Beer: My Name is Fon
Brewery: DSSOLVR (Asheville, NC)
Style: Pale Ale – New England
5.4% ABV / N/A IBU

Our definition of “session beers” has really narrowed in the last few years, particularly as higher gravity and aggressively-hopped IPAs are engineering a one-style-to-rule-them-all nationwide tap takeover. “Sessionable” is now shorthand for session IPAs – typically highly-carbonated hop water that clocks in around the 4.5% ABV mark. Decent alternatives to Mexican lagers for daylight drinking, for sure, but none offer a particularly good showcase for the one thing that really defines the pale ale and India pale ale styles: hops. It’s always about the hops.

Asheville brewery DSSOLVR describes its radical new hazy pale ale My Name is Fon as a “hoppy ale.” True to its description, it is a more “approachable” interpretation of a New England pale ale – lightly carbonated, with some tropical fruit notes (particularly a lemon-lime flavor from the Motueka hops), but a more light, drinkable version that what we’re accustomed to. It’s also a very attractive beer for its style; it pours perfectly opaque with no unappealing sediment.

Some of My Name is Fon’s crispness comes from its malt base, which resembles a Czech pilsner. It actually looks and drinks like one, too. DSSOLVR’s approach to hopping is not particularly radical with My Name is Fon – it is double dry-hopped, or hopped in three different stages, with two different hop varietals (the aforementioned Motueka with the more ubiquitous Nelson Sauvin contributing a slight flavor of grape must). But this hoppy ale’s balance is a revelation, a kind of doorway into a secret universe of mid-range pale ales. It’s a good thing that My Name is Fon rests at 5.4% ABV, since you can probably crush two in one sitting without getting too DRNK

For more info, check out DSSOLVR here.