Session Beers

A few weeks ago I wrote about Full Sail Brewery's Session lager. I quite liked it, and was a little curious about the name, but since Full Sail didn't seem to have a particular rationale for naming their lager Session, I associated it with "session," in the context of traditional "session" music, when musicians at a pub take turns, over several hours, to perform.

I wasn't completely wrong, but I wasn't right; session beer refers to a specific sort of beer that's brewed and enjoyed over the course of a session—typically of drinking, though, and not music. Session beers are lower alcohol, usually less than 5.0% ABV; the idea behind session beers is to create and enjoy a beer that is low alcohol but still good enough to have several over the course of several hours, and enjoy them. You'll sometimes see the phrase "session strength" used to refer to a beer; that's a session beer. Lew Bryson of the Session Beer Project offers two definitions:

• 4.5% alcohol by volume or less
• flavorful enough to be interesting
• balanced enough for multiple pints
• conducive to conversation
• reasonably priced

Bryson's second, more succinct definition of a session beer is "low-alcohol, but not low-taste." Full Sail's Session lager certainly fits the "low alcohol," though at 5.10 ABV, it's higher than Bryson recommends. Session beers are about drinking socially, with a group, but not getting blasted; it's about enjoying the taste of the beer, and the company you're with. I suspect both Peroni and Peroni Nastro Azzurro would qualify, at 4.7 ABV and 5.1 ABV, respectively, and both of them very easy to drink by the pitcher, especially with food.