| Blogs - My Two Shillings |
Dia Dhuit, my brutes! A happy fathers' day to you all, regardless of the genetalia between your thighs. While this won't be a blog about fathers at all, I'm simply throwing this in because I had the urge to write, but I'm not going to do my usual grammar/spelling/puncuation checking... the wee one will be up soon and then it's a morning o' fatherly fun.
Allow me to summarize my views of session beers in one word: absolutely fekkin' awesome.
As craft beer enthusiasts, most of us like to pop a cold -- alright, luke warm -- delicious beer that usually has a ton of malt or a ton of hops. Something big and bold that more than likely has an ABV higher than the IQ of your average gym teacher (a big hullo to me brother on this one!).
As far as exceptions to this rule, I'm not even close to being in that subset, although I have found that I'm starting to intersect quite nicely with the those that appreciate the smaller brews. (Aye, I made sure that mathematical logic was followed on the previous statement... I enjoy drawing Venn diagrams, so anyone who's interested, just let me know and I'll hook you up with one.)
A few months back, I was looking at myself in the mirror after a shower. Typically my thoughts would wander along the lines of "Oh, yeah... you're quite the sexy brute, aren't ya?" (I don't have an ego problem... it's huge but I don't have a problem with that. Just so you know, it's not arrogance... I personally think everyone should be able to look in the mirror, regardless of body style, and think to themselves that they're damn sexy.)
Those few months back, though, gave me a different picture. Somewhere along the line I'd turned from being a sexy brute to this pale, pasty, bloated, sad sack of shite Johnny Jack. Even though I'd been working out regularly, all of the muscle tone I'd worked so hard on was being hidden beneath quite a number of pounds of fat.
What else could I do? I changed my diet and routine, hells bent on losing it. And now, a few months later, I'm proud to say I've dropped 20 pounds, getting down to my goal. (I do have a secondary goal, but getting down to my Mr. ISU weight is going to be tough -- wish me luck.)
And I couldn't have done it without session beers. Those wonderful, tasty beers with a low ABV and, hence, a lower calorie count. Instead of one or two or three wee heavies or doppelbocks or imperial stouts, I cut my beer intake down to only one (occasionally zero) beers a night, and would almost always stick with something that was on the under side of 5%.
Between that, eating slightly healthier (not much), and just bumping up my aerobics one extra time a week, I went from an artery clogging 195 down to a svelt 175. And honestly, my brutes, if that's not enough incentive to at least incorporate session ales more often into your beer diet, well I don't know what is.
Wait, maybe I do. Session ales, while perhaps not huge flavor bombs, can be intriguing in their own intricacies of taste. It's harder to hide off tastes when you don't have all the extra IBUs or pounds of malt going into the kettle. Some are bland, but some of them are joys to behold.
They also make for interesting home brewing recipes. My only "true" session ale I've brewed up to this point was a brown mild a year or more ago (the recipe was designed by the company I ordered from). Just a few weeks ago, though, I concocted my own recipes, designed to be just above 4%. It was fun trying to work out what specialty grains to put in that would give it a nice flavor without it being foul, while still keeping the overall grain bill small enough. Knock on wood for me, my brutes... hopefully the session nut brown and session honey pale will be awesome once they're done aging a bit in their bottles.
So I urge you! Run! Fast! Go out and find a wonderful session ale! Or brew one even. I know that many of the home brewing brutes up this way brew some wonderful session or near session ales.
And on a related note, it's soap box time. Don't you dare, Johnny Jack, try to give me an exact ABV for what a session ale is! Originally designed to indicate something drinkable over long periods without causing inebriation, there is no exact cut off point. So for the few English fellas out there who insist on it being no higher than 4%, well I've found English brewing sites that go up to 4.5 for their definition. I've found some history writings that talk about it being around 3.5% and even a hint or two that it could've been around 5%.
And on the other hand, don't try to talk about your favorite session ale being some imperial stout or double india pale ale. I don't care if you can drink them all day long. That's not what the defintion covers. So don't be a Johnny Jack and insist that even your 5.8% beer is a session beer. If you can drink that all day with no side effects from the booze, it's not because it's a session beer. It's because you're an alcoholic and you need some help.
So until next time, my brutes, fare thee well! And on this fine fathers' day, in which I've already gone for me two mile jog, I'll soon be breakfasting with my petite and then it's off to play a bit of Irish road bowling. Once the sun starts to drop from its zenith, there's a good chance I'll be hoisting a glass... and yes, it'll be a session ale today.
While getting ready to go I went through the prerequisite packing of the cooler and realized that all I had in the fridge were IPA's Dopplebocks, Scotch Ales and the like. I packed a few of those and headed off to meet up with the band at a gas station. While on my way I realized that if this is all I drank that I would not be able to drive home that night so I went in and bought my old go to macro session beer, Coors Banquet Beer.
Man I had forgotten how much I do like this. For the past couple of years my go to macro has been Yuengling Lager, but it just has not been hitting the spot lately.Anyway, the Coors allowed me to drink to my hearts content while still maintaining myself enough to make the 45 minute trip home that night. Of course I still had the craft beers on hand and pretty much gave most of them away. That way I still maintained my street cred as a beer geek
Where are you going to go Irish road bowling? That sounds like fun.
Happy Fathers Day to all you dads out there.
Looks like I am spending the day alone with my 3 year old who has no clue what fathers day is. So it will be a day of watching Nick Jr and fighting with her to pick up her toys. YEAH!
Last Updated (Sunday, 20 June 2010 07:51)