Favorite session beers?

Loose Cannon's 7.25%!! Not a session, not even for the Americanized standard.

 

Brakspear Bitter.

http://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/806/4064/

The only beer I have ever had that is sub 3.7% ABV that still holds everything together with regards to mouthfeel, taste and aroma. Below 3.7% the mouthfeel falls away dramatically in most beers or even worse hops become harsh and dominating. A well balanced sessionable ale (<4% ABV) is a work of art.

Burton Bitter is also a ripper and tends to have a little more 'snatch' to it.

I would love to try Fuller's Cheswick Bitter but haven't been able to access it.

 

Anything below 4% ABV and cask conditioned will blow your mind.

 

Yes. Yes it is.

 

I really loved this brew on tap and bottle. I hope to go to Europe one day and try this on cask!

 

But why would anyone in their right mind want to drink a dozen or two pints in several hours? Even with only 3% abv, that would really give a workout to my bladder. Plus no matter how good the beer is, I guarantee I'd be tired of it after four pints in a row.

 

You go to the pub, have a pint , friends turn up, you have another pint and then another and on it goes.You have a happy and entertaining night out in company and end up drinking lots of pints. Few people set out to drink a lot, it just happens and session beer is brewed for this purpose.
Believe me, you don't get tired of a well made and well balanced session brew.It seems to develop and improve as you go along.

 

Well first of all the workout to your bladder is a sign that your liver and kidneys are doing their job at keeping you ahead of getting a buzz on and needing a designated driver because your blood alcohol exceeds the legal limit. Secondly, if you find one true session beer tiring after 3-4 pints its probably not well made and you should switch to tray a different one.

 

If you drink a dozen pints in an evening, unless you're a very large person, you're blood alcohol will definitely be over the limit, no matter how much you urinate. The only thing that will lower your blood alcohol significantly is to stop drinking and wait at least a few hours. And I could have the world's best beer and still switch to another after a few pints. It has nothing to do with quality, I just get bored when I don't have a variety of beers to experience.

 

Part of what @marquis is describing here, and the disconnect between the two of you, is a cultural difference between American and English pub traditions. From an American cultural perspective your probably right on the money with how most Americans view their drinking. England has centuries-old pub traditions where drinking for many hours at a pub is completely normal and has it's own culturally specific concepts/terms (e.g. "session") that do not translate well to American drinking culture or norms.

Furthermore, I'm sorry, but this statement is wrong...

It can be empirically demonstrated that the average human body can process alcohol at a certain rate. The English definition of session beer being 4% is because that is the highest ABV that the average human can process drinking at an average* pace without become impaired. There's some fascinating history behind the definition that maybe Marquis or Jesskidden or someone else can provide. But there's no getting around the fact that a session beer by the english definition (which is the original definition) is directly tied to the beer's ABV.

* - I believe England defines this as 2 pints/hour, but I could be remembering that incorrectly

 

Well yes and no. For an average sized male, if you are sipping and chatting after an evening meal while drinking that 3% ABV beer (rather than pounding it as fast as you can), then 10-12 pints (even imperial pints) in an evening (say 7 pm to midnight) will produce an alcohol intake rate that is not all that much faster that your body's ability to excrete the alcohol and its by-products. Since alcohol is treated as a toxin by the body it immediately diverts its internal resources to getting rid of that alcohol as quickly as possible. The reason there's a lot of urination is that there's much higher throughput of water than normal as the body struggles with the toxin. I'm not a "very large person" but have had the opportunity more than once to do an evening of multiple pints of 3% session beers and have not even worked up a significant buzz from the experience.

As for boredom, if you've not sat in a British neighborhood or countryside pub of an evening with a group of good friends while having a good long chat and evening out together you might be surprised by your willingness to stick to just one or two different beers over the course of the evening.

 

I guess it just comes down to cultural differences. I was thinking in terms of American session ales I've had which were all close to 5%, and after two an hour for five hours would definitely earn you a DUI. If the Brits want to go to the pub, drink a shit-ton of low-alcohol beers and not get drunk, that's fine. I will just never understand why.

 

OK I've got to ask because maybe I misunderstood. Alcohol content is more important than taste ?

 

I think you underestimate your ability to understand, but you may not understand why until you have a chance to be there. Its kind of like certain types of jokes. They only make sense in context.

BTW, and FYI, the major reason 5% is talked about in the US as being a session beer is quite simply because we have so few beers brewed here that are even as low as 4%, let alone less than 4%. Having spent a good bit of time in British pubs with good friends and true session beers I pretty much stick to the idea that they are 4% less. And that same bit of time and experience have pretty much convinced me that most bars in the US are not worth being in because they are focused on drinking and people being isolated from each other (by the TVs, the loud music, etc., etc.).

 

Glad you asked because you did misunderstand. Taste is the most important factor for me. I'm not going to drink something I don't like just to get drunk. Alcohol is a secondary factor I consider because if I can get something that tastes good and gives me a good buzz, then why not?

 

Row 2 / Hill 56

 

Duchesse?

 

Night Shift Whirlpool

Cisco Whale's Tale Pale Ale

 

Ten Fidy

 

I'm a bit disappointed that the recent increase of American session ales has been almost entirely focused on lower-ABV IPAs rather than including (for instance) more sessionable bitters or milds. Even regarding the session IPAs I like, in the absence of any malty balance the hops become astringent to me after a couple of pints and I have to switch to something else. I find that British session beers tend to be more forgiving to my palate. Unfortunately I only rarely have access to them.