More Session beer coverage!

Thanks to Steven Herberger (who is also the designer of our nifty logo!) for sending this link to a story in last Friday's Chicago Tribune on "Session Beers: Easy drinking beers, yet still flavorful." The story mentions Revolution Brewing's Workingman's Mild, Metropolitan Krankshaft, and Two Brothers Long Haul Session Ale (great name for a session beer!), and here's the money quote:

"I'm a fan of less is more and balance," said Doug Hurst, Metropolitan brewer. "It's about subtlety rather than being hammered over the head."

Right on, brother Doug!

Steven and I were kind of curious, though...how do you do a story on session beers in Chicago and not mention Goose Island Honkers Ale? It's 4.2%, it's a good drinker, it's everywhere, it's Chicago-brewed... (I forgot to mention Goose Island's equally good Green Line; not just session-strength, but ecologically sustainable, too!) Is it the "not a craft brewer" artificial stigma? Is it "too big"? Is it too well-known? Dunno, but here's my suggestion to folks in Chicagoland: go get some of all of these beers, and let us know what you think?!

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!

Uncle Jack Asks A Question

What is "a session"? What's a "session beer"? How are the two related, if they are?

Jack Curtin, a fellow beer scribbler and a good friend, poses "A Question" that is getting some discussion. We love discussion about session beers! Have a look, join in.

A Virtual Session Beer Summit

Sean Ludford creates a "virtual summit" on session beer at his BevX site by quoting "James Murphy, proprietor of the famous Murphy’s Bleachers in Chicago, Aaron Zacharias, proprietor of The Bar on Buena and the Fountainhead in Chicago, and Lew Bryson, a great Beer & Whiskey writer, when Lew has something to say about Beer – you listen." Sean says quite a bit as well, and it's more proof that session beers are getting more attention.

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!

It's not just beer

Camper English writes about cocktails in San Francisco, and has a blog called Alcademics that at times is pure booze porn: check it out. Nice guy; I met him through WhiskyFest, and we shared a pleasant lunch at Tales of the Cocktail back in June in New Orleans. He wrote this piece on low-alcohol cocktails for the San Francisco Chronicle this past Sunday. Hey, session cocktails! We used to call them "long drinks." No, those are just the same old highballs with more mixer; these are true lower-alcohol drinks, using new ingredients and a wider range of flavors than SWEEEEEET and fruit and bitter.

Hey, again, it's all about choice, right? Right, and again...well, just read the comments. Haters, man. Did Camper say, "We're going to take away all the wonderful, delicious classic cocktails and replace them with these lower-alcohol drinks"? No, just that they make a nice choice to have, an alternative. You'd have thought he said "No more liquor, forever, not for you."

Come on, people! Why do you give a damn what other people drink? It's going to kill you to watch me drink a lower-alcohol drink...that you won't really be able to tell is lower in alcohol in the first place?

Sheesh.

The Notch: Success!

The Notch, a brand/project that has kind of become the poster child/test-case for the Session Beer Project, has apparently succeeded! Owner-creator Chris Lohring has posted the following at his blog:

Back in April I launched a limited Summer roll-out of Notch Session Ale with the hope of proving out a theory that session beer had a rightful, more visible place in the US craft beer scene. The goal was small – bring session beer back into the conversation – but success was uncertain. Was a session beer brand viable? Where it went beyond this summer was truly anyone’s guess.
Four months later, with Summer now in the review mirror, I am happy to announce that Notch is real. We passed the test.
What does this all mean? Wider availability of Notch in draft this October, and Notch bottles following this January. I’ll also have a few surprises along the way, and the one-off small batches will continue.
Availability will be spotty until mid-October, but hang in there, it will be worth the wait. Exciting times!

 "The goal was small -- bring session beer back into the conversation." Yup. That's all we're trying to do here, too. And this has succeeded -- like The Notch -- beyond anything I'd hoped for. Check out what my colleague in beer-writing Jay Brooks has to say here, for instance.
Cheers to The Notch: up Session!

Session Beer? That's G*y, Re*arded, Pointless, Hipster, Stupid...

Came across this thread on a skiing forum that started off a post I made here. Wow. Lots of hostility, lots of not getting it, and lots of dissing of the term "session beer." I've made it no secret that I'm not in love with the term, and will happily switch to another if I hear (or think up) a better one, but these guys really hate it. And think it's new, and faux-hipster, and just marketing, and "flavor of the month." Wow, no, guys. It's not schwag lager, either.

This is why I'm pushing so hard to define session beer, and encourage people to go with that definition, and why I'm so pleased to see that definition being quoted -- and debated! -- in newspapers, magazines, and on-line forums. Not only does it advance the cause and the image, it gets people talking...which is what this whole damned thing is about. Away we go...

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.

DSSM IV: Session Beer in Southern Oregon

K.M. Weaver continues his posts on session beers at The HopPress with the latest Desperately Seeking Session Beers post: Southern Oregon. Believe it or not, he found some session beers, deep in this double IPA territory. Have a look.

K.M. also notes Imbibe magazine's recent article on lower-alcohol wines, and sharply tags them for how not-so-low their lower-alcohol wines are:

The author picks a number of different varietals and styles that offer a lighter alternative to those hefty, New-World-y renditions that tend to push 15%+. These can be hard to pair with food or imbibe appropriately on a warm summer weekend. And many of the lighter suggestions were spot-on: German Rieslings at ~11%, Portuguese Vinho Verde similarly sized, Moscato D’Asti at 5.5%. But beyond that… The lowest ABV listing beyond those above is an 11.5% Syrah. The rest of the list is occupied by 13.5% Pinot Noir, Chenin Blancs, Gamays, etc. 

Well, hell. Vinho Verde, yeah. But 13.5% as "light" wine? I had a 12%er Thursday night (a slightly astringent but still pleasant Dolcetto d'Alba), but it's really only light in comparison to the 16% head-thumpers that seem to be taking over the shelves.

I guess we're not alone in not being able to pass up the big and the boozy. Allow me to quote myself:

Good God, MUST we be hit over the head by a beer to like it? Are we cartoon cavewomen??

That said, Imbibe also ran a list of 'best low alcohol beers' in the same issue (compiled by the knowledgeable and personable Adem Tepedelen), and you should check it out. He cheated and used a 5% top limit, but if that's what it takes to introduce more people to BridgePort's excellent Blue Heron Pale Ale, well, I can be flexible.

The Notch: my experiences

I've mentioned Chris Lohring's session beer concept here before: Notch is a planned brand of all session-strength beers. He's currently brewing test batches at Kennebunkport Brewing (where he brewed back in the 1990s before opening Tremont) and selling them in the Boston area. As some of you may know...my son's started at Boston University, so I've had a couple trips to Boston this summer, and got to try two of Chris's beers.

The first occasion, which led to the picture at right (that's Slowfest* co-founder Jim Stanton, Chris, me, and Slowfest founder Jeff Lawrence) at the Lower Depths, right on Commonwealth Ave after the first day of BU Orientation (Thomas was off getting acquainted, Cathy was off to the right, having some well-deserved quiet time with her beer). We were sampling the Notch Summer Session. It was light, just a bit hoppy, refreshing, and three-pint drinkable. Really, I know! (Afterwards, we rolled out and grabbed a Sazerac up the street at Eastern Standard, where we ran into about four BU deans...getting drinks and dinner. I like this school.)

The next time was when we dropped Thomas off this past weekend. After moving him in (fourth-floor walk-up...oy), it was time for lunch. Where to, I asked him. "How about Deep Ellum?" he said, making me feel so good about all the money we'd spent on his education! Not only did they have Notch Hoppy Session, they had it on cask! Man, that was excellent, and the way session ales should be: zippy bitterness and puffy hop aroma, with a great depth of character you can only taste in a low-alc beer when it's on cask: malt, esters, and bitterness rolling around and loving your tongue. I had another.

Notch works, and it's selling, too. As I would urge you with any session beer, please support them whenever you can -- assuming you find you like it. This is all about good session beer, after all; this is not like the early days of craft brewing where we bought it because we were supporting them, not supporting them because we liked it. But...I'm pretty sure you'll like Notch!


*Is this awesome, or what: Slowfest was(and will be again) a festival of local food and session beers.about killed me that I couldn't make it up there to attend. What a fantastic idea, and why can't we have this in Philly? Steve Mash, I'm looking at you, brother. You're the man to make this happen! Need help?


**Despite Chris wearing the shirt, and pimping SBP at every given opportunity, there is no financial link between The Notch and me. I may well end up doing some events with him at some time, but other than that? I just love promoting any kind of session beer, and Chris happens to agree with just about every tenet of SBP. It works.

DSSB III: Interview with Dan Carey of New Glarus

Ken Weaver departs from the standard in Desperately Seeking Session Beer this time around, with excellent results: he interviews New Glarus founder/brewmaster Dan Carey. Ken maybe bores in with the "session beer" angle too much -- particularly since Dan steadfastly resists the bait...mostly. But good points are made, and that's more than I've seen Dan talk in quite a while. Nice!

Good press: Session Beer getting more respect

Today's Google Alerts bring me news that interest in session beer is growing. A Web article on session beer at The Website Formerly Known as Chowhound showed up; I was interviewed for this one. Jordan Mackay (who is apparently one of the three Californians who don't like hops hops and MORE FREAKIN' HOPS RIGHT NOW) writes:

The problem is, drinking lots of beer isn’t as easy as it once was. In recent years, beer has gotten both stronger (higher in alcohol) and more flavorful. You can only drink one or two intense, hoppy beers such as IPAs before suffering from both tipsiness and palate fatigue. They also don’t really pair well with food. One antidote to this problem is Kölsch, which I wrote about recently. Another is session beer. In fact, the support for session beer is so enthusiastic that it’s at the point of transcending being just a brew and turning into a movement.

Oh, dear. A movement? That's going to piss off the big beer huggers even more. I did hear an interesting argument from Uncle Jack Curtin yesterday. "Session beer" is unnecessary, he said, explaining (I think...) that there's always some lower alcohol beer on tap. Keep in mind, Jack lives in southeastern PA, where thanks to Yards (Brawler) and Philadelphia Brewing (Kenzinger, Walt Wit) there is almost always something under 4.5% available on tap. And there's always Guinness. So Jack sez, you're crying about nothing, it's already there. And he doesn't like the term "session beer," either.

My response to his second point? Honestly, I'm not really nuts about it myself. But I don't care for the terms "gastropub" or "beer geek," either, and I'll be happy to switch to a new term if one that's better comes along...still waiting for that. His main point? I say, what's 'already there' isn't enough, even here in Philly (where we do pretty well, to be honest). I want a kaleidoscope of choices. I'm not talking about forcing it down people's throats, that's not how it works. I'm just talking about getting more people aware of it, and fostering some respect for it.

Which appears to be working, because in this piece about this weekend's World Beer Festival in Richmond, All About Beer editor Julie Johnson picks "Session beers" as one of five trends going on in beer right now (the others were more predictable: extreme/imperial, inventing a new style, soured beer, and barrel/bourbon-aging). Here's what she said:

"We've been infatuated with really strong beers, hoppy beers, beers aged in whiskey barrels, but a certain group of beer fans will say, 'What do I drink if I want more than one?' The term is a 'session beer.' That's the backbone of pub life: a good beer that you sit down with and that doesn't dominate the conversation. Craft brewers are trying something that was not in their nature: which is to dial it back, but to keep all the flavor and character that is part of the craft brew revolution.
"[Full Sail Session [Black] Lager is more full-flavored. It's a black lager that is lovely, full-flavored but not so heavy that you can't have a couple through the evening and enjoy the conversation."

Yes indeed. It's sweet to see this catching on. Makes me want to spend the afternoon on the deck drinking beer.

Shirts and stickers available, too!

By the way...I've put some shirts up on CafePress with the SBP logo. I wear mine, and one of these days, I want to do an event centered on them. For now, though...they just let people know you like to drink great-tasting beer in large quantities.

I also have a sticker available there for bars and brewers that want to display that they support session beers. It ain't the Good Housekeeping seal, but if you get one and put it up, let me know (and let me know why you got it!), and I'll put your link up here on the blog.