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What is the Best Session IPA?

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Best of Series: What is the Best Session IPA?

The Oxford Companion to Beer reminds us that one definition of light beer is “a beer with lower alcohol than most…” Which might make Joseph Owades ‘Diet Beer’ the first mass marketed session beer after Prohibition. A while back, while reviewing Lagunitas’s then new DayTime IPA we introduced the concept of a beer with the massive hop presence of an American IPA, without the higher alcohol content or heavier body. But is it the best session IPA? Since then, just as Gigapets displaced Pogs, higher ABV beers are slowly losing popularity to  lower ABV styles such as sours, saisons, and heavily hopped ‘session IPAs’. With summer ever so slowly approaching through the indefatigable polar vortex, it seems time to pick which low alcohol beers are worth packing for a long, sticky day on the disk golf course.

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WHAT IS A SESSION BEER?

Who the hell knows. Lew Bryson who writes ‘The Session Beer Project’ pens fine prose, and is bit of a zealot when it comes to this session beer thing. For him, 4.5% alcohol by volume is the upper limit allowed by the style. 4.6% is right out. SEO wizards Beer Advocate offer up 5% as the proper ceiling. But these all seem to look back to dour old England, where the beer was nearly flat, cask conditioned mediocrity, chugged from 20 oz imperial pint glasses. In a modern American “craft beer bar” you are lucky to get even a 16 oz pour, as the cooler glasses and mendacious ownership trump traditions of the old empire. With unlimited ice water and a menu full of fresh, local, organic offerings of house made hummus, and charcuterie (You didn’t know we have our own butcher here?)  getting drunk is more a challenge, than a inevitable problem one must plan ahead to avoid. So for our purposes here, if a brewer calls a beer an “easy drinking” or “session drinking” and mentions big hops, its a session IPA.

THE BEERS

  • Fat Head’s – Sunshine Daydream IPA: Hugely floral and citrus hop dominated IPA with great malt backbone to balance with a subtly bitter kick of a finish: 4.9% ABV
  • Stone – Go To IPA: Big hops on the nose of this citrus and pine loaded IPA with a thin body and crisp dry finish: 4.5% ABV
  • Founders – All Day IPA: Tangerine nose, thin body with a delicious mostly pine hop loaded taste, with significant bitterness: 4.7% ABV
  • Southern Tier Farmer’s Tan: Dank hoppy nose, decent pine and tropical fruit hop flavors, with some biscuit malt and bitter, dry finish: 4.6% ABV.
  • North Peak Brewing – Wanderer Session IPA: Smells of malt but taste is nearly all of grapefruit, floral and spicy hop notes, with some malt and bitter finish: 4.2% ABV
  • Ithica – Green Trail IPA: Soapy nose on this west-coast style leads to a sweet malt base finishing dank, oily and bitter: 6% ABV

CONCLUSION

All five beers tasted were capable of bringing some traditional IPA elements such as a bright hoppy nose, bitterness, or tropical or pine flavors. All are also thinner in body  and dryer in finish than a traditional IPA or APA. Fat Heads, Stone and Founders all stand up well against Lagunitas Daytime. Southern Tier is similar, just not quite as flavorful. North Peak is quite drinkable, although the caramel malt taste is different. There are so many brewers doing this style I’m not certain if we discovered the best session IPA, but the top three are all recommended for the style as very hoppy light beers. For our money though, we will still most likely reach for a 6% ABV APA like Row 2/Hill 56 or Alpha King for our sessions.

Surly Overrated

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Craft beer review of Surly Overrated
Surly Overrated
Date Published: 01/24/2014
8.0 / 10 stars

Surly Overrated

Like Keith Richards fans, sick of hearing about the epic excesses of Justin Beiber, passionate beer geeks sometimes grow weary of the buzz that comes with early achievement. Surly Overrated is a beer that according to the Minnesota based Surly Brewing company’s website, is named in response to an unnamed critic who claimed that ‘It’s easier to brew an extremely hoppy beer than an extremely balanced beer’. Distributing only to its home state, the Surly brewing company gained a reputation for great IPAs that come in cans early on in the craft beer canned revival. Beers like Cynic, a  Belgian style pale ale, Furious, a delicious hop bomb of an IPA, and Coffee Bender, an oatmeal brown ale flavored with a cold extracted coffee that is a favorite of java beer lovers. A combination of rave reviews and limited availability fueled the hype machine, and apparently spurred the mysterious critic to declare Surly ‘overrated’ . But far from it, Surly not only brews amazing hoppy and coffee beers, but their anniversary releases have included creative strong beers and sours, and their huge imperial stout Darkness not only commands new, diabolical artwork each year, but its release is an event known as Darkness Day that draws beer geeks from far and wide to party and get the chance to but a few bottles.

Surly Overrated west coast style IPA
Surly Overrated

THE BEER

Surly Overrated is a west coast style IPA, meaning pine hope notes and bitterness should dominate, while the finish should be dry and draw the drinker in for more.

TASTING NOTES

Pouring it from the can gives a well carbonated, not quite translucent orange brew with a white, dense head. Aromas off the pour are pine, some citrus, and a hint of dank vestigial hops. The flavor is, as promised, a big time pine forward hop explosion from the Columbus, Centennial, Cascade, and El Dorado hop varieties. Lacking the malt sweetness of a DIPA, the body is thinner. The finish is crisp, dry and refreshing, and clean.

CONCLUSION

Already brewing three other IPAs, Surly faced a challenge in continuing their tradition of great quality, while delivering on the promise of a west coast style hop forward beer. Without question Surly Overrated succeeds in delivering on that promise, with a tasty, refreshing IPA that is never too sweet, and leaves you wanting more. While not up to the majestic heights of Heady Topper, Overrated is a great addition to the  Surly IPA lineup. One that further solidifies their well deserved reputation as one of America’s most dynamic and consistent breweries in the U.S.  And while they may do a number of well regarded hoppy beers, their reputation is certainly not overrated.

8.0/10

Stone R&R Coconut IPA

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Stone RR Coconut IPA
Stone R&R Coconut IPA
Craft beer review of Stone R&R Coconut IPA
Stone R&R Coconut IPA
Date Published: 08/31/2013
7.0 / 10 stars

Stone R&R Coconut IPA

Stone R&R Coconut IPA, a collaboration between the winners of the 2013 American Homebrewers Association contest Robert Masterson and Ryan Reschan, Rip Current Brewing, and Stone Brewing company, is a limited, late summer 22oz brew from Stone’s collaboration series. Earlier collab-beers have been wonderfully mad blends such as Ken Schmidt/Iron Fist Mint Chocolate Stout, and Jason Fields and Kevin Sheppard’s recipe brewed with Tröegs as Cherry Chocolate Stout. These previous iterations worked off of a winning theorem: chocolate in stout pairs nicely. For the latest Stone collaboration, the oddball ingredients are less orthodox. Coconut can be a delightful addition to dark beers, such as Maui Brewing Company’s delicious (and underrated) CoConNut Porter. Can the milky tropical fruit do as well in an IPA where we more often get citrus fruits and pine?

Stone RR Coconut IPA

THE BEER

Stone brews a number of hoppy beers including the Pale Ale, Ruination IPA, the Enjoy By Series, the 17th anniversary German inspired IPA, etc. With this beer they promise not only coconut but a new take on their use of hops.

Commercial description: …this innovative beer marks a refreshing sea change for IPA lovers everywhere. It was brewed with 280 pounds of coconut and an unusual blend of hop varieties, including a few from faraway lands or just brand spankin’ new, and is guaranteed to taste like no IPA that’s gone before…

Sounds exciting, let us give it a taste.

TASTING NOTES

Pouring out the bottle is an copper/orange beer with a bright white frothy head. Aromas of floral, even tropical hops and an oyster cracker malt note. The taste is an herbal-hop IPA with sweet malts and an astringent, biting, dry finish. Not finding the coconut at all. Body is light with big carbonation.

CONCLUSION

Certain flavors are imbued with greater potency than others. Ghost chilies bring hellish burning to the palate in only sparse amounts. Espresso coffee will make itself known in all kinds of recipes, from dry rubs to beer. But other tastes, even those familiar such as strawberry, can disappear as quickly as Pete’s Wicked Ale, when brushing up against other, more powerful components. Sadly, coconut seems to be one of these subtler flavors.

Stone R&R Coconut IPA promises a coconut flavored ale with a complex blend of exotic hops. What the bottle delivered however, was far less dynamic. Coconut IPA is a decent India pale ale, certainly not the best Stone brews. The coconut element, while I’m certain the competition brew had it in spades, just did not scale up in production. Coconut fans, we sadly tasted none.

Craft brewers have been holding contests and using homebrewer’s recipes to mix up their lineup. Stone has brought some great beers to market with this gimmick, this was just not one of them. Hopefully some of the Mint or Cherry Chocolate stouts will come back soon.

7.0/10

Lagunitas DayTime IPA

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Lagunitas DayTime IPA Review

Lagunitas DayTime A Fractional IPA

Big flavors drive American craft beer geeks. But often, the booze in an Old Ale or Double IPA seriously limits our intake. Putting back a few bottles of the delicious Apocalypse Cow on a Sunday of NFL viewing, can lead to a brutally hungover Monday morning. Presuming the palate fatigue from the all that bitterness didn’t do you in first. And that is a critical factor for hop heads, or anyone that has attempted sampling scores of double IPAs in a row. Bitterness builds on the taste buds, eventually becoming the only discernible element to the beer. The opposite of what people who enjoy craft beer want; a worsening of taste cured only by quitting complex ales for the night.

Thankfully, brewers have taken up the challenge to brew big time hoppy ales, without all the alcohol and bite. Victory, with their Summer Love, a hop-forward ale with only a 5.2 % ABV, has made a lawn mower beer for hop fans. Founders All Day IPA is another light bodied, well hopped brew that will not wear you down.

TASTING NOTES

Now, from the west coast, America’s piny hop capital, comes Lagunitas DayTime IPA stepping into the category. Super dank, pine and citrus nose, this beer exudes the perfume of their standard IPA, even the DIPA Maximus. The taste reveals Lagunitas did not let us down. This limited release beer has a clean, slightly citrus hop profile to match the nose. Massive dry-hopping has done amazing things here. Crisp and bubbly, the body adds to the quaffability of this IPA (really more of an American Pale Ale). Malts are very present here, passing off a biscuity sweetness that nearly blocks out the super subtle hop bite in the aftertaste.

Lagunitas DayTime A Fractional IPA
Lagunitas DayTime IPA
CONCLUSION

Funky nose, balanced big hop taste with almost no lingering bitterness. This beer is a dream to drink. But is it “sessionable” ? Sure, and not only because of the low ABV, but the lack of bitterness in the finish spares the mouth from that build up of acrid flavors that begin to overwhelm the ales that come after the first. Lagunitas has created a masterpiece of an ale, one which you can enjoy from the kickoff of the early game until Costas’ recap of the Sunday Night game. Try this beer now!!!

9.5/10

Best Coffee Beer: part 3 the Mikkeller Brews

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Mikkeller Beer Geek Breakfast
Beer Geek Breakfast
Our search for the world’s best coffee beer takes us to Europe for our most recent tasting. Mikkel Borg Bjergsø, inspired by a new and profound love of great imported beers he tasted in Copenhagen, started up Mikkeller brewing with his friend Kristian Keller. After some success home brewing, they achieved beer nerd fame following the creation of Beer Geek Breakfast. Since then Kristian has left but the brand has gone global. Known as a “gypsy brewer” for lacking brewing facilities of their own,  Mikkeller brews creative, intriguing beers from myriad locations in Denmark and internationally.

With the origin of their success in coffee beer, it is no surprise that Mikkeller not only continues to brew Beer Geek Breakfast but has introduced a number of other coffee based beers, taking the style to new realms. In our previous review of these beers (Part 1 and Part 2), the dominant beers were usually those that used coffee and additional adjunct flavors such as chocolate and/or barrel aging. In this search for the best coffee beer we review Mikkeller’s Beer Geek Breakfast, Black Hole, the Koppi Tomahawk x Coffee IPA (Odoo Shakiso Edition), and the barrel aged Beer Geek Brunch Weasel (Calvados Edition). Each beer incorporates top tier coffee with wanton abandon. Two oatmeal stouts, one  Russian imperial stout, and an IPA. Which will come out on top and will any best our previous best coffee beers?

TASTING NOTES

Beer Geek Brunch Weasel Calvados
Beer Geek Breakfast:

Pouring medium brown with solid head retention, the original, Norwegian morning meal named baller beer shows what made Mikkeller famous. Cocoa, coffee and raisins makeup the nose. The taste starts like it smells. The 7.5% alcohol by volume ninja-poofed out of the room. All that remains of this oatmeal (breakfast, get it???) stout is a thick body, and big flavors blending with the roasted chocolate and slight astringency that stem from the malt and hops. Breakfast is a tasty combination of malt and big java. A delicious beer unafraid of coffee.

Black Hole:

Russian imperial stouts are an immensely popular style in craft beer at the moment. The huge roasted malt flavors naturally produce chocolate and coffee notes in a well made version, so it would be natural for a brewer to augment that with the addition of more coffee. This is a behemoth of a RIS at 13.1% ABV. To cover that alcoholic burn, the Hole brings massive dark fruit and bitter chocolate followed by coffee and lot of sweetness. It finishes with big, surprising hops. Nothing subtle here, no oatmeal for smooth body, simply a brewer making a massive stout with coffee. Make this your last beer at the tasting.

Black Hole
Beer Geek Brunch Weasel Calvados:

Combining the world’s most expensive coffee with an imperial stout and finishing it in fine brandy barrels amps the expectation level on this one to Bieber like giddiness. Can Mikkeller deliver? With big vanilla and sweetness from the brandy, coffee and dark fruit from the malts, the über rare Kopi Luwak coffee gets lost in the mix. A very tasty beer Weasel’s most extreme ingredient can’t hold up to the Calvados brandy barrel.  Making this a very expensive barrel aged stout at 20.00 for a tiny 8.5oz bottle.

Koppi Tomahawk x Coffee IPA (Odoo Shakiso Edition):

An ale with a hop-centric profile and coffee? Sound like a bitter mess? It did to me but this thing was really good! Without all the roasted dark malts bolstering the ingredient, fancy coffee has its chance to shine alone. And the flavors that came together are killer. Good hop/malt balance with the Columbus (Tomohawk) hops, and lots of nutty, even fruity coffee notes. Weighing in at 6.9% ABV, this blood orange IPA finishes medium dry with strong carbonation.

Mikkeller Coffee IPA

CONCLUSION

As a few of these pictures indicate, the tasting of the stouts happened one lovely night at a rooftop pool in Aspen. The IPA was tasted on its own. Comparing the stouts, Brunch Weasel Calvados was clearly the most flavorful, complex brew. No surprise there. As a coffee beer however, it lacked the potential that its rare beans offered. Non-BA Breakfast however, showcased great coffee flavor along with a wonderful oatmeal stout experience. Black Hole ups the ante with bolder, more complex flavors. While this was my favorite beer of the three, it didn’t feature the coffee as well as the original Beer Geek Breakfast. All three blend coffee into great stouts, whichever you choose. As for the Coffee IPA, this was such a stunner. I have never heard of this pairing, so all credit to Mikkeller for trying it and pulling it off with such success. Not going to be to everyone’s taste, but this is an amazing combination you have to try for yourself.

Mikkel Borg Bjergsø, the gypsy brewer, offers some of the most creative beers on the market. Mikkeller’s coffee beers are not only some of their best, but some of the better coffee beers we have sampled.