Sorry, but that's just silly

I love the guys at ShawneeCraft Brewing, I really do. The spot's cool, the logo's neat, and the idea of a co-op local support thing based on brewing is very cool. But this, from their website, is just silly (all emphasis added):

This is the trademarked image from ShawneeCraft's website. I reproduce it here as news, and will take it down if they simply ask.

There is no perfect consensus as to the definition of “Session Beer,” but beer drinkers can perhaps agree on the following: Session Beers are generally served on draft and average around 5% ABV or lower- so that you can drink multiple servings in a “session.” At ShawneeCraft we create Session Beers with the utmost respect for flavor and tradition but with only intermittent respect for the ABV conventions. Our Session Beers range in ABV from as low as 4.2% to as high as 7.2% and above, and are on draft at the Gem & Keystone and other selected establishments.

So you look at these draft offerings, and they're mostly just that: draft, as opposed to their "Heirloom Beers," which are usually bottled, but occasionally draft as well. They're mostly around 4.8%, which is too high for me. Still, I'm not going to call them out or anything on those, but... it's pretty simple that a 7.3% beer is not a session beer, and you can't fig-leaf that big swinging dick by saying "there is no perfect consensus as to the definition of 'Session Beer.'" Because even the YAAAA! EXTREME BEERS! guys at BeerAdvocate cap it out at 5%, and the DINGistas cap it out at 4%, and even Full Sail (who will, I'm guessing, likely be having something to say about that "TM" on "Session Beers") has their two at 5.1% and 5.3%. I retain hope that they'll eventually ratchet those down.

But be all "we're craft brewers so we do what we want" as much as you please, that's not going to make a 7.3% beer a session beer. It doesn't even fit in with the rest of your offerings in the line! So why not call them "Draft Beers" (and don't bother with the ™, "draft beer" ain't trademarkable and everyone knows it) and make more sense.

I'm not being a jerk. But if we don't set hard limits on this, it will soon mean nothing, and we'll have 6% session beers. If you're a brewer and don't want to put in the effort to make a great tasting beer at lower ABV, then just don't do it. And if you make a great-tasting beer at 7.3% -- which the ShawneeCraft Pumpkin Saison is, it's amazing -- why not just call it "Great-tasting Beer!" instead of trying to hop on the session beer bandwagon by calling your pig a parakeet.

"Sessionable"? Not here

I know, I know, I promised you a post about why session beer pisses off beer geeks -- and you'll get it -- but right now, another example of why beer geeks piss off The Session Beer Project. Take a look at this. Hopworks Urban Brewery in Portland, Oregon, has released a new beer for the start of Major League Soccer in town: Yellow Card Premier Ale. Allow me to quote (emphasis is all mine):

Just in time for the kickoff of the MLS season here in town, we made a sessionable English ale that will help you keep your eye on the ball and cheering for the Green!
Yellow Card is light-bodied, dry with subtle bread character featuring a crisp, mild and spicy hop bitterness. You can get it on tap and in growlers to-go at Hopworks Urban Brewery and Hopworks BikeBar.
This beer is made for the ultimate soccer fan. This one’s for you TA!
30 IBU and 5.2% ABV.

Yeah, that's 5.2% ABV. Let me reiterate: if your "session" beer is over 5%, what's the point? It's not "session beer" just because it's lower in alcohol than your double IPA. This is the flip-side of the growing acceptance of the idea that a flavorful lower-alcohol beer can be very enjoyable: "session" becomes a tag that reaches a market, rather than an idea that encompasses great beer at lower strength (for all-day drinking).

But maybe the sneakiest thing here is that the words "session beer" aren't even used. The beer is described as "sessionable." This is pure geek-speak, the snarly rebellion that "if I can drink four of them, that's sessionable!" This is sneaking into the session beer conversation, and yet...what does it mean? That a particular person will drink more than four of them? That doesn't mean much, and neither does this word.

No, really, it doesn't: you know how when you put a word followed by "definition" into Google, and fourteen competing "dictionaries" offer their definition? The only one that offers a definition for "sessionable" is the Urban Dictionary (and it's a reasonable one (!), and there's a very good definition at "session beer" too; the first one, that is). Merriam-Webster, my go-to for definitions? "The word you've entered isn't in the dictionary."

Therefore, I've made a decision: I'm not going to use the word "sessionable" anymore. It's become a weasel word, a dodge. I used it three times in past blog posts, and I've gone back and clarified those occasions, changing it to "session-strength." A small thing, but if this word's going to be misused, it's not going to be with my help.

Brewers? Step up. There are honest arguments over what ABV limits a session beer has -- 4.0%, my own 4.5%, BeerAdvocate's 5.0% -- but if you're over 5% and calling your beer "sessionable," sorry, you're just trying to latch onto the latest trend. And God help me, we worked too hard to make this a trend to let it be used...especially by craft brewers who should know better.

Mustang Brewing: gotta call you out, folks

Mustang Brewing has been out about two years now, but they've just come to my attention. They're Oklahoma-based contract brewers, and...well, here's their mission statement-ish manifesto from their website (emphasis added):

We created Mustang Brewing Company to make great, easy-drinking, session beers the people of Oklahoma can be proud to call their own. All our recipes are developed in our pilot facility in Oklahoma. We brew through partnerships with some of the country’s finest breweries. The end results are consistent, quality, craft beers that are full of flavor but light enough to enjoy. 

Sounds good, right? Our kinda place? Check the beers.

• Mustang Harvest Lager: 5.6% ABV.
• Mustang Amber Lager: 4.5% ABV.
• Mustang Washita Wheat: 5.3% ABV.
• Mustang Golden Ale: 5.3% ABV.

And the latest, Pawnee Pale Ale? Read what Mustang president Tim Schoelen said (at The Thirsty Beagle blog):

“Bringing the best of Old World East and New World West together is what makes Pawnee Pale a truly American-style pale ale. A tantalizing blend of German Perle and U.S. Pacific Northwest hops give this beer a moderate, citrus, hop quality. American, British, and caramel malts provide a rich maltiness not found in most pale ales. At 6% ABV and 42 IBU’s, Pawnee Pale is distinctly hopped, yet still carries that session beer quality you have come to expect from Mustang.”

Schoelen said Mustang has received many requests for an IPA, but struggled with how they could make one in the session beer range. Thus an American pale ale was the answer.

Actually, turns out that it isn't. When I see "6% ABV," I'm not thinking "session beer range." I'm thinking IPA, or bock, but not session. If 6% is a session beer, then 7.5% isn't strong beer? It's just...beer? The whole brewery seems to have this messed up: they want to be a session beer brewery, but four out of five beers are over 5%?

I'm not doing this to be a prick. Really. The last thing I want to see happen here is have it become all about a couple tenth-percentage points of ABV. Is your beer 4.7%, and you really want to call it a session? I'm not going to jump on you. I'm happy to encourage people who want to make session beers.

But. I see that the Session Beer Project is working, that people are talking more and more about session beers, that people are hating on session beers (sad, but at least we're talking!), that session beers are getting press...and that people are jumping on what they see as a bandwagon without really getting what it's all about. Not cool.

So I am going to say something, like I did about Full Sail's Session Lager. We're going to carve out an area here, an area where there's a real difference: lower alcohol beers with flavor. If the beer's over 5%...it's not lower alcohol. (Yeah, I know it's "lower alcohol" than a double IPA, but that's hardly the point.) I wanted to avoid this, but...I think it's time for a manifesto. Time to get militant.

Oh, and...enjoyed the hell out of the return of Milltown Mild at Victory last week -- took a growler home, and Cathy liked it, too; plenty of roasty malt in there -- and had a snappy Notch Hoppy Session at Redbones (great with the Arkansas ribs). And I got me a SBP hoody from CafePress (using that link up in the right-hand corner), and wore it all over Boston/Cambridge on Saturday: that baby is warm. Represent the Session Beer Project!

"People should not be confused about the name 'session.'"

First, before we get going, let me say: I love Full Sail, and I really love Jamie Emmerson. He is (like Ferris Bueller) a righteous dude, and a great interview, and he let me drink pretty much all the Old Boardhead I wanted when I visited the brewery.

That said, Full Sail's "Session Lager" and "Session Black" aren't doing me any favors. I love 'em, good lager beers (which 'Cascadia' needs more of), but the name! They're 5.5%! What's Jamie say about that? I'm tearing my hair about it:

The Session is an old-fashioned lager, based on German lagers. The Session Black, which is less than a year old, is a Czech-style dark lager. "The Session Black is the perfect ying to Session's yang," Emmerson said.
Emmerson said people should not be confused about the name "session." In beer geek language, session usually refers to a low-alcohol beer, usually less than 4 percent alcohol by volume. Both of these session beers are over 5 percent.
The Session actually refers to windsurfing sessions on the Columbia River, although Emmerson said, compared to other West Coast beers, the Session and Session Black are low alcohol.
"In the Northwest, that is a session beer," he said.

Right. Sure it is.

That's from an article in the Brockton, Mass. Enterprise News by Norman Miller ("The Beer Nut"), who, I can tell you, definitely knows his ass from his elbow about beer. And I don't envy him trying to explain this one. It's kind of like how Widmer's Hefeweizen...isn't a hefeweizen. Dear me.