The guys at beeradvocate.com say some beers make a good session beer.
Is that just beer geek talk for a lot of drinking?

To all you real beer connoisseurs/geeks, when you drink a lot of beer
at one time, do you sample like 10 different beers or stick to one
particular type? Our taste buds are supposed to be tired after only a
few beers, do you all agree?

I never stick to one particular type, but then again I don't drink 10
beers in a session. Not only would that cost a fortune when paying
around $5.00 a bottle but I don't think I would enjoy the last 5.

Now, a session BEER is just one that is lower in alcohol and easily
quaffable. One you don't have to pay too much attention to, but still
tasty. Still, drinking 10 would be a heck of a lot. Of course sometimes
on trips to Denver I find myself drinking 7 or 8 beers but that is
spread out over just as many hours (and sometimes just as many brewpubs
/ breweries).

_Randal

I never stick to one particular type, but then again I don't drink 10
beers in a session. Not only would that cost a fortune when paying
around $5.00 a bottle but I don't think I would enjoy the last 5.

Now, a session BEER is just one that is lower in alcohol and easily
quaffable. One you don't have to pay too much attention to, but still
tasty. Still, drinking 10 would be a heck of a lot. Of course sometimes
on trips to Denver I find myself drinking 7 or 8 beers but that is
spread out over just as many hours (and sometimes just as many brewpubs
/ breweries).

_Randal

> wrote in message
oups.com...

> The guys at beeradvocate.com say some beers make a good session beer.
> Is that just beer geek talk for a lot of drinking?

No, not really. The idea of a session beer is that you can spend an evening
out and not have to worry about getting ****ed even if you drink a few
beers. So, that means that a good session beer is going to be lower in
alcohol while still being very tasty and enjoyable.

Not many American brewers brew good session beers. The Brits are quite good
at it, however.

>
> To all you real beer connoisseurs/geeks, when you drink a lot of beer
> at one time, do you sample like 10 different beers or stick to one
> particular type?

It all depends on where I'm drinking, why I'm drinking and whether I'm in a
mood to stick with a favorite or to try out as much as I can. Some of my
most enjoyable pub visits have been to places that serve literally one beer,
and some of my favorite visits have consisted of drinking a different beer
each round.

> Our taste buds are supposed to be tired after only a
> few beers, do you all agree?

Not necessarily. It all depends on what you're subjecting your taste buds
to. Some beers are going to kill your palate pretty damn quickly. Some are
subtle enough that they're about as palate-damaging as water.

-Steve

> The guys at beeradvocate.com say some beers make a good session beer.
> Is that just beer geek talk for a lot of drinking?
>
Not at all.

I *think* the phrase MAY have originated not from the beer-geekery lexicon,
but rather from Irish and Scottish pubs where music "seisuns" (that's the
Gaelic, which may have come from the Latin "sessio" or "sedere", to sit)
carried on the music traditions. I believe the English-language "sessions"
predated the use for "jam sessions" that jazz musicians developed.

A musician who drinks mild beer can play competently all night. A musician
who drinks harder stuff starts playing incompetently. Simple as that.
(Spoken by a participant in many a Guinness-fueled session in a Baltimore
Irish pub.......)

On Thu, 21 Apr 2005 wrote:

> The guys at beeradvocate.com say some beers make a good session beer.
> Is that just beer geek talk for a lot of drinking?
>
> To all you real beer connoisseurs/geeks, when you drink a lot of beer
> at one time, do you sample like 10 different beers or stick to one
> particular type? Our taste buds are supposed to be tired after only a
> few beers, do you all agree?
>

I feel I can do pretty good samplings of 10+ beers if I'm drinking
smallish samples and not getting really drunk.
But in terms of your first question:
Given the choice is choosing one really good "session beer" for a long
session vs. drinking many different beers throughout the night, 95% of the
time I'd choose different beers.

a écrit :

>The guys at beeradvocate.com say some beers make a good session beer.
>Is that just beer geek talk for a lot of drinking?
>
>

No, it's a notion originated in the UK, where session beer is any tasty
beer that could be drunk during a whole session (ie. evening, or, more
likely, an hour or two between work and home, using the pub as a
"decompression chamber") at the pub without you being legless at the end
of it, or you feeling you've had too much (sickly feeling etc.)
A very similar idea of beers you can drink without getting neither bored
nor too drunk also exists in Germany and the Czech Republic, for instance.

It generally applies to beers that are not very spectacular in either
intensity, alcohol contents or bitterness units, but are well-balanced,
managing to be both tasty and easy-drinking.
A subtle art, which many non-british beer drinkers with palates trimmed
on US IPAs or Belgian strong ales have great trouble appreciating for
what they are and recognising as one of the highest forms of brewer's
skill.
That is 3 to 4 % ABV bitters and milds, preferably cask-conditioned,
served on handpump.

The term now tends to be tagged on to any easy-drinking beer, even at 8%
ABV, and I feel that may be a slightly misled use of the expression.

Cheers !

Laurent
--

Warning : you may encounter French language beyond this point.

- Grossier !
- Pléonaste !
(F'murrr)

Laurent Mousson, Berne, Switzerland