British "Pale & ’Oppy" Predating "Session IPA" by Decades

Reads 5929 • Replies 95 • Started Friday, November 20, 2015 5:43:51 AM CT

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Message Erlangernick beers 6 º places 2 º 05:43 Fri 11/20/2015 Noted Cornish beer bloggers Boak & Bailey give an excellent summary of the history of "pale ’n ’oppy" in All About Beer. Nothing about the advantage of cask-conditioning over keg though, which I think makes a big diference. US "session IPAs" I’ve had have been too gassy and simple, whereas the softer cask-conditioning would help them. Also nothing about Bitter & Twisted, but that’s OK. Nor Mallinson’s.
Message MacBoost beers 2074 º places 37 º 06:18 Fri 11/20/2015 We all know modern American session IPA is vastly different than the low boost, flat, oxidized, warm English bitters that were brewed in the 70’s Get over it.
Message Beersiveknown P beers 5380 º places 180 º 06:27 Fri 11/20/2015 Originally posted by MacBoost We all know modern American session IPA is vastly different than the low boost, flat, oxidized, warm English bitters that were brewed in the 70’s Get over it. session ipa is just american brewer marketing term for hoppy pales and most of them aren’t even session strength...some taste decent but don’t hold a candle in drinkability stakes to the best british ones
Message 574deadzone beers 1420 º places 11 º 07:16 Fri 11/20/2015 The thing I always miss in session IPAs is body. They’re just too thin, and that makes the bitterness sharper on my palate (along with high carbonation). I could definitely see the softer cask ales making more sense, and still with plenty of opportunity for aromatics to shine, which is (or should be) the main point of a session strength hoppy beer.

Message HaStuMiteZen99 beers 1111 º places 27 º 07:21 Fri 11/20/2015 MY FAVOURITE TOPIC!!! Fucken Americans.
Message Erlangernick beers 6 º places 2 º 07:30 Fri 11/20/2015 Originally posted by MacBoost We all know modern American session IPA is vastly different than the low boost, flat, oxidized, warm English bitters that were brewed in the 70’s Get over it. So much hate in your heart. If you read it, you’d see that it really took off in the 80’s to 90’s, about the same time as microbrewing did in the US.
Message RABinCO P beers 1511 º places 103 º 07:34 Fri 11/20/2015 Is this about hot golds?
Message Gary beers 2114 º places 4 º 07:36 Fri 11/20/2015 i agree with Macboost

Message HaStuMiteZen99 beers 1111 º places 27 º 07:37 Fri 11/20/2015 Seriously though, nice article. Like you say, it misses some important contributions to the evolution of that sort of beer. I’d add Pictish and Crouch Vale to your Harvieston and Mallinsons. It’s definitely something that has been an evolving staple of the UK brewing landscape for over 20 years, and it seems right that, in the UK, we’ve come at it by making existing session beers paler and hoppier, while the Americans have come at it more recently by toning down already hoppy beers to more sessionable alcoholic strengths. It’s not clear to me that the more recent ’Session IPA’ has really developed independently of these beers in the UK. It strikes me as sort of unlikely that no one involved in making these beers would have tried UK versions and been influenced by them, but maybe that’s true. I do think they really shine on cask. Low, soft bitterness, minimal astringency, 3.5-4.5% ABV, 100% good-quality, English base-malt, with tons of late addition hops and dry-hopping, fresh from the cask, is the zenith for me.
Message MacBoost beers 2074 º places 37 º 07:38 Fri 11/20/2015
Message RichTheVillan beers 10685 º places 101 º 07:38 Fri 11/20/2015 Originally posted by Gary i agree with Macboost