Esquire: Why the "Session" Beer Trend Makes Zero Sense

Some good points but ultimately he's missing the point which is find beers that taste good by TASTE, not by abv figure.

Boat Beer, Pilsner Urquell, Landlord, Cantillon Geuze...there are so many beers that pack huge flavor in a small package that don't need to knock you on your ass after you've had 2.

George T. Stagg bourbon is a perfect 2 ounce pour for sipping and contemplating. A six-pack of sessionable beer is for having a good time with your friends without having to keep track of numbers.

 

I don't know that I will "enlighten" you, but I will give you the scenarios that I can envision. Also, you could try to have a conversation without being condescending.

One scenario I envision wanting something that I can drink a lot of would be when it is a part of the image to need a drink in hand at all times. This might be a person in sales conducting high-end business transactions and required to show their guests a good time while maintaining some level-headedness.

Really the idea of a beer session seems to be a cultural one more than anything.....having beer after beer with friends and not stopping between them. This does not appeal to me since I am okay with having a few beers and then some water, but perhaps others don't like that idea.

 

Exactly! See we may have just been having issues with semantics here. So what exactly does it mean? To be low in ABV? If that is all then we already have terminology for that. It seems to be some combination of variables that adds up to the ability to drink MANY of a specific beer. My question is the same though: why?

Why not simply drink something that you LOVE the flavor of and then take a break, regardless of the ABV? Why do you need the ability to keep drinking something? I contend there are few scenarios that really require that.

 

Not speaking for @herrburgess, here, more for my own personal beer experiences, but certain beer styles aren't so obvious in flavor, they're more subtle. So when I have multiples of a more sessionable, subtle style, for example, Sierra Nevada's recent Vienna lager, I pick up different things and have different experiences. There's a lot of flavor in the Vienna, but it's not readily apparent immediately from the outset. The first bottle may just tell me that I like the beer, the second and third ones may reveal the specific flavors I like about it. Once I can identify the specific malt flavors or hop flavors that I enjoy, the beer becomes even better/more interesting to me.

However, with a big imperial stout, something 9/10% or higher, it's not subtle, I can pick out the flavors more easily. I don't need as much to appreciate it.

 

Thx for the thoughtful reply, @GreesyFizeek. Though I haven't had similar experiences with low-ABV/subtle styles, I can appreciate what you're saying.

 

ahaha, session beer "trend." maybe in the U.S.

session beers have been around for centuries.

i love a good patersbier, english mild, english bitter, cream ale (low abv of course). session ipa is basically just an extra pale ale renamed.

 

I'm noticing a complete split in this thread between Europeans (or those whose drinking habits are more traditional, @herrburgess for example) and US "craft beer drinkers". Pretty similar to another thread already going on here but I digress.

I spent 22 years living in the UK. I'm British but now live in Canada. I primarily drunk cask bitters and milds of around 3-5%, as did pretty much everyone I know (aside from the macro lager drinkers, natch). This is tradition, the way my father and grandfather did it. "Session" beers are nothing new, yet somehow here they are treated like a new fad.

I sometimes worry though, having not tried many of the US versions of these beers, that US brewers may start using session as a byword for "light", watery beers that are lacking in flavour.

 

Pete Brown wins the internet with this comment:

 

Thanks. While you wrote this I was in fact out drinking what's under discussion. Pubs would close even faster than they are if people moved on to stronger beers rather than drinking several pints of session beer.
There are a couple of non sequiturs which keep cropping up. One is that stronger tasting beers are better.I went down that route a few years back and it's pure garbage.You don't judge music by how loud it is.
Those who don't believe that a decent session beer (which MUST be 4% or under to qualify) gets better the more you drink are arguing from lack of experience.After a couple the whole drinking sensation is altered and you look forward to the next regardless of what else is on the bar.And some others work in reverse; first impressions are favourable but you like it less and less the more you drink of it. The human tasting system is complicated!
As for the idea of drinking lots of water between beers, what a dismal thought! I do not go to a pub to drink water.* When you resort to doing things like this beer drinking is hardly a spontaneous and relaxing activity.
*although all UK pubs must serve water on request free of charge.But that's really for those drinking other alcoholic beverages.

 

Well some of us judge Session beer on how flavorful it is.

 

Speaking of which... I challenge anyone to convince me this beer is not flavorful!

 

Do you judge music by its loudness or does the melody not matter?
Or literature by the size of the print? Does the narrative not matter?

 

A lot of things appear better after a couple drinks. Like the homely girl across the bar

 

True. And jokes are funnier too.

 

They charge more because people do equate ABV with value and are willing to pay the high prices for it. It's not because of the cost to make. Just think how cheap draft beers at brewpubs would be if price was explicitly proportional to cost. No distributor middle man, not bottling or canning, no shipping. $1 PINTS Y'ALL

 

Though one must be careful, as said drinks turn some people a mite prickly.

 

awesome article.

 

Huh? The author of the article posted seems to think that the only reason to have a session beer is to drink as many as possible in one sitting. That is not true for me. I'm about flavor which even the author admits to at the end of the article:

Your analogy makes no sense in comparison to what I'm talking about.

 

Wow, that article misses the mark entirely. I doubt he has encountered beer outside of the States, not that I would know, but he really has no clue either way.

And from reading responses in this thread, many here missed it as well...