03/08/2023
I.P.As were brewed in England before being shipped to India, the name came from British sailors who traveled to India as part of the East India Company in the late 1700s.
One of the reasons sailors brought them on their journey was that brewing beer in India was difficult due to the hot climate. Because hops are a natural preservative, the pale ales had a higher hop content, which helped them keep their flavor as they traveled from England to India. Porters were also shipped to India and California at the time, so it wasn’t the only beer that could be shipped. One of the first I.P.As to be brewed and exported to India was by George Hodgson’s Bow Brewery. The brewery was two miles from the East India Docks, which made it convenient for traders. After losing their Russian markets, brewers in Burton, England, quickly began brewing beer for export to India.
By 1840, I.P.As were in high demand in England, and the beer was widely brewed by 1860. The fad soon spread across the British Empire. Although their recipes had not changed, some brewers in England began calling them pale ales instead of India pale ales. Before 1900, breweries in the United States, Canada, and Australia brewed similar IPAs to those in England. IPAs, on the other hand, began to lose popularity around the 1900s.
https://nationaltoday.com/national-ipa-day-india-pale-ale-beer/