Sip Northwest, Summer 2014

1 DISCOVERIES DIVERSIONS is the fi rst beer I remember carrying the ISA moniker that actually qualifi ed as a session beer I wanted a beer that I could take hiking with me says Joel VandenBrink brewmaster and owner at Two Beers Brewing I wanted to make a beer that was as satisfying as an IPA but had a lower level of alcohol so I could drink it safely on the trail Its nice to enjoy a beer when you get to the top of a mountain and discover an amazing view but you dont want to go drunkenly stumbling back down the trail His sentiment is at the heart of the ISA trend The beer loving public has gained a greater appreciation of hop forward beers which usually take the form of IPA At the same time beer drinkers dont always want to suff er the aftereff ects of consuming more than a couple of those typically potent brews At the core ISA are lower alcohol versions of India Pale Ale Whether you call it ISA or Session IPA is it actually a style of beer or merely a name on a label The debate rages on Currently the Beer Judging Certifi cation Program which most beer experts SIPNORTHWEST COM consider to be the authority when it comes to beer style guidelines in America does not classify it as a style of beer Still it certainly has become a common type of beer and you can walk into any good beer bar in the Northwest and ask the bartender if they have an ISA on tap and nobody will consider it a stupid question Because there is no offi cial defi nition of the term session there is plenty of room for interpretation and confusion Consider Field 41 Pale Ale the fl agship beer from Yakima Wash s Bale Company As far as style is concerned the brewery clearly considers it a Pale Ale but because it weighs in at less than 5 percent ABV and off ers loads of hop character some beer drinkers would describe it as an ISA When a brewery declares a beer to be an ISA or a Session IPA they are simply telling you to expect the hop forward character youll typically fi nd in an IPA but with less alcoholic impact In other words it is a perfect choice when you want to have your hops and drink them too WAIT ONE SESSION A session ale can mean one thing to one consumer and another thing to another Here are a few professional angles at expounding the beer style In the end its all beer to us Defi nitions behind session drinking or sessionable beers come from British terminology in reference to drinking a large quantity of beer during a session without diving too deep into the inebriation end of the pool National beer writer and session beer advocate Lew Bryson defi nes a session beer as an ale that has less than 45 percent alcohol by volume The Brewers Association places a session beer between 40 percent to 51 percent alcohol by volume for their competitions Eloquently so the World Beer Cup interprets session beers as the classic beer style being made to lower strength To the WBC they say the goal should be to reach a balance between the styles character and the lower alcohol content Drinkability is a character in the overall balance of these beers session Breaker Brewing Company SPOTLIGHT