Anyone made a low OG IPA?

Sitting here sipping on an English IPA (Burton-On-Housatonic from BYO) and I was wondering if I could make a really hoppy session beer, a low gravity IPA sorta thing.

I was thinking of maybe dropping the gravity to about 1.040 and bitterness to about 35 IBUs which keeps it at the same OG:Bitterness ratio (0.875). Then for the flavour/aroma/dryhopping multiplying the original amounts by something like 0.5 - 0.75.

Has anyone tried something like this, or will it throw everything out of 'whack'?

I've made an XPA twice. A Pale ale hopped like an IPA.
1.062 OG with 78 IBU. Ended up at 6.2% ABV - not quite in the session beer arena.

I love IPA's but sometimes you want to work your way up to the hop bombs.

I've made American Pale Ales around 5% and my Bent Rod Rye is about 4%. You may have to skip the bittering add and get all of your IBU from the flavor and aroma adds.

A low-gravity IPA?

Sounds like a pale ale to me! The numbers you're throwing around sound reasonable for an English pale ale.

Is there an Alexander Keith's IPA clone recipe? That might fit the bill in that it isn't really an IPA. Or as the bird says, just do an English style Pale Ale.

I unwittingly did this kind of thing with my last batch of IPA, but that's because I didn't double check the gap on my BC mill after adjusting it and I got like 55% efficiency as a result.
US-05 did it's thing quite well though and I got 6.1% ABV in the end with a calculated 75 IBU.

Like gonzo said before, that's a bit much for a session brew though.

I could drink IPAs all day long, and love hops, but for some people anything that is excessively hopped will swallow hard as a session beer, because the palate can sometimes only handle so much... As people have mentioned, make a good American pale ale and up your hops, both bittering and dry-hopping, and you should get what you want... but depending on your palate you still may not be able to drink a more than a few pints...

denimglen said:

Sitting here sipping on an English IPA (Burton-On-Housatonic from BYO) and I was wondering if I could make a really hoppy session beer, a low gravity IPA sorta thing.

I was thinking of maybe dropping the gravity to about 1.040 and bitterness to about 35 IBUs which keeps it at the same OG:Bitterness ratio (0.875). Then for the flavour/aroma/dryhopping multiplying the original amounts by something like 0.5 - 0.75.

Has anyone tried something like this, or will it throw everything out of 'whack'?

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This pretty much just looks like a pale ale. I've done pale ales similar to this. If you are a hophead, you'd probably have to way over-hop it before you throw it out of 'whack' (60, 70 IBUs?).

My Amarillo Pale Ale was designed to be an IPA using the late hop method (bulk of your hops boiled 20 min or less). This leads to huge hop flavor & aroma along with a smooth bitterness that really goes well with a lower gravity. When fresh, the aroma is amazing, after time everything blends together much like an English IPA, but with those delicious US hops. My ABV was 5.3%, and it made it into the final round of a local HBC

McGarnigle said:

Is there an Alexander Keith's IPA clone recipe? That might fit the bill in that it isn't really an IPA. Or as the bird says, just do an English style Pale Ale.

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Alexander Keith's has zero to do with an IPA (or a good beer). Its flavours are DMS, adjunct, and pissy phenols. I live in Halifax, where it is inexplicably popular. Bud Lite is boring but skillfully made; this is definitely neither. Let's not talk about the weird neon-yellow colour. It is not a beer that anybody in their right mind would want to clone. Make a highly hopped English Pale Ale, please.

There have already been a few hints dropped, but just to make it clear: low OG and IPA are mutually exclusive. BJCP states 1.056 as the minimum OG for a style correct American IPA. An IPA should be a moderate to somewhat high ABV beer with aggressive hopping.

Despite all the "style correct" mumbo jumbo, can you still manage an IPA-type beer without all the alcohol? Sure! Make an aggressively hopped pale ale using mostly late addition hops, keeping the IBUs no greater than the middle of the "Extra Hoppy" range of the scale below.

Yuri_Rage said:

...Despite all the "style correct" mumbo jumbo, can you still manage an IPA-type beer without all the alcohol? Sure! Make an aggressively hopped pale ale using mostly late addition hops, keeping the IBUs no greater than the middle of the "Extra Hoppy" range of the scale below...

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This is more of what I mean. By low OG IPA I was just trying to describe a beer that tasted like an IPA without the alcohol content.

When comparing the style guidelines between the EPA's and EIPA there are a few differences but I think the style comments sum it up:

A pale ale brewed to an increased gravity and hop rate...Generally will have more finish hops and less fruitiness and/or caramel than English pale ales and bitters. Fresher versions will obviously have a more significant finishing hop character.

So I want a ordinary bitter that's still has a balanced OG:IBU, a decent amount of finishing hops, less fruitness and caramel.

Sounds easy enough, ha.

that sounds like a wonderful interpretation of what you'd like to do!

i'd drink it!