We had loosely planned to make an India Pale Ale but given the plethora of vastly differing recipes around -  we inadvertently strayed away from the original style before stumbling onto the historically-based recipes that characterise the style, as described below.

Prior to that discovery, we opted not to overdose the brew with hops - most recipes call for enormous quantities of hops (including lots of Cascade hops, which would kill all the other flavours)  and use only a new hop (to us) - Fuggles - combined with the woody flavour of Oak chips. So we have described ours as an Oaked Pale Ale.

 This brew ended up the colour of a strong honey. Both, going into the fermenter, and later, in the bottle, the brew features a distinctive oak nose and taste - in fact a seriously strong flavour of oak - like your beer stirred with a floor board do you?

It makes a refreshing summer beer .... and the oak ?.... something to talk about.

The History of India Pale Ales

Originally developed in the late 1700's, British breweries would send beer via sail to the troops and British expatriots in India. Problem was, there was no refrigeration and the ocean voyage took nearly five months. As a result, the beer would usually arrive in compromised condition. Well, the brewers of the time didn't know as much about beer as we do today, but they did know that both hops (where we get the bitterness in beer) and alcohol act as natural preservatives. So, they came up with a brew that was intensely hopped and rather high in alcohol --- thus the birth of the "India Pale Ale."

History courtesy : http://www.stonebrew.com/tasting/ipa/