What Is An IPA Beer?

[yankinoz]

Pretty sure no American beer ever travelled to India. I can accept that American IPA is a "style" of beer, but really, gotta be a token homage at best. There's more that its not like (when compared to a true IPA) than it is like.

Personally, I hate the grassy effect from dry hopping. I'd rather add lawn clippings. But a hop-back - now, there's a bit of wizardry.

Debate will follow...
[/QUOTE]

Grassy? Cut the dry hopping down to 24 hours.

About the pond and ale styles:

Re American vs British, Americans brewed IPAs in the English style before the big, fruity hops came out (see my above comments on Ballantine). As you no doubt know, English brewers today variously do traditional British, West Coast and New England versions. I'd call some of my favorites from there transatlantic.

A few years back the first commercial grower of Cascade hops claimed that her first customers were British breweries, before Sierra Nevada, and her impression was they used it in dry-hopping.

A historical note. Back in the seventies, according to the GM at Greene and King, they blended an oak-aged 10% abv ale into their Suffolk Strong. The oak was noticeable. Not in the modern version.

 

[MHB]

I like to think I have a pretty fair general knowledge of things beer and brewing; just enough to know how little I really do know; and to give me a real appreciation of the work by some of the authors out there today. When people like Charlie Bamforth say something, if my first instinct is to disagree with him, rather than saying so I'll go find out why I'm wrong as that is the most likely outcome.

There are traditional names for all the parts of an Ale cask.

There are two types of spiles Hard and Soft, the soft spiles are made of bamboo root (among other things) and you can literally blow through them, a fair fraction of the Hard spiles were made from Oak, I suspect trimmings from when the staves were cut to a taper, and again probably lots of other woods to.

The Shive was traditionally made from Beach wood.
The whole Shive/Hard/Soft Spile would have leaked some CO2, more as pressure built up, I suspect more than one Shive hit the cellar ceiling when not all went to plan, but it allowed for some gassing off.
There is lots of information out there on Casking, a lot of it contradictory, a fair amount is just made up BS. More than one beer writer has a chunk of his manhood invested in the arguments, personally I love Stainless, accurate PRV's and the fact that there are lots of different ways to get to great beer.
If you want the best book I know of on the subject try to get a copy of Cellarmanship from CAMRA
Mark

 

[S.E]

The whole Shive/Hard/Soft Spile would have leaked some CO2, more as pressure built up, I suspect more than one Shive hit the cellar ceiling when not all went to plan, but it allowed for some gassing off.

Thanks Mark, you clearly have a fair grasp of cask ale but I should point out the Shive/Hard/Soft Spile bit does not sound quite right.

The shive and hard spile do not leak CO2. Well obviously being made of wood they would leak a minute amount but that is not what they were supposed to do. Only the soft spile is supposed to vent CO2.

The shive will not hit the cellar ceiling with spiles in place as the cask has been vented and not under any great pressure when they are in the cask. More pressure will not build up with spiles in place, at least not enough to blow the shive.

The spiles are not used until the beer is in the pub cellar and being prepared for tapping. Wood shives have holes drilled about half way through them and a tool is used (though often just a screwdriver or hard spile) to punch the hole all the way through. The spiles are then used to seal the hole (hard spile) or allow the cask to breath (soft spile) venting CO2 and allowing air into the cask as beer is poured.

Spiles are not used as pressure release valves to stop the cask bursting or shives and keystones being blown out.

 

[milleradam948]

What a great article!
It has great explanation for sure!
Nice work

 

[MHB]

Sort of agreeing, it isn’t the Shive that come in hard and soft, hard Spiles are fitted first, a couple of days before serving, to let some pressure out bringing the beer into the right condition (fizz).

Just before serving, the soft Spile (mostly made from bamboo root is fitted), it allows air in as the cask is drained (sort of like a filter).
These days the Shive, that you "Tut" (knock a hole through - don’t put your head over the Shive, you'll get a face full of green hopsnot) and gets the Spile driven into is made of plastic, back when they were made of selected woods, mostly Beach.
So yes there was a bit of pressure relief available but via the Shive rather than the Spile. That said it isn’t much and you as the brewer would want to get you conditioning right, otherwise casks will spit the Shive.

Best read I have found on the subject was Cellarmanship from CAMRA. If you are interested in making or serving traditional cask ales it’s well worth the investment.
Mark

Edited , replaced Spile with Shive
Previously as follows
Mark
Sort of agreeing, it isn’t the Spiles that come in hard and soft, hard Spiles are fitted first, a couple of days before serving, to let some pressure out bringing the beer into the right condition (fizz).

 

[S.E]

Sort of agreeing, it isn’t the Spiles that come in hard and soft, hard Spiles are fitted first, a couple of days before serving, to let some pressure out bringing the beer into the right condition (fizz).

Mark this still isn’t correct, you have it the wrong way around. Firstly it IS the spiles that come in hard and soft.

The SOFT spiles are usually fitted first for a couple of days, not the hard spiles the hard spiles do not let pressure in or out.

A hard spile is often used to hammer into and hole the tut first as they are also a handy tool for this job but this is not really what they are for and I think this may be where you are getting confused?

The hard Spiles are NOT as you have said “fitted first, a couple of days before serving, to let some pressure out bringing the beer into the right condition (fizz)”. This is what the soft spiles are used for.

If however a soft spile isn’t needed you may go straight to a hard spile and leave it in place to re seal the cask immediately, but this is rare.

The hard spile is usually fitted AFTER the soft spile if the cask is not to be tapped straight away. Once the cask is tapped a new soft spile is needed as the original one (or sometimes two or three) used to vent the cask are blocked with yeast and hops.

After the cask is tapped the new soft spile may be replaced with a hard spile at times, for instance at night or when the pub is closed and no beer being consumed.

A soft spile may be omitted completely after the cask is tapped as they can slow the flow of beer from the tap too much. Especially when a beer engine is used as they can cause a vacuum.

 

[peteru]

water with a high chlorine content is essential as this is an excellent additive for minimizing bitterness in beer.

NOT

Even a small amount of chlorine is enough to ruin a beer. You want to eliminate any traces of chlorine from your water or any surfaces that the beer will contact.

 

[MHB]

Probably referring to the mellowing effect of Chloride on beer flavour, there is a lot of difference between Chlorine and Chloride.
That many of the most notable IPA’s came from Burton, famous for it’s remarkably high Sulphate content, doesn’t really support the assertion either.
Sadly the author is repeatedly demonstrating a fairly insecure grasp of the basics of brewing.
Just one more example, it would be a good idea to learn a bit more before making videos that prove the point.
Mark

 

[Grok]

"TowelBoy" rebranded to "Lets Brew Beer" = "You can put lipstick on a pig, but it's still a pig"

 

[Let's Brew Beer]

OINK! OINK!