(Editors note: the chosen pic was the first that came up on a Google Image search for "binge drinking"...nice)
Okay, as the title indicates, this post will be focused on the term "session beer" and a slight distinction between three common social drinking endeavors (one of which relates to the term session beer, so bear with me). All I know is that I heard the term thrown around a bit and wanted to figure out exactly what it was defined as.
So you start with drinking culture, which essentially just encompasses whatever practices someone (or groups of people) engage in during the consumption of alcoholic beverages. Within drinking culture you can make several different distinctions, including (but not at all limited to): social drinking; session drinking; and the ever-popular binge drinking.
The main distinction between the above three drinking cultures hinges upon two things:
1.) Amount intended to be consumed and
2.) how intoxicated (i.e. blasted, tanked, plowed, eff'd up, etc) you intend on getting
Social drinking is just what it sounds like: getting together with a few friends and having a few (i.e. 1-3 probably) drinks with no intention of getting drunk. You have your drinks to celebrate/bury the hatchet/etc and you go your separate ways to live your lives until you see those people again.
Session drinking is a fabulous concept, and originally is credited to the British. Essentially, those engaging in a drinking "session" are seeking to get together with friends and drink for an extended period of time without getting drunk. You get together, enjoy your adult beverage of choice, and hang out for a while. At no point are you sloppy drunk, you get to drink lots of great tasting beer, and you don't have to worry about saying stupid shit and pissing people off...everyone wins!
Now, you might ask, but Hurls, all I drink is Sex on the Beach and Long Island Iced Teas...how can I engage in such a wonderful, even blissful, drinking session? My response is, well...you're probably screwed, so you should either a.) learn to like beer or b.) get ready to be sloppy, say stupid shit, and possibly end up friendless because of your stupid drunk talk (okay...I kid, I kid). But in reality, the term session drinking is built around the consumption of beer, so unless you're a beer drinker, you'll have to tone back the number you throw back or you'll ratchet up the amount you throw up. Which brings us to...
A session beer is typically a light bodied beer with high drinkability and an alcohol content of 4.0% - 5.1% ABV (in the U.S., though people have argued over this and it differs by countries). So, at this point you might be thinking, well my favorite session beer is Bud/Miller/Coors Light. NO, these are not session beers (IMHO) and here is why: a session beer is characterized by a good BALANCE between malts and hops with great taste. Now, I understand this is somewhat subjective: I don't think those beers have many defining taste characteristics, but I suppose you could make an argument because they are light bodied, highly drinkable (read: pound-able) and they fit the ABV profile. Fair enough.
Lastly, if you've been to college you may not know the definition of binge drinking, but you just know that you WERE binge drinking. Binge drinking is defined as, essentially, drinking alcohol solely for the purpose of getting drunk. To put this in context, repeat the following sentence with me, however it fits your experience: "in college, I engaged in binge drinking approximately (insert a number between 1 and 7) days a week." There you go, now you're all edu-ma-cated and whatnot on your drinking distinctions.
So, a few comments on closing: 1.) don't go throwing around these drinking distinctions (social/session/binge) into random social situations...you're not going to make any friends by informing people that if you have another 2 beers you might cross the line from social to session drinking...and if you go around telling people you want to binge drink on a consistent basis people will just think you're a drunk. 2.) Think about what types of beers you've had that you consider a good session beer - I'd love to hear 'em and see if I agree. Once you staple down a good line of session beers you are set, as you can always fall back on them and still keep it together while enjoying them. 3.) Enjoy and ruminate on the enlightening post you've just finished reading!
Cheers,
Hurls
First things first...I enjoy the blog, Pat, so keep writing.
ReplyDeleteSession drinking is my holy grail of drinking. And while I have been known to end up drunk at the end, it is rarely because I switch to full "binge" and mostly due to longevity. My premier accomplishment in this regard was splitting ~30 beers over the course of a day at the lake with a friend and then going out that night to finish the job. Neither of us had any idea how we did it. Perhaps the fact that it was Coors Light helped, but still...which brings us to your question. I have yet to find a single beer outside of the "domestic light" category that does not eventually affect my palate to the point where I have to switch back to dom light. I've tried any number of lagers and ales, foreign and domestic, but like it or not, nothing supports session drinking as well as a domestic light. Perhaps if I drank more water or had more food I would be better off, but at this point I've yet to find a good option. I'm open to suggestions, though.
Andy, thanks for the encouragement...glad to hear someone is enjoying it!
ReplyDeleteSecond, I totally hear you...the biggest obstacle is finding a beer that fits the profile. Obviously if you're going for extreme longevity (e.g. NASCAR pre-game and race or a lake weekend) you'll have to get closer to the 4% end of the spectrum. I don't know if you get Goose Island in the DC area but 312 Urban Wheat or Summertime Kolsch could probably do the trick. They are tastier than a domestic light and very drinkable. I think the best beer to do this is an American Pale Wheat Ale (on the lighter side, though...even a great beer like Gumballhead by Three Floyds won't do it because it's 5.5% ABV) or a Kolsch or Pilsner. Prima Pils by Victory Brewing Co (Pennsylvania brewery) is good, though I haven't reviewed it yet, but it's still 5.3% ABV. Also depends on what you define as a session - if you're doing 4 hours or so of steady drinking you would probably be OK, but if you're stretching it to 6+ hours then it wouldn't necessarily work. Food would obviously help. In-heat wheat is an OK beer from Flying dog that is like 4.2% I think, so you could try that since it's local (Fredick, MD), but it's not the best beer ever. Again, the real problem here is that most craft beers pride themselves on being higher ABV (average on the ones I've reviewed is about 6.75% right now, roughly), hence it's tough to find a good session beer. This is one of the reasons I was asking the question in the post...I've found it hard to find a good session beer (especially since I gravitate toward types of pale ales, which are typically 5.5 - 11 depending on what type). I would try to find a good Kolsch or very light American Pale Wheat Ale and see what you think (provided you like the taste of those beers); some pilsners may work too. What do you think?
my favorite Session is from Full Sail (yes I am a homer for anything from Oregon, but this is a good beer)
ReplyDeletehttp://www.fullsailbrewing.com/session.cfm