Announcing The Session #49: A ‘regular’ beer

The SessionFor reasons I don’t recall — but I’m pretty sure Alan is to blame — Season Five of The Session begins with your first three hosts returning to organize a round. I’m up first.

I imagine myself a Clydesdale, being led back to pasture come spring. (OK, that metaphor might not be working. Was I put out to pasture and now I’m back? Am I returning to another moment in the sun? It might be clearer after a few beers.)

For those of you who were not yet of drinking age when we began this monthly exercise here’s the appropriate historical link. There was no thought of “what happens after four months,” let alone four years. The first three sessions revolved around the S word, then all heck broke loose. Who would have predicted one month the theme would be Welcoming the New Kids?

In March of 2007 I couldn’t have guessed the topic March 4, 2011 might be “regular beer.” How vague is that? But when in December I was motivated to post my defense of “regular beer” the course was set.

Please write about a regular beer (time to lose the quotation marks). You get to define what that means, but a few possibilities:

* It might be your “go to” beer, brewed commercially or at home. The one you drink regularly.
* I could be a beer your enjoy on a regular special occasion. When in San Francisco I always like to start with draft Anchor Liberty Ale. But it might be your poker night beer.
* It doesn’t have to be a “session beer,” but it can be.
* It probably shouldn’t have an SPE of more than $25 (that’s a very soft number; prices may vary by region and on premise further confuses the matter). Ask yourself, is it what somebody in a Miller High Life TV commercial in the 1970s could afford? Because affordability matters. I’m all for paying a fair price (which can mean higher than we’d like) to assure quality and even more for special beers, but I’m not ready to part with the notion that beer should be an everyman’s drink.
* Brewery size, ownership, nationality do not matter. Brew length doesn’t matter. Ingredients don’t matter. It feels a little strange typing that last sentence, since the Mission Statement here says ingredients matter. But I hope you get the point. I prefer beer that costs a little more because its ingredients cost more, because there’s more labor involved. You don’t have to. Beer should be inclusive.

Still not clear? Consider this a sample post. It mostly illustrates you can write anything you damn please.

Everybody is welcome to participate, particularly “regular people.” If you don’t have a blog and want to write something in advance I will post it. If you are a blogger, email me with the URL on March 4 or post a comment here, and by early the next week I’ll write a wrap up with links to all the posts.

35 thoughts on “Announcing The Session #49: A ‘regular’ beer”

  3. Two thoughts.

    I would think that availability is one of those things that matter. If it’s unavailable, it’s irregular.

    And that leads me to this notion: If the beer is irregular, then it can’t be regular. Can it?

    Hmmm. If I could put a picture of Alan’s thinking monkey right here, I would do so.

  4. Jeff – Then next you can host a session.

    Joe – Regularly available, yes, but not necessarily *all* the time – though I’d get grumpy if my regular beer at a brewpub was a saison (a guy can dream) and it was out 2 our of 3 times i visited.

  6. Great discussion from that December column on the list of IRregular new beers. I’ll post something at Cheese and Cheers on March 3 about a Chicago beer that is one of my all-time favorite regulars.

  7. “I’ll post something at Cheese and Cheers on March 3 about a Chicago beer that is one of my all-time favorite regulars.”

    Okay, I’m hooked now.

  9. Seriously — you’ll post entries from non-bloggers? Thank you if so. I’ll try to write something worthwhile, as I’ve been thinking about this for a while.

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