. In America, it is a distinct beer style, very easily differentiated from all other beer styles.
The Brits do not understand these styles at all, in the same way that Danes are confused by danishes (a bastardization of a wienerbrød, so from Vienna not Denmark) and Canadians by the notion of “Canadian bacon” (a bastardization of peameal bacon, for which Toronto is famous…go to Carousel Bakery in St. Lawrence Market and you’ll see why). You can see the trend here – these style names are corruptions – ideas that may have originated in England or Scotland but have been altered by Americans to the point where they are no longer recognizable by the English and the Scots. They are American products, just like danishes and Canadian bacon.
The fact is, the United States is the originator of most styles in the United States. Even for styles that do not specifically originate in the US, the beer is often so distinctly American that it would be unrecognizable to a native drinker (I’m specifically thinking about Baltic Porter and Foreign Stout, but Kellerbier is at least one other style and there are probably more). The US is the leader in world beer styles today – it’s cultural. It is not 1987 any more. Beer culture has long since exploded, with the US having more breweries and more beers than any other nation by a wide margin. To think that this has occurred simply by mimicking beers from elsewhere is actually kind of quaint. But it’s unfounded. Most styles in the US are American, even those that typically bear the names of other countries.
14 Comments to “American beer styles: Further thoughts”
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Original IPA is about 7% in abv. The English bitter is of much less abv. The taste is different. It’s not a myth. it’s a genuine style. The East India Company used to transport IPA from England to India as it was less dangerous for their troops to drink than the local liquers.
The abv had to be higher than local ales at the time in order to withstand the additional traveling. Certain brewers were able to continue this tradition. Then rivals popped up. Bass were one of the originators and are now owned by Coors.
The Burton museam for Bass No1 is going to be re-opened but not too sure if they are brewing that. IPA’s here are different to the American counterparts because you use more hops. I have tasted a worked original IPA recipee thanks to Crown and it’s a very different beer to bitter.
You’re ignoring the issue of taxes that encouraged breweries to brew weaker ales in England.
Personally, one of my favorite beers right now is Belhaven’s Twisted Thistle. It’s an IPA brewed in Scotland to taste like an IPA brewed in America. The result is a low alcohol (~5%), ariomatic, tropical IPA that falls somewhere shy of an American Pale in terms of bitterness but is definitely an IPA in terms of hop intensity.
Also, what about french fries? They’re just frites in France.
Kellerbier would most definitely be recognizable to anyone in southern Germany. Also called “zwickel” it is simply an unfiltered, young lager and is available at beer gardens in most small Bavarian and Wurtenbergischen towns.
@tdtm – nowhere did I say IPA was a myth. I said IPA today is not English. It’s not. Consider what Liberty Ale was intended as – an uberpatriotic All-American beer. This was 1976 remember. That’s why the American hops. The extra dose of them – you’d have to ask Fritz why he did that. Bert Grant’s beer was equally distant from actual IPA.
@Mario -I’m not ignoring taxes. The reasons why English beer shrunk is irrelevant to my argument; it is only important that it did. French fries are a bad example – they aren’t all that bastardized, which is the key here. As for Twisted Thistle – perfect example of what I’m talking about. Anything from over there that is recognizable as IPA is either inspired by the US beers or is made for the US market.
@Michael – I didn’t say that kellerbier would be unrecognizable in Germany; I said an American-made Kellerbier would be unrecognizable as such in Germany. Americans are so far off what these styles actually taste like it’s silly. Getting into the finer points of the differences or lack thereof between zwickel and keller is another matter altogether, one that requires the reading of German-language texts (NOT Jackson) and ample experience in Franconia. I’ve only got the latter.
Allsopps was a rival to Bass. It wasn’t the original IPA at all. I think you’re getting confused with Milds and bitter. Milds used to be above their current percentage which were reduced post war. Does that help??
The styles are not American. It is just that many American craft breweries adhere to original styles more so than the breweries in the countries the styles originated from.
IPA is a real style, which was really pale, high in alcohol and hops (by the way October beer was Barley wine, not IPA). I can imagine that there are now plenty of examples of real IPA in Britain. Real Pale Ale was lower alcohol and less hopier version of IPA, directed for Britain’s domestic consumption. Both styles predate Bitter by many decades. Bitter was a cheap off shoot of Pale Ale.
Baltic Porter is also a real style. Current American Baltic Porters are similar to the Porter I drank in Latvia 20 years ago, although they are much better.
@dtm82 – Cornell makes it clear that all styles were reduced in alcohol following the war. If you consider the reasons this makes sense ingredient and taxes – those apply to all styles. It was Hodgson who had the monopoly on the trade to India. Allsopp challenged that – Bass came much later.
@mike67 – Cornell is specific about October Beer being IPA. That’s my point, too. If that’s not the case I’d need to see a citation. American Baltic Porter isn’t Baltic Porter – I can elaborate on that in another piece but I’d had the real Baltics in their countries of origin and the American stuff is quite different! I like it too, but it’s not the same stuff. Americans like to use names of historical beer styles but they don’t break their necks being accurate about it. There is nothing from England that has a lineage to American IPA – they’re adapted from a paper description rather than a real product. The real product that is the basis for IPA in America is Anchor Liberty Ale – you cannot point to a single beer in England then or now that was a more relevant guidepost. IPA is definitely an American style. Only the name is English.
love the historical insight/debate/beers for thought. personally, whereas beer styles can be a great guiding light and support, they can be a great hindrance too. in the end, it’s about flavor for me, pure and simple, and there is a lot of flavor to celebrate in the world of beer, both American and beyond. is there a gap in what we taste here in the states versus overseas. i am absolutely sure. have i really had the opportunity to taste them in their home country? not yet. but i’m working on it
as always, great piece, oakes 
love it when you make my brain work.
Roger Protz refers to October beer as predate to Barley Wines in his book “300 beers you have to try…”.
He briefly describes histories of the styles in the book. That’s why I assume that October beer was a Barley wine.
Certainly it doesn’t follow that Fritz modeled Anchor Liberty on any actual English IPA, but I don’t see how you can claim that modern American IPA is completely dissimilar to IPA in the 1800s. Pattinson’s blog is chock full of data of post-October beer, pre-WWI IPAs (1820-1900 roughly) that bear a striking resemblance to modern IPA in terms of OG, grist composition, hopping and attenuation. They still probably would taste much like an American IPA, but the numbers are really close. Or are those historic IPAs what you were referring to with “paper description”?
*…would NOT taste much like an American IPA…
@ Mike – that’s cool. Those two guys can debate the issue among themselves. They are much better equipped for it than the rest of us.
@wunder – if’s Pattinson is making that argument, I won’t argue with him on that point. I would say though that if the taste is different – and it would be given the hop varieties used – and there is a large gap in time from the English to the American, that my case still holds that Americans base their IPA more on the idea of IPA from those days than on actual IPA that one might have found in Britain in the 1980s and 1990s. I should probably do a piece on the bastardization of bitter at some point…I don’t think Best Bitter made with 50 IBUs of Centennial hops and 5.8% abv bears much more than a name with English beer either, and comparison is a little easier to draw since it’s entirely contemporary.