Main Page | See live article | Alphabetical index India Pale Ale, commonly abbreviated to IPA, is a style of ale that originally derived from a British colonial thirst for British-brewed beers. When shipping beer to the colonies, thought had to be given to the length of the journey. By initially brewing the beer to high gravities, it could continue to ferment during the journey. In addition, the anti-infective property of hops was utilized to prevent infection by undesirable wild yeast. The resulting golden beer is, therefore, extremely bitter in flavour. Commercial examples include Fuller's IPA from London and Brooklyn Brewery's East India Pale Ale from New York. This article is from Wikipedia. All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License.