![]() ![]() A second important reason was that Hodgson gave the captains long lines of credit, as much as a year or more. An important reason for them taking Hodgson’s beer was that his brewery lay within a mile or two of the moorings for the Company’s ships. It was in fact a private business run “on the side” by the captains for their own (and not the Company’s) profit. In fact, the beer was bought in London by the captains of the Company’s ships who re-sold it to the Indian civilian market. Obviously, a non-existent British army was not buying Hodgson’s beer (or anybody else’s), but neither was the East India Company. They and any expatriate company troops also drank porter, a good deal of it from Hodgson, but it also came from other brewers. Consequently the Company had large numbers of civilian employees, and it was generally these administrators who drank Hodgson’s pale ale. ![]() It began purely as a trading company but came to effectively rule India, both militarily and administratively after 1754. ![]() The Company was essentially a joint stock company independent of the British Government. What troops there were in India were those of the East India Company, and were mostly Indian natives. In fact, the above is mostly untrue, starting with the fact that there was no British Army in India at that time. His idea was later taken on by the brewers of Burton on Trent, notably Bass, which became England’s largest brewer on the back of IPA. Hodgson was the first to have the idea that a high hop-rate would help to preserve the beer during the several months voyage to India, and brewed such a beer especially for export to India. It was first exported to India for the Army around 1790 by George Hodgson, a brewer from Bow in East London. We all know what we mean by “British” IPA don’t we? It was a pale, relatively low-alcohol, highly-hopped beer that the thirsty soldiers of the British Army in India relished in the hot climate of the sub-continent. ![]()
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