I’ve had my eyes opened wide concerning beer over the past year. Covering the craft beer community in B.C. has exposed me to an enormous range of styles, including massively hopped West Coast IPAs, imperial beer of numerous hues, Belgian-style farmhouse ales and all manner of bocks.
However, I haven’t made it a secret that I miss the ales I grew up with (from age 18, of course… *ahem*) in Scotland – the smooth, creamy, malty heavy and export styles that are half the alcohol by volume of many styles in the list above, yet don’t sacrifice flavour for it.
In other words, the session beer par excellence.
I guess it’s a reflection of the lack of pub culture in B.C. and Canada in general that session beer hasn’t really taken off here. The desire to sit in a pub for hours on end for a “sesh” perhaps isn’t as high on people’s priorities when there are so many more outdoor opportunities and more amenable weather than in the U.K. (and believe me, the weather is better here).
But there you also have the U.K.’s alcohol problem in a nutshell: Too many indulging too often in a sesh where the drink has, in recent years, become higher-strength lagers and alcopops (coolers) interspersed with shots of dubiously coloured spirits (hard liquor).
I won’t deny that one of the aims of a sesh is getting at least moderately tanked, but it’s also about savouring the beer and the company. Sometimes you want more than two pints; if those two pints are of a 10% hop monster, you’re not going to be conversing much, or that legibly, and you’re going to want to have brought a sleeping bag with you.
Yet, even most of the Scottish styles produced on these shores are of the “wee heavy” style, which generally ranks upward of 6.5%. Also, much of the bitter produced here – the classic session ale – is still rammed with hops flavour, which can result in a tired palate after just a few.
The clever people at CAMRA Vancouver saw there was an issue here, and this is what last weekend’s Fest of Ale at the London Pub in Vancouver’s Chinatown was all about. Dubbed the Spring Sessional, it challenged 17 brewers from across B.C. to make a low-alcohol session beer; in this case, less than 3.5%, which is low indeed.
But still, it’s done regularly in the British Isles, so why not here? Given this brief, could our brewers still create something that was interesting and full of flavour?
I’m happy to report that the answer is a pretty resounding YES. And in an impressive range of styles, too. Many participants looked outside of the U.K. to include styles such as Berliner Weisse, wheat beer and lighter versions of Belgian styles.
All the representative beers were mounted at one end of the London Pub’s large space in a “wall of casks.” Happy beer enthusiasts got to work just after noon as the spring sunshine poured through the tall windows, milling around the venue as if table service never existed (now there’s a thought…), creating a truly pub-like atmosphere.
A proper sesh was on. Hallelujah! CAMRA once again delivered us from mediocrity.
The brewers more than played their part, of course. Top of my personal tasting list were:
- Damon’s Mild Ale from Barley Station in Salmon Arm – a surprising amount of chocolatey, nutty goodness
- Daniel’s Saison from the forthcoming Coal Harbour Brewing Company – light, airy, fruity and a joy to drink.
- Claire’s Northern English Brown Ale from Big River in Richmond – a brew of full, delicious roastiness
- Dean’s Light American Wheat Ale from Lighthouse in Victoria – another wonderfully light drinker.
- Iain’s Dry Hopped Pale Ale from Yaletown Brewing Company – a wicked bite of hops from this well rounded pale ale, which weighed in at a comparatively robust 4.3% and so was ineligible for a prize.
There were two prizes up for grabs: The Brewers Challenge Award, chosen by a panel of certified beer judges, and a People’s Choice Award for the masses’ favourite.
The former went to the Moon Under Water for Don and Ron’s Best Bitter, which sadly tapped out before I could get a sniff. This challenge will have been normal service for the Victoria brewpub, which keeps all of its beer below the 5.2% threshold — but if you can easily walk the walk, why not enter a competition for a $100 cash prize and pair of Whitecaps tickets?
Moon Under Water receives its Brewers Challenge prize from CAMRA Vancouver VP Amanda Barry
Meanwhile, the people voted for Tariq’s Pale Bitter from Surrey’s Big Ridge brewpub. This was an unfiltered, luminous yellow-orange brew that fell just outside my top five but was nevertheless delicious, with subtle, slightly floral citrus flavours backed by a tight bitterness.
Again, brewer Tariq Khan had a slight edge over other competitors, having spent six years at the Dark Star brewery in Sussex, England, where the flagship beer weighs in at 3.8%.
Tariq Khan picks up his People’s Choice Award
“There, it’s normal,” Khan confirmed when I talked to him after he received his award, which will see his winning beer given an exclusive guest tap at the London Pub. “English people like that, it’s a sociable thing, they like to drink a lot.
“Like right now,” he added, gesturing at the happy hubbub around him, “it’s great, because you can drink a lot of these beers and not be totally wasted.
“This is something that should also be encouraged. I really hope this is a trend. Monday, I’m putting this beer on tap at Big Ridge and I’m hoping people embrace that.”
Despite his confidence in brewing lower-alcohol styles, Khan admitted it’s a challenge compared to making bigger, bolder beer.
“Any flaws in the brewing process will come out because the beer is lighter on the palate,” Khan said. “I did a fair amount of dry hopping in this beer so there’s a lot of hop flavour but there’s less going on in the beer.
“So any flaws that come out, any kind of weird diacetyl or sulphur that comes out will be more apparent than in an 8% beer with a lot of stuff going on. You can cover up those flavours a little more. A low-strength beer really needs to be reasonably clean tasting.
“But in general, it’s quite a simple beer to brew,” Khan added, referring to his champion pale bitter.
“I was trying to have a balance between clean flavours, a little bit of hoppiness, a little bit of malt flavours.
“In general, I wanted to keep the bitterness reasonable. Otherwise, you wouldn’t want to drink more than one because it would be overly bitter and, at that low strength, it would be really apparent.”
Well done, Tariq. With session-ale champions of this calibre, hopefully we’ll be seeing a lot more lighter styles in our pubs and on liquor-store shelves soon.
By Jan Zeschky | Originally published in Brewed Awakening of The Province on April 22nd, 2011
Read More: http://communities.canada.com/theprovince/blogs/brewedawakening/default.aspx
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