Session Beer it's almost un - Australian

We Australians love to have a Beer. In fact we love to have lots of beers according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics. As a nation we rank number 5 on the list of beer drinkers, consuming 103.3L of beer per person over the age of 15. This is down from 107.65L in 2005.

If you look at the tables on the ABS (Australian Bureau of Statistics) site,

http://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/abs@.nsf/Lookup/4307.0.55.001main+features42009-10

you will see that it's actually the low alcohol beer area where the reductions have come from (in 2005 it was 14.11L per person down to in 8.06L per person in 2010). These figures are all commercially sold beer plus 2.2% added for homebrew.

The ABS defines alcohol levels as;

Low Alcohol - under 3%

Mid Strength - between 3 - 3.5%

Full Strength - over 3.5%

You might be asking why am I giving you all these figures. Well its because we really need to look at Session Beers. Now I'm not talking about full on booze ups. I'm talking about the times you just want to spend an afternoon bending your elbow with your mates, watching footy or cricket or having a yarn whatever without ending up completely rat arsed and not being able to function. This is where session beers come in, designed to be low in alcohol (under 4%) and light in body these beers wont make you feel bloated or knock you on your arse after a couple.

For example Midgee by Hopdog is a spectacular red ale that comes in at 2.9%.

With most Australian commercial beers in the 4.6 - 5.5%, and craft beers trending higher still we need to change our habits, keep our favourite full strength beers for when we are having 1 or 2 and move to the lighter Session Beers for those long arvos. 

So start asking your local craft brewer or pub for a Session beer and check out the difference.