There are lots of types of peoples out there. Lots of types of drinkers. Maybe too often we make the mistake of thinking that they're all pretty much like us. But maybe they're not. Maybe we're rare. Maybe nobody thinks like us at all, and we shouldn't make the mistake of thinking that they do.
I wonder if the Pour Fool has been making that mistake in his Seattle Post-Intelligencer column. He has no qualms about judging people who drink more than three or four beers in a night. No matter how low the alcohol, it seems, that's not a session but simply "drinking too much." Really.
Maybe the sessionistas should cultivate that bad-boy, binge-drinking image. It's sexier than the usual low-alcohol, drinking-in-moderation spiel.
The Pour Fool reminds me of Notch Session brewer Chris Lohring's thoughts from the other day:
Amazing how many who are entrenched in the craft industry loathe what I am up to. ... On that note, I have discovered a whole new beer consumer that has been cultivated in the past 5-10 years. The insufferable 20-something beer snob born on rare, imperial, double and sour, and are as closed minded as a Bud drinker. Worse than a wine snob, and the craft beer industry created them.Except that Mr. Body appears to be coming from the wine side--which in turn reminds me of Stan H's New Beer Rule #7: Beer is not the new wine.
Finally, it reminds me of some other geeks I've known, who are more interested in sipping and savoring than gulping and gulping. For some of them it's hard to understand why you'd want to drink the same beer more than once. Children of plenty, they are. Products of the insane variety that's available these days.
Me? I'd like to think there's a place for all of it. I'll try not to make the mistake of assuming that you agree. Some of you obviously do not.
Hey, Velky Al at Fuggled is musing on session beers today too.
I have heard several times from respected brewers that there "isn't a market" for low alcohol beers, and yet I constantly hear in the pubs and bars of America a sizable segment of beer drinkers wishing there was more choice of low alcohol beers. So where has this disconnect come from? In my more cynical moments, I wonder if brewers are losing touch with drinkers in the pubs and bars up and down the country, in favour of great ratings on websites that advocate beer?I've wondered the same. Yet I find it hard to swallow that many brewers are chasing geeky Internet glory at the expense of dollars. Rather, I think they are often trying for both. A bit of hype over a couple extreme beers can be good for publicity, after all. Meanwhile publicity that showcases more useful (if less exciting) workaday beers might be what's truly lacking.
Posts
Two thoughts:
ReplyDelete1. A bit of hype over an over priced limited release can also be very good for the bottom line.
2. There is an ocean of low alcohol beer for the beer drinker all over America. It's 96% or so of the sales.
It's not so much that the craft brewers have lost touch as they are creating market and profit where it does not exist. Why stomp on big beer's toes with 4% beer when there is plenty of money higher up the strength scale.
Alan
A Good Beer Blog
Alan, I'm sure you won't mind if we refuse to settle for Bud Light, Miller Lite, and Coors Light, which would be 99% of that 96% you mention. (I promise not to check your math if you promise not to check mine.)
ReplyDeleteIn fact, the wild popularity (and usefulness) of light lagers ought to demonstrate that there is plenty of money to be made in what us craft beer types are calling session beers these days.
Talking about this thing with several people has lead me to the following conclusions.
ReplyDeleteSome brewers like to measure dicks and thus brew all these mad beers that very few people want to drink.
Those beers, in some way, are like those über super cars. Hardly anyone will buy them, but they get the name of the brand out. When BrewDog was swinging their strongest beers their name showed up in the Peruvian press!
Many consumers out there believe that the % of ABV is in direct proportion with the quality. Price also plays a part. Brewing a strong beer doesn't cost THAT much more than brewing a session beer, but it is the strong one that will fetch the higher price.
And so on...
Joe,
ReplyDeleteI'm not going to rehash this whole boring thing but, yeah, SOME people DO rationalize their decision to drink five or six beers a night by calling it sessioning. In the case of those people, sessioning is simply abuse of alcohol. I didn't make a universal statement and accuse every single session drinker of "bingeing", as one jerk put it, but I stand by the statement that "sessioning" is A) boring as hell to me, B) rarely done at home and therefore likely to involve someone who has had an excessive number of beers attempting to drive home, and C) unfair to brewers who try to brew great beer and then have it pigeon-holed as a "session" beer. Not every session drinker is the model of responsibility and good judgment and that is basically what I said. Some jackass in Pennsylvania evidently considers himself such an authority that he got furious and dismissive with me in emails when I didn't just accept his arguments as Gospel, and then attributed things to me which I never said in my blog and all his silly geese who read him parroted them and trashed me for them. My blog posts are out there for anyone who want to read them and I wrote absolutely nothing that I feel the need to retract or modify. Yeah, I choose not to session because I DO consider it as having far too much potential for disaster. I don't think drunk driving is funny, cute, or rationalized away because somebody uses the word "sessioning" to explain drinking five or six beers. I got a landslide of protests, almost all of which said that "sessioning" is more about fellowship and friends than beer. But, if no beer is involved in your evening with friends, it's no longer "sessioning", is it? It's just an evening with friends. And if it is SO much more about friends and conversation, why does the beer even matter? Why wouldn't a more-responsible one or two be just as good? I don't doubt that there are many, many adults who DO have a good and protective enough circle of friends that they can session together and not endanger everybody the pass on the way home. To them, I say "have fun!" But there are far too many immature jackholes who use the term without accepting the responsibility. THOSE were the people I'm talking about and - like it or not - readers of blogs DO have the responsibility to decide for themselves if what they're reading is aimed at them or if they're not part of that syndrome. Apparently, from the wild-eyed responses I got, lots of people are threatened by having their sessions questioned. That, to me, is the mark of people who are uncertain if they're doing the right thing, in the right way.
I had a bit of fun debating this with a few of those guys Friday but I'm done with it now. I have a blog to write and two businesses to run. The one clown I traded emails with, in my view, is just another pompous, self-congratulatory internet troll whose opinion of his own knowledge is blown waaaay out of proportion. The fact that several of these guys keep "calling me out" is funny. They're gonna be disappointed. I had never heard of any of them before Friday and don't plan to engage anymore. Ultimately, they have their opinions to give and I have mine. That is what criticism is all about and everybody has the same remedy for someone they think is an idiot: Don't Read Them. Problem solved.
Steve Body
My opinion is admittedly, and perhaps even purposefully, taken from a narrow perspective. To me, it seems as though central aspects of this...debate (?) are simply talking past one another. Doesn't it come down to one simple statement that one can either agree with, or not, since it is, obviously, subjective: American craft beers tend to have a lot of alcohol. To that, I'd add that American craft brewers are less interested in 'balance' than in pushing the definitions of style, and in so doing, they've become exceptionally talented at that approach to brewing beer; with it, therefore, being implied that a capacity to crank out more balances brews isn't, perhaps, in their wheelhouse.
ReplyDeleteMy apologies for the gross generalizations. Incidentally, some years ago, I read a column (I forget by whom) that said very much the same thing about wine; that the alcohol percentage in a lot of wine was inching up somewhat, but of course with wine,you rarely hear people talk much about that, despite the that wines clock in at 13-15%. It is what it is; try making a tempranillo at 8% abv. But brewers have that option, and any of us who have consumed widely - especially if we've traveled abroad - have encountered examples of beers brewed by people committed (or perhaps merely limited by tradition, progressive taxation rates on alcohol content, etc.) to balanced beers, which to me is a helluva lot easier to achieve when alcohol content, hopping rates, and flavor are set at more modest levels. I've never understood why more American craft brewers don't routinely go that route. Personally, I long ago lost my desire for the hi-octane (and often over-priced), imperial, one-off hybrid concoctions that take up so much shelf space at my local beer store.
A word about this term, session. I guess that I assume that if people overindulge now - and they do - it's because, well, they drink too much, then jump in the car. I don't see how offering flavorful beers at lower alcohol percentages would in any way have a negative effect on that situation. I also don't think that most people who enjoy craft beer have any clue about the range of alcohol content in beers; they tend to associate more alcohol with more flavor. 'Session' doesn't require you to drink 5 beers in one sitting. To me, it's merely shorthand for the idea that one can drink a few low alcohol beers, spread out over a couple of hours, and not get drunk. Try that with an imperial IPA.
Steve, thanks for coming by with your $0.02. It's clear enough to me why your words are raising hackles among beer people. I'll try to explain, just in case you happen back by here.
ReplyDelete"SOME people DO rationalize their decision to drink five or six beers a night by calling it sessioning. In the case of those people, sessioning is simply abuse of alcohol."
At least you're honest and consistent with your assumption. But when you're coming from the perspective that drinking five beers over the course of an evening, no matter what, "is simply abuse of alcohol," then I think your perspective may be considerably more strict than the average drinker. "Uptight" might be another word for it, although I can't speak for your readers--who I have to assume are mostly adults who like to drink.
"'[S]essioning' is ... rarely done at home and therefore likely to involve someone who has had an excessive number of beers attempting to drive home"
More assumptions. Thanks to strict drunk driving laws and increased awareness of its dangers, drinking is more and more often done at home these days. Secondly, I'll concede that drunk driving happens more often than most of us would like to admit. But it's not inevitable, and responsible adults assign DDs, take cabs, mass transit, walk, hitch a ride, or otherwise limit their consumption. The irresponsible ones are going to be irresponsible anyway, and guess what? They usually aren't drinking lower-alcohol beers.
"Some jackass in Pennsylvania evidently considers himself such an authority..."
He IS an authority, even if he rubbed you the wrong way by not taking you particularly seriously.
"Yeah, I choose not to session because I DO consider it as having far too much potential for disaster. I don't think drunk driving is funny, cute, or rationalized away because somebody uses the word 'sessioning' to explain drinking five or six beers."
Here again you are immediately connecting session beer to drunk driving. Are there no taxis where you live? Aren't you writing for people in Seattle? Don't they have a pretty solid bus and light rail system as well? And if you're not writing your column for Seattle beer lovers, then for whom are you writing it?
"The one clown I traded emails with, in my view, is just another pompous, self-congratulatory internet troll whose opinion of his own knowledge is blown waaaay out of proportion."
Actually Lew probably has a pretty accurate view of his own knowledge, which is extensive, and somehow I sense that you feel threatened by it.
"Ultimately, they have their opinions to give and I have mine. That is what criticism is all about and everybody has the same remedy for someone they think is an idiot: Don't Read Them. Problem solved."
On that much we can agree.
You will have seen (?) this funny film about beer geeks:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hZbE8ebQdwE
Joe, if I were still having kids, I'd name one "Joe." Thanks, brother!
ReplyDeleteOh, and...Steve "The Body" Body took down the post in question. So...we won't have Nixon to kick around anymore, I guess. I hate to be vindictive, but I call that a win. I mean...I am a jackass, so it's okay for me to feel that way.
ReplyDeleteReminds me of a great moment about 8 years ago. I was at a Philly beer event, a Michael Jackson tasting. I was going up to talk to Michael Jackson -- I was editing him at the time, and we talked fairly often -- but saw he was talking to a woman who'd been making a bit of an outspoken splash in the local beer scene, so I slowed down a bit...and overheard her complaining to Michael about how dull and slow the local beer scene was.
Then up pops Jack Curtin, curmudgeon and buddy and cheerfully sharp thorn in my side, who was standing by MJ: "What about Lew Bryson? Some people say he's the American Michael Jackson!", grinning broadly as he said it. I stared at him, then swallowed my tongue as the young woman blurted out: "More like the American Jackass!" I heard Jack laughing as I strolled away, grinning to myself at the look on MJ's face: a small grin, and a sparkle in his eyes as he looked right at me.
Maybe the man's right!
NO, Steve Body did NOT take down the post in question. In fact, I added a couple more to clarify my disapproval of the notion of sessioning. Is this claim that I caved anything like when you told the dorks on your site that I 'pleaded and begged" in emails with you? Because I still have those emails and I'll be damned if I can find a syllable of either in them. I have ZERO reason to amend anything I said about sessioning and have found about two dozen other good reasons not to like the idea. So, I'll do my own talking for The Pour Fool, thanks. I find it interesting that you seem so flustered by something I said and then claim to have such withering scorn for me. I've never mentioned your name ONCE in any of my mentions of sessioning in The Pour Fool. You've now dragged me into public at least eight times. For someone I've never met and don't know from Adam, you seem to claim to know all about my thinking and motives. I've now asked at least a dozen other beer trade people in Seattle who you are and none of them knew, either. How about if you write your stuff and I write mine? I don't know how you see it but I think life is too short to waste on arguing with those who will not see...which is a perfect description of both of us.
Delete