Any good summer session beer recipes?

Pick any number of American APAs with a small dry hop addition and you'll have it made. I'd add a pound of Munich malt and makes sure there's some crystal 40 or 60 in there. 1.045-1.050 OG and 35+ IUBs. use US 05 and you're golden.

More specifically, what kinds of ingredients do you have on hand, or is there a trip to a LHBS coming?

 

Only summery thing I've made all summer is Elderberry Wheat beer (again). It's a very fine beer, pretty low on ABV (maybe not quite true "session" tho), and if I've brewed it four times now. That's saying a lot, because I don't brew the same thing twice most of the time. The purple color, ever so slight tart-sourness, and wheat body make for an interesting brew. I've gotten rave reviews on every batch so far (although to be fair, it's only a few people that I share my homebrew with, so n is small, but greater than one).

 

In a similar vein to this:

85% American 2-row (sub some wheat or rye if you're feeling it)
7.5% Crystal 40
7.5% Carapils
Cascade all the way [bittering to 40 IBUs, 1 oz flavor, 1 oz aroma (old school) or FWH to 50 IBUs, 1 oz FO, 1 oz hop stand (new school)]
OG = 1.042
FG ~ 1.010
Chico yeast

Simple, easy, tasty.

 

Cream Ale (No corn this year. I'm still calling it a Cream Ale. You got a problem with that?)
10 gallon batch, 90 minute boil
14 lbs German Pilsner mashed 60 mins @150F
2 lbs table sugar (added to kettle - doesn't matter when)
1 oz Willamette FWH
2 oz Willamette 10 mins
2 packets US-05

OG: 1.051
FG: 1.004
IBU: 19.2
ABV: 5.5%
148.7 kcal/12oz

Force carbed to 2.7 vols CO2 (12psi@35F)
Serve at 35F
Dry, crisp, Pilsner-ey, and thirst quenching as all getup!

 

I brewed one a few weeks back. I'll admit I used flaked rice. I want to see if I can dry it up a little.

 

100% pils to 1.040
Bitter to 30ish IBUs
3724 or 3711 or 3068
Citra or your favorite "fruity" Dry hop

 

See? I'm not the only one who puts willamette in a cream ale! However, when the CACA corn police show up, I'm just gonna make a slight eye motion over mike's way, and pretend I don't know what's gong on after that.

 

I only realized on brew day that I was out of flaked maize, so I called an audible. It normally makes up about 30% of my grist. FWIW, I'll probably skip it again next year.

 

Dorada Pampeana

10lbs American 2 row
1oz Hallertauer 60@
.5oz Hallertauer 20@
.5oz Hallertauer 5@
Nottingham dry yeast(if you like english beer taste use Windsor dry yeast but FG will be a bit higher)

OG=1047/48
FG=1011

Mash for 90 min at 152F - Pitch at 64 F - Ferment at 68 F

Give it a try !

Cheers

 

I tried one last year with the maze and I ran out of propane after 75 minutes. I don't know if I blame DMS or the maze, but the beer wasn't great.

 

So it's a 2-row/hallertau SMaSH then. Gotta love it!

I was surprised at just how much body my 2-row smash beers had (one with US005, one with 3711). Neither had issues with head retention or body, and both had sheets of sticky lacing. 3711 had a lot more head tho (not at all surprising).

 

70% pils
30 % wheat
1.052 OG

Perle bittering @ 60 to 25 ibu
Saaz @5 min to 5 ibu

WLP 565 yeast, but ferment it in the low 60s
Makes a very clean and quaffable beer

 

Ironically, while the recipe is insanely simple (hard to screw up), the flavor is very light (delicate?), so otherwise subtle flaws can be really, really annoying.

 

Small IPA:

Water sulfate rich.

2-row 90%
Wheat or oats 5%
Aromatic 5%
Mash medium-high
OG 1.040

Hop: somethinginteresting (Mosaic!) @ FWH, 5 & looooooooooooooooooooong hop stand for BU:GU of 1.5:1.

US-05, sprinkled, fermented cool as the other side of my pillow.

Dry hop that mug with an equal total hop weight, 3 days.

Keg hop with another Z, keg, invite peeps, drink quickly.

 

1914 Fullers AK

Gravity (OG) 1.045
Gravity (FG) 1.009
ABV 4.78%
Apparent attenuation 79.61%
IBU 41
SRM 5

47.5% English pale malt
16.3% Continental pale malt
16.3% American 6-row
5.9% Flaked Maize
5.9% Invert No1
7.9% Invert No2
Cluster 7% 105min (31bu) 1.02 oz
Fuggle 5.5% 60min (6bu) 0.29 oz
Styrian Goldings 5.25% 20min (4bu) 0.30 oz
Goldings 4.5% dry hop 0.27 oz

Mash 95min@149°F 1.04qt/lb
Boil 1.5 hours

You should really start the fermentation in a tall high round fermenter then drop it into a shallow square one after 24 to 36 hours.

It makes a lovely Light Bitter Ale.

 

Table saison:
(5 gal)

90% pils
10% rye or wheat (malted or flaked, your choice)
20IBU bittering
1oz your choice of hop at flameout
WY3726 or similar
Mash at 148-150F
OG~1.035, FG~1.004

Very simple, very good. With a little luck and a warm ferment you can go kettle to keg in a week.

 

Ron - can you expand on this part some more? Thanks.

 

As homebrewers it's possible to brew an actual true session beer.No need to corrupt the term because they aren't available in the US. Every pub in the UK will have at least a couple.
For 6 US gallons
6# pale malt
4 oz crystal malt
2 oz roast barley
1# invert sugar
2 oz Fuggles hops, full boil
1 oz EKG (full boil)
1/2 oz EKG 15 min and 1/2 oz EKG dry hop
Mash at 152 degrees
Can't specify yeast or crystal number; I used what was available.
This is a "clone" for Adnam's Southwold Bitter, 1.037 which i have brewed lots of times.It's the perfect beer for a hot summer day, when at the coast I drink it by the gallon and love it to death.

 

85% pils
15% wheat malt

.25oz Citra FWH
.75oz Citra @10 minutes
1oz Citra @flameout

Wyeast 3711

I usually brew this to 5.5-6%ABV, but I'm sure you could drop this down to 4.5-5% to make it more sessionable.