Prince Rohan's India Pale Ale

5-Gallon All-Grain Homebrew Recipe

THE CHARACTER

Prince Rohan arrived in England as visiting royalty and never quite left. It wasn't the weather — Rohan will tell you with a diplomatic smile that English weather is "character-building." It was the cricket. A batsman of uncommon grace, Rohan plays the sport the way he carries himself: with precision, patience, and the quiet confidence of a man who knows exactly where the ball is going before the bowler does. His English IPA was born in the same country that adopted him, brewed for the same journey his family once made. English hops, Indian heritage, perfectly balanced between two worlds. The beer traveled east. The prince traveled west. They met in the middle.

THE STYLE

The India Pale Ale is one of the most storied styles in brewing history, born from the practical demands of the British Empire. In the late 18th and early 19th centuries, British troops and colonists stationed in India craved the pale ales they knew from home, but standard beers could not survive the grueling six-month sea voyage from England around the Cape of Good Hope to Calcutta. The journey crossed the equator twice, subjecting the barrels to extreme temperature fluctuations that spoiled ordinary beer.

London brewer George Hodgson of the Bow Brewery discovered that brewing a pale ale to higher alcohol and with significantly more hops — both natural preservatives — produced a beer robust enough to arrive in India in drinkable condition. The style was refined further by brewers in Burton-upon-Trent, whose mineral-rich local water proved ideal for brewing hoppy pale ales.

The original English IPA is markedly different from the aggressively hopped American IPAs that dominate today's market — it is more balanced, more restrained, with earthy and floral English hops rather than citrusy American varieties, and a pronounced biscuity malt backbone that stands as an equal partner to the hops, not a victim of them.