Pale Ale VS Session

Yes, but drink a couple of dozen Imperial pints and you will have a bad time. 20 pints a night is pretty commonplace.

 

Good lord. I'd have to visit the (loo?) 15 times!

 

I suppose the word "Session" is more friendly toward an unexperienced drinker but I think that if your beer is good, people will come to buy it anyway (regardless of whether it's labelled session/IPA/APA/etc).

In this age of Social Media, word travels fast and like I said, if your product is good, the people will come naturally.

 

I'm seeing a lot of beers labeled as "Pale Ale"which not so many years ago would have been called IPA. Talking about beers around 6% ABV, 50-60 IBU, big citrus/tropical aroma.

At/around 4.5% though, in the ballpark the OP is talking about, I personally would be more likely to buy the beer called Charlevoix Pale Ale than one called Charlevoix Session IPA, but there's a Michigan brewery who has certainly sold a shitload of beer with "Session Ale" on the label in big letters (below the words "All Day IPA" if you didn't get my reference), that's for sure.

 

Your question is marketing, plain and simple. Call your low abv beer a session IPA, just like almost everyone has done since Founders introduced All Day. And if your summer crowd is there for lakes, boating and fishing put it in cans, not bottles. Boaters buy cans.

 

Personally, I think Session is a word that raises red flags for me. In general, I want a beer that's balanced. Making a session IPA is just a way to say you're adding way more hops than the malt really can offset. The result is a thin bitter mess with no balance. Surly's Xtra Citra is a great example....lots of hops on the nose, but it disappoints the palate after that teaser. It's a style that doesn't need to exist for me and I generally avoid them unless someone specifically says I should try one.

If you want a sessionable beer, brew a good beer to the target ABV, name it appropriately and be done with it. That being said, other than shares, I generally only drink a couple beers at a time, so I really have no need for beers to be sessionable. I just look for great beers and let the abv fall where it will.

 

Zombie Dust and Pseudo Sue are two examples.

 

I tried to make this argument a while back and got pretty well flamed for not recognizing that Pseudo Sue clearly has all the hallmark characteristics of a pale ale, without the key elements of an IPA. I couldn't tell you off hand what these attributes were.

 

Doesn't extra imply larger? All the extra pale ales I have had lean into malty iPa territory. If he is dropping the abv I wouldn't go that route.

 

According to the style guide, it runs a little high in IBUs for an APA. Aside from the technical, I was drinking it on tap long before I knew whether it was an IPA or Pale Ale by their definition (same with ZD). Both were assumed by me to be IPA's because that's the flavor profile I got from them. I was shocked to learn that they were both APA's. I was surprised that xHops Gold was labeled a pale ale as well. It drinks like an IPA to me.

 

I would drink a "pale ale" before a "session IPA" or "session APA" 7 days a week and twice on Sunday.

 

Whatever you decide to do with these...opinions, you might call your lower % one the Paleander (below 5%), and call your up-level pale (whatever you do) the UPale (as in UP - upper peninsula and UP in alcohol). Don't think the name's taken, so send my % commission to .... j/k. Good luck!

 

Except that reference is primarily for judging homebrew competitions and does not actually have a session IPA category.
The brewers association does have a session IPA category:
https://www.brewersassociation.org/...brewers-association-beer-style-guidelines.pdf
...but as you can see, the APA and session IPA categories pretty much overlap in every measurable sense.
So, it is perfectly valid for @lakecharlevoixbrewing to make a beer that can be called either an APA or session IPA.
He's basically asking out loud what every brewer in the country asks themselves when naming a beer.

 

What is your opinion of Hoppy Birthday if you've had it? I think it's a damn good Pale Ale, but it's labeled a Session, though I think it's labeled a Pale Ale on this site if I'm not mistaken. I think labels are just that sometimes, and the word Session has become fashionable because brewers think it will help generate sales.
Edit: it's labeled an IPA on here, but I'll go with hoppy pale ale.

 

Maybe you should hire a marketing person?

 

These conversations are terrible

 

Thanks for being a part of it.

 

Consumers like labels they can identify with. If what they really want is a flavorful 3.8 ABV with 40 IBU then give it to them under a name they find appealing.

Try this: Serve the same beer in three taster cups (free of charge) under three different names and let the customers choose their preference. If one name emerges as the favorite you have your label.

 

Only from a BJCP perspective. In reality EPA/bitter covers a massive spectrum ranging from light to near black, super malty to super hoppy.