Originally posted by AnthonyB
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But I know that the genuine IPAs were heavily hopped, but hadn't seen any indication of the old hop rates. One of the problems of course is that old hops used to have much much lower alpha acids, so kettle hops rates would have to be considerably higher to get the equivalent IBUs in the beer. Having brewed with a batch at 1.8 % alpha hops (god knows where they found those), they added a real fullness to the flavour (though definitely not DMS type flavours, just a different richness), that once we had used that batch up nearly had me going to the local market and picking up a load of old cabbages to throw into the kettle. Of course no-one really knows what the old hops had in the way of hop oil to give the zingy character of dry hopping. The old recipes I have seen don't do late hopping let alone dry hopping, though trying to decipher old brewery records is interesting enough in its own right.
And of course, the genuine IPAs that got out to India were shipped the long way round, in what wouldn't normally be considered good storage conditions, to say the least. Have you read Pete Brown's book on IPA. Not totally convinced by his style of writing, but some interesting stuff.
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