All Day IPA (Founders Brewing Co., 4.7 percent ) Founders deserves points for getting the session IPA movement started All Day was one of the first. (Available: year-round in 12-ounce bottles.)ġ2. Clean, easy drinking and with not quite enough hop burst, but just enough dry pine character to be refreshing and enjoyable.
Slow Ride (New Belgium Brewing Co., 4.5 percent ) Slow Ride does everything well but nothing extraordinarily. (Available year-round in 12-ounce bottles.)ġ1. A competent beer that skews more toward satisfyingly bitter than anything approximating nuance. Introvert Session IPA (Left Hand Brewing Co., 4.8 percent ) We're getting to the point on the list where the beers have a notable flaw - usually a lack of citrus, and that is certainly the case for Introvert. (Available: draft only, but 12-ounce bottles in 2016.)ġ0. If that first taste was accurate, this would easily be a top-three beer. In the meantime, it winds up right in the middle of the list with an asterisk. Jibe bottles should be out by next spring, and I can't wait to try it again. But when I returned to the beer, that lovely hop balance had diminished, and when I tried it a third time, I was drinking full-on mediocrity. My first taste of this beer was astounding, and I had considered it for the top spot. Jibe (Green Flash Brewing Co., 4 percent) It's hard to pin down this beer because it's limited and draft-only at the moment I sampled promotional bottles sent to media and industry folk. (Available: year-round in 12-ounce bottles.)ĩ. While "too light" is a funny thing to say about a session beer, everything above DayTime on this list has a bit more going on. But a touch too light and inching toward beer juice territory. DayTime (Lagunitas Brewing Co., 4.65 percent ) Satisfyingly bitter and bright, with a nice trace of fruity tropicality at the finish. (Available: year-round in 12-ounce bottles.)Ĩ. An easy drinking and pleasurable surprise. Backyard IPA (Saugatuck Brewing Co., 4.5 percent ) An impressive showing from little Saugatuck Brewing with this refreshing and piney-bitter snap of a beer. (Available: summer in 12-ounce bottles and 16-ounce cans.)ħ. Balanced by a decent malt thread, Campside is one of the cleanest, most well-rounded beers on the list, but with a lingering pine bitterness that most certainly qualifies it as a low-octane IPA. Campside (Upland Brewing Co., 4.5 percent ) Upland is generally most appreciated for its sour program, so expectations were modest for something as mundane as its session IPA - yet here we are. Beer juice! (Available: year-round in 12-ounce bottles and cans.)Ħ. Think about most juices they convey exactly one flavor. Though quite delicious with its notes of mango and apricot - Firestone Walker is arguably using hops as well as any brewery of its size - this beer would be well served to feature just a bit more backbone. Easy Jack (Firestone Walker Brewing 4.5 percent ) Easy Jack has led to a new concept in my beer dictionary: beer juice. (Available: year-round in 12-ounce bottles and cans.)ĥ. There isn't much lingering hoppiness or gratification, but what do you expect at 3.8 percent? Going so light on the alcohol, but without sacrificing flavor, makes for a bold and winning move by the San Diego brewery. Even Keel is wonderfully clean and refreshing with a big, dank hop nose that's followed by an initial hop bite on the back of tongue that clears out quickly. Even Keel (Ballast Point Brewing, 3.8 percent ) This beer has the least amount of alcohol on this list - the only one that's sub-4 percent - which makes it all the more impressive.
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