Session Beer: Bitter American

The 2nd installment in my ongoing session beer series concerns Bitter American.  Like my previous entry this beer also comes in a can.  Bitter American is made by 21st Amendment Brewery out of San Francisco. In fact, all of 21st Amendment Brewery's beers come in a can.  The brewery affirms that cans keep beer fresher and are better for the environment. With spring right around the corner, I'll also attest that can beers are better for taking to festivals.  Why sacrifice flavor when there are now so many craft beers that come in a can?

Bitter American is a true rarity: an IPA session beer.  IPAs are all the rage among beer snobs yet they are usually too high in alcohol content to be considered a session beer.  Not so with the Bitter American:  at 4.4% alcohol content you can have one or three and still have all your faculties intact. 

I'm not always keen on aromatic hoppy beers, but I found Bitter American to have a nice balance of hop (42 IBUs) and malt taste.  Light amber color, citrus hop aroma, moderately bitter.  It's a refreshingly lower-alcohol American session ale that won't fill you up.  Look for it in cans at you local beer specialty store!  For some reason it's considered a late winter seasonal brew and is currently only available January through March.  There's still time to find it this year although it might be worth petitioning 21st Amendment to make Bitter American year round.

Session Beer: Cain's Dark Mild

This is the first in a series of posts on various session beers that I intend to spotlight.  What's a session beer? See below!

When traditional musicians get together to play Irish, Scottish or other Celtic music it is called a session.  Coincidentally(?), session is also a word used to describe a beer that is low in alcohol, flavorful, balanced and highly drinkable.   It should come as no surprise then that many of the best session beers come from the British Isles.  One such beer is Cain's Dark Mild from Robert Cain brewery in Liverpool - a dark pouring, malty, slightly sweet, lightly hopped, relatively flat mild ale with a roast flavor.

Cain's Dark Mild

I was first introduced to Cain's Dark Mild at Rosie Connolly's, an Irish pub in downtown Richmond, VA where, fortuitously, players of Irish trad gather the 2nd and 4th Wednesday of each month for a jam session.  The dark mild is an English style low-gravity ale that uses darker roasted malts and limited hops.  Notes of chocolate, caramel, nuts and toasted tones are usually present.  The color is dark brown to black.  At 3.2% ABV, with its dark color, malt forward taste and low IBU's, Cain's Dark Mild is the quintessential example of this style and may just be the perfect session beer...ideal for sipping on as you summon those jigs, reels and hornpipes.


Cain's is fast becoming my beer of choice when attending the Rosie's jam.  And just this Saturday I noticed that my local Ashland beer and wine store - The Caboose - has started carrying it in six-pack form.  That was the first time I had ever seen it in a store, so I picked up a six-pack and am glad to report that I enjoyed it just as much out of the can as on tap!  With its slightly sweet taste and low-alcohol content, Cain's provides fermented satisfaction without the wallop.