ON THE HOP

S ometimes all you want is something simple. A beer that gives you nothing to think about other than, “Mm, that’s nice.” A beer tasty enough to drink all night, but light enough to avoid that night coming to a slurring, premature end.

Serious beer drinkers call these “session” beers — one of the more professional-sounding euphemisms I’ve heard. Session beers tend to be relatively low in alcohol, moderately clean-tasting, and not too cloying in taste or aroma. They work much in the same way as a good handful of potato chips work: they’re tasty, but they don’t quite satisfy you, making you reach for another when you’re done.

Whale Tale Ale from Boston Breweries — made in Paarden Eiland, by the way, not in Massachusetts — is a good example of an accessible, easily sessionable beer. It’s coppery in colour, dominated by a soft caramel character, and carries a sweet mineral tinge that’s something of a characteristic of Boston’s beers. It’s grounded by the presence of Hallertauer hops, which lend a just-perceptible, tobacco-like earthiness. Light and simple, in other words, and very drinkable.

The first time I met Boston’s founder and chief brewer Chris Barnard, way back in 2011, he stressed the need for beers of low strength as well as mega-alcoholic hop-bombs. Whale Tale sits at a restrained 3.5% alcohol by volume — lower than any macro-brewed beer available in South Africa, save for Windhoek Light.

But that’s all academic if you can’t afford to buy more than a couple. Luckily, Whale Tale won’t break the bank, which is significant, because few people like to spend R100 or more on beers for a summer night in. Whale Tale shows that you don’t have to — even if you have a taste for microbrew.