The Session is an idea of Stan Hieronymus. It is an opportunity monthly for beer bloggers to write their viewpoint on a specific topic. Each month a beer blogger hosts the Session and chooses the topic. The rest of us write about the topic, then they do a wrap up.

Beer at Joe's asks this month

What’s your favorite beer cocktail (and yes, despite the title of this post, it can be a black & tan or a shandy)? Find a recipe for that or a new one, try it, and tell us why you did or didn’t like it–even if you think beer cocktails are nothing but a good way to waste a beer.

When I first heard about this month's Session I immediately figured I'd go find a bar, have a boilermaker and write about the experience. It's a bar classic and I was more interested in exploring that.

Then last night I was in a local bar and I order a Snakebite. The waitress asked if I knew what that was, I replied I had plenty of them over the years and did know. She showed up with some cider-pale ale combo and I thought she was placing it in the wrong place on the table. I tried to correct her and she told me this was their Snakebite. I was used to a Guinness and Cider combo. Herein lies a problem.

Both the waitress was right and so was I, both of us were wrong, there was definitely a miscommunication. One of the best parts of the BJCP is that it provides a common language for beer lovers. Now I am not going to declare we ought to have a BJCP for beer cocktails, it is a bit too extreme a solution. That said bar owners can do a very simple thing to avoid the confusion I faced. They should list their regular beer cocktails on a menu. One of my favorite bars lists theirs on a full page of their beer menu.

I don't mind if a bar doesn't use the standard terms for a beer cocktail, just that they make it readily apparent to someone walking into their bar. Define our terms, that is what I ask from bars for beer cocktails. And the cider-pale ale Snake Bite was very refreshing.