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.

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!

DSSB II: Valley Brew London Tavern Ale

Ken Weaver's next Desperately Seeking session Beer installment is up.

Collaborative Session Beer effort

Brewers are getting together to brew beers all over the country (just read about another one on Facebook this morning); why not beer bloggers? With that lame intro (coffee's just not doing it this morning...), let me introduce Desperately Seeking Session Beer, a project that's been started by blogger Ken Weaver (of The HopPress) who, you'll recall, wrote the piece I discussed here. Here's how Ken explained it to me (edited from an e-mail):

I'm planning to introduce some shorter, recurrent (and biweekly) themes into the column that will allow me to get a bit of breathing room from the larger-scope topical pieces I tend to focus on. One of these added elements will be a "Session Beer Spotlight" column, with a focus on West Coast beers. This is a topic about which we both feel pretty strongly about, and it seems like there might be some way to coordinate the effort on my end. I'm not sure what exact form this would take, but I could imagine something along the lines of a clarifying statement at the top of each column stating something like, "The Session Beer Spotlight is an auxiliary project to Lew Bryson's The Session Beer Project, serving to highlight session beer offerings from the West Coast and beyond" 

Which sounded great to me, and I told Ken so. He and I did a little bit of detail discussion, and I'll be posting each one of them here, as long as he maintains his interest. Might even prod me to do more. Yay.

Here's the first one, on a session beer from what might seem an unlikely source: Russian River Aud Blonde. It's a great post, too: not just tasting notes, he talks to Vinnie Cilurzo about how and why he's doing lower-ABV beers, and the reasons and techniques are quite interesting.

Cheers, Ken! Thanks, and welcome aboard!