Should we call time on the session?

If you walked up to the bar of your favourite local – what would you see on offer? Hopefully a range of well-kept beers from near and far to tempt the money from your pocket. But if you were there for the whole evening, how many would you get through? Back in the day, a long session on the same low-abv cask ale would be just that – a conveyor belt of pint after pint. But are times changing? Do the younger generation of beer lovers still head out for eight pints of 3.8% bitter? Should we call time on the session?

The revival of British brewing has resulted in a huge amount of choice – as brewers who embrace experimentation increasingly produce more styles, and as foreign bottled beers are imported in larger numbers. Put me on a comfortable bar stool (if such a thing exists) in a great Edinburgh pub and I’ll feel spoiled. The notion of sticking to the same beer for the rest of the night seems so restrictive, when the modern pub can (and should) stock so much. Why limit yourself to a long slog through half a dozen of the same session ale?

Why do we like beer? Because we enjoy the flavour. Not for one minute am I suggesting session beer cannot be flavourful – our beer of the 2010 Scottish Real Ale Festival was the tremendous Fyne Ales Jarl (abv…3.8%). Even with something as good as that, after a couple I’d be scanning the counter, fridges or blackboard for my next choice. I think what it comes down to is I prefer the bold, punchy flavours of a strong IPA or an imperial stout – once you get north of 5% these beers really deliver, and have the freedom to stand out from the crowd.

All this comes at a cost of course – if you’re asking yourself whether I happily chew my way though half a dozen barrel-aged imperial porters of an evening, the answer is no. But I would much rather drink three beers that give me more of a ‘taste sensation’ (forgive the phrase) than seven or eight that chug merrily along being slightly hoppy with a hint of biscuit. If that means my nights out are shorter, then so be it. When even a session beer will set you back well over £3 in the city, I might even be better off that way.

Maybe it’s the bloggeratus in me – this desire to always try the new and move on to something else. But over the last few years I’ve noticed some pubs in Edinburgh routinely serve casks that are over 6%abv. This is great, and should be encouraged – particularly in the face of continuing rises in duty. This new wave of stronger cask and bottled beers are changing the way we look at a session. On a recent night out, instead of buying four pints in a round I bought a 750ml bottle of an imported Belgian beer, and asked for four glasses.

If that admission had you tutting and gripping your Deuchars a little tighter, fair enough – as I said at the start the idea of increased choice means there should be room for all beer strengths and styles. But at the risk of sounding like a certain Aberdeenshire brewery, session beer just doesn’t cut it anymore – there’s too much good stuff out there to remain in that low abv comfort zone. Quality over quantity should be the way to go forward. Embrace the big-hitters.

This article was originally written by the BeerCast for CAMRA’s Pints of View newsletter, and has been reprised here as part of our Big Beer month. For the whole of October, we’ll only be featuring beer over 7.5%, to protest at the increased rate of duty. Our next article looks at one of the true champions of strong beer from the continent – Nogne Ø…