I’m a big fan of Session IPAs. Unfortunately finding a good one isn’t so easy. My goto is All Day IPA by Founders. I could buy this beer all the time, but I also like variety. During Philly Beer Week I found Hops Hands by Tire Hands to be another delicious sessionable IPA.
I’ve made Session IPAs in the past but they always seem to creep into the IPA category for ABV wise and haven’t been very balanced. Typically a Session IPA is below 5% ABV. So really Hop Hands is in the regular IPA category at 5.5%, but it’s so light and easy drinking it’s certainly a session beer in my book.
So for this brew I reduce my malt bill to a total of 8.5 lbs of grain as I was targeting less than 5% ABV:
Even with this small malt bill I still managed to produce something north of 5%. Between my refractometer, Tilt, and hydrometer this between is somewhere between 5.2-5.5%. I’m currently drying hopping this beer under pressure in a corny keg with 1oz of Amarillo whole leaf at room temperature. Not sure yet, but I may decide to do a second dry hop. Hopefully I will be conditioned and ready for tasting in a week or so.
8/17/18 Update:
I’m coming to the conclusion that I’m having a problem measuring specific gravity. For whatever reason that past couple brews I’ve noticed quite a difference between the SG reported by the Tilt and my refractometer. I assumed the Tilt needed to be calibrated, but now I’m thinking something funky is happening with my refractometer. So believe this brew is closer to 5.1%.
On these hot/humid Maryland summer days this Session IPA really hits the spot.
