It’s the style of the year, the flavour of the week, the soup du jour. Session IPA is the little version of the biggest thing in craft beer, jumping from non-existent to ever-present in the time span of a couple of hop harvests.

What is a session IPA?

It fills in the middle of a hoppy Venn diagram of IPA, Pale Ale and Session Ale. It is made by reducing the strength of an IPA so that it has both less alcohol and hoppy bitterness, then adding more malty notes. Tada, you have a session IPA!

Why is it called Session IPA?

The name itself references the ‘session’, which often refers to the typical pub drinking 'session' that includes sipping many lower-alcohol beers over an extended period of time.

Where does Session IPA come from?

It's generally agreed that the Americans were the first to give this style of brew a trendy new name. Although, it was arguably British breweries that combined elements of classic English ales with lots of citrusy American hops to maximise their aroma, making 4% ABV beers with those typically coastal hop notes.