When we landed back in Philadelphia after our holiday, we grabbed a couple of seats at a bar and ordered food and beer. My beer was Yard's Philadelphia Pale Ale, a beer that I actually quite enjoy, but after 3 weeks of Happy Chappy, Skye Black, and Kelburn Dark Moor, it was just too fizzy for me.
On Sunday afternoon some friends of mine came into the bar at Starr Hill, having just returned from a few weeks touring round the south of England. Taking in the delights of London, the New Forest, and the Cotswolds, and reveling in the pleasures of....cask conditioned ales in the pub. As we chatted, my friend commented on how much more beer she drank while in the UK than she would normally, and while part of that is likely to have been a result of the lower gravity of many of the beers, she also said that the lack of excessive fizz meant she didn't feel bloated after a few pints, which got me wondering about session beer.
I love session beers, as pretty much anyone that knows me will tell you. I can think of no better way to while away several hours than being sat in the pub, drinking low alcohol, flavoursome beers. For me though, a session starts after the fourth pint, which can be tricky when the beer is north of 6% and much fizzier than something properly cask conditioned, and no, putting still fermenting beer in a firkin with a slew of weird shit doesn't count, you could call it 'casky' in juxtaposition to the real thing.
My thought then is this, are cask conditioned ales more conducive a session, because they don't fill you up with excessive CO2 to burp and fart out along the way? Perhaps an extra, admittedly optional, criteria is required for the definition of session beer? Less fizzy than standard beers.
I find the higher temperature of cask beers tends to make them less suitable as session beers, mainly because I'm a slow drinker in the first place.
ReplyDeleteI think I tend to agree with you Al. The Beer Nut and you and I are probably describing a "session" differently. Correct be if I'm wrong, but you and I would describe a session much as you did above when you say "For me though, a session starts after the fourth pint"
ReplyDeleteBN seems to be saying and he'll correct me too I'm sure, if I've got it wrong, that a session is a longer time out and a session beer is a beer that you drink in that longer time out. Are session and speed of drinking somehow related?
I suppose we now need to define session and session beer. Oh Gawd!