More friends of the SBP

I got an email from Aaron Porter, a reader in the Bay Area, suggesting I take a look at Oakland's Dying Vines Brewing. I did, and they're definitely friends of the Session Beer Project! Dying Vines is brewing at the Linden Street Brewery, but their beers are all their own; check them out:

Dee'z English Mild, our flag ship ale, is a malty brown ale with subtle coffee & chocolate roast flavors. With a dry finish balanced by a rich hop character & weighing in at 4.0% a.b.v. , this is a beer for every day enjoyment.

Old Brick Bitter, our Special Bitter, is a malty, full bodied English style Pale Ale with a dry and hoppy finish. We use all English pale and specialty malts finishing with a generous amount of East Kent Golding hops making this session beer perfect for cask, beer engine and traditional draught service, A real  ale - 4.5% a.b.v.

Hop Candi, a West Coast interpretation of an English IPA. It is hoppy in the sense that it provides a wonderful bouquet, however the malt and underlying bitterness balance into a clean finish leaving only subtle hints of citrus and  rye. This beer finishes dry and comes in at 4.5% a.b.v.

Queen Bess IPA, an English Style India Pale Ale. Firmly bittered and balanced with a soft malt profile. Dry, spicy, and floral, this beer is perfect with a meal or just enjoying a pint at 4.8% a.b.v.

Yeah, I know, the Queen Bess is 4.8%...don't miss the forest for one tree! The other three are 4.5% or less, so this is a solidly session-oriented brewery. Hope to try their beers sometime soon (going to SF in the fall)!

Meantime, Aaron also recommended beers from Drake's Brewing (their May seasonal Alpha Session is 3.8% and crazily hoppy; year-round hefe is 4.5%) and Ale Industries (it's all about the Orange Kush at 4.4%). Thanks, Aaron!

New brewery to start out working the session angle

I've been corresponding with Jeffery Stuffings at Jester King Craft Brewery in Austin, Texas, a new and ambitious craft brewery that's just opened. JK is starting up with barrel-aging, bottle-conditioned 750 ml bottles, and...two year-round session beers in their line-up. Here's what he had to say about that:

I just wanted to e-mail you to say thanks and offer our support for The Session Beer Project.  We wholeheartedly support the mission.  One of our frustrations is that our bigger beers tend to be rated higher and sell better simply because they are more "extreme". We've actually made two session beers part of our year-round lineup: a 3.3% ABV English-style dark mild and a soon to be released ~4% ABV farmhouse table beer. 

What Stuffings didn't tell me -- I found it on the brewery blog -- is pretty interesting, too.

Dickel barrels full of aging mild at Jester King.

• The farmhouse table beer -- "Das Wunderkind" -- sounds like a smaller version of another farmhouse beer they're making, Boxer's Revenge, an idea I wholeheartedly applaud.
• Some of the dark mild is being barrel-aged for blending with the regular mild to create more depth of flavor; brilliant, innovative -- dare I say...extreme? -- way of adding flavor to a session beer without overwhelming it.
• And they clearly have a sense of humor: the dark mild is named "Commercial Suicide Dark Mild."

So I'd like to take this opportunity to invite those of you in the Austin area to go out for Jester King's grand opening on Saturday the 29th of January, 1-9:00, for food, live music (in their large beer hall, and what would an Austin opening be without live music?), and lots of session-strength beer. Mind you, they've got their 10% Black Metal imperial stout, too!

The Diamond ups the ante

David Pollack started The Diamond in Brooklyn a couple years back with the idea of doing a wine and beer-only bar/restaurant that featured session beers. We talked, it was good, until...he went to try to execute the SBP idea of 4.5% and under, and found that there were nowhere near enough of such beers available -- tasty, interesting session beers -- to pull it off. Grudgingly, he upped his limit to 5%, and still had add stronger beers to round things out.

Well, okay. You do what you can, and I loved the idea, and put him on the SBP "At The Table" list over to the right. He's got an SBP sticker on the door, too!

Last Monday, Dave was in Philly on a scouting mission, and we met up at Memphis for an early dinner and a couple pints (session-strength, natch). He told me that he'd managed to bring together enough beers for a "Session Obsession" event tomorrow: beautiful!

He just sent me the event announcement:

10/23, Saturday, 3pm, Session Obsession

• 10 killer beers all under 4.5% abv
• Many beers making their NYC debut
• Stuffed cabbage, spaetzle, and pretzels
• Real Pennsylvania ring toss tourney for free bar tab (yeah!)

We’re obsessed and possessed to find fantastic beers with relatively moderate alcoholic content.  It seems an ironic thing to promote in a craft brewing world that often equates quality with strength.  But, look closely at these Diamond featured brews and you will find some of the most challenging, exciting, and rewarding beer being made.  As a matter of fact, if you are in for the long haul playing quoits in our yard all day, they might be just the ticket to keep you going!

All this, and quoits too? Damn me, why am I going to Boston?! Oh, right, to see my son. See you next time, Dave!

Still More Session Beer Notice

One of the first session beer posts I made, back in February of 2007 (I was so prescient...), was a re-post of action steps for session beer suggested by Stan Hieronymus. Take a look.

Now take a look at this: "When You're Having More Than One", in the San Francisco Bay Guardian, by Tim Redmond. I'll cut to the somewhat buried lede:

I've taken quite an interest in session beers — craft brews with an ABV (alcohol by volume) level of less than 4.5 percent. You can drink a session beer at lunch and still go back to work. You can drink a couple-three after work and not be too blotto to make dinner and put the kids to bed.

Ah... I'm well-pleased. More and more folks are picking up on the 4.5% and under number, and that's good. It's kind of like the speed limit: you know where you're supposed to be, and you're going to push a few mph over, so it's good to have it a little under where people should actually be driving. If we had given in and said 5%, sooner or later we'd have 6% beers people were calling session beers...kind of like you still see people doing on BeerAdvocate and west coast beer blogs. I'll stick with the 4.5%, thanks.

Is this victory, triumph, success? No. It's another step, another notch along the way. We're getting there; time to celebrate with a few rounds...and then get back to work!

Session Beer Boosted in Asheville

Asheville, North Carolina, has quickly developed a well-deserved reputation as a beer town of note; it has sprouted cluster of top-notch breweries, beer bars, and beer stores. But as Mountain Xpress blogger Justin Farrar points out here, they still have a ways to go on session beer (as most American beer towns do). Well-done piece that quotes both Notch brewer Chris Lohring and yours truly (they've got the SBP definition in there, and Justin's behind it; great to see).

Check it out, and then take a look at his list of session beers in Asheville. This is where Justin took the SBP definition and put it in the face of big-beer geeks:

I employed the guidelines recently established by longtime beer journalist Lew Bryson.
1) 4.5 percent alcohol by volume or less.
2) Flavorful enough to be interesting.
3) Balanced enough for multiple pints.
4) Conducive to conversation.
5) Reasonably priced.
There are more than a few beer fanatics, as well as industry-types, who are right now reading this and bristling at guideline no. 1. Way too low, they firmly believe; the ceiling for alcohol by volume (ABV) should be 5.0 percent, not 4.5. That is, in fact, the more popular number when defining session beer. However, at a time when inflated ABV-levels are all the rage in the craft-beer industry, I’ve noticed that ceiling has become taller and taller. Over the last month I’ve had two beers with ABV-levels of 5.4 and 5.5, respectively; both times my servers described them as session. So yeah, it’s best if we err on the side of caution these days.

Well-put, Justin. Time to get more militant about this.

More Session Beer Love

BevX has a new piece up on session beers. Thanks, Sean, welcome aboard!

Great session beer coverage in DRAFT magazine!

Zak Stambor interviewed me a while back for a piece on session beers for DRAFT magazine, and the article's out and available online. It's a good piece, and has links to SBP, but the great thing is that it covers session beer in a national beer mag, quotes folks from two exceptional brewers (Greg Hall of Goose Island and Tom Kehoe of Yards) that both have session beers as strong-selling year-round beers, and Stambor doesn't feel the need to take Maxim-style shots at session beer as being weak or unmanly. Thanks for that, Zak.

It's a good piece. Go read it, and send it to your friends.

"Part of a growing trend in craft brewing..."

Session beer continues to get more press: whether it's because of any push from the SBP or not, it's a good thing. Today's Inquirer had another of food critic Craig LaBan's short beer reviews in the "Drink" featurette: Yards Brawler.

One might expect a "pugilist style ale" to pack a knock-out punch, but the Brawler, the latest hit brew from Yards, scores points like a crafty lightweight with distinctive style and malty finesse.

The Brawler is a "session" ale, a relatively low-alcohol approach (about 4 percent) that's part of a growing trend in craft brewing to counter the high-octane extreme beer movement. It doesn't sacrifice flavor, though, with a malt-forward amber richness that won't cloy or weigh you down after a few rounds (thus the name.)

You bet, brother. A growing trend indeed. More and more session beers are hitting the taps, and they are no longer afraid to flaunt their low alcohol status. The hard-core geekerie may still be calling for big beers -- and I don't mind 'em at all! -- but finally, session beers are getting some attention. That's what I said I wanted over two years ago...and it's happening.

More press for Session Beer

I just got interviewed for a piece on High-ABV vs. Session Beer for the Philadelphia Weekly, part of their Philly Beer Week coverage. Like I keep saying, this is the Year of Session Beer. No way this story would have even been thought of two years ago. We need to keep talking it up. Thanks to the Philly-area brewers who are backing SBP up with great beers!

More Support

Another blogger has posted in support of the SBP. He's getting it, thought I'd rather see session beers at bars first.

For almost a year, I’ve been saying how much I’d like to see a Seattle session beer festival. All the festivals here are packed with double this, imperial that, with everything at 7% ABV or higher. There are always a few solid, lower alcohol options, but those are in the minority. How cool would it be to go to a beer fest and have 20 samples (hopefully most of which were flavorful and interesting), and come away with nothing more than a slight buzz?
...
So I’m carrying the flag for Bryson’s cause here in the Pacific Northwest. Maybe we can get local brewers to consider making styles we don’t normally see in these parts: milds, bitters, a variety of lagers, etc. Who knows? If this movement gains momentum, maybe Seattle Session Fest will become a reality.

Okay, I'll admit it, I'd like to go to a session fest again too. It's so good to drink for two or three hours and not get all polluted!

Another Country Heard From

The ball is rolling. Joe Stange at Thirsty Pilgrim, an American blogging about beer while living in Brussels (the dog!), has posted this about Belgian session beers. Most American beer geeks don't realize it, but Belgium has just as strong a session beer -- "table beer" -- tradition as their strong beer tradition. The UK gets it, the Czechs get it, Belgians get it...what more examples do you want, folks?