A couple of articles I read this past week got me thinking again about that spiny question of what exactly constitutes a session beer. There was the last Tuesday's article in The New York Times by Betsy Andrews entitled "The Other Extreme: Low-Alcohol Beers" but I also got a copy of the summer edition of the Yankee Brew News with Gregg Glaser's front page article "Session Beers". Despite the great job describing the US east coast scene, I have some lingering concerns:
♦ The range of alcohol strength is too great. Andrews describes a bar with a "a detailed list of his finds in the 3 percent to 6 percent range next to his regular beer board." The YBN includes Ommegang's Rare Vos, a 6.5% brew, because the brewery said it considered all its beer session beers - depending on the goal of your session. This is meaninglessness. For me, a session beer needs to be out of the ordinary - a beer of less strength than the ordinary beer which means that 4.5% to 5.5% and beyond is too much.
♦ Too many of the beers listed are summer seasonals. I see a big difference between Southern Tier's Hop Sun at 4.5% and Victory's Uncle Teddy’s Bitter at 4.2%. They have a different purpose. One is about the celebration of a holiday season, the other is a workhorse. I think session beers are supposed to be your go-to beer anytime. The beer you have loyalty to because it is a beer that does not let you down by swamping you with booze. A summer seasonal, by contrast, is really just a variation on the concept of a Christmas ale.
♦ Somewhere around here a few years ago, in response to a comment of mine that truly low-alcohol beers should be available and at a lower price, a brewer responded that I didn't understand all costs - that malt and hops were not determinative. Oddly, when malt and hops bumped last year, I seemed to not understand the critical factor they played in causing prices to jump. Going by the sorts of old price lists Ron has been presenting it is clear that, at least in England, lighter beers traditionally cost less. This resulted in - whether it was a session of quaffing session ales or sipping big bombs - the cost of a session ended up being somewhat similar. I want to see that price point honoured to some respect.
Am I too unreasonable? Too focused on the British tradition? I don't think so. I would like to see session beers not turn into a label, a tool for bandwagoning marketers. I would like the concept to have meaning that the consumer can rely upon. And, for me, that means 4.5% is the absolute upper limit and, really, less that 4% should be mandatory.
Comments
TC - August 31, 2008 11:34 AM
Hear, hear.
Personally, I like a session beer that will let me sit in the bar for 3 or 4 hours without needing a nap. Uncle Teddy's Bitter is outstanding for that. Especially when it's available on cask. Victory's Donnybrook Stout is good for the purpose, too. It's a bit of a sipper because it's got the big creamy body, but it's got the very low ABV, and it's really, just dynamite stuff.
East End Brewing in Pittsburgh has a series of one off session beers, with ABVs of about 3.5-4%. Obviously, they don't quite qualify, since one-offs can't be "go to" beers, but each of the brews that I've had would well be worth keeping in the fridge at all times.
Og Tau - August 31, 2008 4:14 PM
I don't agree with your exclusion of summer seasonals. Does a session beer have to be a "go to" beer? What if I don't have a go to beer? I think that's a different issue. It's enough to have a choice of good low ABV beers without me having to pick a regular.
I do agree with the rest of the post, but sessions beers won't win in the tasting/rating world, where people often don't even drink a full bottle, let alone multiples.
Alan - August 31, 2008 5:55 PM
Well, I would think a good session ale would make you want it to be your regular. I do agree with your assessment of the "tasting/rating world"...though I think of it more as an island and a distant one at that. Something of a badge of honour to miss out that sort of attention as it would mean all that they are too focused on booziness.
VH - August 31, 2008 6:07 PM
It seems to me that this is one of those concepts that tends to get over-intellectualized by aficionados, whilst the rest of the world could care less. In the end a session beer is whatever you want it to be. For instance, regardless of what I am drinking I never exceed three pints. More often one or two. So a session for me could easily be one Dogfish 90. Or two from the wonderful taplist at The Dirty Truth.
A session beer is a loose enough concept that it does not need a definition. The first time I heard the term I knew exactly what it meant to me, and that was really all I needed to know. It's not quite the same as "What exactly is a Wit?"... ducking and running.
Alan - August 31, 2008 9:16 PM
Well, I don't think anyone is following you even if you think this is an example of over intellectualizing so there really isn't any duck and run. Strength of alcohol is about the single easiest characteristic of a beer to identify and understand.
Paul Garrard - September 1, 2008 8:59 AM
For me a session beer is something that I can drink 3 or 4 pints of during an evening and not fall over. In my humble opinion 3.8% is great for a session ale.
Andy - September 2, 2008 1:28 PM
I agree that a session beer should be at most 4.5% and ideally below 4% and should indeed be a core product from the brewer. Session beers don't need to show off - they are happy sitting in the background, with a quiet self confidence. For me a session beer is all about trying to beat the laws of diminishing marginal returns....my 4th pint should taste nearly as good as my 1st pint
Paul of Kingston - September 2, 2008 4:39 PM
In theory my session beer is a 3.5 to 4.0 ABV. In practice it tends to be whatever is in my fridge when I get a hankering for a session of beer.
Alan - September 2, 2008 7:29 PM
That is the difference an "o" can make: session beer, session o'beer.
Joe - September 3, 2008 12:41 PM
I kind of agree with VH on the subjectivity of the session beer. Sorry to be a relativist (how's that for over-intellectualizing?), but one's drinking culture plays a big role here. So does one's alcohol tolerance.
I can only speak to the U.S. and Belgium, which are both awash in strong craft ales these days. I'm always relieved to find something below 6 percent if it's tasty and am not above having several in a row.
Beers below 4% are still pretty rare outside the U.K., are they not?
Bad Ben - September 3, 2008 12:48 PM
Session beers are all about subtlety and nuance. They "nudge" the taste buds and titilate the senses. A good homebrewer should always have a couple of session beers on tap.
Allen Garvin - September 6, 2008 7:31 PM
Low alcohol session beers are certainly an area that American craft brewers have not delved into extensively. Also, they make a tough sell in bottle form, because the economics of selling by bottle are not going to allow them to be much cheaper than stronger beers with bold flavors. It's certainly not unusual to find craft brewers with a range of 8-12 beers where not a single beer is under 5%.
I'm a huge fan of low-alcohol session beers. I'm not actively homebrewing now, but when I did, a large portion of my beers were in the 3-5% range. I love a beer that you can drink a gallon of over a few hours, and still sit around talking with your friends without wanting to fall into a coma. I liked to break out of the style guidelines, adding smoked malt, assorted belgian yeasts (and brett occasionally!), lots of hops, or lots of coriander, etc, to recipes that would otherwise generate a generic English mild.
Quaffing is the name of the game with session beers! You can't quaff a DFH 90-minute (which another commenter mentioned). That's a savoring beer. A session beer you can serve by the liter, and finish in a few swallows without feeling overwhelmed by effects.
Alan - September 6, 2008 8:37 PM
Have you had Bam or Bam Noir? 4.5% and 4.3% respectively with brett. A great concept.
Ethan - September 12, 2008 3:49 PM
I love squeezing a second-runnings small beer out of a brew.
Best commercial small beer imo is Anchor's. Not widely available, though.