Recreating IPAs from the ’80s

Q. When I was a young man (U.K. 1980s), IPA had a very pronounced floral flavor and much less of the grassy, harsh hop character that seems so prevalent today. How do I brew this into my beer? I have been using the “My Classic IPA” recipe from this website as a base recipe.
Richard Walker
London, England 

Mr. Wizard says …

When I was a teenage kid — Maryland, mid-1980s — I was already into brewing and drinking great beer . . . maybe drinking great beer more than brewing it. I fondly remember regularly buying Young’s Special London Ale and absolutely loving the floral, sylvan hop character from East Kent Golding (EKG).

For reference, BYO’s My Classic IPA recipe uses Maris Otter as the base malt, a touch of amber and crystal malts, a blend of First Gold, Fuggle, and Styrian Golding hops, plus a classic English ale yeast. The aroma comes primarily from Fuggle and Styrian Golding, added late in the boil and as dry hops.

Your question touches on a few broad ideas that may help you recapture that floral character.

Aroma Memory

Aroma memory is powerful, stronger than visual or auditory memory, but it’s also easily exaggerated. Aromas experienced from happy moments can feel more intense in recollection than they actually were. I’ll use myself as an example: When I first got into beer around 1986, every experience felt new and exciting. I vividly recall the green-accented Fuller’s Special Ale label and its mention of dry hopping. In my memory, that beer had a floral, sylvan aroma — earthy, like walking through a foggy forest. I’ve chased that experience for decades and never quite found it again.

The takeaway? Your memory may be slightly amplified. That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t try to recreate it, it just means the target is somewhat idealized.

Hops and Brewing Reality

Even if memory isn’t exaggerating too much, the hops themselves have changed. English hop yards are not irrigated, making them more vulnerable to seasonal variation than hops in places like the Yakima Valley. Oil composition can shift from year to year, affecting aroma.

Let’s dig a bit into that last point. Hops are one of the few agricultural crops in the world produced for (nearly) a single application — beer. There is no real secondary market for hops that are not deemed the best. 

What this means in practice is that breweries who want the best aroma hops have contracts with hop merchants and growers to allow for the pick of the crop. Commercial breweries also contract hops where they leave the selection process to merchants. The hops that remain from a crop year are often blended to even out variation and processed into pellets. No hop grower or merchant wants to sell “off hops,” but the fact is that breweries producing beers with primo hop aroma put themselves at the front of the line using contracts.

This is my long way of saying that you may be doing everything perfectly in your process but simply lack the hops to deliver what you want. 

East Kent Golding vs. Styrian Golding

Although EKG and Styrian Golding share a common name with Golding, the two varieties are unrelated. EKG are arguably the classic English aroma variety and likely the variety stuck in your brain’s aroma vault. The problem is that EKG production has continuously dropped, to the point of being a variety that is difficult to purchase. If EKG isn’t available, you might explore newer hop varieties or hop oil products that enhance the floral, honeyed, or herbal tones you’re seeking.

Practical Adjustments

You mentioned grassiness in your beer. This can result from hopping rate, wort or beer pH, hop variety, and dry-hop contact time. Extended dry-hop contact increases tannin extraction, contributing to grassy notes. Shortening contact from weeks to days can help. Slightly lower wort and beer pH can also soften harshness and bring forward more floral perception. If the base aroma is right but muted, increasing late hopping can intensify it without adding harshness.

Final Thoughts

You may be chasing a memory polished by time, but it’s not imaginary. Hops themselves, supply chains, and your palate were all different. By focusing on sourcing the most floral English-type hops available and adjusting dry-hop rates and timing, you can get much closer to the beer you remember.