Session Beer Day - April 7th - Whatcha going to brew?

I did listen to the podcast which included a discussion with Lew Bryson. I enjoyed that discussion on the topic of Session beer.

Soon I will be brewing an English Bitter Ale using Maris Otter as the base malt, some Simpsons Medium Crystal Malt, generously late hopped with East Kent Golding hops and fermented with Wyeast 1469 (warm to encourage esters).

I do not know whether this beer will be specifically brewed on April 7th but it will be brewed soon.

Cheers!

 

I've got a bunch of belle saison yeast to use up and it's been a while since i've brewed one, so been planning a saison, aiming for ~4% ABV, 60% pilsener malt, 35% flaked wheat and 5% GNO. Wouldn't be that day as I'm heading to Boston for my sister's baby shower, but maybe that sunday.

 

I feel as though dark milds are the style I brew best. My trick is to bump the specialty malt percentages way up, to the point that you need to sub some US two row in for MO to confidently convert during an hour mash. Melanoidin, honey/crystal, and brown malts are your friends in addition to mash temps north of 155*

Edit: WLP013 London Ale makes a tasty mild, but you need to be mindful of the fermentability of your wort since it's a pretty attenuative strain

 

@CurtFromHershey and other BAs: I brewed this dark mild a few months ago and loved it, but I'm sure it could be improved (more body, complexity, etc). How would you tweak this? Thanks in advance.

1.041 OG, 19 IBU, 25 SRM, 3.7% ABV, 78% mash efficiency

85% Briess Pale Ale Malt
4% C-60
4% C-120
3% Black Patent
3% Crisp Chocolate

BIAB mash at 154 for 60 min.

EKG at 60 for 19 IBU

1968 yeast

 

@Buck89 Here's what my last mild was:

51.8% Maris Otter
28.6% Briess 2-row
8.9% Caramunich III
3.6% Special Roast
3.6% US Chocolate
1.8% Melanoiden
1.8% Honey Malt

1.036 OG, 158* mash, 5.44 pH, mashout (no sparge - adjust efficiency accordingly)

Hopshot to 22 IBU

Final water concentrations, built from distilled:
Ca Mg Na Cl SO4 HCO3
73 0 16 63 45 100

WLP013/WY1028 should take it down to about 1.011, which I feel is plenty high enough for how low I carbonate my milds

Next time I brew, I'll probably do 3% each brown and honey malts and get rid of the special roast. If you want to keep it around the 1.041 OG, I would bump up the Maris Otter slightly

 

@Buck89 one thing I see that would make an easy change and add body and complexity is to use West Yorkshire WY1469 instead. It makes for a dry beer but a fuller mouthfeel, and nice peach/apricot esters.

 

My "trick" for small beers is stepped up Dupont dregs and 100% Bo Pils malt (4 - 4.5% abv), tons of flavor and a saison is supposed to be dry so it doesn't seem weird or watery.

 

For session beer day I'll be rebrewing the beer referenced on Drew's site (Proper 1420 Mild) at home and with a pro brewery:

http://www.experimentalbrew.com/content/session-beer-day-recipe-bonanza-14-recipes-you-brew

My tip/tricks for small beers include mashing higher, including either extra crystal malt, oats or wheat depending on the style (to up the body and increase flavor) and scaling down the bitterness relative to a bigger version of the session beer (e.g. my session strength 4-4.5% ABV XPAs are bittered to ~20 Theo IBU vs. 45-60 in a 5.5-6.5% version).

 

I did not know there was a session beer day. Makes me want to brew a damphbier. Barley wort with hefe yeast. Pretty damn refreshing in the summer.

 

Keep it simple is my tip for a good session beer

Hoppy ones:

og 1.038-1.044 or so
100%pale ale/MO/lager etc malt or maybe a bit of torrified wheat
5g/l your favourite tasty hop mostly late additions to give 30-45 IBU

 

Interesting that most of these tips focus on increasing body and improving mouthfeel and don't seem to be too concerned with flavor.

 

I only discovered the podcast in the last week or so and have been catching up while getting ready for work in the AM and during my drive times. Caught up to Lew Bryson today. The show made me reflect upon when I consciously started brewing session beers. It's hard to parse out all the influences, but the recipes on the Stout Guy brewing web page provided a lot of early incentive and influence. For example, I regularly use oat flakes or oat malt or golden naked oats in my mild ales. The other major influence on my mild recipes was Brewing Classic styles, which caused me to seek out Thomas Fawcett pale chocolate malt. Typically I use Maris otter or Golden Promise and an English crystal malt. Maybe a couple of them used mild malt either by itself or blended with another base malt. I have set out to make a pale mild using Maris otter and GNOs, and WY1469 but the yeast attenuated a bit more than anticipated and it ended up at 5% (but tasty). I wanted to use Golden Promise so that all the ingredients in the kettle had Gold in their name (I think it was Whitbread Goldings hopped), but I couldn't source it.

I have two beers planned between now and Session Ale Day, an ESB and an IPA. While neither are designed as session ales, I've wanted to try brew in the bag for a long time (just because), so these two will be my first efforts. My efficiency may drop more than I expected, in which case, they could be end up as Ordinary Bitter and Session IPA.

 

First session I made I just cut back the base malt from 12 lb to 8 lb, then made a 6.5 gallon batch instead of 5. Came in around 4.2, however, this was a ipa and I figured the 9 oz hopping schedual would be fine. Wicked bitter to the point where I pawned it off on a "no hops is too great" guy. Now I rarly use hops for a session till 30 minutes then the 15 5 Fo. Great hops blast on a thin beer.

 

3lbs Ger Pils/ 4lbs Torrified Wheat/ 1lb Red Wheat/ 1lb Golden naked oats/ 1/2lb rice hulls 5/5.5 gals

Threw this together in a few calculators. Been wanting to try it but the 7th is impossible. Will probably throw in a bunch of spices. Somewhere around 4.2.

 

This post is not specifically concerning homebrewing but it does relate to Session beer. Last evening I had the pleasure to drink a Hill Farmstead collaboratively brewed Session Ale called Works of Love. Below is a description of this beer from the Hill Farmstead website. I personally did not specifically pick up the aspects of Earl Gray Tea. To my palate this beer was a very tasty hoppy Blonde Ale. Tons of flavor in such a low gravity beer. This beer was masterfully brewed.

“Works of Love (Earl Grey Tea)

A new series showcasing collaborations at Hill Farmstead with friends, this one brewed with Ryan Witter-Merithew of Siren Brewing. Low abv, hoppy blonde ale (3.7%) with Earl Grey tea; dry hopped with Amarillo, Citra and Centennial.”

Cheers!

 

A ~3.2% ABV table saison with Blaugies yeast. One of my warm season staples for several years now.