Well, my friends, here we are with yet another of those session IPAs that seem to be so popular these…what’s that you say? Get off your soap box NOW Bruguru and shut up about the session IPAs already? Fair enough, then, you know of my dislike for the misnaming of these beers, which might be better called American Pale Ales. That said, dear reader, patience is in order, because in the case of Full Sail Session IPA, I am going to make an exception. See that? You jumped the gun on me.

There are a few reasons for treating this one a little differently, of course. Full Sail is not jumping on the session beer bandwagon; they’ve done a line of drinkable “session” beers for some time now. Perhaps you’ve seen them in 12-packs of stubby bottles: Session Lager, Session Black Lager, Session Fest, and more. So we’ll give them a pass on Session IPA. Then too, Full Sail is quite clear that this is a “Premium Pale Ale”, although when you get down to it, that’s exactly what IPA is anyway.

From the Full Sail website:

IPA’s are insanely popular these days. But let’s face it, sometimes it feels like there’s a hops arms race going on. That’s why we came up with Session IPA. It’s a Premium Pale Ale that thinks for itself. Session IPA pours a deep gold color with aromas of orange and spice that lead to a light malty body with a crisp hoppy finish. Not too hoppy. Not too bitter. Not too malty. Just right…..We like to call it Session-ability! Have a good Session!

Full Sail Session IPA has an alcohol content of 5.1% by volume, not really session strength but heck, you can session anything you want when it comes down to it. The beer has 47 IBUs and I paid $6.50 for a draft 20 ounce mug at Taco Mac.

My mug of Full Sail Session IPA arrived a bright golden orange color with a light creamy head and really not much at all going on in the nose.  Taking a sip, I got some crisp biscuity Pilsner malt up front followed by herbal grassy hops with a long dry bitterness. There’s not much more to this one, and I found it more pilsner-like really than akin to the thin malty, uber-hoppy session IPAs out there.

All in all, I liked Full Sail Session IPA well enough, and I will try it again in the bottle. The price was high on draft, higher than usual for Full Sail. But if it holds true to $12 to $13 a twelve-pack (like the other beers in the Full Sail Session line) that would be a deal indeed. I can easily see myself sipping this one in a session at a price like that.

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