“You can load that thing up with hops,” says Juice Drapeau, Senior Head Brewer of Oskar Blues Brewery. In a stroke of brewing irony, making a session IPA is the exact opposite of brewing a standard IPA-pretty much a brew-by-numbers process. Balance In All Things–Especially Session IPA Photography courtesy of Oskar Blues Breweryįulfilling that brief is no simple task. Just as long as they don’t skimp on flavor. So if meticulous brewers want to slim down the IPA’s waistband and fit the beer into a lower ABV package, then let them! In fact, here’s a bit of fun trivia: Session IPAs might actually predate what we think of today as IPA in regards to alcohol content.Īt the end of the canning line, good beer is good beer, no matter what brewers or their customers want to call it. Given that the average IPA clocks in at 6% ABV at the low end, the notion that sessionable IPAs can be brewed in the first place is arguable–at least for purists or sticklers for style designations.īut session IPAs have been around for years and then some. Occasionally they’re spiked with lactose or other wacky adjuncts.Ī session IPA takes that essence and shaves off a percentage or two, delivering the tastes and textures people want from the style while pruning that alcoholic edge. IPAs are popularly dry hopped, or double dry hopped, and they can come in imperial classes and above, too, including double IPAS (DIPAs), triple IPAs (TIPAs), and even quadruple IPAs. Of course, we’re so accustomed to typical IPA alcohol percentages that it may take a moment to remember that session IPAs are even available. Let’s Ask The Obvious: What Is A Session IPA, Anyway? Photography courtesy of | Lawson’s Finest Liquids But as lower-ABV beers increasingly snatch up real estate in the craft beer market, maybe now’s the time for a lesson in session. Because consumers want options that don’t punish their livers.Ĭue the session IPA, a sub-style that until now has been somewhat shunted to the side in favor of its burlier cousins. They’ve had their moment, and they’re here to stay, just like dessert sours and pastry stouts.īut more recently more easy-drinking, lower-ABV beers like lagers (and even non-alcoholic beers to some extent) have been gaining popularity. Perils of pride aside, high ABV beers remain popular, and in some cases function as mainstays on brewery menus. If you are ordering two, either you have an inordinate impression of your own constitution, or you’re about to take a walk of shame, leaving that monster brew unfinished on the table. In these cases, the beer itself is often the experience.īut you are not racking up a tab by ordering nothing but 13% ABV IPAs. Once in a while, a tall boy rocking a beastly ABV is exactly what a person wants. This is fine because there’s a beer for everyone. Each designation intends to outdo the others for sheer breathtaking booziness, as if getting drunk is a contest where anyone needs to cheat to win. There are single-strength beers, double and triple, all the way up to quadruple. I hope to have this beer on tap all the time at the accounts listed on our website.Beer comes in every size classification available: Small, medium, large, and Scottish. I created the recipe and oversaw the brewing and packaging at their brewery, and will continue to do so in the future. Most importantly, they have a very soft water source (low mineral content) that almost perfectly mirrors our water source here in Warren, VT. I created this beer to be very similar to the Double Sunshine IPA, but slightly different! Our partnership with Two Roads will enable me to brew this beer on a regular basis – they have a beautiful new facility in Stratford, CT and a highly esteemed brewmaster, Phil Markowski, with decades of experience. Patty’s Day to us Irish folk!), which also happens to be the exact date that we sold our very first keg six years ago! I traveled to their new brewery to brew up the first batch of this beer on March 17th (St. I am very excited by our newest project, which is a partnership with Two Roads Brewing. From the Lawson's website:Ĥ/4/14: "Sip of Sunshine IPA! American Double IPA 8% ABV Yup, it seems SoS has always been brewed at Two Roads.
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