This week we talked about session beers and reviewed Rogue's Juniper Pale Ale and Capital Brewery's Capital Square Series Baltic Porter. Take a listen:
Nice show! I don't buy Duvel's description, though. Adding 1.7% alcohol to a 5 gallon batch would require 1.4 lbs of priming sugar and result in 9 volumes of CO2. I would guess that bottled Duvel has 4.5 volumes of CO2 tops.
Totally agree about Duvel. I didn't crunch the numbers, but that sounded pretty fishy. I think either there was a mix up and they sighted ABW instead of ABV, or they are putting a toned down, easier to drink version of Duvel on draft and didn't want the beer geeks to know. We'll find out I suppose.
I would say sessions beers aren't going anywhere. The focus right now is the more complex craft beer. AB and Miller will continue to dominate in their perspective markets, but smaller breweries now have a chance to offer a quality product to local buyers. There is nothing more homely than drinking local. Howerver, session beers need to be cheep, and that is something the big boys know how to do.
But do session beers need to be cheap? Can't people choose to spend a little extra for more flavor, even if they don't get that extra buzz that comes from high alcohol beers? I think there will always be a lot of interest in the big beers, but I also think we'll see more and more breweries with a broad portfolio, including some well made session beers.
I think pricing depends on how low you want go. Spotted Cow sells for more than Bud, as it should, but I don't think people will go to bars and repeatedly pay $4 a pint for 3.2% abv beers. If I ever get this pub open, I'm going to brew a lot of session beers and sell them at lower prices than standard-strength craft beer. Like Matt says, though, they'll just be part of the mix.
5 comments:
Nice show! I don't buy Duvel's description, though. Adding 1.7% alcohol to a 5 gallon batch would require 1.4 lbs of priming sugar and result in 9 volumes of CO2. I would guess that bottled Duvel has 4.5 volumes of CO2 tops.
Totally agree about Duvel. I didn't crunch the numbers, but that sounded pretty fishy. I think either there was a mix up and they sighted ABW instead of ABV, or they are putting a toned down, easier to drink version of Duvel on draft and didn't want the beer geeks to know. We'll find out I suppose.
I would say sessions beers aren't going anywhere. The focus right now is the more complex craft beer. AB and Miller will continue to dominate in their perspective markets, but smaller breweries now have a chance to offer a quality product to local buyers. There is nothing more homely than drinking local. Howerver, session beers need to be cheep, and that is something the big boys know how to do.
But do session beers need to be cheap? Can't people choose to spend a little extra for more flavor, even if they don't get that extra buzz that comes from high alcohol beers?
I think there will always be a lot of interest in the big beers, but I also think we'll see more and more breweries with a broad portfolio, including some well made session beers.
I think pricing depends on how low you want go. Spotted Cow sells for more than Bud, as it should, but I don't think people will go to bars and repeatedly pay $4 a pint for 3.2% abv beers. If I ever get this pub open, I'm going to brew a lot of session beers and sell them at lower prices than standard-strength craft beer. Like Matt says, though, they'll just be part of the mix.
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