What's your favorite Session IPA?

Hop Ju Ju .............. I kid , I kid....lmao. Honestly if it's an all day drinking type day, I usually go cheap and get a case of miller lite cans. I know , I know. But whatever.

 

but what defines an IPA ? Nobody brews a beer remotely like the beer sent to India in the days of the Raj , since then it has been pretty well anything pale .

 

I'm not really fond of this style much...I think they try too hard to make a highly hopped small beer, and it tastes unbalanced to me. The body is thinner and the hops come forward heavier. It works for hopheads who don't care for anything but hop tea flavored ales.

Another thing that irks me is these session beers, lower abv, have less grain but still cost the same as a normal heavier beer.

 

Note: The BJCP and GABF both define "session" beers as 5% ABV or less.

 

Tired Hands Hoi Polloi recently changed my opinion of the style for the better.

 

what's the purpose of posting that you don't like session IPAs when the thread asks you to name your favorite one?

 

Until this weekend I'd only had 3 of the style (Bluepoint Mosaic, Founder's All Day, Ballast Point Even Keel). They were all pretty good, but the 4th is now 1st in my book: Sierra Nevada 11.5° Plato. I'd love to do a head to head taste-off with SNPA because the Plato seemed remarkably close to the brewery's standard bearer.

 

After this weekend, my vote goes to SingleCut Billy 18-Watt:



Give me a crowler (or 2) of that and I don't even need a glass. JUICE ALERT.

 

Haven't found one yet but that won't stop me from trying.

 

Just had Bear Republics Pace Car Racer Session IPA. Pretty decent beer that really works on a hot summer afternoon.

 

Baby Genius and it's not even close.

 

Now that Stone Go To is out in 16 oz cans I might change my old answer.

 

Yes,and this ridiculous definition renders the term effectively pointless. In this land of session beer 5% is termed a "strong ale" because in a session situation (drinking pint after pint over several hours) that is what it is.

 

A term that relays a specific meaning cannot be pointless by definition. Reminds me of Churchill's comment that the Americans and British are a kindred people separated by a common language. I'm perfectly fine with different cultures defining the same term differently or using the same term to describe different practices.

 

Me neither about right down the line, you can do just as well drinking one less of any standard IPA. The thought of sitting around and drinking a Sixer kinda makes me ill, I don't think I could, every session IPA has been kinda crappy thin hop juice. I don't feel the need to drink more than 3-4 in any one sitting. Hell, I session Heady at the beach, I bring out usually 4 beers mixed but they're all 16 oz cans at 8%. One sitting is from 10 to 2-3 , then to the pool. No problems doing this and I love my beer sessions, and I'm not straining to choke down an All Day ipa. So a 6 hour session causes me no problems at all, chugging them in two hours would be a problem

 

So, then your answer to the question the OP asked in the thread title is you have no answer.

 

I see the field leveling out eventually with the term session generally being accepted as meaning a brew with ABV of 5% or less. The ones that receive consumer acceptance will win out.

 

Trillikini is the end all, be all session IPA for me. I've had many others, Baby G included, and Trillikini is tops by quite a bit! Wish it was a year round brew versus this one time collab.

 

This wasn't directed to the OP, but if he's looking for a sub 5% IPA out there that is clearly number one I'd say there isn't one. They're all tied for last, don't like the style a bit, even Lawson who makes killer IPAs effort wasn't very good. But again that's my personal opinion and preference. So no I don't really have a constructive opinion here, other than I think the session thing is mismatched to the style of beer.