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

I have no intention of lumping those categories together, and I agree that session beer was directed at the culture which is 100% okay. I think it is important to admit that there is a new variable in play here though apart form just wanting to make the best tasting drink possible. The express intent was to make beers that would not get you wasted - now that does NOT mean that many of these can't also taste great! All I am saying is that my preference is to find and create whatever tastes the best and then adjust my drinking habits based upon the product at hand. If it comes out at a low ABV then that is fantastic, but I don't know that I want to target low ABV as a goal and leave other things in the peripheral.

 

I disagree, people here have expressed that precise desire....they have said they want that ability to have more beers over sometimes better beers for the social aspect.

 

It seems to me that you are still conflating intensity of flavor with "quality" of flavor.

 

Not at alll, I never said anything about a more intense flavor leading to better taste. I love many ales for their subtlety.

 

Perhaps not. But you are seemingly saying that less intense flavor leads to a decrease in quality/taste.

 

To me flavor can take take forms from in your face hops to subtle aromatics and I enjoy all parts of that spectrum, or at least most I think.

 

You are confusing good flavour with strong flavour.One thing I benefit from is beer brewed from very high quality barley (for which our climate is ideal) together with cask conditioning. The result is flavour levels much greater than the ABV would suggest.

 

There is another disconnect in this thread (and those like it) which causes a fair amount of disagreement. I've gone out of my way over the years to talk with experienced homebrewers, brewers in the industry, and other experienced beer enthusiasts. I cannot think of many who do not gravitate towards lower abv styles over the course of their experiences. Sure, they enjoy an IPA and a barrel-aged imperial stout every now and then (many still loathe imperial pumpkin ales), but they discover true complexity in a style such as a pilsner. Or the layers of flavor that develop over the course of a pint (or three) of a British ale on cask.

One of my favorite brewers who is quite experienced in the industry, Notch, brews nothing but beers at 4.5% abv or lower. At my local, their Notch Session Pils at 4% is the best selling beer after BMC and Sam Adams. And this has nothing to do with trying to drink as many beers in a "session" as possible, it has to do with the styles they choose to brew being flavorful. In fact, my favorite beer of the entire year was their 4% Cerne Pivo on cask.

The issue is, when you're first becoming interested in craft, many often mistaken the higher abv "bold" flavored beers as complex. It takes time to pick out all that is going on even in a "simple" pilsner. Pils malt for example isn't a dominating flavor to most at first, and it can be hard to pinpoint what those flavors are. The dominant flavors in a robust IPA, bourbon-barrel aged beer, or imperial pumpkin ale are obvious. However, many often mistake the blatant bourbon flavor in that barrel-aged stout as complexity, when it's simply an easy to discern flavor. Personally, I feel the more difficult flavors to discover are more obvious to a brewer who has smelled and carefully picked out different malts, hops...etc. and knows what to search for in the finished product.

At the end of the day, beer is a journey......not a session.

 

I feel like you are all putting words into my mouth. I have not said that higher ABV or more intense flavor equates to better taste.....just that I want good flavor be it at a high or low abv.

 

No I wouldn't agree.

Then why stop at 8%? Ramp it up to 16%. Make it even "better".

This stupid "session" label that craft brewers in the US have gotten into recently, have done a disservice to session-strength beer in general, frankly. Since you've lived and drank in the UK, you should know that right? You know that you don't go into pubs over there and see the word "session" plastered on every pump clip?

Try to see past the labeling. If Stone started classing Go To as a "very session IPA" and their regular Stone IPA as a "quite session IPA", would you then start overthinking things about Stone IPA too? "Well if they're labeling it that way there must be some ulterior motive with regards to capping the ABV, so I should stay away from this beer and exclusively drink Ruination and Enjoy By, because they weren't constrained in any way."

Come on man.

 

Might I introduce something into this conversation? May it be the case that we are talking across purposes here? I contend that targeting a certain ABV so that people can drink more and making flavor a secondary concern is odd and not something I like the idea of.

Maybe it is the case that British Cask Ales and many others simply exist in their best possible state at a low ABV and by chance fall into that session category, whereas many American brewers are now actively targeting the ABV and forefitting other aspects that make beers better in order to adapt to a perceived market?

 

Perhaps it would help, then, if you would define "good flavor" then.

 

That is subjective and up to the individual.

 

I am not certain as to how you define session beer then, and I think I just take serious issue with the term existing because it carries forward the weight of that history.

 

I'm not debating the fact that IPAs and hop-forward beers are the best selling craft beer style in the US. My point was that many of the top selling brands from craft breweries are their lowest ABV offering (hoppy or not). I get it, you have a dislike for hop-forward beers and had to bring it into the discussion, but that wasn't the point I was trying to make. I was pointing out that by looking at the top selling brands from most craft breweries, you'd see that most people don't seek out their "8% double IPA" offering, as you suggested. They want flavor, but they don't really want high ABV.

 

Talk about overthinking drinking. All this over a +/- 2% difference and the ability to stay an hour or two more without getting munged. Base fact is, the vast majority of America beer is in fact "session" beer and there's fancy color changing ink involved so there's a clock ticking on your enjoyment so you hurry it. Sounds like programmed binge drinking to me. But....
This seems a bit purtanical and strange to go on about how its terrible to spend quality time with beer involved that doesn't preclude bad decision making and chugging. America supports hundreds of weekend activities that having nothing to do with sports and the one up manship competitive drinking where it's common to have beer from the minute you begin till the minute you stop. That's session drinking in a nutshell. Some people don't do so well with the socialization aspect involved and have to make a spectacle of themselves by going all in. Most cities have these areas pretty will marked out and sports related memorabilia and alma mater flags are some of the signals to look out for. I'm sure Brits can attest to how terrible wifebeater beer and lager louts are when the abv creep marched upwards and muttonheaded fools seeking the novelty of that fact and are just in it to get pissed up and violent with civic pride are even more so. I see as our good beer gets into new venues, there'll be some funny business and destruction occurring as a result of our hooligans discovering big beer.

 

How I define session, is a beer that's under 4% ABV, but I'm not ready to get into that debate right now

 

Bingo

 

What a naive point of a view. Beer is one of the few things were one can simultaneously enjoy both quality and quantity. The author is missing out.

I enjoy low abv beers that I can drink multiple of during the course of several hours. The reason for this is pure and simple: relaxation. With high abv beers I have to pace myself and be careful not to over indulge. This is not good for someone like me, as when I am drinking, I tend to be doing so with friends and in a time after work. Time with friends and time after work is when I am focusing on enjoying the company I am with and the conversations we are having. As a result, I may be taking sips of my beer regularly and without paying attention. I don't want to have to pay attention. That's the point of social drinking to me, not having to plot and plan. So a 4% Helles is just what the doctor ordered. If I put down four of them in a couple of hours, I don't have to start rearranging my schedule for the next day. I can still wake up, go for a jog and not have to squint out of one eye while I change my son's diaper.

I guess if I were just sitting around alone, writing notes about the beer I was drinking and musing about how it compared to every other beer I had ever drank in my entire life, then I would drink slower. But that's not the point of beer for me. Beer is fun, it loosens things up a bit. It's the dancing shoes in the dance hall of life. That's the point of beer for me. Nevertheless, I still want to enjoy the taste, so I don't want to slug back some product with ingredients and techniques I believe produce an inferior product. So I'm not pounding down Bud Light's to achieve the enjoyment I desire. I will, however, put down a few pints of Weinstephaner Original.

Also, chicken pot pie is rubbish.

 

Fair enough, I don't care to either. If all session means to you is a beer at or below 4% alcohol and carries no other implication with it then I take no issue with the term. I just think that unfortunately that is not the way most seem to take it.

As for my earlier example of raising the ABV of that hypothetical beer all I meant was if you found that 8% was the ideal point for flavor in that specific brew you should not attempt to lower it and sacrifice good taste. That does not mean raising it to 16% would improve it more, just that there is likely an ABV in which any brew finds its greatest form and sometimes it is high, sometimes low, and sometimes in the middle.