Descendant of originators of IPA brings 30-pub tour to Leeds to mark launch of new Indian Pale Ale
‘This is the moment I've been building towards since the day we decided to bring Allsopp's back’
A direct descendant of the brewer who helped make India Pale Ale famous around the world is bringing his 30-pub tour to Leeds.
One of the great lost names of British brewing is returning to the beer that made its fortune more than 200 years ago – with a new IPA made possible by the extraordinary discovery of a brewing ledger described as the missing link between one of the world's most popular modern beer styles and its historic Burton roots.
More than half a century after the brewery that helped popularise IPA around the world disappeared from Britain's pubs, Allsopp’s – the modern incarnation of Samuel Allsopp & Sons – has unveiled The Famous Original, a new 4.4% IPA and the culmination of Jamie Allsopp's five-year mission to revive one of Britain's most influential brewing names.
Containing more than 100 handwritten recipes – including IPA, Pale Ale, Double Diamond, Stout, Arctic Ale and dozens of forgotten brews – the ledger was discovered in an attic in Leeds after Jamie had spent almost two years searching for original records from the family brewery and has become the historical foundation for its modern revival.
“Arguably there is no more important beer in brewing history, Jamie said. “And as an Allsopp the story of IPA has a very particular resonance.”
“This is the moment I've been building towards since the day we decided to bring Allsopp's back," he explained.
“IPA was the beer that transformed Allsopp's from a regional Burton brewery into one of the most famous brewing companies in the world. Everything we've done over the past five years has been leading here.”
Jamie, who has been infatuated by his family’s brewing history for as long as he could remember, began seriously plotting its return around 2016, planning to retire from a successful career in finance to revive the famous brewery.
He recovered the rights to the name from Carlsberg, a descendent of Allied Breweries which bought them in the mid 20th century, but one question remained unanswered – how could he faithfully recreate beers whose recipes appeared to have been lost?
For almost two years he meticulously searched archives, contacted historians, brewers and collectors, hoping that somewhere an original brewing book had survived – yet nothing emerged. Then came the breakthrough – a call from renowned brewer, brewing historian, and collector Steve Holt, of Kirkstall Brewery.
Holt revealed what Jamie had begun to fear no longer existed, he had found what is thought to be the only surviving Allsopp’s brewing ledger in an attic in Leeds.
“I'd almost given up,” he admitted. “Without the recipes I wasn't interested in producing guesswork. There are plenty of breweries making historical interpretations of IPA, but that wasn't what I wanted to sit at the heart of Allsopp's revival.
“It genuinely felt like I was holding my family's history in my hands. That ledger is our equivalent of the bottle of Hodgson's that Campbell Marjoribanks handed Samuel Allsopp more than 200 years ago. It's the physical bridge between today's brewery and the beers my ancestors actually brewed. Without finding that ledger, I wouldn't have started brewing.
“We’re the only ones that have the ledger – everybody else is guessing, but we have the brewing bible.”
Rather than attempting to produce a museum-piece recreation of a nineteenth-century beer, Jamie and the brewing team at Kirkstall Brewery have drawn on the historic recipes and Allsopp's brewing heritage to create the IPA they believe the brewery would be making today.
The resulting 4.4% Famous Original IPA is brewed with UK Golden Promise malted barley and Challenger hops, producing a dark copper IPA with herbal, spicy and resinous notes, rounded bitterness and a sweet, malty backbone.
The new IPA will be unveiled at the Leeds International Beer Festival at the beginning of September and to mark the launch Jamie is visiting pubs across Leeds including - Three Swords in Horsforth, Kirkstall Bridge, the Cardigan Arms, Brudenell Social Club, the Victoria and Whitelock’s.