If you’d said the initials “IPA” to a barman 10 years ago, he might well have looked at you blankly. Or he may have thought you were referring to a weak bitter called IPA made by Greene King. Real ale, in general, was a niche market. Live beer is hard to keep and few establishments, especially in London where I lived, seemed to have any interest in doing it properly. One time in a pub in Putney, I tried to return a pint that was a cloudy sludge of yeast and vinegar and was told by the supercilious French barman that it was English beer: it was meant to taste like that.

My friends all drank lager. I thought it odd that people so discerning when it came to hip-hop and sunglasses would have such little interest in what they poured down their throats. Since 2010, however, things have changed. Craft beer pubs are everywhere and their success has forced existing pubs to up their game. Bar staff now are positively evangelical about beer. Spearheading this revival is IPA – not weedy old Greene King – but beers of 5-7% packed with hops and flavour.

So what is IPA? The initials stand for India pale ale. It was the answer to the problem of providing beer for the British Empire in the east. It was too hot to brew in India, so what was needed was a beer that could survive the gruelling six-month journey from Britain intact. In the 1780s, a London brewer called Hodgson answered the call by sending out a strong, heavily hopped beer called October ale that would normally be aged like wine before drinking. The beer not only survived the journey, but was found to have improved immeasurably. This was the prototype IPA; the beer gradually became paler and more refreshing to suit the Indian climate.

Hodgson’s beer was imitated by bigger brewers, such as Bass. It evolved into something weaker, just plain old pale ale, for the home market. With the coming of refrigeration, proper IPA itself began to die out. Until that is the Americans rediscovered their love of brewing some time around 1976. The craft brewers in the States merrily set about recreating forgotten British styles – including IPA. Being American, they didn’t do things by halves. These new ales were packed with alcohol and hops.

From America, IPA returned home across the Atlantic. It’s been a funny old journey: a beer that was invented in Britain for the Indian market, was revived by Americans and then copied by brewers in Britain. A fine example of the reborn IPA is Jaipur by Thornbridge. It positively zings with citric hoppiness, though I imagine it would taste even better after six months mellowing on a slow boat to India.

Henry Jeffreys is a drinks writer based in London. His first book, Empire of Booze, will be published by Unbound in 2016. Twitter: @henrygjeffreys