BJ’s Studio Session IPA – Solid beer, but why the redaction?

Last Tuesday (August 05) BJ’s Restaurants tapped their new Studio Session IPA. It is a single IPA with 4.5% ABV and 55 IBU.

While a ‘light’ IPA, it is does exhibit a nice IPA bitterness with good floral aroma and fruity tones. If you taste it side by side with BJ’s Hopstorm IPA, the difference between the two is quite noticable. The Hopstorm doesn’t have the same floral scent and has less of an IPA taste signature than Studio Session IPA, at least according to my taste palette.

The weird thing about this new release is that on Tuesday morning (08/05), BJ’s made announcements over their official Twitter and Facebook pages, respectively, and then less than an hour later they deleted the posts.

There was also a blog entry with a full background on the Studio Session IPA on the BJ’s Brewer Blog, but that has also been deleted. The Studio Session IPA is listed on their seasonal beer list, although with a very basic description.

A call to the BJ’s Restaurant location in Moreno Valley that Tuesday morning indicated that they would indeed be tapping the Studio Session IPA that day.

So there is a lot of mystery over the sudden redaction of the BJ’s Studio Session IPA on Tuesday morning. If you scroll through the BJ’s official twitter account feed, the first (and currently the only) post about Studio Session IPA actually took place a few minutes ago from the time I am typing and about to publish this blog post.

Very weird, indeed.

But if you haven’t heard about the BJ’s Studio Session IPA because BJ’s tried to ‘hide’ the Tuesday tapping, head over to your local BJ’s Restaurant to give it a taste. It is a seasonal, and is likely limited per location, so don’t wait too long to get a pint (or more).