Just wanted to chime in on this discussion. I am working on a session ipa recipe for the brewery that I work for. I also went to brewschool in the UK, work for an american craft brewery and have gained a pretty good understanding of how to brew quality session beers. Many of my suggestions have already been discussed, and these are just a collection of my thoughts and discussions with our brewmaster.
-Mash high, 154-156
-Blend some more dextrinous malts with your normal base (Marris Otter/Golden Promise) something like 25-50% of your base.
-Don't scimp on the character malt, add some munich/vienna, some low to mid level crystal, and something for aroma/flavor (Victory/Melanoiden).
-Select hops with higher oil contents for hopbursting, dry hopping, hopstanding or whatever other tricks you guys normally do with your hoppy beers.
-Select a less aggressive yeast strain, some of the less estery british strains would be appropriate or maybe something like northwest ale if you are determined to go american. If you have good temp control you could ferment slightly cooler or even try a hybrid yeast.
-Many of the british session ales use some wheat, generally torrified but sometimes malted. For my own personal taste I would skip the wheat but it would be appropriate I think.
This style has really been gaining momentum lately, and several major breweries have recently released session beers or made existing ones year round. I think the imperial movement was great, but I am glad american brewers are starting recognize the value of quality session beers. Some of the best session beers I have ever had came from breweries in the UK like Thornbridge, and some of the London breweries (Beavertown, Kernel, Weird Beard, BBN, Fullers etc...). I hope this trend continues and we are able to take a page out of the british brewing tradition. I hope this is coherent enough to follow and helpful to some. Cheers.
