200 years of Burton IPA

I managed to make it to Burton for the 200 years of Burton IPA celebration. This was doing better than two of the people that were meant to speak but were sadly struck down with illness. 

India Pale Ale was first brewed in London but Allsopp's started brewing it in Burton in 1822. Allsopp's have recently been re-launched so there was a bit of an Allsopp's theme to the day. Double Diamond, though an Ind Coope brand was apparently had it's origins as Allsopp's IPA. Which means the late lamented Ind Coope Burton Ale did too. 

Jamie Allsopp, the man behind the revival was there, complete with a plaque he'd like to put where the Allsopp's brewery was. 

Unfortunately the land is now owned by Molson Coors and he hasn't got permission yet!

The Allsopp's was founded in 1742 and bought by Samuel Allsopp in 1806. 

The designs used for the modern Allsopp's branding are based on historic ones. 

Old brewing records have been found and are used for inspiration. \\

We got to try the 7.4% Celebration Ale. Brewed with pale and crystal malt with Fuggles and Challenger for bittering and Bramling Cross and Cascade for aroma. FG is 1.013 which must make the OG around 1.070. Despite the 50 IBUs it still tasted very sweet, though it's bottle conditioned so should dry out a bit. Other Allsopp's beers are being brewed, including a lager that I saw at Notting Hill Carnival of all places. Mind you, building a lager brewery didn't do the original Allsopp's much good. A revival of the legendary Arctic Ale is also planned which I very much look forward too. 

We then had someone speak about White Shield, and how they once did something very similar to what Pete Brown later did for his Hops and Glory book and flew a cask to India whilst another went by boat. By all accounts the one which took the boat journey tasted much better. 

Then Dr Harry White, formerly of Bass brewery and now chairman of the National Brewery Heritage Trust spoke about pale ale brewing in Burton. 

Good for some but not others

In 1832 Bass was brewing 15,000 barrels, with 5,000 going to India.

Bass was the bigger of the two. Their output grew rapidly after the railway arrived in 1839.

Emma Gilliland from Marston's spoke about water chemistry next. 

Gypsum (Calcium sulphate) rich Buton water being good for pale ales. The sulphate to chloride ratio is important for beer flavour, 2:1 giving a dryer beer with assertive hops, and the other way giving a sweeter beer. 

The high sulphate levels in Burton water gave a sulphury/egg smell to beer which was gloriously named  the Burton snatch. In the questions after the talk someone did ask why doesn't Marston's Pedigree taste the like it used to and certainly it's years since I've noticed anything eggy about it. I suspect they've changed what they do with the water, though Marston's still get lots from the wells on their site. 

I have spent a long time working on brewing water chemistry but I still learnt a fascinating fact. Magnesium sulphate also fluid retention, which increases the volume of the intestine, putting more pressure on peristalsis which causes the other effect Burton beers are known for.  

David Jesudason talked about the colour bar in pubs and how campaigners fought against it. 

He continued on to the asset stripping history of the East India Company (imagine Amazon running a country!) and how the excesses of luxury were for whites only. Beer marketing of India Pale Ales usually overlooks this completely, so he wanted to a de-colonised IPA. With Villages brewery he made a modern IPA using Indian spices and sugar, with money from sales going to a flood charity in Pakistan. 

Johnny Garret was up next. I have 90 minutes of nerding out written in my notes. A podcast maybe or perhaps something he does of an evening? I can't recall. He talked of the decline of British hop growing and how support is needed now. So with Meantime brewery he made Now IPA using Goldings as the bittering hop and modern varieties like Jester and Olicana as late hops. 

The main event ended with a panel discussion where someone put the boot into Greene King IPA ten minutes after their Quality Manager had left. How's that for bad timing? I'm sure she'd have given as good as she got. I did stick up for it myself but I'm sure my reasoned and entirely accurate statement on the weak IPA of old family breweries was ignored by all present.

And then it was time for the pub.