Session series: Surly Bitter Brewer

I am a pretty big proponent of session beer. What is session beer you ask? I can't write it better than Lew Bryson, so I will give his definition:

For our purposes, 'session beer' is defined as a beer that is:

► 4.5% alcohol by volume or less
► flavorful enough to be interesting
► balanced enough for multiple pints
► conducive to conversation
► reasonably priced

I will also be the first to say that I love beer at both extremes. I really enjoy the newest barrel-aged, brett yeast added, aged on dollar bills, broken dreams, and the newest rarest hop strain you've never heard of before, but at the end of the day I enjoy a great pint of beer that I can have more than a few of and still function just fine. It may not sound like a tall order, but just getting a really flavorful beer at a lower ABV seems to be what we are moving away from, but many good examples fly under the radar simply because they are not at all hyped at all. Would you line up for hours on end for a brewers newest 4.5% limited session beer? Probably not.

A quick bit of background as well as to where the term "session beer" originates. The story I read the most is that during WWI workers could only go to the pub in two different "sessions" during the day. This could be before going to work, during your lunch break, or after work. During the war the price of beer was heavily regulated based the tax rate and current laws. The higher the ABV the more you paid for your pint. You could have a few beers during a "session" and still be fine. I've read other versions, but this is the one that comes up the most.

This beer comes to me from Surly Brewing in Minneapolis. I've been a big fan of their beers ever since I had my first furious in the can several years ago. This beer comes in at just 4.1% ABV. This is one of their seasonal beers that is only available between May and August. I think they should brew this beer all year long though.

The beer pours a nice hazy orange color with a decent sized head on the pour. The nose doesn't blast you in the face, but it has a solid aroma from the dry hopping leaves a citrus zest type smell. When the beer had warmed sufficiently I also got notes of the bready malt character. The flavor is perfect for this time of year with base flavors including the malty and bready notes, but also bitter floral notes that balance very nicely. This has the base of a solid English ESB, but uses the tasty American hops that I love. It is just so very refreshing. This beer at only 4.1% ABV has more complexity and flavor than many beers I've had with much more heft on it.

This is the kind of beer I want often. The price point was nice ($8.99 for a four pack of 16oz cans), easy drinking, great flavor, and hit the spot during the summer. I would order this often though if I saw it on tap around town just about any time of the year. I am hoping after Surly's big expansion they are getting ready to go through we may see this beer here one day and I won't have to rely on friends and the internet to get it. Well done Surly this was a real pleasure to drink.

Cheers!

Matt

In Search of a Great Session Beer

It is hard for me to write this because I am part of the problem in craft brewing. I will admit that I love big beers (i.e., Dark Lord, Founders KBS, Kate the Great) and I get caught up in the hype train of those high gravity behemoths that beer geeks love to trade away their first born to just try an ounce of what beer websites deem holy water. Over this summer though I have been having a very difficult time finding a great session beer that I want to come back to over and over again. My progression is steadily moving away from "big" beer and all I want most of the time is a really nice comfort beer.

I read a great website from Lew Bryson called The Session Beer Project. He nicely sums up session beer as this: "4.5% ABV or less, flavorful and balanced, conducive to conversation, and reasonably priced." There is no hard and fast rule to session beer, but I prefer the 4.5% ABV vs. 5.5% that seems to be the mark in American craft brew. It may not sound like much of a difference, but during a session I can personally feel a huge difference between these two ABV marks, and even going from 5.5% and 6.0% (FFF's Alpha King), there is a huge difference in how quickly you will be completely fuddled.

I remember my first great session beer. I was on vacation with my wife in England and I had a pint of Timothy Taylor's Ram Tam. It was a truly religious experience for me. I had never had a beer so low in ABV (4.3%) that packed in so much flavor. The explosion of caramel and chocolate malt and earth laden hops on the tongue with the beer's natural carbonation from the cask was brilliant. I had three that night, and I can still think back about that beer I had over two years ago and think about the complexity of that beer and how much I want another one.

So, this summer I've been trying to find a great lawnmower beer, BBQ beer, and soccer match beer, but I've come up short with most of my attempts. I can find plenty of 6 to 8% ABV IPA's that I love and drink often, but not a great deal under the 5% mark. I've had some truly great beer this summer, but nothing that was able to capture my attention like Ram Tam, and nothing that I could call my session beer that would hold me over during all seasons and most occassions. My current favorite session beer is Three Floyd's GumballHead. It comes in at 4.8% ABV, but since FFF's doesn't use any type of dating system, I only buy from my beer guy (Ben at Crown Liquors) when I know it is a fresh shipment from him, so I can't always get it when I want that beer. (I know it is over the 4.5% ABV we just talked about, but this is as close as I've gotten.) I am also a big fan of Sierra Nevada's Kellerweis. It also clocks in at 4.8% ABV.

This got me thinking about the American craft beer movement and what is happening (at least as I see it) in the beer industry. Bigger is better right now, and rarity breeds overly inflated demand for the beer. Some of the lower ABV beers I've had this summer have been from brewers that do tremendous business based on their "big beers," but many of their lower ABV beers have fallen flat on their face in my opinion (and we all know what opinions are like, right?). But I am really curious about something: Can some of these brewers even make a great session beer that falls below 5% abv and do it consistently? If a brewer makes a great session beer, I will continue to drink anything from them at least once and will put more of my beer dollars into them over the year vs. spending money buying a four pack or a bomber of their special release beer only one time a year.

Don't get me wrong here. I am not saying that I want big beer to go away or make this some competition of high gravity beer vs. session beer. There is plenty of room in the marketplace for both. I just want to see more of a focus from brewers on flavor-packed, low-ABV session beer. I would also like to see beer geeks get excited about a new session beer coming out from a brewer. The suggestions I get here from people I want to then review later with the Hoosier Beer Geeks.

So, after that long rambling message about nothing really, what are you thoughts? What is your favorite session beer? What would you like to see reviewed?