Ratebeer.com has a reputation as a beer-centric website that gathers beer lovers from all corners of the globe and gives them a place to give their opinions about the beers they love. Ratebeer then gathers data from members’ ratings and compiles it into lists and data for industry and members alike. The beers are ranked from among the most beloved to the unlikeable and everything in between.
Recently, Ratebeer’s Executive Director Joseph Tucker posted a list of the top session IPAs in the world, and Florida’s breweries are leading the charge into the top 50.
Which Florida breweries are currently on the list of Ratebeer’s Top 50 Session IPAs?
* Dunedin’s 7venth Sun holds the #5 spot with Time Bomb IPA.
* Tampa’s Cigar City has the #15 spot with Sean’s Hoppy Session Ale.
* Saint Petersburg’s Cycle Brewing has the #30 spot with Freewheel Pale Ale and the #36 spot with Session IPA.
What is a session IPA?
According to Ratebeer, a session IPA is “a category of beers marketed for their hop-dominant flavor profiles at “sessionable” levels of alcohol. While this is typically 3.2 – 4.6 percent alcohol, a few have stretched the definition. This class of beers arose in 2010 out of the Craft Beer Tradition as a reaction to the trend of increasingly strong beers and greater public appreciation for hoppier profiles around the globe. It is differentiated from American Pale Ale by typically being lower in alcohol and usually having more hop-dominant profiles. While hops used are typically American Pacific Northwest and New Zealand, proprietary/experimental and South African and other hops may also factor into a Session IPA hop bill.”