When you think of beer and you think of the Pacific Northwest, you have to be thinking of an India Pale Ale or IPA. There is no other beer that identifies Portland more than an IPA. An IPA is a beer style within the broader category of pale ale. It was first brewed in England in the 19th century. Beers identifying themselves as IPAs typically smell and taste of hops, are gold to amber in color, and lack the roasted character of darker beers. The term "pale ale" originally denoted an ale that had been brewed from pale malt. The pale ales of the early 18th century were lightly hopped and quite different from later pale ales. By the mid-18th century, pale ale was mostly manufactured with coke-fired malt, which produced less smoking and roasting of barley in the malting process, and hence produced a paler beer.