North Coast XXV Anniversary beer...is a 4% session beer

Sorry for the long silence; I was finishing a book, starting a new job, and getting through two massive events (WhiskyFest San Francisco and New York). I've been tweeting about the session beers I've had (@lewbryson), but haven't been able to post for a while. But this news brought me out of the hole:

North Coast Brewing, noted for big beers like Rasputin, Pranqster, and Stock Ale, has decided to celebrate their landmark 25th anniversary with a session beer! Here's the release, from BrewBound:

Fort Bragg, CA – In anticipation of long nights of celebration with the many friends we’ve made over the last 25 years, the brewers of North Coast have created a Belgian inspired session beer designed to promote a festive mood while minimizing the consequences of overindulgence.
Brewed with pale malts and fermented with the same yeast strain used to make Le Merle, our Twenty-fifth Anniversary Ale is sharp and spritzy with a delicious flowery, spicy dry-hop aroma. This limited offering (4% ABV) is available on tap at fine restaurants and drinking establishments. 750 ml bottles will be available at the Brewery Taproom and the Brewery Shop in Fort Bragg, California.

Add this to session beers being noted as one of three trends at the Great American Beer Festival this year,and the fact that I'm out tonight at a Pilsner Urquell event that celebrates and declares its session-strength nature (and drinkability), and you get more and more evidence of the acceptance of the session beer idea.

Once again: brewers, drinkers, marketers, please keep the meaning in "session beer" by using it only for beers at 4.5% and under. We got something going here, and it would be too bad to see it ruined by the same leveling as has hit "IPA," which these days apparently means nothing more than "with hops."

Meanwhile, over in BudMillerCoorsville...

You know how I know session beer is the smart new trend for craft brewers?

Because the big brewers are making higher ABV beers.

Check out this story in Ad Age. ABInBev and Miller Coors are betting big on boozier beers.

That appears to be part of the playbook for MillerCoors and Anheuser-Busch InBev, which have turned to pricier, higher-alcohol line extensions to recapture share from growing liquor brands. The latest entry: Miller Fortune, which will debut next year at 6.9% alcohol by volume with a marketing strategy aimed at luring millennial males during nighttime drinking occasions.

The brew, in the works for months, follows A-B InBev's recent launches of Bud Light Platinum and Budweiser Black Crown, which both check in at 6% ABV, compared with 4.2% for most light beers. The goal for brewers is to reach variety-seeking drinkers whose habits lead them to the liquor shelf and away from beers their fathers drank. 

(Can anyone tell me what the latest sales curves are like on Platinum? Thought I heard they sucked. Oh, here it is: "Not Even Justin Timberlake Can Save Bud Light Platinum")

Guys, guys, guys...People don't want beer with more alcohol. They want beer with more flavor. And Bud Light Platinum doesn't have beer flavor, it has added flavor, artificial flavor. Session beers have real flavor, and that's what people want. Good luck with the big beers; you're only about eight years behind the curve.

And the Beat Goes On...

Heard from a regular SBP reader recently (and not just any reader: Steven Herberger, the guy who designed our logo!) about something he heard at an industry celebration. I'll let him tell it.

Russ Klisch is a bit excited about this.

Was at a 25th Anniversary tasting for the Milwaukee micro Lakefront recently, and a question was asked of founder/owner Russ Klisch: What do you see as the next big thing in craft brewing?
"I think more sessionable, lower alcohol, but highly flavorful beers are what you'll see next.  We're planning a highly hopped beer with a low ABV." (Not verbatim, but the gist of his answer.)

To which I replied, "That's great to hear."

Yeah, I know: he said "sessionable," and that's verbo non grata around here, but it's the gist of what he said -- as Steven put it -- that's important! That's another solid craft brewing figure who's of the opinion that session beer is the hot trend. Of course, Lakefront's summer seasonal, Wisconsite, is already at 4.4%, so he's putting his malt where his mouth is.

And let me just tell you...there's a LOT more people going to drink (and buy, brewers...buy) session beers than there are ever going to be drinking sour beers, the beer that most alpha beer geeks would note as the hot trend.  Sours have their place, and they're trending, and I love 'em (especially now as the weather's heating up again), but it's a niche. Session beer could blow things wide open.

Return of the Mighty Mites Session Festival!

The West Coast is most definitely getting session beer, despite what you might think, given their predilection for big fat IPAs and DIPAs and such. Last year there was a big session fest in Portland called Mighty Mites, for instance...and this year, they're doing it again.

A week from tomorrow, August 18, it's the return of the Mighty Mites. You can get all the details here, at BrewBound, but here's a teaser:


PORTLAND, Ore. — In a world full of Double IPA’s and Imperial Stouts a hero will rise to stand up for the small, lighter, sessionable beers of equal flavor and tastiness.
Faster and tastier than a can of Silver Bullet, The Mighty Mites session beer fest is back for a sequel on Sunday August 18th as part of the Hawthorne Street Fair in front of famed bier bar Bazi Bierbrasserie.

Featuring beers that fall under the “Session” style category as defined by being 5% abv or below [I'll take what I can get...and check the ABVs below; most of the brewers get it.] The Mighty Mites presents a selection as varied as they are flavorful from single hopped IPA’s to tart refreshing Berliner-Weisse’s and Lagers and even a session Cider; our taplist has multiple Great American Beer Fest medal winning beers. These types of beers are perfect for quaffing multiple pints without filling yourself up or over indulging in alcohol and the Mighty Mites street party will make for a perfect summer respite as part of the Hawthorne Street Fair. As part of the annual fair The Mighty Mites will be the only beer garden on the street and the only full street closure on 32nd place just off Hawthorne marking the west side of where the street fair begins.

Partial Beer List:
Reverend Nat’s Hard Cider: “Session-Style Ciderkin”  Under 4% ABV.
Burnside Brewing: lowercase IPA - At 4.8% ABV and 50 IBU.
Green Flash: Citra Session IPA 4.5% ABV, 45 IBU
Eel River: Cali Pale Aromatic dry hopping with Simcoe and Citra hops, 4.8% and 38 IBUs.
Lompoc: Lompeizer  Brewed with Pilsner malt and 30% flaked rice.  4.5% ABV
10 Barrel: Swill  [Been hearing a LOT about this beer.] Grapefruit infused Berliner-Weisse with soda added. More beer and less soda than the traditional radler makes for a great summer beer. 4.5%.
10 Barrel: German Sparkle Party [Straight Berliner, an increasingly popular session style] 4%
Fort George: Devil’s Advocate  Made with 50 lbs of beets, 4 lbs of Blood orange puree, and just enough Citra hops to make this beer pleasantly layered; pours a deep rose color almost magenta with a bright pink head. 4.35%
Widmer: Portlander Weisse  3.4% ABV. Peach ginger and blackberry coriander syrups available.
Hop Valley: 541 Lager A crisp and refreshing American lager. 4.8%
Breakside: Session Brown A rich and full bodied English-style brown ale. SILVER MEDAL, 2012 GABF, ENGLISH-STYLE MILD, 4.0% ABV  14 IBU

Annnnnd....More good Session Beer Press, this time from Houston

Nice piece about session beer from Houston Press Food Blog, all about drinking session beers in the summer heat. There's a plug for the Session Beer Project, too, and while the writer (Nicholas L. Hall) says he tends to "edge toward lenience, keeping things under 5 percent," he then interrupts his hymn of praise to Founders All Day IPA -- at 4.7%, as noted below -- to drop this in: "If they could sneak the alcohol down a half percent or so, this beer would be nothing short of miraculous." So I think he's really with us in spirit!

More press, more beers...I'm starting to think that my work here is done.

More Good News About Notch

The deal means more of this stuff, too!

The first American beer company dedicated to brewing only session beers (to my knowledge, anyway), Notch Brewing, has signed a contract with Two Roads Brewing (a new brewery built to offer capacity to the new generation of contract/gypsy/whatever brewers) to ensure expanded, steady brewing capacity and canning capability. The story is here, on BrewBound.

Notch, which embraces the SBP's 4.5%-and-under definition of "session beer," has survived as a one-person contract brewer, and grown to 1200 bbls. in sales in its second year; owner Chris Lohring projects 2,000 barrels in 2013. He's hired his first full-time employee, former Narragansett marketing manager Zac Antczak. Zac did a fantastic job at Narragansett, and is already spreading Notch sales outside of the "beer geek" zone.

Well, you know? What can I say? This is fantastic news. Small, but fantastic. Add it to the news from Boulevard, Odell, Deschutes, Stone, and all the other brewers adding session beers, and we're looking definitely trending.

Drink small, drink good, drink session.

Be Nice

That, roughly, is me, adorning the "new beer window" at Tired Hands Brewing in Ardmore, PA. Jean Broillet IV, the owner/brewer, inspired by...something, named his latest beer, a session IPA (Jean makes a lot of hoppy beers (really wonderfully aromatically hoppy beers), a lot of session beers, and a lot of funky beers), Be Nice. It clocks in at 4.2%, and he describes it as a reddish session IPA. When someone -- rightly -- asked if that wasn't the same thing as a pale ale, he responded that it drinks like a DIPA, and he didn't think anyone would guess that it was as low in ABV as it is.

I guess I'm going to have to make the trip out to Ardmore and try this one. Only...not today, as I'm without a car. Maybe tomorrow. Maybe Friday. I mean, I don't see any way I can not have one (or four) of these, right?! Thanks, Jean, pretty cool!

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!

Let the Competition Begin!

Yeah, that post just below? Where I said I encouraged lower ABV competition to Founder's All Day IPA?





It's here! Regional powerhouse craft brewer Boulevard just announced their new Pop-Up Session IPA, and yes, it's at 4.2% ABV.

Haven't had this yet -- never been able to get on Boulevard's press samples list -- but it sounds good:

A blend of our base pale, Marris Otter, and amber malts creates a simple, yet adequate malt backbone that allows Mosaic, Cascade, Amarillo, Citra, and Centennial hops to shine with bright, fruity, citrus notes. 

Here we go! This is officially a hot category!

A Landmark...and an Issue: how hard-line do we need to be?

Session Beer? Or not?

On Friday, Brewbound reported that Michigan brewer Founders had acknowledged that the relatively new All Day IPA (one of the exploding number of so-called "session IPAs," well-noted here by Notch Brewing's Chris Lohring) introduced as a seasonal in March, had achieved year-round status and, by a solid margin, established itself as the brewery's best-selling beer. The Brewbound story said that:

Through the end of June, Founders had sold over 130,000 case equivalents (CE’S) of All Day IPA since March 1. Sales of its next best-selling beer, the year-round Centennial IPA, have only barely eclipsed 102,000 CE’s.

Well, boom! Founders CEO Mike Stevens expanded on that, saying that he expects All Day IPA to account for nearly 40% of the brewery's total production in 2014, that the folks at Founders "are looking at this brand as a category leader in the session ale category,” and, significantly, "even though it’s called ‘All Day,’ the most important words on that label are ‘session ale.’...It’s an underserved category and All Day isn’t taking away from what is really great about well-made craft beer.” The All Day label illo is now the opening illo on the Founders website, even.

Which is causing me some seriously mixed emotions. Because while I'm thoroughly excited that a brewery celebrated for its big beers -- Devil Dancer, Breakfast Stout, Dirty Bastard, Double Trouble -- brewed a lower-strength beer and found that it sold like mad... That beer is 4.7% ABV, just over the 4.5% ABV upper limit the Session Beer Project recognizes as "session beer." ARGH!
 
So do we celebrate? Or do we tear out our hair and weep and moan, because "session beer" is tagged on a 4.7%er? Do I say, "Oh, hell, it was just an arbitrary limit anyway...yeah, it's session beer, and WE WIN!" Is this the end of the session beer universe?

Well, no, it's not the end of the world, and no, I'm not going to tear out my hair. I already said that, here. And I'm going to celebrate a little bit, because of that "the most important words on that label are ‘session ale.’" quote. But yeah, I'm gonna hold the line on this. I'd rather see All Day IPA at 4.5% or less; sure, I would, if they're going to put "session ale" on the label. 

And I'm pretty sure we will see very successful beers at 4.5% and less, and fairly soon. If this IS as hot a category as Stevens seems to think it is -- and I think he's right, been thinking that for a while now -- other brewers are going to be jumping in -- and they are; as Lohring says, it's easier hop on a train than it is to build one -- and some of them are going to differentiate themselves by getting great flavor out of beers that are under 4.5%. And they're going to serve them in larger glasses, and they're going to price them lower (not because they're significantly cheaper to make, but they may see that as a marketing cost), and they're going to change craft beer. Really, I think there's a real chance of that.

So I'm not going to celebrate All Day IPA as a session beer -- though I'm happy to drink it -- but I'm going to take its success as a harbinger. And I'm going to encourage other brewers to kick its ass by making a beer that's just as good, just as interesting...and under 4.6%. I know they can do it; they
already are.

Drake's Alpha Session: Seasonal? WTF?!

Hey, I screwed up. Drake's sent me samples of their delicious Alpha Session, and I didn't realize that it was a May seasonal! First, my apologies to Drake's for not getting the review up while the beer was actually available (and a plea: what would it take to get this on the year-round rota?). And second, my apologies to you, the readers, for not getting the review up while the beer was actually available!

Here's what they have to say about it:

Drake’s Alpha Session – 3.8% ABV, 50 IBUs — Our hoppy session ale. Light and refreshing with 2-row barley, Maris Otter, and a touch of C-45 malts, but hopped up with classic West Coast hops and an ample dry-hop of Simcoe, Citra, and CTZ for intense flavors and aromas of pine, citrus, and grapefruit. We call it a NorCal Bitter. — Available in May on draft and in 4-packs of 12 oz bottles.

And here's what I have to say about it: yeah, all that. This is what I think some folks expected from Stone Levitation: light, crisp body; intensely pine/citrus PNW hop aroma; serious but not tongue-crushing bitterness. It is a "bitter," but it really delivers on the bitter. Still...I found it very easy to drink two of these, boom-boom, right in a row, without tongue fatigue: nicely done.

Now...about that year-round thing. If we commit to drinking it, will you commit to brewing it?!

 

Carton Digger: a salute to session beer innovation

One of the common complaints I hear about session beers is that they're all the same. 'I don't want another bitter/mild/golden!' people tell me (ignoring the fact that there still aren't a lot of milds out there on the American beer market...). On the other end of the spectrum, sometimes I think that myself when I see all the "session IPA" labels out there; everyone wants to take a 450 hp V8 and stuff it into the back of a VW.

Well...there's all that, and then there's the new Digger, from Carton Brewing in Atlantic Highlands, NJ. I'll let them tell you about it. I wanna try this!

Digger

Gose with Clams and Lemongrass
ABV: 4% | IBU: 20 | SRM: 2

"Sure, there are oyster stouts, but we are a clam town. Are there any clam beers?"
"Not that I've ever heard of."
"Stout wouldn't make sense. Let's make it super pale. We can lean on the stoniness of our water to show the clams."
"We could make it a Gose, the salt would help push the clam idea even further."
"Nice. How should we hop it?"
"Something very simple but pretty, like Green Bullet."
"Let's add something to the boil to make it more like a pot of steamed clams, something like lemongrass."
"Okay. So a simple Gose dressed up with Cherrystone clams with a touch of Green Bullet hops, tied together with lemongrass."
"It should be cool when it gets nice and hot in July, like a day at a clam shack in a shaker pint."
Drink Digger because that happened.

More Established Brewers Join the Session Wave: Odell Brewing creates Loose Leaf American Session Ale

That's right: Sam Adams, Bells, Deschutes, Stone, Goose Island, Boulevard, Victory...they've all got session beers. And now Odell has joined the movement with their new Loose Leaf American Session Ale.

"Loose Leaf was developed on the brewery’s five barrel pilot system. The Odell brewers wanted to create a beer that was lighter in color, lower in alcohol content, but also flavorful and distinct. The final recipe is crisp and balanced with lower IBU's and a bright hop aroma. At 4.5% ABV, it’s delicate and refreshingly drinkable with a clean finish."

It's available in bottles as part of their Montage 12-pack, and on draft in Old Chicago restaurants in Colorado. Go get some! 

(So...Sierra Nevada...feeling the urge yet? New Belgium? (sorry, Shift doesn't count at 5.0%) Redhook? Widmer?)

Session Beer Month in California!

Hats off to Drake's Brewing, Magnolia Pub, Mavericks, and the California Brewers Guild -- and Jay Brooks -- for ramming through Session Beer Month: this month, in California. It's loose, it's not overly organized, and it's mostly just brewers and drinkers saying that it is, without a big organized push behind it...perfect for session beer.

They've even come up with an interesting compromise on the ABV limit: 4.5% please...but up to 5% is being tagged as "extreme/imperial session beer." Well, look...that's okay, but I reserve the right to make fun of any brewer who isn't good enough to make a great-tasting beer that's 4.5% and under. Try harder next year!

I'm happy to repost the Manifesto for The Month, as writ by Kelsey Williams at Drake's (you know me, I'm manifesto-mad):

A Manifesto:

Beer lovers, we are in the midst of a revolution. We have thrown off the fetters of the fizzy yellows and clamored for change. To supplant the sameness, we sought and found the EXTREME. We now have Triple IPAs and World Wide Stouts, Bourbon Barrel Aged Imperials, Belgian Quads, and all manner of High Gravity beers stuffed with fruits, spices, malts, hops. We’ve reached for the outermost precipices of beer, and succeeded.

Yet, in our noble quest for more innovation and more experimentation we have flown past many classic, well-loved, craft beer styles that may have seemed, due to their modest alcohol contents, a little too close to the weak, yellow, fizz water we’d escaped.

We have left behind these beers of import, beers perfectly suited to a long conversation at the pub, a picnic at the park, a post-hike refreshment, or a mid-summer beach trip, and beers that one can happily imbibe over the course of a few hours and leave satisfied and still standing.

We call to you beer lovers. Do not disregard a well-made, flavorful Bitter, Mild, Scottish Ale, Dry Stout, or any other Session beer because you perceive a lower alcohol content as a sign of the weak and bland. Allow us to prove that these beers are worthy of consideration. They, just like the extreme beers, have their place in our fridges and on our local taps.

We declare the month of May for Session beers. Beers that need not be analyzed, dissected, sipped, or sniffed in abundance. Delicious beers that not only enhance a good conversation but can extend it through multiple rounds.

Raise a Pint. Raise a Few. Spread the word in May; Less is most certainly more.

Yes indeed. There's a Facebook page, and Kelsey is Tweeting at @SessionBeerMay (and you can always use the #sessionbeer hashtag).

Now get out there and have some fun!