Your favorite session IPAs

Though I prefer my IPAs doubled rather than sessioned. I just had Victory's 19th Anniversary Session IPA and it got me wondering who has the best session IPA? I'm sure this question has been posted before, but what are your thoughts?

 

I don't really like this "style," but I am definitely a fan of Ballast Point's Even Keel.

 

Hopefully, session IPAs will go the way of the dodo very soon.

 

All Day IPA for me.

 

Good luck with that. All Day IPA is by far Founders leading seller. Why would you want a style to go away just because you don't like it? What the hell, just post a list of styles you would like to see go away, cause they aren't for you.

 

My thoughts are: unless session Ipa's are priced 2/3rds of what regular Ipa's are, I will continue to scoff at them.... I just don't understand why they are all solidly priced at $10 when you are getting less alcohol and flavor for your money. The brewer is using less grain and less hops and charging more?... What the hell kind of Jedi mind-trick are they using here? In the mean time I will continue to drink Torpedo... my session beer. God bless America

 

Carton Boat Beer

 

Unfortunately, materials make up a relatively small part of the cost of beer. A session and standard IPA share the same packaging, labor, shipping, marketing, and tax costs, not to mention distributor and retail mark-ups. I remember seeing an article posted on here a couple months ago saying the average cost of all the materials in a beer made up less than 10% of its total cost*. In other words, they should be closer to 2-3% cheaper.

*Barley/yeast/hops anyway. There are exceptions for many much more expensive adjuncts.

 

Easy Jack and Kern River both are pretty solid. With the style it really just depends what is fresh and hopefully nearby.

 

My friends over the pond don't all seem to understand "session beer". It's a beer intended for consumption in serial pints so there are two unnegotiable factors
1. Very low ABV , generally accepted to be below 4%
2. Reasonable balance so that after drinking your introductory pint you want another of the same.And you can drink the same beer all night without tiring of it even though there may be other beers on tap.In any case a decent well brewed session beer develops through the session with each pint tasting more and better than the one before.

Nobody has defined a "session" but it surely has to be more than just three or four drinks to qualify , it originally meant as long as the pub stayed open.

 

Pizza Port brews a pretty solid SIPA ...

 

I haven't had a ton, but I would buy Upland's Campside IPA all day long if I had easy access. So tasty.

 

I had Slow Ride from New Belgium tonight. I really dug it, YMMV.

 

Stone's Go To IPA is by far my favorite session....which I appreciate as a style, because sometimes I don't want to take a nap in the mid afternoon due to a beer at lunch. I always get drowsy from lunch beers, but the session IPAs don't wipe me out. I think it's worth every bit the price of everything else offered at the restaurants I go to over lunch...because it has way more flavor! It's easily "hoppier" than most of the regular IPAs on the bottle list at say Red Robin (where my classmates typically pick for lunch).

 

Easy Jack tops my list, followed by Ponto and Daytime. Slowride from New Belgium is actually quite good, which surprised me because I had never been impressed by NB's hoppy offerings. Also, if you asked David Walker he'd tell you Pale 31 is the original Session IPA, and I'd have to agree with him (It fits the mold of a SIPA much better than an American Pale Ale). I love Pale 31, but it might take a full session for me to decide if I liked it better than Easy Jack.

 

This is a tough one.... I like Session IPAs and or lower ABV brews all together. I'm not trying to be a Homer, yet Burley Oak's Afternoon Delight is my favorite. It's 2.9% and is full on Hop Assault.

 

It's 5 percent, so don't know if it is truly a "session" IPA, but the last batch of Fat Head's Sunshine Daydream was great.

 

Stone Go To is not only the best session IPA I know of, but also one of Stone's best beers. I think it tops their regular IPA and Ruination. It's extremely hoppy, bright, piney, forward aromatically, bitter, citrusy, with very low malt base. Just how I like my IPAs. Daytime is another really good one, as is Pizza Port's.

 

This is the answer.

 

I'll second this vote for Carton Boat beer. It has every bit as much flavor as a "normal" IPA.