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The East Indies market was a very tempting but difficult one to enter for British brewers. After Britain had established itself in India by the early 1700s, it had a large number of troops and civilians demanding beer. However, the long hot journey proved a difficult one for the dark ales and porters of England. Ships typically left London, cruised south past the equator along the coast of Africa, rounded the Cape of Good HopeThe Cape of Good Hope is a headland in South Africa, near Cape Town, traditionally — and incorrectly — regarded as marking the turning point between the Atlantic Ocean and the Indian Ocean. Technically, the division between the two oceans lies farther eas and then crossed the Indian OceanThe Indian Ocean is the third-largest body of water in the world, covering about 20% of the Earth's water surface. It is bounded on the north by southern Asia (the Indian Sub-continent); on the west by the Arabian Peninsula and Africa; on the east by the to reach Bombay, CalcuttaThis article is on Calcutta/Kolkata, the city. For the gambling term, see Calcutta Calcutta is the capital of the Indian state of West Bengal. Its original name was Kalikata and is, in higher literature, still referred to as such. Speakers of the region's, and MadrasMadras refers to: the Indian city of Chennai, formerly known as Madras, the former Indian state, now known as Tamil Nadu a former province of British India, with its capital at the Indian city of Madras (now Chennai): see Madras Presidency a type of fabri. The temperature fluctuations were huge and the rough waters of southern Africa resulted in one hell of a voyage for an ale.
Despite these obstacles, however, brewers did try to establish exports to India. Early shipments to India contained bottled porters, the favorite beer in London, which generally arrived flat, musty, and sour. The answer to the great beer problem finally came from a recipe created by George Hodgson at the Bow Brewery in East LondonThis article is about the city in South Africa. For the area of London, United Kingdom, see East End of London. East London ( Afrikaans: Oos-Londen Xhosa: Imonti population 500,000) is a city in southeast South Africa, situated in the Eastern Cape Provinc. Hodgson began shipping Hodgson's India Ale during the 1790s. India ale was a variation of his pale alePale ale is generally a light beer, similar to a light mild ale, only drier and with a distinctive hoppy taste. English pale ales are golden or copper coloured rather than pale; the term pale is used to distinguish them from dark porters. India Pale Ale i, which Londoners had been drinking since the mid- 1750sEvents and Trends Scientific navigation is developed. The Seven Years' War ( 1756- 1763) fought between two rival alliances: the first consisting of the Kingdom of Great Britain, Hanover, and Prussia; the second consisting of Austria, France, Imperial Rus. Pale ales were so called because they were lighter in color than the popular brown ales and dark porters and stouts.
Before refrigeration and pasteurization, the brewer's only weapons against spoilage were alcohol and hops. Alcohol provided an unfriendly environment for microbes and the hops prevented the growth of the bacteria which cause sourness. Therefore high alcohol content and high hopping rates could protect beer from the souring associated with long storage times. Hodgson took his pale ale recipe, increased the hop content considerably, and raised the alcohol content. The result was a very bitter, alcoholic, and sparkling pale ale that could survive the challenges of travel and shelf life in India. Hodgson's success became legendary.
Thanks in part to Hodgson's recipe, the Indian beer market expanded greatly. In 1750, about 1480 barrels left England for India -- in 1800, 9000 barrels were exported, an increase of about 7500 barrels in annual shipments. The success of IPA was soon copied by the Salt, Allsopp, and Bass breweries who all claim to have been the first to copy Hodgson's style. American brewers also began brewing IPA for the export and home markets. Ballantine's IPA dates back to the early part of the 20th century when IPAs were still strong in both popularity and alcohol content.
The expansion of the Indian beer market caused by Hodgson's IPA ultimately led to the building of Asia's first breweries. In the late 1820s Edward Dyer moved from England to set up the first brewery in India at Kasauli (later incorporated as Dyer Breweries in 1855) in the Himalayas producing Asia's first beer Lion. Dyer set up more breweries at Solan, Shimla, Murree, Rawalpindi and Mandalay. Another entrepreneur, H G Meakin, moved to India and bought the old Shimla and Solan Breweries from Edward Dyer and added more at Ranikhet, Dalhousie, Chakrata, Darjeeling and Kirkee. In 1935, when Burma was separated from India, the company was restructured with its Indian assets as Dyer Meakin Breweries , a public company on the London Stock Exchange. Following independence in 1949, N.N. Mohan took over management of the company and the name was changed to Mohan Meakin. The company continues to produce beer across India to this day and Lion is still available in northern India.