Another session beer piece, this time from Atlanta

Session beer continues to get good press. There's been a rush of it lately -- mostly good, some not so -- and this one's the latest. I was interviewed by Austin Ray, of the Creative Loafing 'alternative weekly,' a good, rambling interview which got condensed down to a couple solid quotes (about normal!) in the piece. Ray does a good job here; covers the 4.5/4.0% disagreement (he should; 4.0% partisan "D_I_N_G" lives in the area and has a bitter named for him!) and moves on, notes the locals, notes that it's more than local, and lets the brewers speak. One mistake: as most regular readers of the SBP know, Notch is all 4.5% and under beers. Still, one of the better session pieces.

Remember: to make this work, we have to keep talking, keep asking, and keep drinking. Support your session beer brewers!

Session Beer Day, April 7!

I suggested to the members of the small (but rapidly growing) Session Beer Project page on Facebook that we should make April 5th (4.5) or April 7th (Little Repeal Day, when 4.0% ABV beer became legal before repeal of the 18th Amendment) our day, Session Beer Day. We could ask for session beers at our favorite bars, and brewpubs, and suchlike, invite people to try them, gin up plenty of social media whoopee, and all dat.

We decided on April 7: there are a lot of photographs of a LOT of Americans happily drinking 4.0% beer we can use, it's a day the beer industry is already aware of, and...it's a Saturday this year (the day before Easter, which is actually kind of weird for me; I have a tradition of drinking big beers that afternoon), which doesn't hurt when you're planning a beer event!

What to do? If you work at a bar (or manage one, or own one), please consider throwing some under-4.5% beers on for April 7th, and making a special price or promotion for them. Tell folks it's Session Beer Day, and encourage them to see how good lower alcohol beers can be. (Good day to get a "We Support" window sticker, too!) If you're a brewer or wholesaler, encourage your accounts to pick up your under-4.5% beers for that day; it's a great chance to promote those beers! If you're a beer blogger/tweeter/writer, please consider spreading the word about Session Beer Day: use the hashtag #sessionday . And if you're a session beer drinker...get out there and ask for it!

Stout Day!

I posted over at my other, main blog about St. Patrick's Day, and while some of it's about whiskey, there's a good chunk about how this is a huge session beer day. People suck down dry Irish stouts of various manufacture -- mostly Guinness -- and they're almost all under 4.5%. It's a good day for session beer, and I should have done more to point that out. I have to think about this stuff!

Hmmm...maybe April 5th -- 4.5 -- as Session Beer Day?

Chris Lohring is Cool...and by extension....

I swear, it's not that I'm piling on with Chris Lohring and Notch Brewing. But about half an hour ago I got an email from The Daily Meal that Lohring made their "60 (Plus) Coolest People in Food & Drink" list. Okay, it's not a James Beard award, but when you're the ONLY brewer on the list (and yeah, I know Notch is contract, but Chris is definitely a brewer) and there are people like Sam and Greg and Garrett and Adam and The Bros and Dick out there...it's a definite tip o' the cap.

So congratulations to Chris, because what he's doing is cool, and he's being very cool about it -- just read the blog sometime -- and the write-up of his inclusion definitely gets it:

Low-alcohol, "sessionable" [there's That Word again...] beers may have everyone in the craft beer community buzzing right now, but back when Lohring started Notch Brewing that was certainly not the case. Frustrated by the oversaturation of high-alcohol craft beers on the market at the time, he went against the grain, developing a balanced, flavorful line of brews that check in at less than 4.5 percent alcohol by volume. An ahead-of-his-time guy who strove to make a better-tasting beer that you can drink more of without getting sloppy drunk? Definitely cool.

Chris: gonna steal some of your cool here. Not for myself, not for the SBP at all...but it would appear that if Chris and Notch are cool...session beer is cool.

Damn right it is! Keep it coming, people: ask your local bar to carry some good craft beer under 4.5%, ask your local brewpub to make one, and then drink them! If you don't ask, it may not happen...unless someone as cool as Chris Lohring comes along.

Session Cider, too

Woodchuck Cider is a huge seller. It's a big brand, and cider is growing. So it kind of tickles me to see them go to full-year production on Woodchuck Crisp, a 3.2% ABV cider they're calling America's first "Session Cider."

It is one of the driest ciders in the Woodchuck lineup.  Dry and delicate in body, it finishes with a delicious apple flavor. Crisp is 3.2% alcohol by volume (abv), yet retains taste complexity. 

They put the cider in their variety packs, and it was a hit, so they decided to go year-round. It is now available in major US markets.

And this footnote to why they were calling it "session cider" pleased me as well: we're definitely getting the message out there.

"A Session Beverage is described by longtime beer journalist Lew Bryson as being less than 4.5% ABV, flavorful enough to be interesting, yet balanced enough for multiple pints."

Logo Announcement

Well...it wasn't easy.

I'm not sure what I expected when I asked for logos, but the response was great. After evaluating all of them, and your comments, and my own tastes and preferences, I've finally decided to go with Steve Herberger's design, which you see posted here (in a version that incorporates a few post-choice tweaks: the color of the glass outlines and the lettering, a slightly deeper red). Steve gets the $50 honorarium and a firm handshake, and we get a common image: three beers, three different beers, and our tagline: "Thanks, I'll have another!"

Thanks to everyone who designed a potential logo for The Session Beer Project!

Errr... Anyone know how I go about copyrighting this image? Trademarking it? Whatever?

It comes down to a personal decision

The tagline run-off poll was too even to be effective, so I'm just going to make a decision. The number of logos submitted is at six, with one still being tweaked, so I think we'll have a decision there soon. And when that happens, we'll have a logo and a tagline, something we can think about making into coasters for events, and window stickers for participating bars and brewers, and shirts, and tattoos...temporary tattoos, of course: we're not extreme types.

Got two more logos since I posted this, so it ain't over yet!

Session beer in the Times

Forgot about this one: there was a piece in the New York Times last August about session beers. I do feel foolish about forgetting this one, because this quote, from well-known importer Don Feinberg, was what really re-kindled the session beer fire for me:

“A bunch of guys talk in the market,” said Don Feinberg, a founder of Brewery Ommegang in Cooperstown, N.Y., and an importer for Vanberg & DeWulf there. “We’ve all been saying the same thing for about 18 months now, which is, enough of the high octane.”

I was quoted briefly, but my main contribution to the piece was directing the writer to some of the other people she talked to. Which is just what I want to do with the Project. I want to help brewers, publicans, retailers, and beer drinkers get together over session beers. That's all. We can do it together: spread the word!

Is the End of Empire Near?

Okay, I doubt that the big imperial beers are going to disappear any time soon. But I do sense just the beginnings of a shift in the tides away from the big fat beers that keep getting crazier and crazier.

That's why I wrote this piece in Ale Street News, called "An End of Empire?" Here's the heart of it:

Big beers inevitably cost more, and as layoffs domino through the economy, there are fewer dedicated followers with the money to buy them. But still they get bought, because the hype on imperials is reaching into the mainstream, and trendy consumers are willing to pay wine prices for them – for now. One example: Samuel Adams Double Bock was about $8 for a six-pack, a very reasonable price. The new, bigger Imperial Double Bock, part of the Samuel Adams “Imperial Series,” is $10 – for a four-pack, an increase of 80 percent. Beer enthusiasts are getting vocal about prices they think are gouging them.
It isn’t just price, either. With the sale of A-B to InBev, craft brewers are thinking about how to capitalize on their status as true American-owned breweries, and it’s a snap that most Americans don’t want anything imperial. The most common complaint about craft beers is that they have “too much flavor.” Brewers are making the adjustment. Full Sail is doing well with its Session Lager, Harpoon’s booming along with their American hefe, UFO. They’re smelling opportunity, and it’s not in another small-batch, high-end imperial whatzit.
Beer drinkers may be sensing it, too. Here in Philly, Tom “Heavyweight” Baker’s new brewpub, Earth Bread + Brewery, is successfully selling two out of four taps at under 4%, and Yards Brawler, at 4.2%, is seeing a lot of interest and attention. Scott Smith’s East End Brewing in Pittsburgh has a line of Session Ales that have been consistent sell-outs, interesting and drinkable. It’s quiet — no dance music — but it’s happening.

We'll see what happens. I just got word of a major session beer event...and I don't think it's going to be the only one this year.

Smallville: another article on session beers

There's another article online about session beers, in Imbibe magazine. I'm quoted in it, but it was written by Adem Tepedelen, who I was fortunate enough to meet in Denver last fall when we both won Michael Jackson Beer Journalism awards. Adem's a good writer and a nice guy, and he did a great piece here. Take a look.

SBP on Facebook

I've created a Session Beer Project page on Facebook. If you do that thing, have a look. It's all about spreading the word. Do what you can.