Session Beers: USA vs. UK

No, a session beer is one specifically brewed and intended to be drunk by the multiple pint over an extended period. It is all about design and intention, the difference between an ordinary knife and a carving knife is although one can carve with any knife, a carving knife is created for the job.

 

I'm a Brit who has lived in the US for a long time so I hope I have a pretty good perspective on both sides of the Atlantic.

ABVs are clearly lower on average in the UK than in the US, by some margin. My hypothesis is that a large part of this is due not just to taste patterns but to a) drinking patterns and b) serving sizes.

UK drinking tends to be done earlier than in the US (starting earlier and finishing earlier) and often without (much) food. You simply can't drink 7% beer when that's how you drink.

Secondly, a UK pint is 20oz whereas the US pint is 16oz. That 4oz difference adds up, especially after a few beers. Again, the larger pour will tend to steer drinkers towards a lower ABV beer.

If I'm on a session in the UK I will almost always drink bitter. It's typically around 3.5%. Four 20oz pints of that is just right.

 

That is precisely what I did during my frequent business trips to England in the 80's and early 90's. Made for a very nice evening. The facility I worked in had an in-house pub at one end of the cafeteria. It opened every day at 5pm. Of course, getting a quick pint there was just the beginning...

 

Raw ingredient cost will roughly double with doubling of abv, but the fixed cost of labor, packaging, and distribution put a hard floor on the price.

 

Looking at the specs reminded me of Cigar City's Lager, at 9.8% plato and 4.5% abv. That leaves about 1.3% plato in extract, whereas a 10.5% plato wort and 4% abv would leave about 3% plato in extract. That's one big difference between modern lager beer brewing and the old way of brewing, the residual extract. By leaving a bigger portion of it in the finished beer you help give body and heft to a lower abv beer. And since most fermentation used to take place, and still takes place in primary fermentation it's not a question of mature vs green beer, the old beer was fermented for longer on average (even if we're talking days and not weeks), and aged for longer (here we might talk weeks or even months of difference) yet the brewers maintained more of the extract. Such a base allows for more early and late boil hops without the beer tasting unbalanced, and prove a much better base for a lower abv beer than a beer that is attenuated to the hilt.

I think British brewers, due to tax induced cuts in gravity, primarily work with the grist to provide more body, the use of caramel malt (if you have to work with a 10% plato wort in order for your beer to be commercially viable you have to make the most of it with the grains you use) which American craft breweries have adopted also for higher gravity beers (their ca 13% plato pale ales and ca 17% plato IPAs). But lager brewing wasn't traditionally based on caramel malts for producing higher residual extracts, it was the result of the mashing and fermentation. That is something which I would like more breweries to explore. And if they did I would hope that they would choose to benefit from the lower taxes enjoyed by lower abv beers in our high tax system, a system which couldn't care less what the original gravity of the beer was, as opposed to the German tax system which punishes the brewer for each percentage of original extract the brewer brews his beer to, and which adds pressure on cost conscious brewers to cut the original gravity of the beer and ncrease the degree of attenuation. I don't really mind the Swedish system of taxation, I just wish more brewers would take advantage of the opportunities it provides.

 

Patrik, why did the 'old' lagers have higher final gravities? Was this consistent from country to country (e.g., did American lagers of the 1800s have higher final gravities)?

Cheers!

@jesskidden @bergbrew

 

I would be open to someone pointing me the way to some traditional English Pub beers: milds, bitters, ESBs, etc, because I haven’t had a lot of luck finding them, even in their “export” iterations. (Fullers ESB is an exception I can think of). I’m under the impression that these are quite different from “session” beers in the US and I’d like to experience them first hand. I’ve seen published recipes from the early 20th century and many look quite delicious.

 

This thread inspired me to revisit a local 'special bitter' and boy am I grateful. 4.2% abv and wonderfully smooth, it will be heavy on the summer rotation. I also saw they had a 'Belgian single ' on offer that I'll have to give a try

 

I thought it was pretty much established fact that the average Real Degree of Fermentation figures for US lager beers has been constantly increasing over the decades. I only have a few statistics from the post-Repeal era:

1936 - 57.95%
1938 - 57%
1941 - 56.7%
1950 - 60.0%
1956 - 60.8%
1960 - 61.7%
1970 - 63.8%
1983 - 64.6%

The American Brewer's (magazine) review of the industry's first 2½ decades after Repeal, 25 Years of Brewing, in showing that even in that period, that while the "Total Materials" (Malt + corn, rice and/or sugar/syrup) used per barrel in the US went down between 1934 (51.4lbs) and 1958 (44.7lbs):

By the mid-80s, "Total Materials per barrel" was hovering around 39lbs. (After that, I'd say, that as "light beers" became a larger - eventually largest - percentage of the US beer market, the figures probably can't be accurately compared to the older stats, but the figure continued to go down into the early 2000s.)

 

JK, why did the "degree of fermentation" increase? Was there a change in the brewing process? If so, what was that change?

Cheers!

 

Don't know exactly where you are located in Texas, but there is a thread that has a lot of recommendations in the Southwest forum that might help.

https://www.beeradvocate.com/community/threads/bitter-esbs-in-texas.609250/

 

Increased brewhouse efficiency/desire of brewers for lighter beers to meet customer demand?

 

Founders All Day IPA finished tied for 7th place with Bell’s Hopslam in Zymurgy's Best Beers in America 2019, just say'in.

https://www.beeradvocate.com/commun...erica-2019-results.617186/page-2#post-6539439

 

I saw you posted the article on a thread but I cant seem to find it anywhere. Do you still have the link? Sounds like a fascinating read.

 

If you take the view some traditonalists do those would be over the session range since they are 4.2%.

Im not sure what my definition is I like 3 to 4.9. but I also dont drink all day. I am open to session ending at 4% especially if its backed by science.

Im still working this out but Ive been drinking Franzikaner and Paulaner this weekend. Maybe it was the Co2 but even with the .5 percent difference Franziskaner tasted a lot smoother. Maybe theres more to it then alchohol then I think. Ive drank quite a bit of Sam Smith Ale and its good but most of the time it tastes sharp not likely something id session at 5 percent. I plan on drinking there Oatmeal Stout one of these days though to see how it drinks.

 

Are low abv Ales common in Europe outside of England? I ask cause I looked at a lot of German Hefeweizens this weekend and not one was under 5%. Which made me think that ales < 4.9 are mostly an English tradition.

 

Is there a reason not to try lagers? I´ve been drinking Weltenburger Barock Dunkel this week at 4.7%, arguably one of the very best of a style that might be right up your alley (malt-forward, tasty, session friendly, possibly travels better than English lighter beers).

 

Not something I have gotten around too. There are so many good Ales out there. I haven been drinking reguarly all this year and I just had my first Wheat Ale. Franzikaner. I was too into what England and America were doing to think about Germany. I am just drinking Golden Ales right now as I though it would be interesting to limit myself for a little while and focus on similar styles. Plus im almost at my goal weight and saving some calories.

 

To address the OP’s question, I believe current North American beer culture is more concerned with with bigger, bolder, higher ABV styles, making the idea of so called session beers less appealing, particularly to those who are more involved with the craft/micro brewery scene. Although, as one poster mentioned, light beers are session beers by definition and certainly don’t lack for market share. I enjoy drinking session style ales while doing yard work, as the idea of drinking Quads while handling electric hedge clippers doesn’t make much sense. I believe part of the style history was to give the folks their joy during the day while still keeping them somewhat functional.

 

Ok, get it. Even after reading other posts from you I was thinking the 'German ale' connection was a bit forced style/culture-wise, and in the risk of sounding pedantic I´d better leave weissbiers for that moment you decide to cross the Rhin in full force. But who am I to decide your ways...In the end, you are doing it right imo. I have yet plenty to explore but miss those days already...