When you hear about prohibition (in the USA during 1920-1933 alcohol was illegal) , people tend to glamorize how the sneaky partiers were always one step ahead of Johnny Law.  You hear about the glamorous secret parties, the underground tunnels between establishments, and the bathtub homebrewers.  It was a time where the little guy thumbed his nose at the law.  Unfortunately it was not all fun and games.  Prohibition was serious business.

The Italian Job

My great-grandfather, Louis Circo, was a poor Italian worker living with his family in Garcia Plaza (the tent city near Trinidad, Colorado).  He had worked in the coal mines, but at the time he was out of work.  Like so many others, he was desperate to make ends meet for his family.  Circo was approached by another Italian man for a “job”.  This story almost sounds like something out of a Godfather movie.

Louis Circo didn’t tell his family what he was doing.  My great-grandmother Josephine knew something was up, because men would come to the door and my great-grandfather would leave with them.  Josephine did not like the men and could tell they were up to no good.  She wasn’t happy about the situation, but stayed quiet.

My great-grandfather was going up into the foothills to make bootleg whiskey.  To this day, no one in the family knows exactly how the transactions went.  We know there was one man who was the contact, and two other men who were not seen.  The trio and Louis Circo were making bootleg whiskey in the foothills, but we’re not sure who was buying it.  It was most likely the local underground bars in the neighboring towns or possibly organized crime.  One day while travelling to the foothills, the bootlegging business did not go as planned.

The Aftermath

My family thinks Louis Circo was sold out to protect a bigger operation.  He might have just been unlucky.  It’s a piece of the story we will never know.  For some reason, the police followed him to the whiskey site.  He was the only person arrested, and the only person of the group convicted of illegal bootlegging.  Louis Circo spent six months in Canon City Penitentiary.

Naturally my great-grandmother was very upset and horribly humiliated.  She was left to fend for herself during the depression with three children.  She stayed with my great-grandfather, because no one divorced back then.  My grandmother remembers going with her brother and sister to visit her father once a week while he was in prison.

When Louis Circo got home, things changed.  He stayed at home and did the cooking and caring for the kids.  My great-grandmother would work all day because it’s hard for ex-cons to find work, especially during this harsh period of American history.  When she came home she would leave soon after.  Their marriage didn’t end in divorce, but for all concerned it was over.  The crime, the shame of the arrest and prison, and prohibition wrecked the family.

I can’t say he would not have run afoul with the law if prohibition did not happen, the times were hard.  Prohibition provided the situation, and Louis Circo made a poor choice.  I can see how the seriousness of the crime could be trivialized when the amendment banned alcohol.  I do not believe I would give up homebrewing, especially since I’ve brewed for so many years.  It is hard to think of alcohol as a crime.

When you raise a glass today, celebrate your right to a drink.  Also remember the lives Prohibition harmed because someone thought to cure a headache with decapitation.  The right to drink is a serious right, so make sure no one takes it from you ever again.

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Badgers? We don't need no stinking (drunk) badgers!

Here’s a beer nut you might not expect.  A badger, the animal, in Germany got drunk on over-ripe cherries and passed out in the road.

A motorist called the police to report a dead badger in the road.  When the police arrived, they found the badger was not dead and was in fact drunk and passed out.  They prodded the badger which would not move.  Eventually they were able to move the badger out of the road by poking it with a broom.

(Source: Reuters)

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When a group of moms and daughters went out for a “girl’s night out”, the moms were refused entrance.  The Leeds Courtyard Bar told the moms their daughters could come in, but any moms over 35 years old had to make other plans for the evening, even the MILFs.

No MILFs allowed? Really? What if you just look older?

The women first thought it was a joke, but they quickly realized there was nothing funny and they were tossed back into the cold (literally – have you seen the temperatures in the UK lately?).  To paraphrase Kevin Klein, “kicking out old ladies isn’t nice”.

Of course they asked for the manager, but the bouncers just gave them old stares.  A woman did come out to apologize, but apparently the bouncers just enjoyed the moment.  They must have felt big holding back a hoard of little old ladies.

The last time I heard of anything like this was my roommate’s fraternity.  They had “whale gates” at the door, and subjected many young women to horrifying humiliation.  Apparently some bouncers don’t grow up.

The pub company Mitchells & Bulmers was notified, and they are looking into the matter and added ‘The Courtyard is enjoyed by customers of all ages. We are committed to treating our customers equally and fairly and do not tolerate discrimination in any form, whether in terms of age or otherwise.”

As long as you’re young and hot.

(Source: DailyMail.co.uk)

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I try to stamp out every beer myth I come across, so when Virgil G. another beer blogger pointed out I may be perpetuating a beer myth in my Thanksgiving, Pilgrims, and Beer Myths article I was surprised (and somewhat embarrassed).  It would be pretty bad if I wrote an article about myths and perpetuated one of my own – especially in the same article.  Damn.

The IPA legend

The IPA legend goes like this.  Beer brewers were looking for a beer to take to India.  The trip to India is hard on beer, since the beer is exposed to dramatically high temperatures including crossing the equator twice and a very long journey over time and distance.  Time and high heat can be very harsh on beer.

George Hodgson of the Bow Brewery stepped up with his variation of the popular pale ale.  He increased the gravity of the pale ale beer (high alcohol) and added a ton of hops (highly hopped).  This new creation not only survived the trip to India, it seemed to improve the beer.  The India Pale Ale style was born.  At least this is the beer legend.

You’ll find this story in some form in just about every beer book and beer website out there.

My troublesome quote

So in my original article, where did I go wrong?  It was an article about pilgrims right, so where did IPAs come in??  IPAs came about in 1790, while pilgrims are sooo 1600s.   Here’s the questionable claim I made in the previous article:

“India Pale Ales (IPA) were created later in history specifically to make the long journey to India.”

Created is a bit of a strong word, and I think this is where I got into trouble.

How much of the IPA "invention" is myth vs. history

Where’s the myth?

Earlier this year, articles on The Zythophile titled “Myth 4: George Hodgson invented IPA to survive the long trip to India” and “IPA: Incredibly Poor Article” spread across the blogsphere.  These articles make the claim the IPA style is just an evolved style from the time, and suggest the Hodgson creation/invention/formulation is a myth.  To support this thesis, Zythophile makes the following claims:

• Other beers, like porter, could make the trip to India
• The October beer is similar to the IPA, and other brewers knew how to make strong, highly hopped beers
• The market was very small before 1830, so why bother?
• There is no evidence Hodgson created the style

It all seems so convincing, it makes me wonder why no one has said this before?  Even Michael Jackson (RIP) references this story in New World Guide to Beer.  Well I am not a beer historian, but there are several questions I have which would need to be addressed before claiming the story is debunked.

Let’s look at each point in detail.

Can other beers make it to India?

For the first point, yes other beers could make the journey.  Zythophile points out in a journal entry from Joseph Banks (on the Endeavour with Captain Cook in the South Pacific) the author enjoyed a porter stored on the boat for a year.  Banks’ porter is one example of a beer making it over a year on a boat.  Unfortunately this is what we call a sample size of one.  Actually I am sure a much higher percentage of beers made the journey (otherwise why bring beer at all), but the point is valid.  Just because Joseph Banks’ pint of porter made it to the South Pacific ok, it does not demonstrate there isn’t a problem shipping beer.

A beer won’t sour if it doesn’t become infected, but the odds of infection are greatly increased if the beer is exposed to heat.  Heat can also make beer go bad, which is why we go through so much effort to keep beer cool.  Heat will caramelize sugars and amplify and off-flavors in the beer, even if you chill it again.  If you doubt this, take your favorite beer and put it in the oven for an hour at 120 F, re- chill the beer and then tell me if it tastes like the same beer.  My guess is you will get aromas and flavors of cooked vegetables.

Even Joseph Banks made a point to note the recently tapped porter was surprisingly good when he wrote “a cask of Porter tappd which provd excellently good”.  It doesn’t really matter which way you travel to India from England, you must cross the equator twice.  A beer can make it (and many did), but the chances are not in your favor.  Because other beers can make the journey (in some percentage) is not a reason to claim there is no problem to solve.  If you ship 100 barrels and you lose some percentage of that beer to spoilage, you have a problem you need to solve.

On a tour through the Budweiser brewery, the tour guide noted very little beer was ever spilt (by design and significant effort) which resulted in thousands of extra cases of beer saved each year.  While comparing a modern Budweiser to the industrial age Bow brewery is not exactly fair, it does show small changes can make a large effect on the bottom line.

The October beer and the India Pale Ale ABV

This point is a bit confusing.  Zythophile knows the IPA was not a strong beer at the time (and states so), but then compares it to a barley wine called October beer which he lists with a starting gravity of 1.140 or higher (somewhere around 16% ABV depending on finishing gravity).  I guess the reason was to make the point a beer can last two years or longer, or to show other brewers were making stronger beers.

I doubt any beers on ships were very potent brews (I’m still looking for a historical recipe for ship’s beer).  The reason I do not think it would be a strong beer is drunk sailors do not work well, they fight, and tend to fall off ships.  Giving strong beer or barley wine to a group of men who are bored out of their mind on a boat for six plus months does not seem like a good idea.

The counter point to this argument is the beer was consumed in India, not on ships.  This is a fair point to which I agree, but it still suffers from the same problems.  Drinking a high alcohol beer in high heat (such as India) invites dehydration.  If they were shipping an October beer to India, I do not think it was a high alcohol beer.

• October beers had OG of 1.140, much too high for an IPA
• High alcohol beers cause dehydration when over consumed

Part of the evidence offered by Zythophile is an advertisement which states “select investment of prime London goods just landed from the HC [Honourable Company] ship Sir David Scott”, including “Hodgson’s warranted prime picked pale ale of the genuine October brewing, warranted fully equal, if not superior, to any ever before received in the settlement.”  I’m not sure what the advertisement means by “genuine October brewing”, but it does not sound like a barley wine.  The advertisement says pale ale.

The beer at the time served two purposes.  First the beer served as a healthy source of water.  Second the beer served as a source of vitamins and nutrients.  This is why the nutritional porter was so popular at the time, more popular than the pale ale.  The intoxicating properties were pure bonus.  Unfortunately beer is also a diuretic.  Both health benefits (water and nutrients) drop off dramatically as the beer becomes more potent.

The problem with all this attention on the alcohol content is it doesn’t matter either way, and it contributes to the IPA myth.  The IPAs of the time were rarely over 1.070 for good reasons I’ll discuss later.  High alcohol IPAs are part of the myth.  If October beer had a starting gravity of 1.140, this was not the IPA shipped to India.

The East India beer market was very small before 1830

This is true.  The first three decades saw little increase in the market with only about 9 to 10 thousand barrels shipped a year.  It didn’t grow to 20,000 barrels until 1840, long after the disputed “IPA discovery” in 1790.  But doesn’t this support the George Hodgson claim?

Only a small time brewer could take this market.  Larger brewers would not be interested in the market until there was a higher demand for the product.  This just shows fewer breweries were involved in the East India beer trade, and thus reduces the number of people who could have stumbled upon the ideal recipe.

How much beer really was sold in the East Indies? Not much.

A smaller brewer would also be much more susceptible to product loss.  If Hodgson lost any percentage of his product, he would feel it much more than a larger brewer.  As a smaller brewer, the Bow Brewery was under more pressure to solve any shipping problems.

The last thing to note is, while the market was shipping only 9 to 10 thousand barrels a year, nearly all of it was by the Bow Brewery.  The Bow Brewery only produced 11 thousand barrels a year for the first 16 years of its existence.  Few other breweries were shipping beer to India in the 1790s.  There was no India beer market before 1790, because Hodgson saw an opportunity and created the market.

• The market was small, but so was the Bow Brewery’s production
• Smaller brewers feel the financial pain of beer loss more
• In the early years, most beer to India came from the Bow Brewery

There is no evidence Hodgson created the style

This is a negative proof.  It basically states there is no evidence X is true, so X must be false.  That’s a logic error.  To show Hodgson did not create the style, you would need to show another true IPA existed before Hodgson’s India Ale and was sold as such, Hodgson never produced the ale, some point in history much later where the legend changed (like the pilgrim myths of the early 1900s), or some other direct contradiction.

There were similar beers at the time, the IPA is an evolved style, but Hodgson’s India Ale had two distinct alterations to reduce spoilage.  The first is the addition of hops.  Hops are a significant anti-microbial agent, and adding more hops will preserve a beer for longer periods of time.

The second change will surprise you.  The second IPA change was not to increase in alcohol, but as I alluded to earlier, the recipe actually was created with a lower starting and finishing gravity than other beers of the day resulting in a much drier and lower alcohol beer.

IPAs were rarely created with a gravity higher than 1.070, because higher gravity beers will have more residual sugars.  The IPA beer at the time was a much drier beer.  Residual sugars are what attract spoiling microorganisms.  Contrary to popular belief, studies show alcohol (ethanol) levels less than 10% do little to prevent microorganisms.  The hops and polyphenols in the beer prevent spoilage, not a stronger beer.  A brewer at the time might not know microorganisms were spoiling the beer, but the brewer would know dry hoppy beers spoil less than sweeter maltier beers.

I think Zythophile is probably right that Hodgson did not create a beer style.  I do not think anyone came to Hodgson and asked for him to create a beer which could make it to India nor did he market the beer as a new style, but I do think he modified the pale ale recipe to extremes to reduce product loss.

• Can’t negatively prove something, with an absence of evidence  i.e. – I can’t prove he didn’t kill her, so he must have killed her
• IPAs of the time had lower alcohol compared to other beers of the day
• Alcohol does not provide protection against microorganisms at low ABVs (<10%)

So where do we stand?

Hodgson was successful for several reasons: his beer, his brewery’s proximity to the ship ports, and his shady business practices.  IPAs probably succeeded other beers in India because it was lighter and dryer, both good qualities of a warm season beer (who likes porter on a hot summer day?).  He moved into the India market due to an imbalance in shipping costs, and though shady business practices he dominated the India market.

Hodgson did not create a beer style, but he likely reformulated an existing style to reduce product loss.  Whether he created a style, modified an existing style, or just got lucky it really doesn’t matter.  His beer had two qualities other beers shipped to India did not.  His India ales were hoppier and much drier.  Sure other brewers probably knew this combination would work to reduce spoilage, but Hodgson was the brewer who did ship this beer to India.

For these reasons his name is associated with the history of the IPA.

Yes other brewers were producing similar ales, but Hodgson’s beer was the pale ale shipped to India.  The market for beer in India was small, but as a percentage of Hodgson’s revenue the India market was huge.  If October ales were barley wines, I do not believe the IPA is a modification of this recipe nor has any relevance to the discussion.

Hodgson’s beer was known through lore and legend to be the first true India Pale Ale, if not actually documented anywhere.  So when the legend becomes fact, print the legend.

What do you think?  Myth or not?  Let me know in the comments!

[EDIT: Zythophile had a rebuttal on the old site. I included it here so the comments were not lost]

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A story in Reuters ran last week about Mike Hammond who was looking for a drinking buddy for his 88-year-old father Jack.  The duties included taking his father out for a pint once a day.  The best part about the job was that it paid.

Taking a shutin to the pub might make a great business idea!

Imagine that, a job which pays $14 USD an hour to be a drinking buddy.  If you are interested in the job, the position was filled by a retired doctor and a former military man.  There still is hope.

This occupation could be an unfilled niche.  The baby boomer generation is currently retiring at a massive rate.  Some reports speculate around 50% of the federal workforce will retire in the next few years, although it likely will be fewer for economic reasons.  Still many will be retiring.  Add in the workers from the public sector, and you have a large retirement party coming.  That is a lot of drinkers!

In the next few years, many of these people could use a drink at the pub.  See a need, fill a need – beer glass.

Many elderly are shut in and this might be a great way to give them a bit of their life back.  Not only would you be providing a valuable service, you get to have a pint on the job!

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1. Won’t You Be My Drinking Buddy Neighbor?

Christmas came early for many drinkers in Walusubi trading centre in Mukono, Uganda.  A truck carrying 800 crates of Eagle Lager overturned while trying to avoid a collision with a bus.  Ensuring that the beer would not go to waste, many looters rapidly descended on the scene.

The driver and an additional worker escaped the accident without injury.  Even vendors from neighboring stores, some about 1km from the accident, joined in on the “free beer”.  “Kirisimaasi ewedde kati,” meaning “Christmas is done”, a vendor draped in a blue apron said, as absconded with five bottles. (Wow.  Five whole bottles – we hope they were 32oz bombers.)  It is unlikely that the stores planned to pass the savings on to their customers.

When police (aka The Grinch) arrived on the scene, battles ensued over the beer.  The scene was eventually secured.

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The Twist n' Shot makes jello shots even easier... maybe too easy!

If you’ve ever had jell-o shots, you know it’s difficult to get all of the jell-o out, or you might not remember, depending on how many you had that night.  For those of you that do remember, you know if the shot is in a paper cup, you can squeeze the shot into your mouth leaving jell-o chunks in the paper cup.  You can use a spoon to get the jell-o out.  There really isn’t a good way to get the shot completely out, at least not one that allows you to retain what little drunken dignity you still might have.

The people at Twist ‘n Shot have a solution with their Twist ‘n Shot cup.  The Twist n’ Shot removes the complete jell-o shot with one simple twist.  First you make the jell-o shots in their custom plastic cup.  The shot cup dislodges the jell-o from the cup by twisting plastic bars (that are a part of the cup) between the jell-o and the cup.  The jell-o pops out intact!

The Twist ‘n Shot comes in a four colors: blue, pink, orange, and yellow.  A package of 20 costs about $13.99.  This gadget could be a cool and unique addition to your next party!

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Finally modern science is getting put to good use.  Kent Hodgson, 22, of New Zealand, has found a way to cool beer within seconds using a small portable gadget.  Hodgson calls his invention Huski.

The Huski uses liquid carbon dioxide to cool your beverage.  The liquid carbon dioxide is pressed down into the plastic device.  The pressure compresses the liquid carbon dioxide, and causes the carbon dioxide to for crystals of dry ice at the bottom.  The surface temperature of the device is minus 78.5C (-109.3F).  The device is then placed into the beer, where it rapidly cools the liquid.

The only problems we see with the device are that you need to place it into the liquid, which means opening a warm beer, we’re not sure what it might do to a glass bottle of beer, and touching something that is minus 78.5C (-109.3F) can be risky at best.  The carbon dioxide in the beer will rapidly escape upon opening, since warmer liquids have more difficulty holding carbon dioxide in solution.  The beer might be flat before you can chill it.  It might be better to place the closed beer into a pool of water, and use the Huski to supercool the water.

We’re also concerned about what rapidly cooled liquids might do to a glass.  We can not be sure without testing the Huski.  We will have to test the Huski when it comes out (exploding glass can be fun!).  Worst case, the Huski will provide us with endless Beer Nuts! stories.

Still the device is a very cool idea.  Hodgson plans to sell the device once he patents it.  He hopes the device will sell for about $50 (Australian dollars?)

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Apparently Canadians have difficulties keeping their beer under wraps.  Thieves in Calgary stole a 16 meter trailer filled with beer.  The beer was valued at $100,000.  This is the second time we’ve reported a beer heist of this magnitude in Canada.

A truck large enough to haul the trailer was stolen from a nearby construction site a few days earlier.  The trailer was stolen a day before it was to be delivered.  The stolen beer is usually found sold in unlicensed clubs.

Once again Bob and Doug Mackenzie were unavailable for comment.

Best movie drunks ever! Eh?

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I spent many nights at the 'Snatch

For as long as we can remember, Bandersnatch has been a mainstay and icon of downtown Tempe, Arizona.  The restaurant and once brewpub, open for three decades, has closed their doors.

Bandersnatch was a very popular brewpub near Arizona State University.  After the founding owners sold the brewpub, the new owners closed the brewery and opened the restaurant only on game days.  It was only open for a few days last year.

The owners then sold the space to be converted into an 11 story Marriott Residence Inn – just what Tempe needs, more corporations and less character.  Some of the iron artwork and characteristic wooden doors that made Bandersnatch unique will be saved and used in the hotel bar.

Bandersnatch was one of the last pieces of downtown Tempe that hadn’t been overrun by corporate America.  We will miss the onion rings and beer.  We will also miss Tempe – maybe the city should be renamed McTempe.

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America might have a bad (and unfair) reputation for water-like beer, but France might have taken the lead.  In an effort to control unruly British soccer fans, the French stadium Stade de France is serving alcohol-free beer.  We’re not sure how that will keep them sane; we think it will just piss them off more.  Who wants to watch a 4-hour 1-1 tie sober?

Over 250,000 pints were served at the full price, without advertising that the beer was alcohol-free.  A Stade de France spokesman said: “The policy is working superbly because there has been no trouble whatsoever.”  It’s clear that the stadium has not considered what will happen when thousands of angry British soccer fans discover that they have been duped by the French.

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A New Zealand brewery, the Croucher Brewing Company, is missing a laptop.  According to the owners, the laptop contains designs, contact information, and financials.  They REALLY want it back.

They are offering a lifetime supply of beer (12 bottles a month) to any information leading to the retrieval of the computer.  If it’s good beer, we’re willing to buy them a new one!

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Doctors in Kenya removed a half liter beer bottle from a man’s rear.  The man refused to explain how the bottle got there (would you want to?).  The 26 centimeter bottle was removed after two operations, the first being unsuccessful.

The hospital official, Patrick Okoth (Captain Obvious), reported that it would have been impossible for the man to do it to himself.

“It would have been too painful. He would have had to use a whole length of his arm,” Okoth said, adding that the bottle inflicted “no damage at all” in the man’s internal organs.  Just his pride.  He must have won a beer pong match with a group of people that don’t like to lose (see Barry Badrinath).

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Carling the crow, a pub regular who was known to sneak sips from patrons’ lagers when they were not looking, is no longer welcome at its favorite pub in Neath, South Wales.  For a time the purloined drinks were considered humorous, but for this crow, nevermore.

The manager of the David Protheroe pub, Sarah Wyatt, has warned all customers to scare the bird off after bird experts pointed out that the crow is a carrion crow.  For some people it is fun to see animals get drunk, but no one wants road kill back wash from a critter that might have just returned from a dead rat feast.

Source: UK’s The Sun (http://www.thesun.co.uk/article/0,,2-2007340828,00.html)

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