Why Session Beer?

to answer the op's question...because i have to fucking get up at 5 am for work tomorrow.

 

I like session stuff because I'm not some young kid interested in getting fucked up as quickly as possible.

There's a time and place, and generally when the drinking and enjoying is going on, it's not really the time to get hammered when there's plenty of good stuff to try.

 

Sessionable beers are starting to catch on in the US in my opinion.

For example, last night....

3 pints CBC bitter (2 on cask, 1 CO2) at 4.3% abv

2 tulips of their saison at 4% abv

1 pint Jack's Abby Jabby Brau (session lager) at 4.5% abv

0.5 liter Notch Session Pils at 4% abv

 

I can't agree more. I don't drink beer to get hammered, in fact I wish that wasn't an issue. The beauty of drinking low abv ales I came to appreciate very much on my trips to England. That the English brewers can pack so much flavor in to a 3-4% ale is staggering. I usually average about 7-8 pints a day when over there and I never feel drunk, just a little buzzed here and there. I for one am glad more of our domestic brewers are making a lower abv beers.

 

I thought this was gonna be about how the american ipa is just a bastardization of the original ipa.
I get that the decrease is in materials alone, however when posed with buying a session ipa foor the same price as a regular ipa I feel I am getting the shaft as it were. If I want a watered down session beer, I'll go with some coors extra gold or banquet. If american taxes favored a lighter bodied beer I could see the price disparity allowing me to buy a session version.

 

answer me this. When golfing on a extremely hot day, what would you rather do?

A) Drink two Huge Stouts and get plastered within an hour.

B)drink a bunch of Shitty watered down budlight

C)Drink a bunch of good tasting beer thats not going to get you plastered in one hour.


Also not to mention they are good for when youre at a nice bar drinking heavy hitters. rather then consume 4-5 heavy abv in a row you can drink a session ale in between a couple of them.

 

The problem being that you'll NEVER fiind a 4% beer that tastes like heady topper.
Edit: and that's my problem with the session ipa. Its trying to fill a niche that just isn't there. I like a good table beer, and enjoy something with flavor that I can have a few of.

 

But you will find a 4% beer that tastes like Timothy Taylor Landlord. You may even find that after #3 or 4, the Landlord reveals more and more complexity; while after the initial flavor blast, the Heady doesn't improve much at all.

 

Ten. Minutes of pleasure from trinity brewing is by far my favorite summer beer, the longer you sip on it the better and more complex it is. At a whopping 3.2% abv I can drink it all day long. As for the HT being a one hit wonder, I don't agree. The flavor profile changes a lot as it opens up. It starts with hops, and as I drink it I start to get some of the malts, and the yeast really starts to come out with its esters as it approaches room temp. But that's just one guys impression.

 

Didn't mean to imply HT is a one-hit wonder; in fact, one of the things I liked best about it was just how "familiar" (if that makes any sense) it felt the first time I ever tried it -- as if you could easily settle in with a couple (which I did). Also, that initial blast is hard to top. Still, I don't get the depth of malt character nor the myriad subtleties in HT that I get in TT Landlord. The latter also starts out feeling "familiar," but then, over the course of a full session, seems to develops into an "old friend." (Also just my opinion, of course.)

 

I'll have to keep my eyes open for landlord. Several colorado ratings right off the top here, shouldn't be to hard to get. I guess that's where I don't get a session beer is when its trying to be something else. The american and english pale ales fill the "session pale ale" hole for me. I don't see a point to having a "session ipa". I know the english versions have and do come in low abv examples, but the american versions have always been big beers. I just don't think there is a place for them in my fridge, and ultimately I feel like they are going to fizzle out. Like you said, with landlord there is amazing complexity. Why would I look over that beer to get a one note beer like go to, loose leaf, all day, and daytime?

 

It's very good in the bottle, but really that much more complex on cask. Just check those bottle dates!

And, yea, I'm with you 100% on "session IPAs." Only reason they are called "session IPA" is because "craft" brewers are afraid to use the term that perfectly describes what they really are: IPA Lite.

 

Neither do I. I spent about an hour sipping on my Heady yesterday. It gave me exactly what I wanted and expected. A huge array and blast of hops. Very tough for me to pick out subtleties from the malt or yeast in that beer or any IPA/double IPA. In fact, I don't think it honestly matters what yeast or malt you use in an IPA. If it did, IPLs wouldn't be successful. Just my opinion and palate.

I've had my fair share of low abv cask the last few weeks.....I've picked up on nuances in many of those beers. Love Timothy Taylor....it's one of my "white whales" to have it on cask.

 

One thing about Landlord - for all its excellence it's not really a session beer. Boltmaker is Timothy Taylor's session bitter.

 

Ha. You know it.

 

It says "strong ale" on the label! Though at just 4.3% it's knocking at the door of sessionability and a few pints won't bother you too much.
I've yet to sample the caramelised version, Ram Tam. As my son lives outside Bingley and my grandson was actually born in Keightley that's something which requires attention.

 

Personally I can't stand the term 'session IPA'. It doesn't sit right. Sounds like a caveat on the part of the brewer.

And also, if the difference between a brewery's APA and their session IPA (which is what I've experienced) is less balance in the latter, then I'll take the APA.

But all that said, if this all means a general trend toward low ABV beers? Yes please.

 

Next you're going to tell me Fuller's London Pride isn't their session beer either.