HB: Newsletter: April 1999: The History of Pale Ales

Hogtown Brewers Newsletter

April 1999

Pale Ales - An Overview
Mark Tumarkin

Let me say right out front that I am prejudiced. Pales ales are among my very favorite beer styles. If I was on the proverbial desert island with only one beer to drink, I'd want it to be Anchor's Liberty Ale, or maybe Sierra Nevada's Celebration Ale, or maybe my own Cat 5 Pale Ale. Hell, it's hard to choose a single beer but it would have to be a strong, hoppy American IPA style. With that said, let's take a look at the pale ales.

If we look at the AHA style guides used in competitions, we want to focus on categories 5 to 7. These cover the English Pale Ales (Pale Ale and IPA), American Pale Ales, and Bitters (Ordinary, Best, and ESB). These styles really have more in common than in many other categories. Just think about German Wheats or Stouts, for example. Gravity is really the distinguishing factor between the varieties of pale ales. Typically in pale ales, the bitterness level rises with the gravity. Thus an India Pale Ale is very much the same as an ordinary bitter, just more of everything. Maybe that's why the IPA is my favorite. It's the biggest, bitterest, and bestest.

The key to any beer is its grain bill, and pales ales have their own malt. Oddly enough, it's called pale ale malt. Typically, it is a British malt made from well-modified two-row barley, whereas most American pale malts are made from six-row barleys. Generally, these malts are low in nitrogen content and kilned at high temperatures of up to 200 degrees in the final stages of drying. This yields a beer with more color than you get from pale lager malt. Pale ales tend to the gorgeous copper hues rather than the lighter golden yellows of lager. This is usually augmented by the addition of some crystal or caramel malt. Many commercial examples (as well as homebrewers') also use additional adjuncts and specialty grains, both for color and additional fermentables. Many use dark specialty malts such as chocolate, black patent, or roast barley, primarily for additional color. Often some sugar is used as well, although I personally would not do so. A better addition would be some body and head enhancers such as wheat or carapils.

The high degree of modification, as well as the low nitrogen levels, allow these styles to be mashed with the single-infusion mash that has become synonymous with British ales. Most pale ales are mashed at temperatures of 150 to 154, with some of the bitters being mashed even a few degrees cooler. The typical grain bills and low mash temperatures yield a very fermentable wort. This contributes to the dry, well-attenuated character of most pale ales. The low nitrogen levels of the grist, as well as the use of sugar (which adds fermentables without adding nitrogen), tends to reduce chill-haze formation. In addition, many British brewers filter their ales. This tends to make for a clean, clear ale.

If the malt is the body and bones of an ale, it is the hops that are the heart. As you might guess from a style called Bitter, pale ales have a tremendous hop character. It is the bittering hops that give it this character. All the pale ales require good hop bitterness. Hop flavor and aroma vary with the different styles. Even the ordinary bitters can have hop flavor and aroma at the brewer's discretion. Traditional English styles call for traditional English hops, East Kent Goldings and Fuggles being the most common. However, in the American pale ales and the IPA's anything goes with American hopes such as Cascade, Centennial, and Chinook being among the most popular. Cascades are even becoming accepted by the CAMRA traditionalists.

Like most ales, pale ales use a top-fermenting ale yeast. These yeasts ferment at a higher range of temperatures than bottom-fermenting lager yeasts. Many traditional English breweries use open fermenters, some of these like the stone Yorkshire squares are truly beautiful in themselves. There are many good quality English ale yeasts available from Wyeast, YKKC, White Labs and other sources. These give the fruity, estery flavors typical of many British Ales. However, don't overlook the clean fermenting American Ale yeast. It can also produce a superb pale ale, especially in the hoppier American pales and IPAs.

Don't forget to look at your water. After all, most of your beer is water. The water of Burton-on-Trent is the standard water profile for pale ales and bitters. You might say that this is because many of the great British brewing companies began there, including Bass, Allsop, and others. However, it is also because that water profile accentuates the crisp, bitter hop flavor. The water is very hard, has almost no bicarbonate, and is high in calcium and sulfate. This provides an underlying dryness that brings out the hop bitterness so characteristic of pale ales.

I hope that this information will give you a better basis to understand pale ales, to evaluate and critically taste them, and also to brew better ales yourself. I have barely touched on the wealth of information pertaining to these great beers. If you are interested in learning more, check out Pale Ale by Terry Foster, part of the Classic Beer Style Series, and also a fantastic new book by Ray Daniels called Designing Great Beers. On second thought, if you were at all impressed by how erudite and knowledgeable this piece seems, don't check them out. You might find out just how much of this I stole from them.

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