Session Beers: USA vs. UK

And pumpkin ale and steam beer!

 

I didn't want to start a new thread for just a beer mat and this sort of fits with the lower abv beer theme of the thread so I'll add it here. I found this beer mat on Stiegl's website which shows a Stiegl Goldbräu beer mat from 1945 intended for US troops. The label states the original gravity to be 10½ and the abv to be 3.2% abw/4% abv. This is the first indication of what sort of beer was being brewed for US troops that I've come across and thought it was interesting enough to share. So it seems the troops got to drink at least some "3.2 beer".

 

Nice coaster (that's what they're typically called in the US).

Yeah, at some point during WWII, the military started allowing so-called 3.2 beer ("alcohol content not more than 3.2 percent by weight") to be given to the troops and sold on base, etc. (Before that, it was under 0.5% "near beer" ).


Lots of info on the 'net about the WWII era beer because of the collectablity of the cans - a search for "olive drab beer cans" will turn it up.

Not sure how long that was in effect - certainly into the 1950s and, maybe, into the Vietnam era and beyond (certainly a lot of beer was shipped to Vietnam and brewers often made note of it in the press). Eventually, "military beer" even became a common synonym for "3.2 beer" in many parts of the country.

Needless to say, when it comes to alcohol content of beer in the US before the 1990s legalization of ABV labeling, there's all sorts of rumors, urban legends, etc. During the war, the brewers were mandated to reserve at least 15% of their production for the military and many did much more than that. Because of grain rationing, supposedly, some brewers began brewing all their beer at or near the lower abw.

The military beer was not taxed at the Federal level, although there were conflict with some states over it. So, needless to say, there were also problems with "bootlegging" military beer and it being sold to the public, etc.

 

Did it also have the classic adjunct saltpeter?

 

Ah I see. It makes sense that the abv would be the result of temperance concerns, and legislation relating to this, rather than rationing as far as the troops were concerned. Still 10½% balling wasn't anything to scoff at at the time, Swedish beer drinkers were getting around 8% balling pilsners in late 1945 (10½ balling and 3.2% abw had been the pre-war strenght limit), and that was an improvement compared with 1944 when it was down to around 7% after successive government mandated cuts in original gravity.

 

It's the flat-rate US tax system. Makes session-strength beers relatively more expensive.

 

Concerning the German situation one can note that in november 1939 Germany changed their legislation allowing for only two categories of beer, einfachbier and lagerbier. The classes looked thusly:

Einfachbier 3-6.5% balling
Lagerbier 9-10.3% balling

The pre-war vollbier category (11-14% balling) which had made up some 95% of German beer sales in the mid 1930s was thus replaced by the new lagerbier category. During the war there were undoubtedly reductions in gravity and problems with raw materials. Then directly after the war the brewing of beer was banned in the American sector from 1945 until 1947, when beers of very weak worts were allowed (1.7% balling, which is similar to the gravities brewed by Swedish breweries in 1917 during WW1 which were barely over 2%).

Meanwhile in Germany, as per Baarth Haas market report of 1948/1949:

And from their 1949/1950 report:

Interesting to see beers below 12% being said to "meet resistance". Then again the 9-10.3% war beer had been a compromise for war time, meanwhile in Czechoslovakia beers of 9.5-10% had been the peacetime standard, and beers up to 10.5% had been the standard in Sweden due to legislation. It goes to show how German beer drinkers expected a fuller, higher gravity beer, and it makes sense then that the Export style would become dominant in the immediate post-war period, before the rise of the pilsner, by offering heft to the German beer drinker. Interesting also that the hopping went up to 0.91lbs per barrel, or about 350 gram per hektoliter. That's a pretty decent hopping rate for mid century, German lager beer, before the rise of pilsner hegemony. I could certainly imagine that such a hopping rate would result in a pronounced hop aroma.

 

Forgot to quote the relevant passage, from the same source:

"Beer types under 12% of specific gravity meet consumer resistance. It is to be hoped that the breweries will be able to meet public demand in the near future. Purchases of malt are a constant problem for the breweries and constitute a heavy financial burden. Usage of corn and other substitutes for malt was allowed in the Bizone by Verwaltung für Finanzen, Bad Homburg, on February 17th 1949. In Bavaria, however, the zealosly guarded mandate that no substitutes may be used in the brewing of beer, traditional for hundreds of years, is still unbroken."

 

This, plus (I think) a greater proportion of packaged sales in US. The actual beer is a small fraction of cost and packaging etc fixes much of the unit price.

 

Boulevard Frequent Flier IPA was a great session ipa at 4.2% abv. Sadly, they discontinued it and I miss it mightily.

 

I found it!

Behold the Kleines Bier from Live Oak, a 3.2% ABV "Lithuanian wagon beer":

The bartender said it's closer to a helles than pilsener. It wasn't overly bitter but very grass-hoppy with lots of bready malt flavor and sweetness. Reminded me a lot of Live Oak Pilz.

At 3.2% ABV, it's the first American-made session beer I've tried that isn't a sour or named "Lone Star Light", which has a staggering 3.85% ABV. Actually, Live Oak's Grodziskie is in the low 3% range, but between you and me it isn't that good. And, of course, I've tried many American beers called "session" beers, but every one of those is over 4.0% ABV, so they're not really session beers, are they?

Kleines Bier is just a small-batch brew, but it's more proof our brewers can make a great session beer. Seeing it today at Live Oak was very exciting for this fan of the English bitter. I might go back Thursday after golf and drink two or three while I have the chance.

 

This reminds me of a few Tired Hands beers I had in the past. They were all called "can't keep up" and each one had a number.

Basically they would blow through kegs at a higher pace then they could keep beers on tap at their old capacity.

So they would tap into barrels of different beer and throw them on and most were just like you described.

 

Friggin' loved that place.

 

I could always go for a Polish smoked wheat beer.

 

This is a bad example in relation to a Session beer, but Old Hickory and Foothills both make terrific BA Stouts as well as regular stouts that come in at 9.75% abv. While that’s certainly not a session beer in any sense but nor is it an 18% Uncle Jacobs or a 15% BCBS. So it’s possible to reduce abv significantly and still retain flavor, I just haven’t seen that done with an IPA at session abv levels.

 

I'm pretty sure Hill Farmstead's Walden is 4%, and I recall the draft I had was phenomenal.

 

I haven’t been to Vt in forever, but I had Lawson’s version, if I’m not mistaken at the time it was sub 4%. I love Lawson’s brews, but that beer hit me as Hop water, I found it unreasonably unbalanced and utterly bitter, but that’s the price for sub 4%. I love HF beers as well, I’d guess they do as good a job as can be done at the 4% goal. Now I had Burials offering and I thought it was pretty good, they use rotating hops and the one I had was at 4.8% Abv, some are listed at 4%, but I haven’t bought them.

 

I'm curious how abv and cost of production are related. There is a general trend toward higher abv beers costing more but its not entirely linear. Do brewers charge more for a higher abv beer that costs the same to produce as a lower abv beer because they know they can get away with it or are higher abv beers more expensive because they cost more to make? I've noticed Scotch ales seem offer good bang for your buck as they often don't cost more than a 5 or 6% beer but give you 8% abv.

 

It's probably been said already but any beer can be a session beer if you have the right attitude/shitty day.

t. Finished a sixer of Bigfoot after a particularly hard day brewing about a year ago while playing Resident Evil.

 

All beers get better by the pint.