Citrus Zest IPA

By the 1790’s the British were established in India and needed beer, which was considered a staple in every household. India, however, presented serious problems for brewers. Hot temperatures, poor water, short supplies, and basic ingredients made it impossible to brew beer. Attempts to ship beer out of Britain to Calcutta failed. 

George Hodgson of London produced a pale ale of greater strength and bitterness than those he sold in London. The hops helped protect the beer from spoilage, as did the increased alcohol content. Hodgson’s India Ale arrived in Calcutta in fine shape-clear, strong, and bitter, with a big, resinous hop aroma. The word spread of India Pale Ale  and people throughout England and the United States were clamoring for this wonderful new beer. The rage lasted through 1970’s, but lost steam in the 1980’s and became just another name for low alcohol bitters. 

As craft beer has emerged and grown, so has IPA! IPA has helped grow Craft Beer to what it is currently today. There are now many shapes and forms of IPA, but they all share bright aromatic hop aroma of Citrus, Tropical Fruit, and Pine. Hop flavor coats the tongue and these beers finish with an assertive, but balanced bitterness.    

In areas where brewers pursue citrus and other fruit flavors, it’s only natural to add actual citrus or fruit to a hop forward beer in order to exemplify these flavors. We built this IPA with fruit and citrus forward hops and added grapefruit and tangelo zest to the beer to create our own citrus IPA. The combination of the hops and the fresh citrus zest creates bright and refreshing flavors.