No More Session Beers

Hey, someone must have hacked your account. This. Can't be a post from the same guy who argues endlessly with me about defining styles...

 

The best thing about this thread is its consistency: in that it consistently fails to illuminate, educate, or provoke. I can't believe I'm responding to it yet again. What am I thinking?

 

Fair enough; lately Im just the opposite.

Used to be the heavier, hoppier, fuller bodied, etc. the better.

These days, balanced, clean and straightforward flavors, and something light enough I can drink my fair share is what Im digging.

 

What this thread means to me. Sometimes it's hard sifting through the thoughts in your head and organizing them into sentences when all you are drinking is beers all hanging out well and above 7%.

 

If Lawson's made Spring Fever all the time I would be very excited...

 

Squirrel!

 

Why is "session" even a style of beer? I understand what the are trying to accomplish. It sounds like they are trying to make an excuse for producing a low ABV beer. Beer is beer.

 

I think the term "session" is being used like the naming of a beer as "lager." I don't know if it's an excuse so much as it's a re-action to most american craft beers being above that 4.5% definition.

 

My problem with session beers is that I drink too fast. So session beers priced at or near the price point of a stronger beer end up costing me more without the added enjoyment of the additional alcohol. My personal definition of a session beer is anything under 6% so I can call SNPA my session beer since it is priced less [$14 - $15 a 12 pack] than other stronger beers. And the only times I usually drink a SNPA is when I go out to a party and need to bring something or when I have to do something like a household chore or repair and want to have a beer while doing it.

 

If beer is beer, I guess you'll be buying that 18 pack for the weekend, correct?

 

It isn't a style of beer per se. It's simply easy drinking low strength beer specifically intended to be drunk in large quantities without causing undue intoxication.Where it came from it's either mild or bitter , people can drink a lot of (12 or 20 pints isn't exceptional), walk home and be fit for work next morning.

 

When I say beer is beer, I mean IPA is IPA, Porter is Porter, etc. Taking a regular style and sub-categorizing it because of lower ABV doesnt make sense.

I guess I dont often sit back and knock down 12 beers in a day. And if I did, I would probably drink something that was good for the first two and then it wouldnt really matter after that.

 

No - all beers were not created equal. There are many IPAs that suck and many that are excellent as there are good and bad beers in any style. And I don't believe calling a beer a "session" beer is subcategorizing a style. It's an informal definition used to let you know that the beer is lower in alcohol, not a sub-category or a sub-style. DIPA is a sub-style/sub-category of IPA, but session beer is not. Otherwise, it would be a sub-style/sub-category of every other style out there.

But I do agree with your opinion about the first 2 beers. It happens to me all the time, especially if the first 2 are higher ABV beers.

 

By "good" in that reference to your first two beers, I'm guessing you mean "above 4% abv" and that you're one of those sadly benighted Americans who've never had good session beer.

I'll pray for you.

 

In the course of an evening several months I'll rarely have more than one of the same beer (unless it is a vertical), and the beers I drink are always seasonal or one-offs.

I'm lucky to be able to find and afford a lot of great beer, but I was curious if there are others who do the same thing.

 

I can use all the prayers you are willing to send.

 

Don't give me stage fright!

 

I've only been here for about a year... But sometimes I'm amazed at the sheer volume of beer that some people consume. I only drink once or twice a week and when I do I probably top out at like six beers, max. Two cases AND a 750ml bottle of scotch in a week? I wouldn't be able to get out of bed.

All that uselessness being said, I don't think I consume many session beers either. Since I do drink so sparingly I always tend to be opening something that I can't just grab down at the grocery store any old time.

 

Bear in mind that beer is a drink, not a liqueur.We have beer today because our ancestors didn't have safe water. In my single days I visited the pub every night with my friends and normally drank 5 pints.Some people drank a hell of a lot more than that.Very little choice of beer, we didn't care because we loved what we could get and never tired of it.That's what session beers are all about; lovely long drinking spells without a bad head later.

 

The two cases and a 750 of scotch guy is an outlier. If you read back there are a history of posts that hint at this being a less than hobby for him. I would say the normal drinker here falls way short of that.