What’s a Session IPA and How Do National Beers Stack Up?

Every once and a while, enough breweries start doing something distinctive enough that it picks up a name and gets anointed as a style. One of the latest is the Session IPA. The concept is that it has all the hops of an India Pale Ale, but less alcohol, so you can drink more of it. 

IPA is one of the hottest styles right now, so many of the prominent craft breweries are jumping at the chance to have a second beer with that moniker in their lineups. Does this mean they will be able to cram IPA-level hoppiness into a lighter beer that’s pleasant to drink? I think the jury’s still out on that.

The first I tried was Lagunitas DayTime (4.65 percent alcohol by volume, no International Bitterness Unit level given). This is really more a hop soda than a beer. The aroma had the expected hop explosion and was quite pleasant. Where things fell apart was in the taste. It feels thin and fizzy with nothing but citrusy and pungent hops. Compared to Lagunitas’ other well-crafted beers, this is a miss.

Firestone Walker Easy Jack (4.5 percent ABV, 45-50 IBU) was up next. The aroma was very pleasant with many different fruits coming out — pineapple, citrus and melon among them. The beer uses two new hop varieties, Bavarian Mandarina and Hallertau Melon, which were nicely making their presence felt. While the hopping is very pleasant, the beer is bone dry and light bodied, which made me want a little more substance.

Founders All Day IPA (4.7 percent ABV, 41 IBU) was the most like a pale ale of the batch. The aroma had notes of pine, resin and some citrus fruits, but was a bit more restrained than the others. It had a thicker body than the others, including a smidgen of malty sweetness.

Boulevard Pop-Up Session IPA (4.3 percent ABV, 40.5 IBU) started out with a moderate piney hop aroma that really exploded in the taste. In addition to the pine, there were fruity notes hinting at grapes and peaches. I got the feeling that there were so many flavors fighting for dominance that the outcome was muddled, like mixing a palette of paint colors and winding up with a dull brown.

Stone Go To IPA (4.5 percent ABV, 65 IBU) was the boldest of the batch. The hop aroma was intense with pineapple, citrus and pine qualities that carried through to the taste. There was a bit of malt, but it was light and dry and gave way quickly to a lingering bitterness and a resiny feeling that coated the tongue.

Overall, it’s true that these beers are sessionable in the sense that most people could drink several without being impaired, but I still wouldn’t want to drink more than one of any of them. The unrelenting one-dimensional hoppiness gets tiring. I would rather go for a good old American pale ale. They have a substantial part of the bitterness level of an IPA, the same hop-forward character, but also have some malty complexity rounding them out. In the end, I think that’s what makes you want to have more than one.