THE SESSION #118— BEER BLOGGING FRIDAY The Session, a.k.a. Beer Blogging Friday, is an opportunity once a month for beer bloggers from around the world to get together and write from their own unique perspective on a single topic. Each month, a different beer blogger hosts the Session, chooses a topic and creates a round-up listing all of the participants, along with a short pithy critique of each entry. 

This month's theme is Discomfort Beer and is hosted by Alec Latham at Mostly About Beer

My favorite beers to drink are large flavorful beers such as Imperial Stouts or Belgian Quads. I thoroughly enjoy the higher alcohol content, not that I'm working to become elevated as quick as possible, but just the opposite, so I can pour it into a beautiful goblet, let it warm a bit, sip and savor must like a fine port wine. I simply love the process, the fuller flavors and the entire experience.

That is the best of all beer experiences — for me.

American IPAs have become all the rage and many of my fellow beer drinkers love the hops — more the better. And I too, enjoy a well made IPA, whether of the West Coast variety or New England unfiltered offerings. They do have their place and I will savor the good work the brewer and company puts into these creations.

The beer style that has jumped to public awareness lately — over the past year or so — are the sours. Of course, there are many beer styles that can be lumped into that grouping — wild ale, gose, Berliner weisse, flanders red, oud bruin, lambics, gueuze, and can include saison, bier de guarde depending on the brewers creativity. Some are included among my favorite beer styles. The beer that would be described as musty, funky, horse blanket, barnyard — I've had a difficult time cuddling up to. 

I've been to several beer distributor open houses where just about every beer style imaginable is available for tasting. So, I've experienced just about all that is out there. As already mentioned, I'm still quite particular to many of the Belgian beers: dubbels, tripels and quads. As I've progressed in my beer experiences I've learned that Belgian beer covers a wide range of flavors. Some I've had to pull away from, "How can anyone find that enjoyable?" Let the drinker beware!

My take on the sours are much aligned with Ray Daniels, founder of the Cicerone Program. He stated in an interview that he appreciates everything about sour beers: how they are made, the ingredients, the process, history, etc. But he simply prefers other beer styles.

My theory is this, that the more I expose myself to this style of beer, the more I will appreciate them. It's a theory! Really, I didn't even like the taste of beer on my first attempt. But then that was decades ago and the only beer readily available was industrial light lagers. I have come to enjoy the lighter side funk. For now, I have a great affinity for bold stouts and Belgian tripels and quads — I'm still learning to love sour.