Picture the scene. It’s a sunny Saturday afternoon, the pub garden is calling your name, and you’ve got a solid six hours to kill before you need to be anywhere else. You fancy a pint with some proper flavour. Something hoppy, citrusy, maybe a bit piney. You want an IPA. Here’s the problem, though. That beautiful, hazy double IPA on tap is 7.8%. Delicious, yes. But after two of them, you’ll be trying to pay for your crisps with your house keys and telling your life story to a confused-looking dog. Your session will be over before it’s even begun. For years, this was the great dilemma of the craft beer drinker: flavour or longevity? And then, like a sensible, practical hero arriving in a sensible, practical hatchback, the Session IPA appeared. All the grapefruit, mango, and pine, but with none of the impending doom. Here’s why the 4% hoppy pint is actually brewers’ hardest trick, and why Verdant Lightbulb nails it.