Ratebeer.com’s Top 50 American Session Beers
The American Session Beer Column is a collaborative effort with Lew Bryson’s The Session Beer Project™, and aims to seek out the finest lower-alcohol brews from the West Coast and beyond. For these purposes, we consider a U.S. ‘session beer’ as being 4.5% ABV or less, flavorful enough to be interesting, balanced enough for multiple pints, conducive to conversation, and reasonably priced. Lew also puts it another way: “low-alcohol, but not low-taste.” These beers can be complex, effortlessly satisfying, indelible, and elusive.
(First off, many thanks to Joe T. and the Ratebeer veterans who helped to comb through the details of this list and finalize things.)
The Methodology: This Top 50 list began its life as the complete listing of U.S. beers at or under 4.5% ABV. From there, any retired beers or obvious festival one-offs were removed, as were things that simply don’t fit into the definition of a “session beer.” Such things include, for instance, beers that aren’t regarded as session beers even by their maker (New Glarus Belgian Red and Raspberry Tart) and beers released to such a small degree that it’s practically impossible to drink very much of them (best of luck getting enough Southhampton Berliner Weisse to session…). Beyond that, we tried to leave things where they stood.
I confirmed ABV listings either directly from the brewers or by comparing multiple sources, but I wouldn’t be surprised if an entry or two were off. I’d appreciate it if people could mention such things in the comments so I can update the listing. I’d also be curious to know any excluded beers that didn’t have an ABV listed.
Cost is the obvious elephant in the room, and things like Jolly Pumpkin bottlings and Stone’s collaborative Session Ale do tend to fall outside of what many of us consider a sessionable price point. Still, many of these things also appeared on draft at one point, which isn’t exactly an easy metric to track, etc. In the end, there just wasn’t any reasonable way to obviously eliminate things by cost.
Personally, I still think fondly of the days that Bam Biere came in sixers…
Ratebeer.com’s Top 50 American Session Beers
#1.) Peg’s G.O.O.D. Ich Bin Ein Rainbow Jelly Donut, FL – Weighted Average: 3.72, Berliner Weisse, 3.9% ABV
#2.) Ballast Point/Kelsey McNair/Stone San Diego County Session Ale, CA – 3.70, American Pale Ale, 4.2%
#3.) Southampton Abbey Single, NY – 3.70, Belgian Ale, 4.5%
#4.) New Glarus Apple Ale, WI – 3.69, Fruit Beer, 3.8%
#5.) Iron Hill Rauchbier, PA – 3.69, Smoked, 3.8%
#6.) Jolly Pumpkin Bam Biere, MI – 3.67, Saison, 4.5%
#7.) Schooners Oatmeal Stout, CA – 3.66, Sweet Stout, 4.5%
#8.) Cigar City Chaveta India Dark Mild, FL – 3.63, Mild Ale, 3.5%
#9.) Jolly Pumpkin Weizen Bam, MI – 3.61, German Hefeweizen, 4.5%
#10.) The Bruery Hottenroth Berliner Weisse, CA – 3.60, Berliner Weisse, 3.1%
#11.) Jolly Pumpkin Bam Noire, MI – 3.52, Saison, 4.3%
#12.) Surly Bitter Brewer, MN – 3.52, Premium Bitter/ESB, 4.1%
#13.) Mt. Hood Hogsback Stout, OR – 3.52, Sweet Stout, 4.5%
#14.) Stone Levitation Ale, CA – 3.52, Amber Ale, 4.4%
#15.) Peg’s G.O.O.D. Ich Bin Ein Berliner Weisse, FL – 3.51, Berliner Weisse, 3.9%
#16.) East End Kvass, PA – 3.51, Traditional Ale, 3.3%
#17.) Cascade Spring Gose, OR – 3.50, Traditional Ale, 4.5%
#18.) Russian River OVL Stout, CA – 3.50, Dry Stout, 4.15%
#19.) Alpine Beer Company Tuatara, CA – 3.49, American Pale Ale, 4.2%
#20.) Sand Creek Oscar’s Chocolate Oatmeal Stout, WI – 3.49, Sweet Stout, 4.5%
#21.) Fort Collins The Kidd Lager (Schwarzbier), CO – 3.48, Schwarzbier, 4.5%
#22.) The Bruery Humulus XPA, CA – 3.47, Belgian Ale, 4.3%
#23.) Avery Piglet Purgatory, CO – 3.47, American Pale Ale, 4.5%
#24.) Ballast Point Even Keel, CA – 3.46, American Pale Ale, 3.5%
#25.) Founders Oatmeal Stout, MI – 3.46, Sweet Stout, 4.5%
#26.) Founders Frangelic Stout, MI – 3.46, Stout, 4.2%
#27.) Surly Hell, MN – 3.46, Zwickel/Keller/Landbier, 4.5%
#28.) Hair of the Dog Greg, OR – 3.45, Spice/Herb/Vegetable, 4.5%
#29.) Flossmoor Station Milky Way Stout, IL – 3.44, Sweet Stout, 4.1%
#30.) Upright Four (#4), OR – 3.42, Saison, 4.5%
#31.) Blanche de Brooklyn, NY – 3.41, Belgian White (Witbier), 4.5%
#32.) Davidson Brothers Oatmeal Stout, NY – 3.41, Sweet Stout, 4.5%
#33.) Ballast Point Schooner Wet Hop Ale, CA – 3.40, American Pale Ale, 4.5%
#34.) Sly Fox OReillys Stout, PA – 3.40, Dry Stout, 3.6%
#35.) Southampton Belgian White Ale, NY – 3.40, Belgian White (Witbier), 4%
#36.) Wasatch Pumpkin Ale, UT – 3.39, Spice/Herb/Vegetable, 4%
#37.) Grumpy Troll Grumpy Creek, WI – 3.39, American Pale Ale, 4%
#38.) Arbor Faricy-Fest Irish Stout, MI – 3.39, Dry Stout, 4.5%
#39.) Michigan Brewing Celis White, MI – 3.38, Belgian White (Witbier), 3.9%
#40.) Viking Brewing Whole Stein, WI – 3.38, Porter, 4.5%
#41.) Half Acre Gossamer, IL – 3.38, Golden Ale/Blond Ale, 4.2%
#42.) OysterHouse Moonstone Stout, NC – 3.38, Dry Stout, 4.5%
#43.) Pizza Port Truck Stop Stout, CA – 3.36, Stout, 4.4%
#44.) Alchemist Shut The Hell Up, VT – 3.35, Mild Ale, 3.7%
#45.) Iron Hill Czech Dark Lager (Schwarz), DE – 3.35, Schwarzbier, 4.4%
#46.) Firestone Walker Lil Opal, CA – 3.35, Saison, 3.8%
#47.) East End Witte, PA – 3.34, Belgian White (Witbier), 4.5%
#48.) Big River Grille Espresso Stout, TN – 3.34, Sweet Stout, 4.2%
#49.) Brewers Alley Trinity Stout, MD – 3.34, Stout, 4.5%
#50.) Ramstein Revelation Golden Lager, NJ – 3.32, Dortmunder/Helles, 3.9%
6 Comments to “Ratebeer.com’s Top 50 American Session Beers”
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Nice to see this list compiled — now how am I going to get to try the ones on this list that I’ve never had?
One thought — can you put this on the site among the other Top 50 lists? It doesn’t have to be dynamic — just put a date on top, and try to re-compile it every once in a while.
Seriously, I’d love to track some more of these down. I’ve only had about a third of them.
There was some talk already about making this into a dynamic list, and I’ll see what we can do on that front. The current data took some scrubbing to make this work (retiring beers, updating ABVs, etc.), but I think it’s something feasible overall. I’ll run it by the admins. Thanks, Aaron!
An intriguing list, but I detect a distinct lack of session beers from New England. I realize Notch is still in limited release, but there are others. Sometimes you can even get them on cask.
Did these not make the 50 beer cut-off?
Geary’s London Porter
Geary’s Pale Ale
Gritty’s Black Fly Stout
Gritty’s Best Bitter
Portsmouth Whipper Snapper
Portsmouth Weizenheimer
Wormtown Seven Hills Pale Ale
@Pam:
Most of those just didn’t have high enough weighted averages to get on the list (close, but still in that 3.0-3.3 range). They did, thankfully, all have ABVs listed (though Best Bitter is listed at 5%? if that’s not correct, let me know).
The Whipper Snapper looks awesome, and I think that really just needs a few more ratings (I cut at a minimum of ten ratings; Whipper Snapper still doesn’t have a high enough weighted average anyway). This is part of the reason that a dynamic version of this list would be good though. Thanks for sending these along; I’d not heard of most of them!
I actually sent the list to Notch, and I know Lew keeps up with them. I’m looking forward to trying their beers someday soon.
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