1/20/2024 0 Comments Session ipa abvOne popular Session IPA you see in the market cuts the malt bill and instead uses corn as an adjunct. It’s a challenge for a brewer to showcase hops and at the same time reduce the malts and abv. Hop aromas and flavors, but still enough of a malt backbone to support them. Let’s take a look at the IPA itself to understand how. So how do you squeeze an IPA down to being sessionable? However, today’s trend in craft beer is the IPA, a style which is inherently opposite (being aggressively bitter and with a higher alcohol content) of the traditional definitions of being sessionable. “Light” American lagers are famously drinkable and sessionable because of the low bitterness and moderate alcohol content. Pub beers were malt forward with a moderate bitterness and balance was a big factor in how “drinkable” a beer can be. Others might attach a more social definition, saying that it’s a beer that you could be sipping all night in a bar with your friends (English Bitters or an American Lager for example). Any beer low in alcohol was probably acceptable. Even more recently, in the industrial age you were allowed to have a beer on regular breaks during work. Historically, beer has been consumed during work (and was provided to workers as part of compensation) since the beginning of recorded beer history. What is a “session” beer? There is no official definition from leading authorities (Beer Judge Certification Program for example) of what a session beer is. The beer is a “session” IPA, called Endless IPA. Goose Island created the perfect beer for hop-lovers like myself for the 3 day Pitchfork Music Festival in Chicago and because it went down so well, decided to release it as a seasonal for this summer. An ideal beer for a hop-head looking to have a few while enjoying some live music would be full of hop flavors, easy on the palate and with low alcohol content. The drawback for drinking beers like this on a hot summer day watching live music is that bitterness tends to linger on the palate and a high alcohol content limits how many I could reasonably have in moderation over the course of a day. Today I love IPA’s full of Pacific Northwest pine and citrus flavored hops that have an assertive bitterness. I wasn’t really into beer at that time of my life, but I still put down a few American Lagers to quench my thirst. I grew up in Chicago and spent many hot humid summers going to outdoor concerts.
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