2016: Year of the Session: Oatmeal and other Malt Enhancers

[brennanj11]

I am completely committed to brewing only beers this year that are 5% and below. Just brewed a session IPA on Wednesday and used the following Malts. 2Row - 75%| Wheat - 10% | Oats - 10% | Honey Malt - 5%. This particular brew is using an English yeast but has a ton of flavor and aroma hops. I tried to keep the body light to let the citrusy NZ hops shine through.

I'm looking for general discussion regarding concerns/issues/guidelines for brewing lower alcohol beers. Is it as easy scaling back amounts and matching malt percentages? Water considerations? Any specific Mashing and Fermentation considerations?

Couple styles i'll look to hit on this year.

1. English Bitter-style w/ Maris as base and not sure what else(Munich/Vienna?) Was planning to match malt backbone with a more traditional hop aroma and flavor profile, leaning towards floral/earthy/spicy(Nugget/Columbus/Centennial) aroma and flavor hops.

2. Belgian Wit style w/ some lemondrop hops. Pretty straightforward. Looking to add a subtle hop note here, keeping the IBU ratio to .5. Going to include some lemon zest and coriander as well for aromatics.

3. Black IPA style. Wookey Jack is one of my favorite beers. Haven't done much research on clones or what types of hops to use. I'm pretty sure I'd start there and try to scale down. Lost for what types of hops work with darker roasted malts

4. Hybrid Ale style. Cream Ale/Miller Lite Clone.. don't currently have the ability to lager my beer, so looking for something my alcoholic friends can crush in a party setting. Interested in using Amylase Enzyme, like Schlenkerla's Clone

5. Dry Oatmeal Stout style. Basing the recipe off Yooper's Oatmeal Stout using the Pale Chocolate was nice. I'll probably do a few different varieties of this: Bourbon Soaked Vanilla Bean, Chocolate Coffee(Mocha), Pecan Flour and Maple Syrup.

 

[DeadAirJeff]

I am completely committed to brewing only beers this year that are 5% and below. Just brewed a session IPA on Wednesday and used the following Malts. 2Row - 75%| Wheat - 10% | Oats - 10% | Honey Malt - 5%. This particular brew is using an English yeast but has a ton of flavor and aroma hops. I tried to keep the body light to let the citrusy NZ hops shine through.

3. Black IPA style. Wookey Jack is one of my favorite beers. Haven't done much research on clones or what types of hops to use. I'm pretty sure I'd start there and try to scale down. Lost for what types of hops work with darker roasted malts

I am definitely going more for session beers these days as well. Probably because I'm getting older and find that I enjoy throwing back several with friends without getting too hammered in the process.

What's the hop bill/schedule look like on the SIPA you made? Also, mash temps and specific English yeast? I'm loving NZ hops these days and might like to try that out.

Also, Homebrewer Assoc posted a good Wookey Jack clone a while back that should help you start:

http://www.homebrewersassociation.org/homebrew-recipe/firestone-walker-wookey-jack-clone/

One word of advice on a session Black IPA, though - Be careful how you use the dark malts. I tried making one this past Christmas season (Black Xmas), and I think I pulled tannins from the Midnight Wheat I used, making it pretty astringent. Might not have been as much of a problem if the beer had more alcohol/body to hide behind, but who knows... I've heard this can be avoided by adding the dark malt ON TOP of the mash before sparging instead of IN the mash, but I haven't tried yet.

 

[MapleGroveAleworks]

I am not quite in your wheelhouse, but I brew about 75% of my beers anywhere in the 1.050's. I seem to prefer that amount of alcohol and body, and the mugs/kegs seem to empty much quicker that way.

I don't do anything different, but I can tell you that it's much easier to dial in efficiency and get close to exactly the numbers you're looking for when you're brewing with about the same amount of grains each batch. It really helps.

Nothing else really changes for me. As long as you enter the correct proportions in BruN Water, BeerSmith, etc it's not terribly different than any other gravity range, until you get up to the 10%+ beers.

 

[brennanj11]

I am definitely going more for session beers these days as well. Probably because I'm getting older and find that I enjoy throwing back several with friends without getting too hammered in the process.

What's the hop bill/schedule look like on the SIPA you made? Also, mash temps and specific English yeast? I'm loving NZ hops these days and might like to try that out.

I haven't had a chance to taste the finish product yet, but I just checked the gravity and the sample tasted great. I had a previous thread on here, where I was explaining that I wanted to mimic the Northeast Style IPA with a lower ABV obviously. The mash was 75 minutes at 152. WLP1318 London Ale 3. Kept at 68-70 for first 4 days, hit FG, crashed to 40 overnight and added first dry hop, then let free-rise to 62 for remainder.
The next one I was thinking of swapping Nelson for Galaxy. Here's the link to the recipe on Brewer's Friend.

Oh and thanks for sharing your experience and clone recipe for Black IPA. I'm pretty scared about avoiding that smokey tannin taste in this brew

 

[beersk]

Midnight wheat is a great dark malt for black IPA as is Blackprinz (of Belaire).

If you want the body, mash in the 154-156 range, but use a more highly attenuative yeast. You don't want it to finish sweet.

For your hybrid beer, use good German malts, do a hochkurz step mash at 145F for 45-60 minutes, then raise to 162F for 60 minutes. It's a long mash, but worth it. You get the highly attenuative wort, but also a lot of body. A single infusion won't get you there. OR, you just could just mash at 150F for 75 minutes if you don't care that much about it. And use a Kolsch yeast since you don't have the ability to ferment cooler.
The thing about using Amylase Enzyme is you don't know where it's going to stop. You don't want it to finish below 1.000, that'd be insane and probably taste bad.

 

[brennanj11]

Midnight wheat is a great dark malt for black IPA as is Blackprinz (of Belaire).

If you want the body, mash in the 154-156 range, but use a more highly attenuative yeast. You don't want it to finish sweet.

For your hybrid beer, use good German malts, do a hochkurz step mash at 145F for 45-60 minutes, then raise to 162F for 60 minutes. It's a long mash, but worth it. You get the highly attenuative wort, but also a lot of body. A single infusion won't get you there. OR, you just could just mash at 150F for 75 minutes if you don't care that much about it. And use a Kolsch yeast since you don't have the ability to ferment cooler.
The thing about using Amylase Enzyme is you don't know where it's going to stop. You don't want it to finish below 1.000, that'd be insane and probably taste bad.

Awesome insight on the hochkurz step mash, this is the type of advice I was looking for.

So I understand a lower mash temp can equate to less unfermentables yielding less body. And for IPAs I assume this is desirable to ensure a crisp aftertaste with no residual sweetness to clash w/Hops.
I'm wondering if the lower ABV already attributes to less body(watery) and that is the need to up the mash temp in these session beers? Could a 75 min 154 Mash help increase body while achieving a higher attenuation?

I'm also curious as to how the body(not residual sweetness) affects the hop profile? I guess I'm not too keen on the definition of body.

 

[CHansen6]

I've been doing more session ales lately as well. My best advice is to use proportionally more flavorful grains. I mean vienna, munich, wheat, crystal, etc. basically anything that isn't 2-row or pilsner. I like to comprise my grain bill of at least 20% or more, which is pretty easy actually.

I've been really digging Simpson's golden naked oats lately. They add incredible head retention, and the mouth feel is great. It doesn't take a lot. I've used them between 3.5 and 10%, and have really liked it. It brings a subtle nutty graininess, which fits well into most styles. It's hard to pick up on sometimes actually. I've been mostly making pale ales with it, so the hops tend to be at the forefront. It really helps to fill out the mouthfeel of lower gravity pale ales and sessions though. They fit great into ambers and dark ales as well.

The only style I'd be a little worried about is your hybrid ale. I suspect it will make a fine beer, but might be a little too flavorful if people are expecting something like miller lite. Only one way to find out I suppose.

 

[Bosh]

Just start using more flavorful malt, easy to put in a lot of light munich or some biscuit malt.

 

[tennesseean_87]

As I have researched session beers and done a few of my own, I have found you need to ignore percentages. A good starting point is to take a standard recipe and cut base malt without scaling other grains. You might even want to compensate more by using higher mash temps and less attenuative yeasts. I also would use more flavorful base malts when possible (Vienna, MO, etc. ).