Why Session Beer?

With the sales through the roof, do you think All Day IPA is craft beer's Bud Light?

I'm also going to make a bold prediction. "Session IPA" will be considered a style (if it isn't already) and it will be the best selling craft beer style.

And, one of these session IPAs will leap frog Sierra Nevada Pale Ale as the number one selling craft beer. Whether you think that's a good thing or a bad thing is up to you.

 

No. they describe it as their Premium ale. Fuller's session bitter is Chiswick.
"Fuller’s London Pride is the UK’s leading premium ale.

Chiswick Bitter is Fuller's popular session strength ale, which derives its name from the area of London where Fuller's is based. This lower strength beer is held in high regard across the South East of England and, like its stablemates London Pride and ESB, has won the prestigious CAMRA Great British Beer Festival, Beer of the Year award, in 1989"

 

I personally like the idea of session beers.
Went golfing this past weekend and I was tasked with bringing the brew. First I had to find something in a can and low abv . . . Choose the Founders All Day ipa. Had five of these before the round was over and was still hitting the ball straight.
That's why we have session beer.

 

Was that Ben's Bitter at CBC? Because that's a low ABV beer that is most definitely not lacking in flavor. It's flipping awesome.

 

Definitely not their session beer!

 

If the UK taxes the hell out of high gravity beers what do they do with spirits?

 

Tax them a lot too.

£8 per 700ml bottle of 40% spirits I think, which is about $13 or so

 

This is actually perfect. After a long day of coaching both my sons baseball teams on Saturday, I just wanted to sit in my patio chair and have a few beers while they played in the pool. So, yeah, I wanted something "lighter" in ABV so I didn't get plastered. But I also wanted something with flavor. I was able to relax with a Hop Sun and a couple of Loose Leafs. Granted Hop Sun is right at 5% and Loose Leaf is around 4.5% but they were perfect compared to sitting there with a single Chupahopra.

 

As strange as it may seem to many- I love beer for the taste- I can do without the buzz and subsequent hangover. I really like Blue Points Mossaic IPA at 4.8% abv- I am an unabashed fan of Mosaic Hops. An added bonus is I can drink more without turning into a blithering idiot.

 

A beer for every occasion, and an occasion for every beer.

 

Yes it was. It was excellent on cask, I tried it on regular draft to compare. There was no comparison Wasn't a HUGE fan of dry hopping it with Glacier on cask, but it was still great nonetheless. That's why I had 3.

 

Yep, I know. I was being sarcastic, hence the winking smiley. Would LOVE to try Chiswick Bitter on cask.

 

I'm also not the biggest fan of these session IPAs. I think that the session IPA should be proof to all these AB-InBev and MillerCoors bashers that the smaller, "artisanal" commercial breweries have the same agenda as those breweries they hate so much.

I wouldn't say it's fear that keeps them from calling them IPA Light. It's all about creating a perception in these beer geeks. I mean, just think about how incredible the marketing was for the Lite Beer from Miller. The same beer did not even touch its current sales it enjoys today as Gablinger's Diet Beer.

 

flip cup

 

Why on Earth would anyone want to be in a pub for 7 straight hours?

 

Case in point: Carton Boat.

 

Don't knock it 'til you try it. At my buddies bachelor party we spent about 10 hours at the same bar. They had an insane juke box, pool table, outdoor patio, etc. I drank Stone Leviathan (4.4%) the entire time. It was awesome. I was definitely drunk by the end, but at least I made it to the end. If I had been drinking anything stronger, I would have dropped before the sun went down.

 

A big part of drinking beer for me is the social component. None of my close friends are anywhere near as deep into craft beer as me. However, I found that almost everyone who stops by to visit will drink an APA or similarly low ABV craft beer. As a compromise effort, I try to keep a sampling of something relatively mild on hand to drink with guests. The recent increase in canning among craft brewers has really made this task a lot easier.

 

Bell's Two Hearted Ale or Sierra Nevada Pale Ale are MY session beers...

 

I have tremendous respect for brewers that are able to translate a traditionally high-gravity style into a sessionable offering. It takes a ton of skill and knowledge to do it successfully. And I get the benefit by enjoying several of their beers in a session, and am able to drive myself home safely - extremely important in a rural state with little to no public transportation!