Maybe because they had tons of supplies shipped to them anyway, so why not ship beer too?
But really, who knows? We’re all just speculating here. Maybe one of us should do a little more research and report back. I’m slow at work today… let me see what the google tells me.
Maybe I’m wrong, but I doubt they had a lot of knowledge about fermentation temperatures and water profile back then. Within old beer recipes from colonial times the instructions often read to let the wort cool to the temperature of blood.[/quote]
Well I’m wrong. They continued to ship beer to India and not brew it right there due to the temperature and their difficulty in making good beer in that environment. Good call Mattnaik.
http://morebeer.com/brewingtechniques/l ... style.html[quote=“dobe12”]Maybe because they had tons of supplies shipped to them anyway, so why not ship beer too?
But really, who knows? We’re all just speculating here. Maybe one of us should do a little more research and report back. I’m slow at work today… let me see what the google tells me.[/quote]
I like your attitude. No, I’m certainly no more of an expert than you are on this subject. I’m just speculating just like everyone else here. To me, though, the most telling piece of evidence in this whole mystery is that India still, to this day, does not have any sort of microbrew culture, as far as I’m aware. Although they make some excellent pilsner-style beers, that appears to be the only kind of beer they make. I have to think that the culture of India itself must have had something to do with the fact that the Brits never set up breweries there. I’m thinking maybe it’s because they would have wanted to make it more profitable by selling it to the natives, and they knew there wasn’t enough of a demand for that, either because the Indians just weren’t too into beer, or they were too poor to buy it. Who knows? I’m sure we could research this topic for the next year and never really get to the bottom of it.
Found this.
Edward Dyer from England set up the first brewery in India at Kasauli - DyerBreweries (1855) in the Himalaya Mountains, near Shimla, producing Asia’s first beercalled Lion. H G Meakin bought the old Shimla and Solan Breweries from EdwardDyer in 1949. Then N.N. Mohan took over management of the company and thename was changed to Mohan Meakin Ltd. The company continues to produce beer(Lion) across India. The Indian beer industry has been witnessing steady growth of 7 -9% per yearover the last ten years and the popularity of beer in the country continues to rise.Today no brewer in India makes India Pale Ale. All Indian beers are either lagers (5 %alcohol such as Australian lager) or strong lagers (8 % alcohol - as the popular MAXsuper strong beer). Kingfisher, Kings and Belo are popular Indian beer brands.The Indian beer industry has witnessed a big change during the last five years.The industry was previously dominated by competition between the Vijay Mallya-controlled UB Group, the Manu Chabbria-controlled Shaw Wallace and with theentry of SABMiller in India with the ownership of strong brands like Haywards 5000,along with its existing brands and took over Shaw Wallace
[quote=“dobe12”]Found this.
Edward Dyer from England set up the first brewery in India at Kasauli - DyerBreweries (1855) in the Himalaya Mountains, near Shimla, producing Asia’s first beercalled Lion. H G Meakin bought the old Shimla and Solan Breweries from EdwardDyer in 1949. Then N.N. Mohan took over management of the company and thename was changed to Mohan Meakin Ltd. The company continues to produce beer(Lion) across India. The Indian beer industry has been witnessing steady growth of 7 -9% per yearover the last ten years and the popularity of beer in the country continues to rise.Today no brewer in India makes India Pale Ale. All Indian beers are either lagers (5 %alcohol such as Australian lager) or strong lagers (8 % alcohol - as the popular MAXsuper strong beer). Kingfisher, Kings and Belo are popular Indian beer brands.The Indian beer industry has witnessed a big change during the last five years.The industry was previously dominated by competition between the Vijay Mallya-controlled UB Group, the Manu Chabbria-controlled Shaw Wallace and with theentry of SABMiller in India with the ownership of strong brands like Haywards 5000,along with its existing brands and took over Shaw Wallace[/quote]
Thanks for the info. I wonder if the Lion brewery that exists today that makes Lion Stout is a descendant of that same company? I know they’re in Sri Lanka, but that’s not too far away from India. Anyway, I knew the climate alone couldn’t be the whole answer. Yes, they didn’t have refrigeration back then, but that didn’t stop companies like Guinness from setting up breweries all over the world, even in very hot tropical climates.
It sounds like a combination of weather, water, and just an overall want for the English beer they knew was what kept them shipping the beer and not brewing it locally. I also read something about the cost to ship it there being relatively low. There were also price wars between suppliers due to Russia cutting off the beer trade into their country or more accurately the steep tariffs that the Russian empire put on English beer importing. This caused beer exporters to look elsewhere for business. They found it in India and slashed prices to compete.
Looks like most of your and Mattniks claims are true and my assumptions were wrong. Live and learn.
I just started reading Mitch Steele’s IPA a week ago so all this stuff is fresh in my brain 
[quote=“dobe12”][/quote]
Yes, I’m aware of all that, but you have to remember that the British would have been making beer to suit their own tastes, and that would have required using ingredients from their own region, if they really wanted to duplicate the taste of their own beer from home. Just swapping out ingredients from halfway across the world would have resulted in a completely different kind of beer, and I doubt they would have settled for that. I’m not saying it would have been impossible to make beer in India, of course, but to make it the way the British liked it, using ingredients from India, would have been a huge challenge. I’m quite sure they looked deeply into the possibility back then, and the reasons they declined to pursue that goal must have been pretty compelling for them. We just don’t really know why, I guess. It will probably always be a little bit of a historical mystery.[/quote]
You sure are making a lot of assumptions here. I’m willing to bet that British soldiers stationed in India would drink pretty much any alcohol they could get their hands on. Sure, they’d probably want an English style ale from their home land, but I doubt they’d reject another type of ale if it was all they had. Of course, I’m just speculating.[/quote]
I can’t speak for the Brits, but I can assure you that soldiers will, “drink pretty much any alcohol they could get their hands on.” Long ago and far away we drank indigenous beer that had a distinct formaldahyde note, Olympia (that was the GOOD stuff), some high-octane rice wine and some stuff distilled from rice wine. I’m pretty sure US GIs hold the record for hangovers. Although, the Russians can certainly challenge us on volume of alcohol consumed per soldier, vodka produces slightly lesser hangovers.
I think a lot of it had to do with wealth and power. The East India Company had loads of both, to the point that the they were able to destroy the company that “invented” the IPA in order to have a subsidiary company monopolize the beer that was exported to India. IPA was originally known as a “pale ale for export to India” and other less-formal designations, and since EIC had a trade monopoly on supplying the British troops and citizens in India, they did NOT want to see competition from the local market. They probably used their wealth and power to convince the Crown to not charter local brewers. Remember that for a long time all trade went through London, to the point that a Canadian company had to ship exports to the UK to be imported to New York; one of the causes of the Revolution.
Well maybe they invented IPA beer because it tastes so damn good and they liked it and it had nothing to do with spoilage.
Here’s another thought, the British sent beer to a country,India, that prefers tea. And they sent tea to a country of beer drinkers,America. WTF were they thinking. We wouldn’t have dumped beer into Boston harbor and would have remained loyal subjects.
