Episode Details

That hazy, fruity IPA at your local craft brewery started out as a beer built to survive a months-long voyage from Britain to India. This episode begins with coke-fired malting, which made paler ales possible, and explains how brewers fermented these beers longer and added lots of hops to keep them from spoiling during trips around Africa's Cape of Good Hope.

We follow London brewer George Hodgson's location and credit terms, the Napoleonic blockade that pushed Burton-on-Trent brewers into the India trade, and how Burton's gypsum-rich water made the style shine. Then we trace how World War I rules weakened the IPA and how American craft brewers revived it with Cascade and Chinook hops, leading to double, hazy New England, and black IPAs, and possibly hopless IPAs made with engineered yeast.

• How coke-fired kilns made pale ale possible
• How heavy fermentation and hop alpha acids helped beer survive the trip to India
• How Napoleon's blockade and Burton's gypsum-rich water reshaped the IPA
• How World War I rules and taxes pushed some British IPAs below 4 percent alcohol
• How Bert Grant, Vinnie Cilurzo, and John Kimmich shaped the modern American IPA