Session time

The session hours coincided with the weaker beers.The name stuck after the opening hours were relaxed.No reason to change anything as it was perfectly well understood. Otherwise it becomes utterly meaningless.
Just as I have a coffee table, a dining table and a pasting table at home I can go to the pub and have a session ale, a premium ale or a strong ale.
We still rate engines by horsepower , we no longer think in terms of horses but horsepower is a useful yardstick.

 

If Session beer means only relatively low in alcohol, my answer is lambics. Cantillon, 3F, Oud Beersel, De Cam, Tilquin, Hanssens Boon, Girardin, Lindemans (Cuvee Rene) and Timmermans (Oude).. Many are so sour, that you cannot drink many though.

If you try to find something to drink all day long, I would say for instance Prima Pils from Victory.

 

My Favorite.

 

Ah. Well I will never know because I will not drink during work. And if by "work" you mean house work, I would not want to drink more than one beer ( no matter the strength) and do work after.
Also through the many "session" threads before and after this one it seems to me that a lot of people have different views on what they consider a session beer to be. Different strokes and all that.

 

'Gansett for me when goin cheap.

 

just got back from a week in Derby England which i never realized is the Real Ale capital of England, many many tasty session beers all pretty local that I never heard of, the best pubs have several of their own plus several guests so its pretty overwhelming in a good way when you don't recognize anything...5.5% is a "strong" ale over there, most are in the 4's or high 3's...

 

I'm just not sure of the value of making the distinction in your case. Four or so DFH 60 Minute IPAs at the pub is typical for me and you apparently as well. Why would you or I need to call it a session? It's a night out drinking; as it has been since before either one of us had ever heard the term "session beer".

 

Agreed. We also do not live in the UK as well. Terms and cultures are very different.
I got castrated one time in a thread long ago when I mistakenly said Ranger was a session beer because I was able to have several without ill effects. When these threads come up I am more or less just poking the bear at this point. I appologize if I have offended anyone or unknowingly made this thread more serious than it really is. It IS after all just beer.

 

pale 31

 

But who the hell is drinking in these 'sessions' anymore? Sure have your alcohol % by all means but to stick to the tradition of how these sessions should take place is, for the want of better words, ridiculous.

 

I understand that Britain has it's cultural, historical, and legal definitions of "session" and "session ale," but I am looking at this from a practical stand point and can't help but ask, What are the consequences of not adhering to these definitions? Are you legally required to buy a minimum of 5 pints if you go to the pub for a session?

I realize this is a stupid question, and there are probably complex historical circumstances surrounding the establishment of such laws (taxation purposes, perhaps?). I am not asking for all the details, just wondering what this means for pub-goers in 2013.

 

Most Americans? The best selling beer is 4.2% in Bud Light, and its sold in 30 packs.

But, we're craft fans, and the best selling style is IPA. However the newest trend is brewing "session" IPAs. Why are these being brewed? Because those who love IPAs quickly realize 6 or 7% beer catches up to you. Beer is historically consumed in large quantities, whether its 100 years ago in the UK or last week in the US.

If I'm at the bar with friends for 5 hours I'd rather not milk 1 beer every hour or have to ask for a glass of water after every beer in an already crowded and busy bar.

 

American Session Beer (Lew Bryson Definition of sub-4.5%, which makes the most sense in the US) is by far the best-selling style of beer, but we just don't call it "session beer," we call it "beer" and its named Bud Light, Coors Light and Miller Lite. Americans love session beer because it has drinkability, is less filling, is frost-brewed, and is even sometimes triple-hopped. Oh, and it's super cold tasting, because, you know, it gets hot here.

Oh, and Ron is trolling this thread so hard and it's amazing.

 

Sadly the 5 pint minimum stipulation lapsed when afternoon closing was abolished.

 

Well, no - if one is going by Lew Bryson's definition at theThe Session Beer Project for the ABV, then the US macro US "light beers" aren't "session beers" because the fail to qualify under the second criteria:

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I was always under the impression that that is why they adopted (or "hijacked", depending on one's viewpoint ) the "Session beer" nomenclature- to specifically distinguish the "phantom" style they desired from the US low calorie, low taste Light beers. Or, as the SBP site says, "Here's another definition: low-alcohol, but not low-taste."

 

Why hi-jack an expression and ignore its meaning?
Problem with "low alcohol" is-what is low? Relative to a 12% beer, 6% is low.But regarding the intoxicating power of say a mere 8 Imperial pints - a modest session for many-it's enough to leave the drinker completely wrecked.

 

I've a good compromise. Keep the 4% limit, but have it ABV in Britain and ABW in the USA.

 

Isn't that the whole point of a hijacking?

Grab a plane or a BMW, you don't continue on to Omaha or the real estate office - you go to Cuba or go rob a bank. (Or, you know.... so I've heard ).

 

Because many U.S. "craft" drinkers never drink 6 of the same beer in a year, much less in a sitting. So when they do, they need to borrow a term (and not its actual meaning) from a beer culture where people actually prefer drinking beer to the idea of drinking beer.

 

Well, thats like, subjective, man.

I'm just trying to point out that our overriding beer-drinking culture in the US is based on drinking large amounts of sub-4.5% beer. Sounds eerily similar to this whole "session beer" nonsense that beer geeks have been shouting about for a couple of years now. That is our version of session beer. "Craft beer" has no answer to session beer in the US, try as many do to force one on it. I'm all for promoting it but it's not here yet and it's going to take a long time for it to become universal.