Festival Preview: WA: 6/26 Session Fest 2014 at Naked City,featuring over 25 breweries, and our best list yet!

Ses-sion, Pronunciation: \ˈse-shən\ Function: noun, a meeting devoted to a particular activity; "a filming session"; "a gossip session" Function: adjective, the name of a perceived style of beer usually associated with an ale or lager that is equal to or less than 5.00% Alcohol by Volume.

Returning after a one year hiatus, Seattle's only 'light beer' festival, features over 25 breweries from the Northwestern region and California. This year stands to be our best yet, featuring numerous Session India Pale Ales, India Session Ales, Stouts, and even Berliner Weisse in the Walrus beer garden at Naked City (8564 Greenwood Avenue North Seattle, WA 98103). Breaking it down by state, we'll have 18 participating breweries from Washington, 6 from Oregon, plus 1 each from Montana and California.

New to this year's Session Fest is the introduction of the "Best in Show" and "ISA: Interesting Session Ale" awards, for people's favorite and the best India Session Ale.

Kicking off on June 26th, at 6pm, with a Brewers Night and an outdoor bar, you're invited to stop by and grab a pint (or two) while enjoying Session Fest!

Naked City Brewery & Taproom is located at 8564 Greenwood Ave N, Seattle, WA 98103

Participating Brewery Beers

Pending Draft List

Washington

4.80% 7 Seas Life Jacket Session IPA

• This NW summer classic style, Session IPA, balances low ABV, high drinkability, with bursting hop flavor and aroma. Life Jacket Session IPA is well suited to quench your thirst and deliver hoppy satisfaction.  Brewed with Pale Ale, Pilsner, and a touch of Wheat & Light Crystal malts– the beer finishes crisp and clean with a load of Amarillo and Nugget hops imparting juicy hop aromas of tangerine and grapefruit.  At a relaxing 4.8% ABV, this brew is perfect for enjoying on our beautiful NW waters, backyard BBQ, or at a ball game!

4.90% 40 IBU Airways PSA Summer Ale *updated June 26th, 2014

• A bright, citrus-forward sessionable pale ale packed with tons of hop flavor & aroma. Flaked oats give it a slight creaminess. If you could can the sun, this is what it would taste like.

Note, prior to this update Airways was releasing their Hybrid Ale.

4.80% 30 IBU Amnesia Summer Breeze Golden Ale

• Simply put, this is a crisp, thirst quenching golden ale with citrus tang and a delicate, floral hop aroma. It is meant to be sipped by the gulp full and washed over the jasmine of your mind like a... yes, summer breeze.

4.60% Big Time Millenium Falconer

• Millennium Falconer is a session strength Pale Ale weighing in at 4.6% alcohol by volume.  It features Millennium Hops (15.9% alpha acid content) for bitterness; and Falconer's Flight* hops (10.9% alpha acid) round out the middle and finish of this IPA imposter.

4.90% 53 IBU Black Raven Nothing But Flowers Session India Pale Ale

• This beer was born out of the joy of late night double batch brewing. The whirring of the pumps and the wails of David Byrne led us to this new IPA idea. Built on a simple malt base this IPA will let the hops talk straight to your head. The hope behind this beer was to make a low alcohol IPA that has the same hop aroma and flavor profile of a standard IPA & even some double IPAs out there. Take a sip, sit back and ask yourself, can I get used to this lifestyle? Well, with a bouquet of hop aroma blasting us in the face and fruit flavors of peach, nectarine, & grapefruit backed up with a clean/dry bitterness leaving us wanting more, we sure can. 4.9% ABV. 53 IBU

5.00% 23 IBU Dirty Bucket Hefen' Pineapple Ale

• A colaboration beer between brewer and wife. The Hefen' Pineapple is a light crisp Hefeweisen style ale, with all the fruity banana notes and a tart pineapple finish.

5.0% Elliott Bay Virgil Sunshine Session-style IPA

• Named after the Gamache family ranch in Wapato, WA where Amarillo hops were discovered.Light orange with an off-white head. Intense citrus and pine hoppiness. Light toasty caramel malt character with a moderate but lingering bitterness. Made with all organic hops.

4.20% 12 IBU Elysian Woo-Tang Kettle Sour *updated June 26th, 2014

• … pale beer with wheat and flaked barley that was soured in the kettle for 72 hrs w lactobacillus Brevus before we finished the brew and fermented it out with our house yeast.

3.70% Engine House 9 Berliner Weisse

• No description currently available.

3.90% 40 IBU Epic Ales Citrus Haze *updated June 26th, 2014

• A hazy and full bodied session ale, bright and zippy on the tongue. The leaves add a rich savory citrus flavor, while the beer itself is light and grassy. Only one barrel of this beer was produced.

4.30% Foggy Noggin Little Lucy English-style Special Bitter

• a little more than Beaver is all ways, but a great beer to drink all night

4.50% Fremont Wandering Wheat with Limes *updated June 26th, 2014

• Wandering Wheat is an invigorating unfiltered ale with a sweet, bready taste, subdued hoppiness and trademark cloudy appearance.

3.90% 60 IBU Georgetown Bravo 5 Session India Pale Ale

• Citrusy tangerine and madarin notes pair with piney flavors giving this lighter beer a bitter and hoppy punch without all the booze. ABV 3.9%. IBUs 60

4.20% 45 IBU Kulshan Full 90 Session Ale

• Crisp, herbal, light citrus German Perle hops envelope your senses and give you the strength to fight for your club for the Full 90 minute contest. A powerful hop aroma provides an expansive element to this light session ale. Hops are not left alone and are balanced with Vienna malt providing a soft bready/biscuit character. Full 90 is full flavored to satisfy and light enough to make it through the match.

3.50% Naked City Taflebier

• Brewed with Pilsner malt and hopped with Stryian Goldings. This light and refreshing "Table Beer" is inspired by the low alcohol session beers of Belgium. Light, crisp and refreshing, this beer is the perfect accompaniment to those long NW summer days.

5.00% Naked City Yankee Drifter

• Brewed with pilsner and honey malts and Czech Saaz hops, Yankee Drifter is a tribute beer for Don’s dad: Rodger L. Webb (1933 – 2005). The Yankee Drifter was his CB Radio handle and we'll tell you, the Yankee Drifter would be proud to have his name on this refreshing summer seasonal. Released each year on Father's Day weekend.

4.70% 20 IBU Port Townsend Yoda's Green Tea Golden Ale

• Our Chet’s Gold infused with Bancha, an organic green tea that lends a refreshing tea flavor and aroma.  Yoda doesn’t normally drink beer, but when he does, he drinks Yoda’s.

Rainy Daze Session Sod Slayer ISA *updated June 26th, 2014

• Our version of a lawn mower beer.With the combination of Pilsen and Maris Otter malts and the hefty 70 Ibu from the Citra and Centennial hops, you get a light straw colored,light bodied session IPA that quenches your thirst with lots of citrus notes

Note, putting their best foot forward, the brewery would like you to enjoy one of their best selling beers.

4.90 % 36 IBU Reuben's Dry Stout (Nitro)

• A traditional Irish Dry Stout, with flaked oats, roasted barley, and an Irish yeast strain to provide subtle fruitiness.  Silver Medal Winner at the 2013 North American Brewing Awards.

4.70% Schooner Exact Seamstress Union Raspberry Wheat *updated June 26th, 2014

• This raspberry wheat ale is made in very limited quantities each year. It is the perfect beer for a summer day. Raspberries along with unmalted wheat give this fruit beer a refreshing “tartness.” hallertau hops and a dry finish further distinguish this wheat from other Northwest fruit beer. Its subtly “pink” hue further heightens the drinking experience. Why not? It is summer after all.

4.50% 17 IBU Scuttlebutt Earthy Blonde with Rooibos Tea

• This beer is infused with Rooibos Tea, a product that claims significant health benefits.  Not being your average tea drinkers, Scuttlebutt's brew crew infused a house favorite with the tea to explore the health benefits in a more desirable media...  
  The health claims published all over the web advertise Rooibus as an anti inflammatory, filled with anti oxidants, assisting in prevention heart disease, cancer and diabetes,  beneficial in the delay of age related brain deterioration, contributing to healthy teeth and bones, aiding those struck with asthma, potentially helps fight HIV, stimulates hair growth, and heroically helps the liver to regenerate.  Scuttlebutt Brewing Company doesn't endorse these claims but we are fond of the flavor from this little red bush.
  This light ale is svelte in body, allowing for some kind of healthy activity post consumption.  Herbaceous, earthy flavors complement the Wheat and Vienna malt used in the Blonde.  The Tettenager finishing hops complete the experience, lending a bold citrus note in the finish.

5.00% Seapine La Fantasma Session Blonde IPA *updated June 26th, 2014

• A crisp summer ale that is light in color, light in body and dry hopped with Australian Galaxy.

5.00% 33 IBU Silver City Ziggy Zoggy Summer Lager

• Ziggy Zoggy is an unfiltered lager that balances a crisp and elegant honey-like malt flavor with assertive, classic German hop character. Brewed in the tradition of German style “Zwickelbier. “Ziggy Zoggy, Ziggy Zoggy. Oy! Oy! Oy!”

4.10% 41 IBU Two Beers Day Hike Summer Session Ale

• Kicking things off with an effervescent aroma of lemon zest, this summer session ale is light and crisp, perfect for a summer day. With hints of grass and lemon on a palate, this well balanced beer is extremely refreshing, leaving flavors of citrus and grass after every sip before finishing clean.

3.70 % Wingman Gratzilla Gratzer *not vegan friendly.

• Grätzer is a Polish beer style composed primarily of oak-smoked wheat. It was developed prior to the advent of lagering, and thus uses a top-fermenting yeast in its production. Wingman’s Gratzilla uses 100% Wheat Malt Smoked with Bacon and is not vegan friendly.

Oregon

3.90% Caldera Lawnmower Lager

• For all those people afraid of beer you can’t see through, this one is for you. Please refrain from drinking and driving riding lawn mowers; the wait will be worth it!

4.90% 22 IBU Base Camp Hop in the Pool Helles

• Our Late Hop Helles is fermented with lager yeast, and showcases our proprietary lagering cellar techniques that result in a classic pilsner malt character and smooth, clean finish.  Sound like an ordinary Helles lager?  Not so fast- its only hop addition is in the whirlpool, not the brew kettle, meaning huge hop taste and aroma with low bitterness.

4.40% 3 IBU Breakside Passion Fruit Sour Ale

• An uncommon sour ale with a kiss of tropical fruit Our award­winning sour ale returns for 2014 as our official “summer seasonal.” Passionfruit Sour is brewed as a traditional German Berliner weisse, and then we add a unique, tropical twist. We use lactic acid­ producing bacteria to produce a beer that is light in body, extremely refreshing, and mouth puckeringly tart. The addition of passionfruit in our lagering tanks gives this beer an inviting stonefruit aroma.

4.50% 24IBU pFriem Belgian-style Little Saison Saison

• Back in the early 20th century, farmhouses in Wallonia, the French-speaking region of Belgium, would brew this beer in the winter, only to be consumed in the summer by their farm hands called Saisoners. These beers are known for being tart, lite on the palate, dry, fruity and complex. So, tilt your head back and assume an open mouth position while we pay homage to this classic with a series of four different Saison beers for you to enjoy. Cheers!
  
  Don’t dismiss Little Saison by its lower alcohol content. Your taste buds would never forgive you. It packs a wallop of flavor, a bit more girth and earthly bitterness, followed by tangy aromas of lemon and dill. It’s a tart little classic that can quench any monstrous thirst.
  
  Key Descriptions: Lemon, Dill, Tart
  Key Ingredients: Malt- Gambrinus Canadian Pilsner, Gambrinus Wheat Malt Hops- German Tettnang, Sorchi Ace, Topaz Yeast- Farmhouse Ale
  
  History:
  
  Saisons are also known as Farmhouse styles of beer.  Most of them are found in the Wallonia region of Belgium, located in the Southwestern part of the country.  The Walloina region is known for farming.  In the early to mind 20th century farmers would hire on Saisoners (farm hands) for the summer months.  During the winters the farm owners would brew beer on the farms called Saison.  They would brew stronger beer in the winter and brew beer very low in alcohol summer for the Saisoners.   The beer was 2.5-3.5% and the saisoners would drink up to 20 liters a day.  The Saisons, whether modest or strong in alcohol are known for being tart, a little funky, light on the palate, dry, fruity, spicy, complex and very quaffable.
  
  Little Saison gives a nod towards a traditional Saison and Table Saison.  This beer beer uses hops from Germany, Australia, and Yakama Valley giving a new world flavor and approach to a historic style.  
  
  Examples of the style: Saison Dupont Avril . Saison Dupont
  
  Tasting Notes:
  Rustic yellow appearance with a bright white head.  Refreshing aroma of lemon and dill.  This beer is tart, refreshing, and very quaffable.  Finishes with an earthy bitterness and a creamy mouth feel.
  
  Food Pairings:
  Saisons are very diverse with food as they are acidic, bitter, and fruity.  Salmon cakes, crab cakes, rib eye, shrimp salad, avocado and tomato salad.  Thai Red Snapper with spicy tamarind sauce.  Fried- fish, clams, and calamari.  Sausages work wonderfully- Itailian merguez, chorizo, seafood, Toulouse, bratwurst, venison, boudin noir.  Thai food and Vietnamese food pair wonderfully with Saison.  

4.50% 18 IBU Upright Four Saison

• Four is a wheat based table saison embodying the spirit of country style French ales with light floral tones and a dry, tart finish.
  Grist: pale, wheat, vienna
  Hops: santiam

4.50% 45 IBU Crux Off Leash Northwest-style Session Ale

• Debuted at an event that crowned our hometown, “Dog Town USA,” this light-hearted ale bounds with regional Citra, Centennial and Crystal hops for those citrusy notes beloved by Northwest hop hounds. We’ve nudged the malt bill in the other direction, for a sessionable ale that’s easy to love.

4.70% 20 IBU Oakshire Smokin' Helles

• Light. Smoky. Unique. Smokin’ Hell is a true German lager, inspired by the smoked beers of Bamberg.  Helles means light (colored). It is golden in color, light in body, and has a tiny hint of smoke in the nose from 18% smoked malt. Baked bread and toasty flavors follow through the middle and a faint smoked note lingers in the finish.
  Refreshingly drinkable and complex all in one glass.

Montana & California

4.20% Big Sky Pygmy Owl Session IPA

• Pygmy Owl is an IPA that’s in your face with full fledged hop taste and aroma, yet is low in alcohol. In fact, it clocks in at only 4.2% AVB [sic]! An IPA without the harsh bitterness, that you can have more than one without getting that drunkied up feeling. Whooo wants another?

4.50% 65 IBU Stone To Go Session IPA

• Since Day One, we've been abundantly forthright and fully transparent about our lust for hops. It's led us to craft many an IPA, most of them imperial—some intense for their time and all timeless in their intensity. For Stone Go To IPA, we are embracing our hop obsession in a new way, funneling an abundance of lupulin-borne bitterness into a "session" IPA delivering all the fruity, piney character of a much bigger IPA. To accomplish this, we employed "hop bursting," a new technique wherein an irrational amount of hops is added during the final phase of the brewing process to coax out extreme flavors and aromas while also imparting a burst of desirably pleasant bitterness. The result is an Alpha-acid-rich beer that fans can enjoy more of without missing out on the assertive hop character you, like us, crave. So, sit back and go two with your new everyday go-to IPA and bask along with us in the glory of the almighty hop.

In addition, a special selection of Session Fest beers will be on tap during the Greenwood Car Show and 5th Annual Beer Can Derby in the Walrus beer garden at Naked City on Saturday, June 28th. High Noon.

About Naked City Brewing

Once upon a time, there were two dudes named Donald and Don. One was an engineer toiling away on the super computers of a local university, and the other was a supervisor managing the complex operations of a local billionaire. Both of them loved their jobs, but more than their jobs they loved beer. Each Don had a recurring dream of a magical place without a name, a place where the great beers of the world flowed like the Salmon le Sac at flood stage, and the fine brewing tradition of the Pacific Northwest stood proudly beside the best concoctions from far-flung breweries in Asia and across Europe.

Don and Donald worked tirelessly in the wee hours on their home brew mixtures, searching for the best possible combination of hops, malt, barley, and love. For long years, the two Dons had their separate dreams, and never met. A local poet named Bryan had the pleasure of growing up with Donald, and worked for the same local billionaire as Don. After many months of hearing Don speak of his dream of the magical beer haven, Bryan knew it must be the very same place of which Donald had spoken too. He knew instinctively that it was his responsibility to bring the two Dons together. On a fateful summer afternoon at the Elysian Brewery on Capitol Hill, the two Dons met. The event later became known as THE HAPPY HOUR OF DESTINY.

Every patron in the pub knew something special was happening that day. The magical place both men dreamed of was one and the same. That very afternoon, the two Dons vowed to create a great beer haven right here on earth, and together they would name this magic place THE NAKED CITY. In THE NAKED CITY, it doesn't matter where you're going or where you've been, all that matters is great living and great beer. In THE NAKED CITY, the only problem is what great craft beer to try next. The two Dons spent a combined 25 years studying the world's great brewing traditions, and couldn't wait to begin experimenting together. Their very first batch of beer, an Oak-aged double IPA, took a ribbon in the Northwest regionals of the 2007 National Homebrew Competition. The rest, as they say, is history.

Two years after the two Dons combined their separate dreams, THE NAKED CITY opened its doors. Now Naked City boasts an award-winning brewery that produces a variety of small-batch beers available at the pub and friendly bars and restaurants in Seattle, Tacoma, Bellingham, and beyond. The 24 taps of THE NAKED CITY offer a constantly rotating variety of Washington's best beers, regional craft beers, and the best beers Donald and Don have found in two lifetimes of beer travels around the world.

Two and a half years after THE NAKED CITY was founded, the Dons convinced the local poet who brought them together to join them in the adventure. The Dons and Bryan together built a bigger brewery; a full-size kitchen; a dining room/movie theater called The Screening Room that features free monthly events including film, comedy, poetry, community discussion, and jazz; and now The Walrus Beer Garden, a patio that's home to murals by local artists, games, and summertime events.