Originally published in the July/August 2005 issue of Zymurgy magazine
by Fred Eckhardt
In my e-mail in box was a short note on a beer forum to which I subscribe: “With an Imperial IPA available [in a bar]. who could possibly want a Vienna lager?” Succinct. to be sure. but not very practical.
Imperial brews are wonderful and available in such varieties and quantities as to make one believe that we are at the gates of the promised land. For the most part, “imperializing” a brew can be as simple as increasing the strength by doubling the grain bill or otherwise generating an alcohol content of 8 to 10 percent by volume. But in the case of some particular imperials one might also expect to find an exceedingly high hop content (70 to 140 IBU) as a substitute for some of the gravity, and/or as an enhancement for a standard style.
The craft brewing revolution has brought us everything we could have hoped for–everything, that is, except a beer of which we can have three or four pints at a sitting and still walk away.
The real problem, as I see it, is not whether we should enjoy these magnificent brews, but rather how will we get home after an evening of drinking them. A pint of imperial is fine, but what if one is spending an evening out with friends and will imbibe several pints over the course of two or three hours?
With the neo-Prohibitionists breathing down our necks, (MADD Mothers and such) and the religionists holding the fires of temperance to our feet, we are entering a period of outright persecution of drinkers. We need to protect ourselves and our industry.
One of my favorite old brewing texts describes the difference between “heavy” and “light” beer as 12.5° Plato (a density of 1.050). Less than 12.5-percent fermentables in the beer wort (OG) before adding yeast delivers “light,” while above that level gives us “heavy.” Light beer, therefore, has less than 5-percent alcohol by volume.
Color? Light beer can be very pale or as black as the blackest brew. In fact Guinness Draught is actually a light beer (a mild) at OG 10.3° Plato and 4.4-per cent ABV There’s no nationally available American beer quite like Guinness Draught, a nice dark, light beer found in a surprising number of American pubs. If you need a session beer with taste, try the Guinness Draught; never mind that it isn’t brewed in Ireland these days, and don’t mistake Guinness Extra Stout for Guinness Draught either.
The sad fact is that most craft brews in this country are actually “heavy.” We have very few “light” craft beers. Even the beers we call “session” are usually up in the 5- percent range, brewed from an extract of 12° Plato or 1.048 or higher. In Europe, much of the beer is “light” by these standards. The English, in particular, have a great reputation for weak (by our standards) beer. German vollbier (“full” beer) is not all that strong either. Many Germans prefer the friendlier and weaker shankbier or kellerbier.
Weak Sissy Beers
We have become obsessed with the idea that light beer must be tasteless, exceedingly pale and with a caloric count near that of water. At the same time we are taught to believe that any beer with less than 5-percent ABV is weak sissy beer. Hence the malt liquor phenomenon: weak sissy beer with plenty of alcohol.
The so-called “3.2” beer was promulgated in April 1933 and intended to allow Americans the joy of beer during what became the last eight months of Prohibition. That designation was not popular (but it should have been) because there were still severe limits on what Americans could drink in that time period. We wanted it all-beer, wine, hard liquor-and would settle for nothing less. The 3.2-percent alcohol by weight is actually 4-percent alcohol by volume. It was a good compromise for those eight months, but 13 years of Prohibition (actually 13 years, 10 months, 19 days, 17 hours and 32+ minutes) had changed the world for tired, boozeless Americans. The 3.2-beer would not carry the day for people like my stepfather, who not only wanted it all but was an active “pusher.” He regularly smuggled whiskey 60 miles down from Vancouver, Canada, to our hometown of Everett, Wash.
We have become acculturated to disdain 3.2 beer, which had been a great citizen beer in the years before Prohibition. Today, the 3.2 designation still brings scorn to the minds of Americans as it has come to mean inferior and wimpy That name carries a heavy onus to all of us. Worse, whatever name we give such beer, be it “mild,” “low alcohol” or even “session” is cursed in our minds. This is the enduring legacy of Prohibition. We have the beer, but we need a name for it that doesn’t scare Americans witless at its mere mention.
The British, in particular, have a great appreciation of such beers. British milds and bitters will, for the most part, be delicious and very enjoyable. In our country, Utah is the one state where beer in public houses is of 3.2-percent strength.
It is my belief that one of the reasons American “light” beer is so popular (probably even more popular than regular beer) is that Americans really do want a session beer; they just don’t want to admit it to themselves or to the world. We really want low alcohol beer and are willing to suffer low-calorie, tasteless swill to get it. “Light” beer averages just under 4-percent ABV Our people have been weaned on regular Bud/Miller at 4.7-percent ABV with almost no taste. Americans don’t expect taste in their beer. We have come, in fact, to prefer tasteless beer-a nation of folks who actually don’t like the taste of what passes for beer these days. I get this from young people all the time. They “love” Bud/Miller’s (lack of) taste, and don’t really want to change. They just want the effect-to hell with taste. When they’re on the streets and want “strong” beer they choose cheap malt liquor, which is merely strong “light” beer.
Our craft brewing industry needs to educate people to the joys of taste, the fun of drinking beer and ale. Our whole society is rushing pell-mell down the paths of non-taste. We still have coffee that tastes like lightly flavored water and hamburgers with flavor enhancers to bring out the hamburger factor. There’s Cheez Whiz with artificial cheese flavor and sugar-free soda pop that is more like flavored water than the wonderful flavors of yesteryear (root beer, ginger beer and vanilla soda from real spices and roots).
Did I mention bottled water? Bottled water is the ultimate in tasteless beverages. We buy a lot of it at something like $40 a gal lon, about the same price as good expen sive craft beer. It is a rare city, indeed, whose water is so bad that one actually needs to buy the bottled stuff. And, yes, I am aware that our president has declared that arsenic in water is OK; but fortunately there’s actually little of that out there.
Tastes Great, Less Filling
It is time to take a look at the “tasty” department of the light end of things. America does have some tasty session beers, and there are styles that are not to be taken lightly, even if they are light. All of the following brews are of 5-percent ABV or less. Here in Oregon, one of my favorite low-caliber beers is Mt. Hood Hogsback Oatmeal Stout, with a boisterous 14.6 Plato or 1.058 gravity, but with only 4.3-percent ABV Can you imagine how wonderful that beer tastes? All that body and barely noticeable alcohol content! Hog heaven for me, that’s for sure.
American-style wheat and/or rye ale seems to be the standard of the light end of craft brewing. Averaging 9.5 to 12.5° Plato, these brews have become “training wheels” of the craft brewing industry, especially those cloudy examples of this type, which have not been filtered. Their alcohol content is 3.5- to 5-percent ABV and they are a mainstay of our industry in recruiting new craft beer enthusiasts. I remember in 1985 when the Widmer Brothers here in Portland brought out their summer seasonal as an unfiltered brew at the request of a local pub owner. Now here was a beer that had only a bit more taste than Budweiser, but when a person held a glass of it in hand, it announced to the world that he or she had taken the giant step into the new beer revolution.
You could see that, because the beer was cloudy, not clear. The novice beer enthusiast was able to gain the benefits of a brave new world without suffering through the assertive taste of modem craft beer to get there. Moreover, the cloudy beer was an open invitation to take the next step: to actually try the same brewery’s regular beer, which most did sooner or later.
Lager beers have long been most popular with Americans, and we make some fine session lagers-with-taste. Samuel Adams Boston Lager is one such example. This beer starts at the light-heavy line of 12.5° Plato (1.050) and ends with 4.4-percent ABV and about 165 calories (per 12 ounces). It is widely distributed across the country and quite delicious, with rich taste and definitely noticeable hops. Sam Adams also has a decent light beer (Samuel Adams Light Lager) with similar color (amber), only 124 calories, modest body (1.7-percent beer extract, triple that of the industrial lagers) and a modest 3.8-percent alcohol! In a blind tasting with the parent beer, the Light comes off poorly as might be expected, but against the Bud/Coors/Miller mob it is great!
Session Beers: Easy Drinking Yet So Inviting
By Jeff Renner
American home and craft brewers make some of the world’s finest beers. But one type seems in short supply: session beer, a tasty, low gravity beer that allows, even invites, the quaffing of several pints without getting you slammed.
I was recently asked by another brewer, “Just what is a session beer!”This is a great question, and one that deserves to be discussed, like all matters of great import, over a few pints. Lacking that opportunity, I’ll make a quick stab at what a session beer should be for me.
If you were to do an Internet search for “session beer” paired with “Michael Jackson” or “Roger Protz,” you’d get a feel for what I think a session beer should be, because this is a distinctively British term.
When two or more Brits gather in their local for a session, they expect everyone to stand a round, or two or three. If four of them get together, they might end up drinking multiples of fours–that’s pints, each, at 568 milliliters.
So a session beer should be inviting, easy drinking, low in alcohol and non-satiating.
Miller Ute’s slogan “Tastes great, less filling,” is not a bad start, but light beer is not, to my mind, a session beer. It fails on the first criterion–it isn’t inviting.An inviting beer leaves a lingering flavor that invites another swallow.
This is related to easy drinking.A session beer has enough flavor to enjoy but not so much to be distracting. Every once in a while, you should stop after a swallow and say to yourself, “Damn, this is a good beer.” But you shouldn’t be tempted to meditate on it. You’ve got important things to talk about with your mates besides beer, even though beer may be one of the topics.
It should be interesting enough to not be boringly tiresome, but not so strong in flavor to fatigue your palate, either. It shouldn’t be served so cold that your taste buds are numbed.
A session beer should be moderate enough in body that it is not satiating, and should be low in carbonation so it doesn’t fill you up with gas.
Easy drinking is not enough, though. I remember, albeit somewhat hazily, at a picnic a wonderful keg of Reissdorf Kelsch that was perilously easy to drink. However, by the end of the afternoon, I felt like someone had stolen the bones in my legs.
A session beer should be low enough in alcohol to encourage conversation but not tangle your tongue. You should be able to stand up at the table and say, “This is my round.What’s yours!” and make it back from the bar holding four pints and not spill a drop on your shoes. Or at least not much. You should be able to still play a good game of darts or skittles or shove ha’penny.
At the end of the evening you should be able to walk home (it’s a local, remember?) without falling into the canal.You should wake the next moming from a refreshing night’s sleep feeling fine.
There is only one beer that fills all these criteria for me–British (or British-style) cask conditioned ordinary bitter.An ideal session beer for me would be a medium amber (for complexity) bitter of about 1 .037 original gravity (-3.7 percent ABV), hopped in the low to mid 30s and preferably dry-hopped.
The Brits pack a lot of flavor into a beer like this. Part of this is in the brewing and part of it is that it has low carbonation and is served at cellar temperature.
There are a few other beers that fit into this category–British mild, Irish stout, Scottish 60/- or 70/- ale, or German schankbier. But as for me, I’m a bitter man.
Jeff Renner has been a homebrewer for more than 30 years and is a founding mem ber of the Ann Arbor Brewers Guild.
Anchor Steam Beer is a widely distributed, well-made American brew, and one of my all-time favorites. This is a beer style we have come to call California Common beer. Anchor Steam is the progenitor (and the only current example) of that type. It, too, starts at OG 12.5° Plato (1.050) and ends at 4.7-percent ABV. There’s wonderful taste because the beer is a hybrid between lagers, which are cold fermented and aged, and ales. California Common beers are fermented by the same yeast, but at much warmer (65 to 68° F [18 to 20° CJ) ale temperatures. These aging temperatures promote faster changes from the action of the yeast, yielding a somewhat more assertive taste profile . The taste profile is powered by a fairly heavy unfermentable sugar count (3.4 percent). The same brewery also has Anchor Small Beer at under 3.5-percent ABV.
Another good hybrid style is altbier. Widmer Alt starts out at 11.5° Plato (1.046) and ends with 4.5-percent ABV. In this case, the yeast is warm-temperature top-fermenting at the same temperatures as the common beer, then aged longer at colder temperatures. Both of the above brews have rich taste and a smooth palate. In each case the hop and malt factors are quite noticeable. These are fine session beers.
English-style bitters, and some special bitters and pale ales, also meet these requirements. One of my favorites is from Pyramid of Seattle, Wash., Portland, Ore. and Berkeley, Calif. Their Pyramid Pale Ale has always been a favorite of mine. Starting at 11° Plato (1.044) and finishing with a nice 4.4-percent ABV, this fine ale beer packs a wonderful taste bundle to titillate one’s palate . In truth, what we really need is something even lighter, a brew more in the tradition of the great British milds.
If your local brewery does not have a session beer (less than 4.5-percent ABV) you must ask them: Why not? It is in their interest to have low caliber beer for those folks who’d like to drink the whole evening away, and not get smashed in the process.
Style Definition (BJCP)
Aroma: There should be some hop aroma although it may range from robust to barely noticeable . Malt aromatics should be notice able with mild to moderate fruitiness in keeping with the beer’s basic style (which may be any the brewer wishes).
Appearance: Medium gold to deepest black, should present an attractive head for mation on pouring, but in keeping with the beer’s basic style.
Flavor: The beer should be brewed prima rily to provide a good depth of well-bal anced flavor for the drinker. Tasteless beers should not be tolerated . The flavor should follow the beer’s basic style.
Mouthfeel : Medium light to medium body, carbonation in keeping with the beer’s basic style.
Comments: The object here is to encour age and allow the drinker to continue drink ing, while still remaining relatively sober and in control of his or her faculties for at least three to four glasses.
Ingredients: This beer can be made using either ale or lager yeast and any malt or hop bill or style the brewer chooses.The ingre dients should be in character with the style selected by the brewer.
Vital Statistics:
OG: 1 .030 to 1 .060
IBUs: any level the brewer desires FG: 1 .034 or less as necessary SRM:2 to 40
ABV:4.5% maximum
Commercial examples: Boddington’s Pub Draught, Guinness Draught, Belhaven 60/, Gales Festival Mild, Mt. Hood Hogsback Oatmeal Stout.Wasatch Irish Stout.Wasatch Polygamy Porter, Squatters East Kent Brown, Lucky Labrador Hawthorn’s Best Bitter, BJ’s Ivan’s Golden Ale.
Moreover, if your local brewery serves all of its beer in 16- to 22-ounce pounder glasses, that’s not very helpful either. Talk to the management and persuade them to offer a 10- or 12-ounce glass for folks who want to keep their intake down. Small glasses will actually make more profit per barrel for the innkeeper. I remember drinking altbier in old Dusseldorf, with tiny, austere 8-ounce glasses. They had to be refilled quite often, but each refill would remind the drinker about watching his or her intake.
The British entries at last year’s Great British Beer Festival were of great interest to me. Sadly, that country’s young drinkers are busy transferring affections from their own tasteful brews to the Bud/Coors/Miller group. Many of the pubs I visited had no draught milds at all, and those that did were likely to have the choice limited to only one brew.
The GBBF champion mild, Lee’s GB Mild, at 3.5-percent ABV and 22 IBU was quite enjoyable, as was Gales Festival Mild, 4.8 percent. The bottle won gold, and was a superb beer, rich and full bodied, well bal anced and dry. “Satiating” is what Michael Jackson called it. It has an excellent “come hither” effect, and I had the good fortune to start my beer and chocolate tutored tasting with the cask version. I found all of them quite enjoyable, as was the bitter category’s gold medal Greene King IPA, at 3.6 percent and 26 IBU. It was a wonderful bitter and quite delicious, but certainly not an IPA by anybody’s standards, even British, I would think. Yet the 26 IBU actually came across as pleasantly hoppy!
Both Jackson and Roger Protz (in tutored tastings) addressed the primary problem with present day British beer: brewers seek to make their beer ever more taste- and character-free (now where in the world did they get that idea? Imagine less flavor and character: surely not from Anheuser Busch!) Protz told us they should “make the beer with more character.” I second that idea, especially in the IPA department, of which many British brewers (and yes, drinkers) have no grasp whatsoever.
Fred Eckhardt drinks most any beer he can get his hands on in Portland, Ore., but he shuns all 116 of the “lite” ilk.
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