There's an article in the New York Times on session beers that's campaigning for more of them. Besides mashing at 160 degrees, I have no idea how you make a flavorful beer at 1.9% alcohol, and that would be a syrupy bizarre drink, not so much notable for malt as unfermentable, sweet dextrins. That's not quite fair, but it would certainly be hard to do. Fermentation and hops are the only significant sources of flavor for such an ale, unless you want to go an absurd route with adjuncts. The case the article mentions is a Belgian-style "Beir de Table," so my guess is that it is fermentation (if that beer is flavorful at all...)

I'm a little annoyed that Anchor's Small Beer isn't mentioned in the article. It's 3.2% if I recall.

It seems to me that session ales should be more readily available than they are. Although I've never brewed in a commercial setting, my guess is that many of the 9%+ beers we see waste a lot of the runnings. There's a small beer in that tun when the wort for the Russian Stout, Barleywine or double IPA is collected. (That is fact is what Anchor does: their small beer is the classic case, made from the final runnings of the mash for their barleywine.)

I may try a small beer soon.