Help with Session Beer please.

[SEndorf]

When brewing or designing a recipe, I’ve never really looked at alcohol content. For me, ABV is a trivial detail of brewing software that always seems to fall somewhere around 5.5 - 6.5%. It’s never been a “target” and for the most part, I’ve never paid attention to it.

Now my pals are asking for a session beer. HELP please! I’ve never made one.

Can I take one of my existing recipies in Beersmith and simply adjust OG down? How do you “sessioners” get down to around 4% and prevent a watery and lifeless beer?

 

[tll77]

I make quite a few low abv session beers. Mostly those recipes for me are designed for low gravity rather than scaled down, but it should be fairly similar if you are building a session from an existing recipe.

Some tricks I utilize:

Scale the base malt primarily while still keeping the percent special grains in an appropriate range.

Steep special grains rather than mashing.

Mash at a slightly higher temp.

Use lower attenuating yeast strain.

Dry hop.

 

[couchsending]

Mash Higher
Use a Rest in the 160-162 range if you can step mash
Use some alternate forms of brewing salts that will increase cl and so4 amounts without adding a ton of Ca
- kcl, NaCl, MgSo4, MgCl
Definitely use some NaCl
- it helps with pallet fullness
Lactose or Maltodextrin
Carapils or Carafoam

There’s a whole book on brewing session beers that’s decent.

They’re the hardest beers to brew well. The balance needs to be executed to perfection In order to not taste like watered down beer. Also if you sparge you need to be very careful that your gravity doesn’t go too low and pH doesn’t rise at the end of sparge. With such a low starting gravity it’s easy to do.

On another note has anyone ever done a side by side where you brewed one beer with a goal of 4% and then one that was higher gravity and the diluted down to 4%? I know you can get better flavor extraction from certain ingredients at higher alcohol levels. But don’t know if diluting down negates that or not.

 

[SEndorf]

Good tips.
Sounds like increasing the water/grain ratio would be a good idea.

 

[SEndorf]

I make quite a few low abv session beers. Mostly those recipes for me are designed for low gravity rather than scaled down, but it should be fairly similar if you are building a session from an existing recipe.

Could you please share a recipe designed for low ABV? This might be better than scaling.

 

[couchsending]

Good tips.
Sounds like increasing the water/grain ratio would be a good idea.

You mean decreasing? Increasing it generally results in a drier beer.

 

[Northern_Brewer]

Could you please share a recipe designed for low ABV? This might be better than scaling.

Just about any British style...

But going back to the OP - it might help if you defined more precisely what kind of beer you're looking for, and what you define as "session". A lot of USians call 5% a session beer, whereas that is stronger than >99% of all cask ale sold in the UK.

 

[tll77]

Could you please share a recipe designed for low ABV? This might be better than scaling.

Certainly!

This is an ordinary bitter I like to keep on rotation

ten gallons 3.2%

10 lbs maris otter
1 lb crystal 40
.5 lb crystal 120

3oz East Kent Golding(whole cone) 60 min

wyeast 1098 British ale

 

[SEndorf]

You mean decreasing? Increasing it generally results in a drier beer.

Wouldn't a thinner mash be desirable for a session? I would think reducing sparge volume might help final runnings. I can't imagine a noticeable effect on flavor.

 

[SEndorf]

Just about any British style...

But going back to the OP - it might help if you defined more precisely what kind of beer you're looking for, and what you define as "session". A lot of USians call 5% a session beer, whereas that is stronger than >99% of all cask ale sold in the UK.

I'd like to get no stronger than 4.5% ABV.
And any simple ale would due for this crowd.

 

[SEndorf]

Certainly!

This is an ordinary bitter I like to keep on rotation

ten gallons 3.2%

10 lbs maris otter
1 lb crystal 40
.5 lb crystal 120

3oz East Kent Golding(whole cone) 60 min

wyeast 1098 British ale

I like it. Nice and simple. Worth a go.

 

[couchsending]

Wouldn't a thinner mash be desirable for a session? I would think reducing sparge volume might help final runnings. I can't imagine a noticeable effect on flavor.

Ahh yes gotcha. Personally I always create a higher gravity wort and dilute pre boil.

 

[bracconiere]

If your looking for 'low cal' beer, use glucoamylase. Tell your friends it is carb free and low cal....

 

[RPh_Guy]

Up for a Berliner Weisse?
Typical ABV is 2.8-3.8%.

 

[SEndorf]

Up for a Berliner Weisse?
Typical ABV is 2.8-3.8%.

That's a great suggestion, and personally I would love it, but this beer drinking posse probably would not appreciate a sour.

 

[SEndorf]

If your looking for 'low cal' beer, use glucoamylase. Tell your friends it is carb free and low cal....

Another great suggestion. I have not yet used glucoamylase and need to read up on it. Am I correct that you dump this in when pitching the yeast?

 

[Northern_Brewer]

I'd like to get no stronger than 4.5% ABV.
And any simple ale would due for this crowd.

As someone who's drunk in British pubs all his life, I think there's a real sweet spot for bitter around 4.2% - below 4% I feel you start need to messing around with "extras" to help with body but for classic best bitters all you need is quality "proper" ingredients.

British beers are all about balancing all the components. Start with the yeast - you need a characterful yeast which probably means one that doesn't attenuate too much. I'm still working my way through the main liquid homebrew yeasts but WLP041 is definitely one I want to go back to even if I suspect I'll end up adopting a Brewlab strain as my house yeast. I know WLP006, WLP023, WLP025, WLP028, 1318, Imperial A09 Pub and the WLP022/1469 pair all have their fans.

Grist for a best is pretty easy - ideally a premium British malt like Otter or Golden Promise, ordinary UK pale will do, or at a pinch US 2-row with some biscuit or Victory to help it out. Generally if you're going to put crystal in a British beer you want at least as much sugar (preferably invert/golden syrup etc) to balance it out, but you can probably get away without the sugar if you're only doing <=3% crystal. That quality pale malt is providing most of the flavour.

Hops - can be anything really, especially given your comments on your "crowd" Can never go wrong with Goldings, although mixing in some Bramling Cross is even better, but the likes of straight Challenger or First Gold will work, but these days even in the UK you see quite a bit of Cascade etc in there.

Be generous with the gypsum - >150ppm calcium and sulphate, but don't overcarbonate. Low abv beers tend to struggle a bit in keg IMO, they benefit from the lower carbonation (1.2-1.5vol) of cask conditioning (or just very gentle force carbing), although you need a bit more than that (say 1.8-2 vol) for them to feel right in bottle IMO.

Or for something 3.2% and hoppy using all the tricks like oats and melanoidin see this thread.

Glucoamylase will thin out your beer and increase the alcohol you get from a given grist, which may not be what you want....

 

[bracconiere]

Another great suggestion. I have not yet used glucoamylase and need to read up on it. Am I correct that you dump this in when pitching the yeast?

yes, i use ~11-15g's for a 10 gal batch, just throw it in with the yeast...i get 1.000 dry...and it goes from ~200 cals for a 6% beer, to ~195 for an 8% beer....only way i can stay slim, and be able to drink all day (session?) lol

 

[SEndorf]

A wealth of information (as usual) from you guys. Later today I'll get to the drawing board in Beersmith.
As I age, "looking" at beer seems to make me grow sideways so I see adding glucoamylase as a helpful addition but probably not for this particular beer.

 

[bracconiere]

A wealth of information (as usual) from you guys. Later today I'll get to the drawing board in Beersmith.
As I age, "looking" at beer seems to make me grow sideways so I see adding glucoamylase as a helpful addition but probably not for this particular beer.

LOL, all i remember about sessions is smoking pot when i was 14....didn't know they got into my beer now! (they did get all the money i made from my first job though)

best of luck on your endeavor, keep me/us filled in with your recipe creation!

 

[SEndorf]

Here's what I played with. Trying to keep it fairly simple.

Batch size 10.80
11.0 Lbs. Maris Otter (76.2%)
3.0 Lbs. Victory (20.8%)
0.70 oz. Crystal 80 (3%)

3.0 oz. East Kent Goldings (60 minutes)
WLP 041
Single infusion mash - 60 minutes @ 156
Mash out at 170

OG 1.038
FG 1.014
ABV 3.3%

Water / Grain Ratio 1.60
Mash water 8.3 gal.
Sparge water 7.8 gal.

Color 8.5 SRM
29.6 IBU’s

All comments appreciated!

 

[SEndorf]

Forgot to add my salts....
I use 100% RO and treat 20 gal. in my HLT
Adding 8 grams of both Gypsum and Calcium Chloride will estimate Ph at 5.38
No mash additions would be necessary with this grain bill.

 

[Northern_Brewer]

If you're using Otter you don't need the Victory, you only want a little bit of Victory to add interest if you're using US 2-row. However if you're going down to 3.3% ABV then you're going to need to use a few tricks to help the body like a few percent melanoidin and possibly oats - I'm personally not such a fan of high proportions of oats as they taste porridgey to me until they've conditioned a while, but other people seem to be OK with them. Also 5% wheat (ideally torrified, flaked will do) will help body and head.

It's a pretty mean bitter that only has bittering hops, and modern audiences expect more flavour. For my bests I tend to use bittering plus a 100g pack in 19l spread across 10min, whirlpool and dry hop. Which is a bit generous and not 100% traditional, but works for me. So for 10 US gallons I'd be looking at bittering plus 6-8oz.

 

[SEndorf]

Your expertise on bitters is appreciated.
I will make all the adjustments noted above - skip the victory, add a few %'s of torrified wheat, melanoiden, and oats, and add/balance the hops.




Edit: Bah..spell check. That's torrified not terrified wheat. But who knows.. it may be terrified by the time I'm done with it....

 

[bracconiere]

Edit: Bah..spell check. That's torrified not terrified wheat. But who knows.. it may be terrified by the time I'm done with it....

lol, add some pumpkin and call it a Halloween brew!