How to create a flavorful session beer recipe

[Coastalbrew]

I'm curious how one would go about creating a low ABV session ale recipe that tastes good? Something in the 2-4% range that actually has flavor and doesn't taste like BMC. It's warm where I live most of the year, so I don't drink much stout, but I enjoy a nice flavorful Amber or pale ale. I definitely prefer beers that are more balanced in their malt to hops ratios.

Does aanyone have any recipes they could recommend, style suggestions, or tips or tricks that might be helpful when formulating recipes? I brew all grain 5 gallon batches.

Thanks in advance.
Cheers!

 

[Loud Brewing]

EDIT:
Sorry OP. I misread your post thinking you wanted a low cal session beer.

 

[Coastalbrew]

@Loud Brewing what do the added enzymes do? Wouldn't a more attenuative yeast increase the alcohol content?

 

[Loud Brewing]

If your goal is simply low abv start with a low og and focus on adding body and mouthfeel. Think oats, wheat, carafoam.

 

[ba-brewer]

I have been testing a bunch of english yeast this last year and have been using a simple recipe of Maris Otter base malt and 5 to 10% light crystal (carastan) with a gravity of about 1044. A 60min hop addition and a small 10min addition for a total of about 35IBU. I mash at 152 so there this still some body, the flavor is mostly malt and yeast flavors. The beers have been coming in about 3.7 to 4.2%ABV. If you lowed the starting gravity to 1040 it would lower that a bit.

You can also do a SMASH type beer with all base malt a single hop, shoot for 25 to 30IBU, 50%IBU at 60min the rest 20min or less. With the newer high alpha it easy to over do the bitterness but a couple ounces in a 5gal batch will give some decent flavor and some aroma.

 

[schematix]

Enzymes will only help you in a session beer if you are also trying to lower the calorie count too. Alcohol has less calories than the sugar its made from.

Most session beers actually have a higher FG so there is some remaining body.

 

[McKnuckle]

You have two options if you are creating a traditional low ABV beer. One is to use less grain, but a normal mash and fermentation regimen. The second is to use more grain, but mash and ferment in a way as to limit attenuation.

I prefer the second option. Why? Because more grain equals more flavor, and that's your goal. Low alcohol in a low flavor beer is just meh. So I disagree with the advice to mash low and use attenuative yeast. I would do just the opposite.

If you choose a high mash temp, 158-162F, you can minimize beta amylase activity and give the yeast less simple sugar to work with. Experiment with moderately shorter mash times, like 45 minutes, since beta takes relatively longer than alpha to work its magic. Beta amylase is curtailed, but not totally denatured at the high end of the mash range, contrary to some opinions. There's a trade-off here; some feel that flavor extraction benefits from a longer mash, so experimentation is called for.

Another thing I plan to try is a longer mash-out period, in order to steep the grain longer without the worry of creating more fermentables.

When you ferment, choose a lazy yeast that attenuates in the low 70% range or below. A very average OG 1.050 beer hits 1.015 at 70% attenuation, or 4.6% ABV. That may be still too high, so experiment with lower OG and even lower attenuation strains.

Use a higher percentage of specialty malts in your beer, mostly for flavor but also (in some cases) for less fermentability. More medium and bits of dark crystal, more character malts like Victory and Munich and Melanoidin. Use flavorful base malts like Maris Otter and Vienna.

I am a malt-head rather than a hop-head. But obviously, hops will give you flavor too, especially when used in the 30-15 minute range of the boil. Skip the 60 minute addition and load up on the flavor hops.

Use yeast with some character - English, Belgian - perhaps not as much "clean" varieties like the venerable US-05.

I don't claim to have mastered this yet, but it's my 2020 quest. I have a simple American blonde ale on tap now at 3.25% ABV, and a hefeweizen at 4%. Good, not great, but I can down a pint of the former and just barely perceive the alcohol. I like that part.

 

[danielthemaniel]

Find styles that are along the lines of what you're looking for. I've brewed and English Mild, Ordinary Bitter, Bohemian Pilsner and Session IPA that were in the 3.5-4
5% ABV range and all turned out quite good. Better yet, all original recipes [emoji6] a couple of tricks would be to keep the mash temp high, around 152-156. This will give you a higher FG which results ml ore body and lower ABV. This is key with low ABV beers. Otherwise you end up with a watery beverage. Also create complexity in your grain bill. Choose a base malt other than 2 row or pilsner. Maris Otter, Vienna and Munich are great options here. If you can add additions like herbs, hops or other flavor adding components without sugar you will help your cause.

 

[HB_ATL73]

Enzymes will only help you in a session beer if you are also trying to lower the calorie count too. Alcohol has less calories than the sugar its made from.

Most session beers actually have a higher FG so there is some remaining body.

Not true

Carbohydrates= 4 calories per gram
Alcohol= 7 calories per gram

 

[bkboiler]

Second the English mild recommendation. Dry, low abv, but tons of character. Thinner mash is typical and the water profile is very forgiving.

Recommended recipe:
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/forum/threads/mild-mannered-ale-ag-e-uk-us.52776/

I've made this several times and it always is delicious. Drink young, 10 days grain to glass is not uncommon.

 

[schematix]

Not true

Carbohydrates= 4 calories per gram
Alcohol= 7 calories per gram

You are not considering the fermentation process and how many grams of sugar it takes to make 1 gram of alcohol.

The higher attenuation of the beer, the fewer calories it will have. That’s a fact.

You’re statement is only true in terms of the energy content in a final product.

 

[Coastalbrew]

@bkboiler thanks for the recipe suggestion. It sounds good. Does the flavor of the chocolate malt come through, or is it primarily a color contribution? Intuitively that seems like a fairly high percentage of chocolate malt in such a mild beer, seems like the dark malt would over power the flavors of the other ingredients.

The shop where I get my ingredients doesn't carry the Thomas faucet 500L chocolate malt, only their pale chocolate 225L. Do you think the pale would work, or should I use a 500L variety from another maltster?

 

[Steveruch]

@bkboiler thanks for the recipe suggestion. It sounds good. Does the flavor of the chocolate malt come through, or is it primarily a color contribution? Intuitively that seems like a fairly high percentage of chocolate malt in such a mild beer, seems like the dark malt would over power the flavors of the other ingredients.

The shop where I get my ingredients doesn't carry the Thomas faucet 500L chocolate malt, only their pale chocolate 225L. Do you think the pale would work, or should I use a 500L variety from another maltster?

I'll be using pale chocolate malt in my next mild.

 

[ba-brewer]

For me pale chocolate come across as chocolate where the darker chocolate seem to give more of a generic roast flavor.

I have done a few bitters where I used a small amount black malt or dark chocolate for adding color and it does not take much to get a roasty flavor in the final beer. I just live with the lighter color now.

 

[bkboiler]

Hmm...I cannot honestly recall if it's chocolatey, but I do recall that it won an HBT award for the best of it's style. I think if you read the thread the recipe may be cross listed with another user who won it or something...

 

[NTexBrewer]

https://beerandbrewing.com/make-your-best-scottish-export-ale/

I just brewed a Scottish Export that turned out great. Flavorful and easy drinking. I used the article above to formulate my recipe. My beer finished at 4.99%. Which is a little above what you want to brew.

https://beerandbrewing.com/make-your-best-scottish-heavy-ale/ Scottish Heavy

https://beerandbrewing.com/make-your-best-scottish-light-ale-60/ Scottish Light

I have brewed a few beers based on the articles of Josh Weikert and they have all turned out great. I usually google “brew your best ___” and find great articles from Beer and Brewing magazine.

 

[Coastalbrew]

Hmm...I cannot honestly recall if it's chocolatey, but I do recall that it won an HBT award for the best of it's style. I think if you read the thread the recipe may be cross listed with another user who won it or something...

Thanks! I'll read through the rest of the thread and see what I can find out.

@NTexBrewer , thanks for he links I'll check them out as well.

 

[Coastalbrew]

Ok, what do you think of this recipe? It falls into the British ordinary bitter category except for the rye malt.

5.5 gallon
Og: 1.036
Fg: 1.012
Srm: 7.6 L
Ibu: 31.5
Abv: 3.2%

Fermentables:
6# Maris otter
1.5# rye malt
.25# caramunich 2
.125# pale chocolate malt

Hops:
1 oz EKG @ 60
1 oz EKG @ 30
1 oz EKG @ flame out

Yeast: WLP002 English ale

Mash @ 152 for 60 minutes
Ferment @ 68*

 

[ba-brewer]

Seems OK to me, but the 30min EKG is sort of in no mans land. Maybe push it to 10min if you wanted it there for flavor or use a portion of the 28gm at 60min if you wanted it there for bitterness.

 

[Coastalbrew]

Take 2... I changed up the hop schedule a little and after looking at yeast stains a little more, I swapped over to the wlp005 stain to get slightly more attenuation. I've never used this stain before so if anyone has any experience with it I'd be interested to hear your thoughts. Cheers!

5.5 gallon
Og: 1.036
Fg: 1.011
Srm: 7.6 L
Ibu: 31.1
Abv: 3.4%

Fermentables:
6# Maris otter
1.5# rye malt
.25# caramunich 2
.125# pale chocolate malt

Hops:
1.5 oz EKG @ 60
.5 oz EKG @ 15
1 oz EKG @ flame out

Yeast: WLP005 British ale

Mash @ 152 for 60 minutes
Ferment @ 67*

 

[ba-brewer]

You will find most people either love or hate wlp005, not much middle ground.

I only used wlp005 once and did not have a good experience, but it was probably my own doing. I did not notice any diacetyl when I kegged it but it sure was there a few weeks later. I did bump temp toward the end of fermentation but that was not enough. I ended up warming the keg back up and added some active fermenting beer to clean it up. I think if I had controlled the diacetyl prior to kegging somehow the beer would of been good.

I have not used wlp002 but have used wyeast 1968 which is suppose to be close and it makes good beer. It drops like a rock and makes a very clear beer, it requires some rousing to keep working.

 

[Coastalbrew]

Hmmm, perhaps I'll go back to the 002. I've heard many of the same remarks about the 002 as your experience with the 1968

 

[balrog]

I recommend a read through this. But I like @McKnuckle 's general advice very much.

 

[Tobor_8thMan]

I'm curious how one would go about creating a low ABV session ale recipe that tastes good? Something in the 2-4% range that actually has flavor and doesn't taste like BMC. It's warm where I live most of the year, so I don't drink much stout, but I enjoy a nice flavorful Amber or pale ale. I definitely prefer beers that are more balanced in their malt to hops ratios.

Does aanyone have any recipes they could recommend, style suggestions, or tips or tricks that might be helpful when formulating recipes? I brew all grain 5 gallon batches.

Thanks in advance.
Cheers!

Is this malt extract or all grain?

 

[Coastalbrew]

Is this malt extract or all grain?

Sorry, All Grain

 

[CascadesBrewer]

I have it in my to-brew list to play around with some session beers. During a recent vacation in Scotland, I was impressed with the many flavorful ales in the 3.5% to 4.5% range. The beer engine or nitrogen system seems to add a lot of character to the beers, as similar beers in bottles were meh. I did have some wonderful low ABV beers poured from the cask without using a beer engine or nitro that were quite nice.

Are you wanting low ABV for lower alcohol or lower calories? OG is the biggest driver of calories in a beer, and FG is the biggest driver of carbs in a beer. The best way to get low alcohol, carbs and calories is to start with a low OG and drive down the FG (like done with common light beers). I brewed a 3% Porter that was mashed very high, but it had more calories and carbs than if it would have fermented out to a 5% beer. For me, limiting calories would be the motivating factor.

Cold Mashing/Non-Enzymatic Mashing seems like an interesting strategy to brew flavorful beers that are low ABV (and calories and carbs I think). I am not sure how I would feel about using 10lbs of grain to make a 1.020 OG beer though...something there feels wrong.

 

[Coastalbrew]

@CascadesBrewer I'm trying to lower the alcohol content primarily, but a few less calories wouldn't hurt either. I agree with your thoughts on cold mashing, using that much grain for low og is definitely wrong.

 

[McKnuckle]

I'm not really concerned with the calories personally - it's the alcohol I'd like to limit.

@CascadesBrewer , I had a similar experience in England in 2017. I toured several breweries and just loved the cask ales and low ABV, flavorful options. What a treat!

I'm experimenting with mash protocols a bit:

My first effort is a pale ale that I mashed at 158F for 45 minutes with no mash-out. OG was 1.036. I fermented with US-05 and achieved FG 1.010. That's 72.2% attenuation and 3.25% ABV. I think that was a success, since US-05 typically attenuates in the 80% range.

Recipe was 70% pils, 20% dark Munich, 10% carahell. Tettnang at 30 minutes for 25 IBU, 0.69 BU/GU.

With a neutral yeast and not much hop flavor, it's a subtle tasting brew, but very clean and smooth. It's not nearly as bitter as the BU/GU ratio would suggest. The mash temp definitely brought out a soft maltiness with plenty of mouthfeel. Perhaps the chloride too - I used 80 ppm of that and 46 ppm SO4. With more characterful hops and/or yeast, this has me contemplating another go.

In contrast, I did another brew with a 45 minute rest at 158F, but added 15 minutes at 154F before that, and a 10 minute mash-out afterwards. This improved my efficiency so I got higher OG, and then US-05 hit 78.7% attenuation so the ABV finished higher than I'm looking for. The beer tastes great though.

 

[J_Flint]

I brewed a variant of Orfy's Mild. I ended up increasing the base malt a tad, mashing at 160. Ended up with an OG of 1.042. I fermented with WLP002 at 62 degrees F. And then a brief rest at 70 for a couple days before crashing and kegging. Beer ended up at 1.015 and was quite flavorful but light enough to drink in quantity. Good maltiness with a great caramel character from the crystal malt. A friend and I were drinking this by the liter and the keg kicked very quickly.

If you're feeling adventurous a Berliner Weisse is also a great session beer. I've got one on tap that 2.6% ABV and it is a great refreshing drink! I kettle soured to a PH of 3.6. After fermentation it's pleasantly tart without becoming too sharp to drink en masse. Super easy brew. 50/50 wheat malt and whatever base malt you prefer. Hardly any hops. 10 minute boil, pitch some GoodBelly probiotic and then ferment as usual a few days later.

 

[brownni5]

Good thread. Brewing big beers is fun, but for a number of reasons, I prefer to drink low ABV beers.