Session IPA as a separate style

I have yet to find one. I find them weak and boring. The nose is usually pretty good but then you get into it and it is nothing but a disappointment. It's like they forgot to add malt. I want to like them because I'd love to have 3 or 4 a night and not have to worry about having a hangover in the morning but I just can't. Am I far off here?

 

Can't you just search the IPAs by "ABV <"? Granted, looks like you have to skip the first 900 or so that have no listed ABV...

So, it shouldn't be recognized as a separate style---because you don't like them?

 

For all the experienced folks on this site, I would have figured that most people would come to expect a lower ABV IPA not to have all of the body and bite of their higher alcohol brothers. They are certainly some great ones and I am thankful they are out there.

It is chemistry.

No need for a new category. Too many already.

 

While I sympathize with your problem in finding them--the beers you want to try, I'm not a fan of the idea that we should create a new style to deal with problems created by the organization of a particular database or with the weaknesses of a particular computerized search engine. Since there are those who argue that IPA and DIPA are not really separate styles and should be treated as a single style, can you come up with some other criteria associated with brewing that would justify creating YAS (yet another style)?

Edit: BTW, I'm also not a fan of such a change given that most of the "Session IPAs" don't fit the criterion for being a "session beer" in the country where the notion of session beers was developed and where "session beer" is not a style at all.

 

YSA good one. I don't think a marketing term should be a style.

 

I'm not saying don't add a new category because I don't like them, I'm saying don't add a new category because it's a gimmick. I guess I should have said that in the first place.

 

I don't understand the fascination with an overly bitter IPA that sacrifices the malt back bone it needs to make it taste good. Just drink one less regular IPA, or limit to 2-3 if your driving. I can't imaging banging back a sixer of this awful stuff, I've had Lawsons rendition on tap and it's better than All Day but it's entirely forgettable. I'd rather drink Miller Lite/ Ultra if ABV is an issue or a Guinness.

 

Session ipa is already a style and has been forever. It's a pale ale and nothing more.

 

There are too many styles already.Beer exists in a spectrum, some IPAs aren't strong some are. Some aren't particularly bitter, some are

It's a bitter.That's been the situation for getting on for a century now.People are getting so used to shed loads of hops and relatively high ABV that they think that anything different can't be an IPA.
http://beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/664/39979/
http://beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/203/3334/

 

No, they don't seem to have reached us.There seems to be plenty of beers around from our own 1150 breweries!
I did sample these beers at a recent festival though. All of course on cask.
Sgt Pepper (Cambridge Brewery), American Bitter Red (21st Amendment Brewery), Even Keel (Ballast Point Brewery), Cream Ale (Ninaski Brewery), Sunshine Daydream (Fat Heads Brewery), Extremely Self-Conscious Ale (Stone Brewing Co), Tree Hugger (Terrapin Brewery), Restoration Pale Ale (Abita Brewery), IPA (Harpoon Brewery) and Avatar Jasmine IPA (Elysian Brewery).
I was expecting something different but found them all a bit one dimensional.
We do have plenty of hop forward session beers such as Hophead (brewed by both Brewster's and Dark Star , these are not new beers as they date back to the 1990s). I actually tried them hed to head yesterday.The beers in the photo look hazy, a couple of minutes later they were water bright.

Thing is that very hop forward beer, regardless of strength, doesn't lend itself to session drinking.The key to a good session beer is that they get better with every pint and slip down easily.I couldn't drink more than a couple of pints of these at a sitting .
This may be of interest;
http://zythophile.wordpress.com/201...endous-new-trend-or-oxymoronic-category-fail/

 

Session IPA IS a separate style. It's called "Pale Ale"

 

I feel most session IPAs have less of a malt backbone than most pale ales, but I guess this can vary from beer to beer. Someone on here described session IPAs as "hop water" which I thought was a pretty funny and apt description. The only example that I really like is Central Waters Hop Rise.

 

Damn dude. That's a set of beers that I would be super impressed to see all at the same fest even here in the states.

 

I prefer Oak Aged Imperial Double Session Mild IPA's

 

As others have said, I don't see how you could establish a new style for these beers when they are just APA's. That said, I guess I don't mind a brewery describing a beer as a session ipa because it tells you that you can expect more hops up front.
For those who don't like them, all I can say is that I went from being a DIPA guy, almost exclusively, to really liking these a lot. They tasted weak to me at first too, but I very quickly got over that. Now I often feel like many DIPA's are too much and I'm not really missing them. I just like hops. If I can get them at 4%abv, I love that!

 

Mild/Pale ale is listed. ESB's included. Think of Goose Island IPA. I believe it is only bottled in Baldwinsville, NY; and, Fort Collins, CO. Another Chicago beer gone national.

 

Ratebeer has made it a separate style. My personal opinion is that it is nothing more than a marketing term.

 

Session IPAs are a mere sub category from the APA style. But if a beer is close to being the godfather of the style it is this one. http://beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/3411/66992/ this beer is so hoppy it may be considered a "session IPA".