Pale Ale VS Session

Seems like there is some confusion about what the OP is asking....

Correct me if I'm wrong, OP, but it seems that you are asking the following: If a beer (not your existing IPA) that you intend to brew fits the loose definition of "session," i.e., lower ABV, should you call it a "Bob's Session IPA" or "Bob's Session Pale Ale," or just "Bob's IPA" or "Bob's Pale Ale"?

I'm not a brewer, but I can the masses in a summer resort town such as yours being drawn to something with session in the name. And, as others have mentions, IPAs seem to sell like crazy.

 

Definitely go with Pale Ale. Session has a stigma that is generally unfavorable within the community.

 

Now that I have this additional context, sticking to your original question, I think how you label it depends on the character of the resulting beer.

When I think of session IPAs, I think of beers that are extremely hop-forward with very little body and very little malt presence. Someone on BA (sorry--don't remember who so I can't credit them) coined the term "hop water", and I think it is an apt description.

Pale Ales, on the other hand, seem to have a little more body and more of a balance between hops and malt. Of course, when I think of an APA, I'm also thinking of something that tends to be a little higher in ABV than your normal session beer range. Things like Boulevard Pale Ale, Deschutes Mirror Pond, Founders Pale Ale, Odd Sides Citra Pale Ale, Sierra Nevada Pale Ale, etc all tend to be 5.-something ABV, have more malt and body, and hop profile trends towards bitterness (although there are plenty of more aromatic APAs).

As someone who works in marketing, I understand the desire to match your framing/description of your products to the target audience, but as a consumer, I also want the description to match my expectations as close as possible. Of course, I am but one consumer data point, so not everyone will have the same expectations and associations as I will.

 

I think the community you're referring to is probably us, and we are the minority.

 

I'm siding with the folks in this thread who think you should just call a Pale Ale by that name.

We have at least two well established breweries in SE PA that I can think of off the top of my head who each make a APA as one of their flagship beers. Those beers can both be found solo and in the Variety Cases put out by each brewery. Why, because people like them, drink them, and come back for more.

If you want an IPA too that's fine, but I'd be willing to bet that if you want repeat customers who are loyal to your brand an IPA will be critical. IPAs are very popular right now but some of that popularity is driven by the one-and-done crowd who drink something once and move on in search for novelty and variety. You won't build a successful business on that crowed and from what I recall of being in Northern Michigan you don't have many of them around except possibly in the summer. But I don't think you've the kind of business plan that is going to be relying on the summer visitors/tourists or the one-and-done crowd.

 

I cast my vote for NOT including the word 'session'. Geeks dislike the word, non-geeks won't know what it means. If a patron asks for a lighter beer, you can hand them a sample and tell them what the ABV is, and they can decide from there. Heck, you can even give a little explanation about how the beer is 'sessionable' and what that means.

 

Maybe if you sent each of us some samples we could better help to label it?

 

This 100%

I believe that this website has A LOT to do with how a beer is viewed because if someone were to type in the beers name on any search engine, top 3 links one would be beer advocates review on it. The word "finicky" or picky doesn't quite describe some people here.

Personally id go with pale ale instead of session anything. Regardless of online forums and all that i think it would be better universally understood described as pale ale.

 

If you are intentionally making something that can be labeled a Session (Pale) Ale, then call it so. You don't have to add IPA in the name if it is not intended to be one, and not all session ales are IPA's (shocking I know).

 

From the standpoint of one who has to both create and sell the product I understand your concerns. We're really talking about market perception of the terms IPA, APA and Session as well as some combinations thereof. Hard to say how your customers will interpret those words or even if potential customers outside of your local range may read things differently.

My suggestion (worth every penny you're paying) is craft a low ABV beer/ale packed with flavor and call it whatever your customers find most acceptable. A rose by any other name and and all that.

 

If you are able to, you should try Fremont Session Pale. It's a really nice drinking beer, 4.9% I believe. You could go even a touch lighter than that. Maybe add a bit of wheat to the beer to try and give it some body. Something refreshing for the hot and humid summer months but enough hops to make it tasty.

 

Cringe*

Just call it a pale ale or extra pale ale.

 

@lakecharlevoixbrewing, The way I read your first post was you are asking if adding "session" to the name of lower ABV hop-forward beer helps it's sales. I think this is a perfect opportunity to conduct an experiment to take the same beer and see how well it sells with two different labels. Despite strong opinions by certain people in the community, these beer styles are not rigid with a lot of overlapping characteristics and some debate if there even is a difference between the classic APA and the more modern session IPA. Humans are also heavily influenced by many biases which include labels, despite some strong opinions by certain people in this community who state otherwise (i.e. marketing works, whether people realize it or not). Furthermore, you should take the opinions of people on this website with a grain of salt because this is a world-wide community of people with a much higher interest in beer than the average craft beer drinker who will make up the majority of your sales. This community is a niche within a niche. People here can argue on and on, but you have a unique opportunity to remove the taste variable and only test the effect that a name can have on sales and customer feedback (in-person, Untappd scores, Beer Advocate ratings etc.). Then you can make a decision for your business based on a quantifiable numbers, not spirited opinions of random beer geeks online. I'm sure you are not the only brewer or community member here who would be interested in that data too.

 

But we would all know the dirty little secret!

 

To Give you a straight forward answer from a sales background with a distributor - a beer with IPA on the label whether session, double, or just IPA will sell better than a Pale Ale.

 

@Ranbot nailed it.

Whether or not BA's want to admit it, marketing (and that includes naming) moves beer. Three summers ago, the Pale Ale category seemed to be dying. One local brewer (San Diego) put a beautiful Pale Ale on line in his brewpub and sold just shy of three barrels in a week. He promptly pulled the beer offline, waited a week, renamed it Session IPA and promptly sold over 17 barrels the next week and declared to me that, "The Pale Ale as a category is officially dead".

Fast forward to today and the trend seems to be reversing; so your cause for concern over what will work best in your market is valid. I believe Ranbot has the right idea about putting both on simultaneously and tracking which resonates best with your core consumer. The good news is that there is still time before the tourist season hits to conduct your little experiment...only to hope and pray that the tourists have the same view as the locals.

Side note: As a native Muskegonite, I have many fond memories of fishing for Pike and Bass on Lake Charlevoix as well as the endless hunt for Petoskey's. You are truly brewing in God's Country.

Best of luck with your efforts!

 

An anecdotal data point: Yards Brewing Company located in Philadelphia.

When Yards opened over 20 years ago their top selling beer was ESA (Extra Special Ale) which is an English Pale Ale. Now two decades later their top selling beer is Philadelphia Pale Ale which is an APA.

Yards does indeed have an IPA as part of its year round portfolio of beer: http://www.yardsbrewing.com/ales/

So, for Yards and its customers the best selling beers have been Pale Ales (first English but now American Pale Ale).

Is Northern Michigan similar to the Yards beer market? Beats me. But Pale Ales can indeed sell well. Just ask Sierra Nevada about this.

Cheers!