"Session IPAs"

@nc41, you deserve a gold star for your posts like: “Why don't these brewers make a session beer in a style more suitable?”

Well, one brewery does do this: Yards Brewing makes Brawler (a dark Mild).

From the Yards website:

BRAWLER: PUGILIST STYLE ALE

The most approachable of our ales, Brawler is malt forward and delicately hopped for a knockout flavor. Its smooth character, hints of caramel and toast, and remarkable drinkability define this ruby colored brew as a true session ale. Perfect when you want to go more than a few rounds.



KNOW YOUR YARDS



STYLE English Mild

AVAILABILITY Year-round

FORMATS 12oz bottles, draft

ABV 4.2% / IBU 12 / PLATO 11

SIGNIFICANT INGREDIENTS Crystal and Amber malt, roasted barley

AWARDS Silver Medal in the English Mild category at the 2013 Great American Beer Festival

PAIRINGS Brawler's bready essence and luscious malts lend a sweetness that brings out flavors in margherita pizza and low and slow BBQ. Its lower alcohol content makes it a great partner for spicier dishes. It also goes great with the company of good friends

YEAR INTRODUCED 1998, reintroduced in 2008

You should get a case the next time you visit friends/family in Pennsylvania. If you ever see Brawler on cask at a beer bar, do not hesitate, order it! Brawler if tasty from the bottle or on regular draft but that beer really shines on cask!

Cheers!

 

Love Yards, never had Brawler, will be back in Pa in June thanks for the heads up.

 

I wonder how well Honker's Ale sells for Goose Island? Most bitters and milds have far too much malt presence for it to appeal to the masses in the craft world. They would get labeled as "boring" and "uninteresting."

Sierra Nevada had to kill Tumbler and make an IPA. Now, that was a 5.5% brown ale, but I feel it's profile was similar enough to a Honker's to make the comparison.

 

I've had Milds that were surprisingly quite bitter, Bull City makes a great tasting Mild 3.8 abv

 

Marquis, if IPA's are passe in the next 2 years I will literally get on a plane and fly my happy ass over to the UK and buy you a beer at the establishment of your choosing.

 

As long as it's an IPA !!!
But beer fashions do come and go.

 

Isn't that what American pale ale/IPA is anyway?

 

Late to the party here, as many have voiced many good opinions so far but frankly im with most everyone in that it's just a style I cannot get behind. Nooner was just a bitter watery mess. Easy jack was meh. Local place had one done with 100% citra that probably was the best I've had but generally speaking I find them watery, unbalanced and overpriced. If I am at a bar and I can get a southern tier ipa for the same price as farmers tan then I am going with ipa every time.

 

I'm not tracking on your "pretentious" bit. It almost seems as if you do not understand the meaning of the word. That, or the people you know who use this term to express beer know-how are simply knobs. Which makes perfect sense why they would be within your earshot.

That said, saying "that was a good session beer" is ******ed. Just not pretentious.

 

it's not the best written diatribe, but my point is that people back in the day saying

"this is a great session beer!"

really were putting forward the pretense that they were privy to a large set of beer knowledge, so large that it was such that they were privy to beer jargon like "session beer". however, 1) they were misusing the term in the first place, and 2) the use they were trying to force was itself pointless; the shit they said meant *exactly the same thing* as saying it without the dumb jargon.

that's exactly what speaking pretentiousnessly is: attempting to give an appearance that you have some learning or skill or refinement that you don't actually have. it's notably different than, say, speaking as if you have some learning or knowledge or skill *that you actually do have* and you're just being honest.

like, if john brewer is like "wow, this IPA is great, they really coaxed out the (whatever) flavor from the cascade hops," they're not being pretentious... unless they're making whatever they're saying up.

pretentiousness is not using 5 dollar words, it's trying to give an appearance of something that isn't the case. to make it even more clear, if someone is being pretentious and you know it for a fact, you ought to be able to (at least roughly) identify the pretense at play. with dumb snobs trying to show off to a barful of people who really don't care, it was always obvious to identify the pretense (namely "i know my shit when it comes to beer, look at me!").

 

I always liked Stone's Levitation Ale, which could be described as a session IPA, I guess. It is very hoppy and fooled me into thinking it was over 6% just from the sheer hop flavor. But yes, not a balanced beer at all: the malt profile is pretty subtle.

For hopheads, this session IPA thing is a great development; drink all day and get less destroyed. This is a nice alternative to the usual strategy, which is to get an infuser water bottle, fill it with vodka and put whole cone hops in it.

Me? I'd rather sip 22oz of an RIS or barleywine over an hour or two and call it done.

 

Funny, whenever I heard people say this prior to 2013, I always thought it meant that they wanted to sit and drink that beer and only that beer for an extended period of time and that it wasn't strong enough to make them sick or pass out. You know, having a drinking session that includes only one beer in it.

And now in 2014, I think "session beer' means "a way for a craft brewery to make more profit by using less ingredients and still selling at the same price point as a stronger ABV beer".

 

This thread is going to be 30 pages long with the same argument for all of it. "I like it" "I don't" "try THIS one". Its just a basic difference of opinion.

 

I'd certainly agree with that statement, but I personally (as well as many others) believe Zombie Dust is incorrectly labeled as an APA when it certainly meets all criteria all an IPA. I certainly think that the APA and American IPA styles are rather similar, and there are many examples of beers that are "mislabeled," but as others said, who cares? Americans do a lot of things now and historically without reason or logic, how is this any different? Call it what you will, drink what you like.

 

Oh, I don't care what they call it, but being a well seasoned beer drinker, I make up my own mind as to what style I feel the beer is. Like u said, Zombie Dust meets all the criteria of an IPA, and that's what I consider it personally. And I always drink what I like.

 

Just had a session APA from Unknown Brewing Company, called Pre-Game...I really enjoyed it, hops up front, not too dry of a finish

 

I enjoyed Kuhnhenn's Fluffer a lot more than I expected I would. Generally too light for my tastes, as are most 'sessions', but for what it is, I liked it.