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

@drewbage can you PM or post a link for your podcast?

Also, I brewed my first session strength beer for st pats day this year. It was a murphys stout clone, and is pretty tasty. I think the trick was roasted barley. Lol.

 

Recipe? Never tried to brew a saison that small, sounds close to perfect.

 

It is posted along with their blog http://www.experimentalbrew.com/

 

I'll be making a kvass sometime very soon. I've got all the stuff, now just need to make it. Actually I need to make the wild yeast starter for it in advance too. Yes, I'll be leaving a cup of rye flour and water sitting around for about a week to go funky, then use that to ferment the kvass like the days of old.

 

Will you be bottling in plastic bottles to be authentic?

Cheers!

 

I don't think I'll have The Funky Path Berliner weisse ready by April 7, but it's been added to my 'to brew' list as a good session beer for the summer.

 

Actually yes!! I have an old homebrewed root beer kit with plastic bottles and caps with vents built in that I am going to use. That way, no explosions, since this is intended to be like a 1% brew that will keep on chugging past that point if you let it sit for too long.

 

Awesome. Please post some photographs of your bottled beers once you are done.

I know that you like to keep good notes while you brew. Maybe this batch would be a good idea for an article (e.g., BYO)?

Cheers!

@telejunkie

 

I've often considered becoming a beer writer actually. My laziness always gets the better of me though. Also I'm afraid of turning something fun into "work". No, that's not really it...... I'm just the friggin laziest guy on earth!

 

I don't believe that, not for one second. Are you fat and slouching in your chair right now? I am. At least you've gotten off your duff and done something with your knowledge. I just dork around on forums and act like I know stuff (because I do!) but never give anyone any real actual data. No, sir, I am more "pragmatic" than you or even than Denny, and I can prove it a hundred different ways!

 

Sounds like a good writer to me!!

Cheers!

 

For 5 gallons, about 5lb pils malt and 0.5lb rye (flaked and malted both work well). Mash at 150F. 15-20IBU for the boil and 1oz of aroma hops at flameout. Saaz type hops if you want to stay traditional, or new world hops like Belma, Calypso, Green Bullet, Galaxy, etc. are interesting. Blaugies or WY3726. Start fermentation around 65F and finish at 75-80F. You are shooting for an OG of about 1.027 and FG around 1.002. The rye adds a little spice and keeps it from being too watery.

If things go well it's a week from kettle to keg.

Dupont has Avril at 3.4% ABV, so this would almost be an Avril clone if you used all pils malt.

 

I've found my efforts to be more flavorful than Avril. Not sure why, but the Avril does seem pretty bland.

 

I think that Drew brings up a good point/suggestion concerning brewing lower gravity beers: using adjuncts can improve the aspects of mouthfeel/perception of flavor.

One of my favorite commercial Session beers is Carton Boat beer which is 4.2% ABV.

@augiecarton provided details on the grain bill for this beer in a past thread:

“boats bill is mostly 2 row with some flaked wheat and a touch of acidulated”

Cheers!

 

By the way........... best way to improve body in a session beer in my experience is to mash for a shorter amount of TIME. Nothing to do with temperature. Try mashing for just 20 minutes sometime. You'll get the residual body and higher FG that you wanted.

 

What do you find to be superior with this method?