Picture this: an ideal summer day spent leisurely with friends in your favorite pub or at home, lots of conversation and laughter, and the perfect beer that effortlessly fits into the setting without overtaking the discussion. You'd be thinking of a 'session beer', a rather popular term in summer sipping lexicon.

The concept of 'session beer' is a curious one and has been the subject of many a barroom debate. "What exactly is a session beer? Is it defined by low alcohol content? Does it denote a beer that ensures you can have multiple rounds without impairing your senses?” Questions such as these are tossed around beer tables pretty often. According to veteran beer journalist Lew Bryson, a session beer is flavorful yet light, ideal for times when “you want a beer you can keep sipping without slipping."

Session beers aren't the choice for a quick drink after work or a single glass with dinner. Instead, they represent a characteristic interplay of time, place, and restraint. Picture a relaxing pub atmosphere, drinking at a steady pace and knowing that you can do the same the next day. It's common consensus that a session beer generally has an alcohol by volume (abv) content of 5% or less. It's an unobtrusive, well-crafted beer perfect for enhancing the shared experience of friends meeting, reminiscing or watching a game together.

Those seeking such beers often default to English-style ales like extra special bitters, milds, golden ales, and smaller counts of porters and stouts. Also fitting the bill are simple Belgian table beers and low-abv German wheat ales, commonly featured in cafes or beer gardens.

Session beers were integral to the American beer culture, particularly when the craft beer revolution took flight in the late 1990s and early 2000s. With the rise in popularity of India pale ales and the surge of high-alcohol content beers, the charm of session beers somewhat dwindled. Things, however, are swinging back again post the pandemic as breweries look to entice people back to pubs and into relishing spaces, and not just beers.

"[Session beers] are good time's catalyst and preferred choice when heading out with friends," says Morgan Snyder of Buttonwoods Brewery in Providence, Rhode Island. "We treat them as beers that taste good but do not dominate the conversation. Beer should contribute to a good time, instead of being the occasion itself."

The session beer legacy is intrinsically linked with the Full Sail Brewing Company of Hood River, Oregon, known particularly for its 'Session' range of lagers. The brewery refreshed the Session brand earlier this year in 12-ounce cans, while adding Japanese rice lager and west coast lager to the variety. For Garrett Meier, VP of Brewery Operations at Full Sail, brewing a good lager is about finding the right balance to deliver a "clean, flavorful, highly drinkable beer".

Despite the varying interpretations, one can agree with veteran brewer Jennifer Talley's concise summation: session beer is deeply personal and often indescribable, much like defining the undefinable.