Much to the chagrin of Burton brewers, the fact of the matter is that IPA was invented in London.

George Hodgson established his brewery on the banks of the River Lea, by the Old Bridge, Bow in the east end of London in October 1752, it was perfectly situated for the London docks, a fact that soon dawned upon him, for some time after that date he made the decision to build his business on supplying beer for export to the growing India market.

In this he was very successful. His pale ale built up a reputation in the east, and Hodgson’s India Ale – as it was known by the start of the nineteenth century - was arguably Britain’s first ever export ‘brand’. Hodgson, and then his son Mark, enjoyed a virtual monopoly of the trade from around 1780-1820. True he shared the market to an extent, with a few other London brewers, who lacked his reputation, but by and large he had it to himself. Even sizeable London ale brewers like Charrington (brewing around 16,000 to 20,000 barrels for the London market in the 1820s) rarely bothered to enter the export market.

Hodgson was, however, ruthless in protecting his market share whenever other brewers looked too intently at his lucrative market. Should another brewer try to get in on the act Hodgson would flood the market with cheap beer until the other party retired hurt, at which point the following year (the India market, like the Baltic, was an annual affair with a limited sailing season, ships aimed to arrive before the monsoon) his prices would be sky high, as he recouped his costs. This was a risky strategy but the stakes were high. One cargo lost in 1802 consisted of no fewer than 150 barrels of his beer.

These tactics cost him dear and made him many foes. Eventually the East India Company, upon whom he relied heavily, also lost patience with him, and suggested to the Burton brewers that they also might like to enter the Indian market. This was just what they needed to hear.

The Baltic market which for the latter half of the eighteenth century had enabled Burton to develop to support nine major export breweries by 1791 ( Bass, Clay, Evans. Leeson, Musgrave, Sherratt, Wilson, Wilson & Worthington) had been turned off like a tap after over 100 years.

“As soon as you sit down you are expected to drink a cup of brandy, after which they ply you with great glasses of adulterated Tokay and other vitiated wines, and between whiles with a bumper of the strongest English beer.”

So said a guest at a banquet thrown by the Russian Emperor Peter The Great (ruled 1682 – 1725). English beers were established in the Baltic countries even before the Burton trade took on an seriously organised form, and, as we have seen grew steadily throughout the century. Why then did the trade end so suddenly? The answer, sadly, was war and politics rather than any change of popular taste.

The Burton brewers had had a taste of what was to come in 1783 when the Russians imposed import duties of 300%, prompting the brewers to increase their efforts in the neighbouring states of Prussia and Poland. The Russian trade ceased altogether in 1800 when Russia suspended all trading relations with Britain. Whilst the Napoleonic wars effectively stopped major Baltic trade from 1806, it started again briefly in 1809, but given such uncertainties Burton needed other markets to survive, and in the process of looking the majority of Burton brewers did not.

Napoleon’s defeat in 1815 allowed a Baltic trade once more, but it was short lived. In 1822 the Russians built their own porter brewery in St Petersburg and rewarded it with monopoly rights and punitive tarrifs, ending the Russian trade for good. A brewery opened in Gothenberg in Sweden in 1826 with similar results. The Baltic trade was gone forever. There were three new markets open to the Burton brewers. Lancashire, London and India, and they attacked them all with vigour.

There are differing versions of events concerning the events that prompted the Burton brewers to consider the Indian market more carefully. Some claim that in 1821 a director of the East India Company named Marjoribanks dined with Samuel Allsopp. Praising the Indian market as ‘a trade that can never be lost, for the climate is too hot for brewing,’ he went on to explained his company’s dissatisfaction with Hodgson,

“ We are now dependent upon Hodgson who has given offence to most of the merchants of India. But your Burton ale, so strong and sweet will not suit our market.” vii

Other authorities give a slightly different version.

“ The introduction of the Burton Ale, in competition with Hodgson’s, is due to the suggestion of a captain in the Indian service, named Chapman, and the different brewings and other transactions connected with the exportation of the ale subsequently rendered so famous as ‘Bitter Beer,’ during the first two or three years were matters of the strictest secrecy.” viii

In fact the Marjoribanks (pronounced marchbanks) account is correct, and after their meeting he did arrange for bottles of Hodgson's beers to be delivered to Allsopp in Burton, along with a note making a joke about 'coals to Newcastle', demostrating how serious he was.

Chapman certainly did urge Allsopp to send larger volumes of beer to India, but he did so from India. In November 1824 he was counselling Allsopp that whilst his beer is universally preferred to Hodgson's by 'old Indians', he suggests that it could be made more bitter still.

This must have been confusing to poor Allsopp, who did concede that his first year's brew had been too dark, was getting conflicting advice. A wine merchant named Lord wrote to him from Calcutta to say that Allsopp's ale was finding favour and NO change to the process sould be made.

A further letter received in 1825 from a Mr Bailton in Calcutta, offers further advice, as well as shedding light on the lengths Indian customers went to preserve their ales and course of maturation at temperature.

“ I have watched the whole progress of your ale, having carefully bottled it in strong English Quart Ketches. I opened some in a month after bottling, and found it much decomposed, of a dark colour, turbid, and the taste quite altered. The third month there was a considerable change for the better, it began to clear and assume a sparkling appearance like champage. At the end of the eighth month it was excellent indeed, of a bright amber colour, clear as crystal, and a very peculiar fine flavour. The only thing it required was a little more bitter and, if possible, a little less degree of strength. I am ignorant myslef of the process of brewing, but I am correct in saying it wanted Hop and required less Malt.” ix

Legend has it that Allsopp gave Marjoribank's bottles to his head brewer, Job Goodhead, who disliked the extreme bitterness of the beer (not appreciating the effects that maturation at sea would have on the beer), but he reckoned he could kiln a malt that would do the job, and famously brewed the first trial batch of Allsopp’s IPA in a teapot. This did not prevent Allsopp’s chief rivals Bass and Salt from also claiming the credit for successfully translating Hodgson’s ale to Burton.

In truth priority was irrelevant, because it was swiftly apparent that the sulphate-rich Burton water was eminently superior for the production of pale and hoppy beers than that available to Hodgson. It took Allsopp a year or so to get his beer just right. In his first year his beer only fetched 20 rupees a hogshead against 25 for Hodgson’s. It was not long, however, before a butt of Allsopp’s Ale was more highly prized than that of Hodgson. From that time forward the Londoner’s trade went into decline, surviving as long as he did largely on the strength of his earlier fame. By 1832-3 of 12,000 barrels of strong beer and ale reaching Bengal, Bass was responsible for 5,200, Allsopp 1,400 and Hodgson 3,600. Burton never looked back.

“ To the decided superiority of its ales, the peculiar properties of its water, and the skill of its brewers, is attributed the fact of the increase, within 25 years, of the breweries from 5 to 16 and the employment of no fewer than 867 men and 61 boys in its manufacture.” x

The importance of the various stories is that they demonstrate that the Hodgson ale was clearly paler, and drier than the ‘pale ale’s that the Burton brewers were already famous for brewing.

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