So I brewed up my rendition of the SD Session style yesterday and realized that there’s really no clear definition for this style. The recent BYO article shed some light on Stone’s Levitation, but the style hasn’t (at least in Northern California) grown enough for there to be a clear definition… and my take on it may not have much in common with other brewers’ approaches. So I am wondering what other interpretations of this style are like. I have only had Levitation - and never fresh. Also, I am heading to SD this weekend and would like to know which brewers produce excellent renditions of this style so I can try them.
As far as my SDSA, basically, I made the wort of a mid-stength bitter (1.044, though I was shooting for 1.042), added a bit of roasted malt (Carafa Special II) for color, and a ton of west coast hops (Cascade, Centennial, and Citra). I opted to go 100% late hop/hopbursted, and got 46 paper IBU’s with the 15 min Cascade addition along with 5 and 0 min additions of Centennial and Citra. I expect to dry hop it with Cascade and Centennial. I mashed at 152F for 60 min and then mashed out at 167F for 10 min. I pitched a decanted 2L stir-plate starter of WLP051 and will try to ferment around 62F (this morning it was at 60F and I hadn’t seen any bubbling, but I didn’t bother popping the lid, because I was in a hurry). Does this sound right to everyone?