"People should not be confused about the name 'session.'"

First, before we get going, let me say: I love Full Sail, and I really love Jamie Emmerson. He is (like Ferris Bueller) a righteous dude, and a great interview, and he let me drink pretty much all the Old Boardhead I wanted when I visited the brewery.

That said, Full Sail's "Session Lager" and "Session Black" aren't doing me any favors. I love 'em, good lager beers (which 'Cascadia' needs more of), but the name! They're 5.5%! What's Jamie say about that? I'm tearing my hair about it:

The Session is an old-fashioned lager, based on German lagers. The Session Black, which is less than a year old, is a Czech-style dark lager. "The Session Black is the perfect ying to Session's yang," Emmerson said.
Emmerson said people should not be confused about the name "session." In beer geek language, session usually refers to a low-alcohol beer, usually less than 4 percent alcohol by volume. Both of these session beers are over 5 percent.
The Session actually refers to windsurfing sessions on the Columbia River, although Emmerson said, compared to other West Coast beers, the Session and Session Black are low alcohol.
"In the Northwest, that is a session beer," he said.

Right. Sure it is.

That's from an article in the Brockton, Mass. Enterprise News by Norman Miller ("The Beer Nut"), who, I can tell you, definitely knows his ass from his elbow about beer. And I don't envy him trying to explain this one. It's kind of like how Widmer's Hefeweizen...isn't a hefeweizen. Dear me.