Session Beers

As craft brewers dabble with stronger recipes craft beer lovers often find themselves using the alcohol content of a beer as an indication of its quality and if we’re being honest it’s not without merit. Utah is a state that imposes unusually arbitrary liquor laws that go to great lengths to weaken the strength of alcoholic beverages. These laws affect the drinks you order in a bar as well as the beverages you can buy from a store. Sadly, these laws affect craft brewers as well which is unfortunate because Utah is a rugged state that attracts adventurous people…a perfect environment for brewers to dabble in exciting recipes.

I picked up a couple of six packs on a recent visit to Utah and found myself very unhappy with both a wheat beer and a pale ale offering. There was no body and the hop flavor was flat. I started reading the label and found that both beers came in at just 4% ABV. A high alcohol content doesn’t always mean a beer is better but a lower ABV will affect how much and what kind of malts make their way into the recipe. If a beer doesn’t pack enough malt then the brewer has to back off on the hops lest the beer become too acidic. I won't name these companies because I fear that the reason their beer falls short of my standards is because Utah is run by religiots who don't know when to tend to the plank in their own eyes.

Brewing is pretty complicated. A beer can be very heavy and still be low in alcohol but it’s going to be on the sweet side. Beer is made from grain and grain is composed of carbohydrates which are just complex sugars. In the fermentation process a special bacteria consumes the sugars and produces alcohol. That takes some of the sweetness out of the beer and the alcohol leaves behind a bit of a bite. It’s not really a flavor so much as it is a sensation of warmth, however the manner in which alcohol reacts with your senses as well as the remaining compounds in beer is a major factor in the beer drinking experience. Too much alcohol, however, can overwhelm the subtle flavors of beer making it more astringent.

The better pale ales tend to clock in at 6% ABV with IPAs cresting 7%. This isn’t necessarily a hard and fast rule as exceptions always abound but if you see an IPA with an ABV below 6% you’re probably going to be disappointed and if you encounter a beer with a double digit ABV it's probably going to seem more like a barley wine regardless of what the brewer calls it. Rogue's Imperial Pilsner is a great beer but it's a cruel joke to play on somebody who is still impressed with Urquell.

This is why “lite” beers have such little flavor and some of them actually have a metallic aftertaste. That’s not the can, my man, that’s what happens when hops don’t have enough malt to play with. The hops and the alcohol combine to form flavors reminiscent of iron, copper or, in some rare cases, blood. That’s why “lite” beers are always served so cold while the craft brewers beg you to enjoy your beer at a more flavor friendly temperature.

But that doesn’t mean that there isn’t a place for beers that have a lower ABV. The British were particularly fond of “session” beers which were brewed to be consumed in larger quantities. Because of suspect water quality, Europeans were forced to use alcoholic beverages as a means to quench thirst. Wine drinkers are familiar with the notion of “patio” wines. These are lighter, fruitier wines served cold on hot days. They aren’t intended to be served with dinner or as an aperitif but rather as a thirst quencher.

The same is true of beers. The very first Pilsner was created as an alternative to water just as session beers, such as Extra Special Bitters were just an ale answer to the thirst problem.
And before we get too nostalgic let’s be honest: early beers weren’t very good. Aside from a handful of monks in Belgium aspiring to make champagne from grain, most beers were strictly functional. They were either designed to get you drunk or quench your thirst without the inconvenience of dysentery. Taste was of little concern.

Session beers were popular because they were a healthier alternative to well water. As water treatment plants made water safe to drink brewers had to improve the flavor and quality of those session beers to maintain a market for them. That’s really where Extra Special Bitters (ESBs) came about. These are lighter ales that have enough bitterness to impart a dry finish.

Now it’s important to note that while Britain was cranking out barrel after barrel of these so-called ESBs, Germans, Czechs and Slavs were brewing filtered lagers like the ubiquitous Pilsner and the similar Dortmunder. The dry bitterness of the hops cleansed the palette and had a refreshing quality. Today these beers are enjoyed for that crispness but originally they were very basic beers with utilitarian aspirations.

Because lager yeast is bottom fermenting and does its job in cooler temperatures it can produce a lighter beer with more clarity. That’s why Pilsner-inspired lagers became so popular in the US after larger concentrations of German immigrants began to populate the Midwest. With access to plenty of grain and fresh water, German brewers were able to introduce a whiskey-drinking country to beer. Prior to the German invasion people were subjected to rudimentary brews like steam beer. Ales were produced in limited quantities but major brewing operations weren’t undertaken until Germans brought their lagering techniques in from afar.

Craft brewers tend to specialize in ales. The reason is because ale yeast is can tolerate warmer temperatures and ale yeast is a little more forgiving when it comes to fermenting more aggressive recipes. Craft brewers love to delve into the history of beer and seek out old recipes that were forgotten once the world began its infatuation with the year-long consumption of the bastardized Pilsners relentlessly brewed by the major brewing companies.

Craft Brewers embrace the old concept of seasonal brewing. Winter is the time for big barley wines and winter warmers served at cellar temperatures. Imperial stouts and robust porters can be enjoyed from early fall to early spring and you can’t go wrong with a hoppy pale ale but when it’s really hot and you aren’t ready to call it a day it’s hard to beat a cold Pilsner. Or a session bitter. Rather than surrender the summer to light lagers, craft brewers have revised some of the old ESB recipes and now offer a traditional session beer as a counterpart to the ever popular golden lager.

What’s important to remember with ESBs is that, like Pilsners, they aren’t designed to be exceptionally bitter but rather just clean enough to have a dry, thirst-quenching finish. They aren’t supposed to be aggressive or filling. Often, when beer drinkers sample an ESB they expect to be hit with a burlap sack full of hops. That’s a mistake. This beer isn’t heavy enough to handle the acidity of an abundance of hops.

Great Lakes Brewing Company does a fantastic job answering the call with its Moondog ESB. This is a traditional light ale with British sensibilities that takes its name from Alan Freed who coined the term Rock and Roll and organized the first Rock concert, the Moondog Coronation Ball in 1952. Moon Dog ESB is a 5% ABV beer with a light rusty golden color and a crisp hoppy flavor. It might be a little darker than your traditional British bitter but that color doesn’t come at the expense of imparting too much sweetness or an unbalanced nuttiness you’d expect from toasted barley malt.

You can’t compare this to an IPA which is what a lot of reviewers do. ESBs aren’t brewed to go toe to toe with big ales so hopheads are going to find this beer a little on the wimpy side. However, when compared to a Pilsner or any of the mega-brewed American lagers being peddled in the latest add campaigns Moondog reigns supreme. It brings a little ale nuance to a segment of the market previously dominated by sterile lagers.

Sadly, most people can’t get past the name ESB. Great Lakes tries to educate the consumer with a description on the packaging but the average beer drinker who would find this beer very appealing won’t dare to try it. They’ll stick with the mass-marketed swill. Even if they’re convinced to sample Moondog by a hophead friend they’ll still allow perception to get in the way of enjoying a true-to-form session beer.

Moondog ESB is proof that you can tone down the ABV and still have a great beer. It’s the kind of beer you want to drink while you play softball or horseshoes this summer. You don’t sacrifice flavor and you can still plow through the better part of a twelve pack (over the course of a day, I hope) without the pounding head and lost chunks of time.

I’d like to mention two things in closing. First, there could be some different points of view on the history of beer. I’m not a historian and can only convey facts as they have been presented to me over time. So feel free to offer some thoughts but remember: you’re not my professor and this wasn’t a thesis. Second, I don’t have a problem with lagers per se, it’s just that most lagers tend to be exceptionally clean. For some people that’s a good thing. Beer God, Michael Jackson once opined that lagers are like white wines while ales are like reds. I don’t know how accurate that is because I’ve had both white wines and lagers that have a lot of character but it’s probably the best way to quantify the difference to a newbie.

There are lagers I like and I’ve had some really tasty Pilsners. Some of the craft brewers are really starting to push the envelope with lagers and the conventions that compelled Michael Jackson to compare lagers to white wines are starting to fade. Still, like Mike, I skew toward the ales. I like my bread crusty, my cheese smelly and my mustard spicy so it stands to reason that I like my beer with some hair on it. It’s just an opinion, take it for what it’s worth.