In 1822, Samuel Allsopp's Burton brewery successfully copied the India pale ale associated with Hodgson's Bow Brewery. Burton's sulphate-rich water suited bright, bitter pale ales for export. The result helped turn Burton upon Trent into one of the great brewing centres of the nineteenth century.

IPA linked British drinking habits with empire, shipping, and colonial commerce, the same global world that appears behind Victorian and Edwardian verse. It gives historical context to poems about India, trade, exile, soldiers, and imperial identity. Poets like Rudyard Kipling often reflected on these themes, using their works to explore the complexities of colonialism and its impact on identity.