Samuel Adams Belgian Session is a crisp, bright version of a traditional Belgian beer with fruity, slightly spicy flavors from the Belgian yeast. After many trial batches made from a finicky Belgian yeast, the brewers redefined the typical session beer style, using subtly sweet toffee and caramel notes from a blend of pale and honey malts to harmonize with the yeast's distinct fruity and spicy flavors. By definition, session beers contain no higher than 5% ABV (Belgian Session is 4.3%), allowing the drinker to enjoy multiple beers during a "session."
Okay, I'm not overjoyed about the "By definition" part, but you know, Jim Koch lives too close to BeerAdvocate's Alström brothers, so I'll cut him some slack...because you undoubtedly notice that while they quote the BeerAdvocate definition, the beer actually goes by the SBP definition you see over there to the right. Nicely done.
I'd give you a quick tasting note, but we're cleaning the oven right now, and all I can smell is burnt sugar and meat drippings, so I'll put that off and add it tomorrow. Meanwhile, as I said to Cathy when I pulled this out of the box and caught the name...we've moved the earth. Okay, we've moved American craft brewing. If Boston Beer makes a Samuel Adams label out of a type of beer you've been championing, that's a good day.
Next up: why session beer pisses off beer geeks.
