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

In these instances "session" is a marketing term. For comparison, look at the number of beers under 5% made in Europe which define themselves as session beers on the label.

 

Ideally I think you are correct in the first part but I don't think that is happening in all cases. Let's say a brewery sits down and says "We need a session beer offering. This trend is blowing up and we need something below 5% that our customers will drink." They then set thero people to the task. I think there is a good chance that with that stated goal they may be willing to sacrifice flavor or other aspects to achieve it. Not in all cases but in many.

As for one beer to rule them all, I can't say I agree. I think you start with a vision and then attempt to create the best version of that vision and along the way if you discover that things that defy the norm make it better you don't shy away, you embrace it and make it the best tasting drink you can regardless of what title it has in the end. Now since taste is subjective there can never be one best beer, and since flavors in beer have become so diverse it seems impossible. This is where intent comes into play. Do you truly think that Coors or Bud think that all the offerings they put out are the best tasting product they can make, or do you think they tend to cash in on trends like lite beers, flavored beers etc? What I am getting at is that the American session movement seems very similar to that, micro brewers placing artificial constraints on a brew to achieve a title that will sell due to a given trend.

 

For comparison purposes, here is the definition from The Session Beer Project:

For our purposes, 'session beer' is defined as a beer that is:

► 4.5% alcohol by volume or less
► flavorful enough to be interesting
► balanced enough for multiple pints
► conducive to conversation
► reasonably priced

 

And again I agree, I feel like you haven't read my posts where I have talked about this very fact. That many Euro brews fall into this category by happenstance rather than a targeted approach for marketing.

 

Right and I addressed the fact that semantics is an issue here and that the zeitgeist will eventually lean one way or another in the end and provide us with what the term session means to most.

 

The European brews that "fall into this category" define the category, not "fall into this category by happenstance". The use of the term in American beer marketing is much more recent than the beers themselves.

 

I believe popular opinion will define the category. You cannot claim that historic context defines it then simultaneously deny that the baggage of that historic term does not apply which is now what you are doing. I mean happenstance regarding intent here which is a different category anyhow.

 

And as used to be argued on these forums repeatedly, there used to be reasonably standard definition on the subject and American misuse has resulted in more and more confusion. For instance, Foothills Hoppyum uses the term on its label. And the beer is over 6%.

 

Well that one is pretty funny. Now I've heard 4%, 5%, and 6% and then a slew of other variables.

 

Do you think most of the wonderful beers brewed in Europe with low alcohol were not developed with the intent of brewing a beer of reasonable ABV? Or do you mean they were not developed to use the marketing term session?

 

:insert american beer canoe joke here:

 

A bit of both honestly, on a case by case basis but I will try to expand on that more tomorrow, unfortunately I need to get some sleep tonight as I'm up at 4am. Cheers until then and hopefully we can find some more common ground here.

 

The term stems from the UK and although its use is pretty widespread it hasn't been around for as long as people imagine.It's never used to label beers on sale , just a term for publicans and brewers to use........session up to 4% , premium from about 4 to 5% and strong if over 5%. 5% may not sound very strong but it has to be taken in the context of pub drinking.
They originated through material shortages in WW1 followed by taxes following and then WW2 came along on top of that. So the typical beer went from strongly hopped (using half the world's hop production) 6% ABV average strength to not much more than half this and the brewers were forced to invent ways of making weaker beers attractive and flavoursome. They succeeded to such an extent that such beers still massively outsell the rest of beers put together.So , yes to your question.

Back to the article in question , it's quite an achievement to write an artlcle and completely miss the point.The guy just doesn't know what a session beer is.I am reminded of someone who failed her geography exam when the question stated "give details about two capital cities" she chose New York as one of them.

 

you obviously know so much about labeling in Europe. In all my years of drinking I've only ever come across this on American labels. I guess I ought to get my eyes tested.

 

Ill drink to that !

 

I think he was saying that he agrees with you on that......that Euro brews do not typically market themselves as such.

 

I don't think "ignorant" means what you think it means. Regardless, I still agree with the author and all my session-beer drinking friends remain alcoholics. This says nothing about you, if that's why you're mad.

 

the problem with this thread, and all the Session Beer threads that have preceded it is that 'session beer' is a concept that is understood, without explanation, in the UK. But on here there is an overwhelming desire to define a beer, rather than just enjoy it.
In the UK we are not encumbered by BJCP guidelines that proscribe what a beer can be by giving it strictly limiting parameters. A Bitter can be pale, amber, chestnut or even brown, it has a wide abv variance and bitterness also has a wide range. And we're not hung up on whether we can enjoy a beer because it doesn't fit those limiting definitions.
It may be that one of the problems so many Americans have with lower abv beers is that when they are drunk at slightly above freezing point you lose the ability to detect flavour. Just a high abv beers benefit from being allowed to warm up to develope all those luscious flavours, so it is with lower abv beers (which in the UK also have lower carbonation), just stop selling beer ice cold and start enjoying the flavour.

 

Friendly fire

 

Having said that, the style guidelines in the CAMRA Good Beer Guide contain an awful amount of drivel.
http://zythophile.wordpress.com/201...ill-getting-beer-history-so-very-badly-wrong/