Tastes great, less boozy: Eagle Rock hosts fourth annual Session Fest

The obsession with high-alcohol brews in the craft beer world is being tempered by the rising popularity of “session beers” (beer light on the booze but big on flavor), and on Saturday the pioneering Los Angeles brewers at Eagle Rock Brewery are celebrating this trend with the fourth annual Session Fest.

The event, which runs from noon until 6 p.m., began as a way to showcase the creativity and skills of Eagle Rock’s brewing team, which loves the challenge of creating beers where subtlety and balance are paramount. Years past have featured all manner of traditional session-y styles like English bitters, milds and dry stouts, as well as more inventive creations like last year’s excellent Bump ‘n’ Rind grapefruit koslch, a black session India pale ale (B.S.I.P.A) and a “petite saison.”

The whole staff of Eagle Rock Brewery gets a chance to design a sub-5%-alcohol brew to pour at the festival, and founder Ting Su says it’s a great way to teach the non-brewing members of the staff just what goes into making the beer they’re selling. This year, Su has invited other member breweries from the nascent Los Angeles Brewers Guild to participate, and the lineup makes an already-exciting event a can’t-miss for fans of L.A. beer.

Participating breweries include Craftsman Brewing, Beachwood BBQ & Brewing, Monkish Brewing, Smog City Brewing and the new Three Weavers Brewing Co. (Check out the full list here.)

Admission is $15 and includes three half-pint pours of the festival brews. You can, of course, buy additional drink tickets, and since the brews are all so low in alcohol you can have a few! There will also be a food truck (the burger-slinging madmen from the Grill ‘Em All truck) to provide fuel for a day’s worth of session beer drinking.

As spring heats up and turns to L.A. summer, there’ll be no shortage of beer-centric events happening around town, but Session Fest is one beer festival that prizes flavor and creativity above all. It’s the beer lover’s beer festival that’s more than a party; it’s a celebration of beer culture and brewing creativity.

Session Fest, Eagle Rock Brewery, 3056 Roswell St., Los Angeles, (323) 257-7866.