Hoppy American Session Ale aka "Session IPA" — Azacca Edition

Our first attempt at a low-ABV hoppy American ale, otherwise known as a "session IPA" if you're so inclined. We don't really know if we are. I dunno, something about calling everything an IPA is against some kind of personal moral code. Seriously, this thing is under 50 IBUs and mostly going for an intense aroma without the ABV or bitterness of a typical American IPA. We've all seen recipes for this kind of thing before, and pretty much everyone (and probably their mothers at this point) makes one. Bandwagon riders that we are, we've decided to hop on... about three years too late. So, to make up for that, we're going to use Azacca. Heavily.

Azacca is a new-ish dwarf hop, bred from a Japanese mother (Toyomidori) and American dwarf hop father (ADHA 94/95). It's known for its "new wave" profile that includes intense tropical notes (mango/papaya/pineapple) alongside firm citrus and pine. So, basically, it should be the best of all worlds. In one beer. That clocks in at under 5%. So you can have more of them. Whoever originally came up with this idea is a genius. Also, damn them.

Featuring over a quarter-pound of Azacca from start-to-finish, this beer is bound to explode with tropical fruit, pulpy citrus and light notes of spice and pine.

The recipe is pretty simple. I based a lot of what was chosen for the grain bill and hop additions on the brilliant Mike Tonsmiere's (aka The Mad Fermentationist) recipe for his session IPA, with some tweaks. In his follow-up tasting, Mike said that he wished he'd added some oats for body. Since Pat and I love oats and feel that they are one of the most crucial additions to a modern day hoppy American ale, it's a no-brainer that we added a pound to the grist. The rest is split between regular 2-Row and Vienna (split base malts, for the win?). No caramel malts are needed here; we're focused on hops, not sweetness... and besides, the color is slightly improved by the strong presence of Vienna anyway. For hops, it seems we'll try hop-bursting this time around. Instead of doing traditional hop additions, the entire payload of hops (minus the dry-hop, of course) is added close to the end of the boil. From 20 minutes to the flameout, we'll be adding varying amounts of Azacca every 5 minutes to reach target IBUs and, hopefully, an incredible aroma profile, only boosted by a secondary addition of ~2 ounces after racking.

5/28/16: Just finished boil. 1.048 OG, so slightly higher than target. We're watering it down a tiny bit because we want this to be as close to 4.5% as possible.

6/4/16: Actually updating on 6/7 but we moved this to secondary and got it off the cake on 6/4, adding 2 oz of Azacca as dry-hop. Sample we took to check fermentation was almost exactly 1 point off target FG, so we took it.

6/18/16: Just opened a few bottles to sample. Pretty consistent flavor. Posted a description to FB:

"Azacca Single Hop Session IPA is a go! 4.4%, 44 IBU. Pungent citrus, pine and guava in the nose with a light-bodied malt backbone and firm, balanced bitterness. Palate has orange, white grapefruit, lemon zest and mango with a subtle pine note. Happy with how this one came out and will likely build off of the recipe in the future."

I think the base recipe for this is pretty good and supports a single hop schedule very well. Hop-bursting idea delivered very well. I still think there's something a LITTLE bit off with our dry-hop technique, and it's annoying me... but other than that this is very good stuff.