How to design a great session beer?

Hey guys,

I would like to brew some great flavorful low ABV beers. However I tend to prefer strongly flavored beers like IPAs and Belgians. So how do I pack that big flavor into a small beer? Do I just cut back on the base malt in a recipe and adjust the BU/GU ratio to match? How would one convert a standard recipe to a session ale recipe? What would be great would be if someone could post a "standard" recipe and how they would modify it to be a session ale.

Thanks in advance.

That is probably an unanswerable question in it's broadness. When you take something away, I think something else has to be added to account for the missing taste bud stimuli.

I too am interested in smaller beers, like scottish ales, ordinary bitters, and cream ales. Not sure what the technical definition is for session and if those all fit, but I think the underlying theme is that you accentuate one part of the beer to account for the missing alcohol. Balance is always necessary.

I know I'm rambling, but as I try to make session beer recipes, I just stick with the style and see how I like them. For example, with an ordinary bitter, corn is added sometimes to get that mellowness and mouthfeel to offset the high bitterness. Otherwise you would just have an out of whack balance of IBU:OG.

2cents

It's going to be a balancing act and will probably take a while to perfect so you might want to consider doing a bunch of 1 gallon batches to get there.

In general, I think you are going to need to scale down the whole recipe then mash a little higher to give it more body so it isn't all watery.

A calculator like Hopville can help. It has a rough prediction on how malty/hoppy and given recipe will be.

I've found that keeping the specialty malts about the same (maybe a slight decrease), and cutting primarily base malt, coupled with higher mash temperature, generally does the trick.

You've hit on my Holy Grail! I also want to enjoy IPAs, but in a 5-5.5% ABV so I can have a few. I want big hoppy flavor, but with enough backbone to support the hops. That's hard to do in a small beer!

A couple of things I've learned- use more character malts. Instead of 12 pounds of two row, you could use 6 pounds of two-row and 2 pounds of Munich malt, and maybe even some aromatic malt (.25 pound) to enhance the perception of maltiness. Keep the IBU/SG ratio about the same, as well as the late hopping. Vienna malt is another base malt that can give the perception of bigger malt flavor while reducing the grainbill size.

+1 Yooper!

I have been recently looking into this very thing, and have come to a similar conclusion. It seems that once you start to decrease 2 row, the ability to maintain the large taste/malt backbone of the "session IPA" gets harder.

I've been looking at doing just what you suggested, with mixing different base malts, to help "beef" up the perceived maltiness. This seems to work best with a blend of 2 row plus Maris or Vienna. By adding a small amount of a specialty grain to add more body to it, I agree, you could give it the malt boost it would need for the scaled down base malt bill.

I'm still working out the hop profile, as I'd like to have a base grain recipe for a variety of hops.

Last year, I brewed one beer out of 20 or so batches that had an OG above 1.045 and I never once said "my beer doesn't taste of anything". The trick is to take the low gravity styles and beers for what they are and to brew simply recipes with a good, streamlined process and good, quality ingredients. There's no cookie cutter solution.

What I can tell you though is that yeast choice becomes more important (altough it always is) because it can make or break a low gravity beer. A too attenuative/clean strain can really make a beer feel watery and generic, especially when we're talking English bitters or milds.

jfr1111 said:

Last year, I brewed one beer out of 20 or so batches that had an OG above 1.045 and I never once said "my beer doesn't taste of anything". The trick is to take the low gravity styles and beers for what they are and to brew simply recipes with a good, streamlined process and good, quality ingredients. There's no cookie cutter solution.

What I can tell you though is that yeast choice becomes more important (altough it always is) because it can make or break a low gravity beer. A too attenuative/clean strain can really make a beer feel watery and generic, especially when we're talking English bitters or milds.

Click to expand...

Which yeast strains do you suggest?

A higher mash temperature will leave more unfermentable sugars, which is important for small beers. I also like to add some rye.

DrHop said:

Which yeast strains do you suggest?

Click to expand...

Really, really depends on what style you are brewing and the grist you are using.

my session ipa
still working on a 4%ABV

citra ipa
American IPA

Recipe Specs
----------------
Batch Size (G): 5.5
Total Grain (lb): 10.000
Total Hops (oz): 4.60
Original Gravity (OG): 1.050 (°P): 12.4
Final Gravity (FG): 1.013 (°P): 3.3
Alcohol by Volume (ABV): 4.91 %
Colour (SRM): 8.5 (EBC): 16.7
Bitterness (IBU): 55.5 (Tinseth)
Brewhouse Efficiency (%): 75
Boil Time (Minutes): 60

Grain Bill
----------------
9.000 lb Pale Malt (90%)
1.000 lb Caramunich I (10%)

Hop Bill
----------------
0.60 oz Magnum Pellet (13.1% Alpha) @ 60 Minutes (Boil) (0.1 oz/Gal)
1.00 oz Citra Pellet (12.5% Alpha) @ 15 Minutes (Boil) (0.2 oz/Gal)
1.00 oz Citra Pellet (12.5% Alpha) @ 5 Minutes (Boil) (0.2 oz/Gal)
1.00 oz Citra Pellet (12.5% Alpha) @ 0 Minutes (Aroma) (0.2 oz/Gal)
1.00 oz Citra Pellet (12.5% Alpha) @ 5 Days (Dry Hop) (0.2 oz/Gal)

Misc Bill
----------------

Single step Infusion at 154°F for 60 Minutes.
Fermented at 68°F with Safale US-05


Recipe Generated with BrewMate

jfr1111 said:

Really, really depends on what style you are brewing and the grist you are using.

Click to expand...

Just to try and see what you think...

2# Munich
2# Vienna
1# Flaked Barley
12oz Crystal 40L
8oz Victory
1oz Roasted Barley

OG 1.035
FG 1.011
ABV 3.2%
SRM 11
IBU 15

East Kent Goldings
0.5oz at 60min and 10min
1oz at flame out and dry hop

WLP011 European Ale Yeast

Mash at 156F.

~110 calories

david_42 said:

A higher mash temperature will leave more unfermentable sugars, which is important for small beers. I also like to add some rye.

Click to expand...

Are there any tools, resources, etc. anyone can recommend that help you determine the ratio of fermentable to unfermentable sugars vs. mash parameters (temperature & time) and ingredients. Does Beersmith do this?

jfr1111 said:

What I can tell you though is that yeast choice becomes more important (altough it always is) because it can make or break a low gravity beer. A too attenuative/clean strain can really make a beer feel watery and generic, especially when we're talking English bitters or milds.

Click to expand...

Is there any way to stop the yeast in their tracks - filtering, pasteurizing, or something? Has anybody tried this?

great advice from yooper

i made my first berliner weisse in july with a sour mash and i plan to continue doing these. very low ABV / IBU but very flavorful

rokfizix said:

Is there any way to stop the yeast in their tracks - filtering, pasteurizing, or something? Has anybody tried this?

Click to expand...

note: i've never tried any of these methods

you can pasteurize, filter (http://beersmith.com/blog/2010/08/27/filtering-home-brewed-beer/) or kill (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Campden_tablets).

cold crashing and opening the release might work if you have a conical, although i am not sure if this is 100%.

rokfizix said:

Is there any way to stop the yeast in their tracks - filtering, pasteurizing, or something? Has anybody tried this?

Click to expand...

ddrrseio said:

note: i've never tried any of these methods

you can pasteurize, filter (http://beersmith.com/blog/2010/08/27/filtering-home-brewed-beer/) or kill (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Campden_tablets).

cold crashing and opening the release might work if you have a conical, although i am not sure if this is 100%.

Click to expand...

My understanding was that attempting to stop the yeast prematurely was a bad plan. All those byproducts of fermentation that the yeast normally clean up when they're done (acetaldehyde, etc) never get removed and can show up strong in the final beer. Lower wort fermentability and/or less attenuative yeast are pretty much it.

I've been working on what I call an American Bitter (less than 4% ABV, 25-50 IBU) for a while. I have found that mashing high
(156-158 ) and using a lower attenuating yeast (WLP008 ) works really well.

Cranny04 said:

I've been working on what I call an American Bitter (less than 4% ABV, 25-50 IBU) for a while. I have found that mashing high
(156-158 ) and using a lower attenuating yeast (WLP008 ) works really well.

Click to expand...

Care to share the grainbill?

DrHop said:

Just to try and see what you think...

2# Munich
2# Vienna
1# Flaked Barley
12oz Crystal 40L
8oz Victory
1oz Roasted Barley

OG 1.035
FG 1.011
ABV 3.2%
SRM 11
IBU 15

East Kent Goldings
0.5oz at 60min and 10min
1oz at flame out and dry hop

WLP011 European Ale Yeast

Mash at 156F.

~110 calories

Click to expand...

What are you shooting for here ? If it's some kind of english ale, I'd simplify that grain bill a lot: lose the flaked barley, lose the continental malts and use something like Maris Otter or Golden Promise. You'd have something that looks a bit, grist-wise, to Jamil's Ordinary Bitter recipe (minus the aromatic malt which is probably not used by any commercial brewery in the UK anyway).

Again, if you're going for a a bitter, just increase your bittering additions to get to 25 or + IBUs (I use Tinseth). If you're not, it'll produce a fine beer anyway. I like my ordinary bitters to have a strong affirmative bitterness, so I shoot for a 1.0 ration of IBU to SG.

As far as yeast goes, I don't have any experience with English yeast and Munich or Vienna base malts. But if you opt for an english base malt option, any of the low(er) attenuation strains will work wonderfully: 1968, 1187, 1469, 1768, 1318, etc. My comment higher up was a veiled attempt to get you to stay away from the ultra clean and voracious strains (US-05, for example). S-04 can also work with smaller bitters, you just have to mash a tad higher and realize it's going to finish dryer and without a whole lot of fruity esters. I like dryer and subtle sometimes, especially the more caramel malt I put in a recipe. My favourite wet strain for versatility and ease of use is 1318. Bitters, porters, milds, IPAs it can do it all.

Regarding mash temps, with 12oz of crystal and 8oz of victory in a 1.036 beer, you wouldn't really need to mash higher than 152F to get adequate body and mouthfeel, provided you ferment with a less attenuative strain. What I've come to realize over the 20 or so batches of low gravity ales I've made (some as low as 1.028SG) is that you tailor your recipe to your yeast choice, and not the other way around. For some 1.040+ beers, I'll even add some SUGAR if I'm using certain strains to insure they don't finish too sweet (1318 and 1768 notably). It's traditional, but for ordinary bitters, I prefer not to.

So the important points are:
1. Use a less attenuative/more interesting strain
2. Mash higher if your grist is very simple or you want to add body

Trying to mess around with the yeast by filetring or getting the beer off the yeast too early is not advisable.

mbobhat said:

Care to share the grainbill?

Click to expand...

Sure, this is a lower hopped version..

6# Golden Promise
.5# Munich
.5# White Wheat
.5# Amber Malt

9.5 g CTZ 60 min
14 g Cascade 10 min
14 g Zythos 10 min
14 g Cascade 0min
14 g Zythos 0min

28 g Cascade dry hop for 6 days
28 g Centennial dry hop for 6 days

Mash @ 156
WLP 008

On my system it came out to be 1.040 OG 1.015 FG

Wow, edmanster, that looks really good!

I really like that hop profile. How much does the Citra come through and how long do you let it condition before you drink?

Other than using unfermentables or high mashing temperatures (both which do a good job of giving body to small beers and keep them from being watery) I've recently been selecting yeast strains I would never give a second glance to before - I actually seek out the ones with lower attenuations for my session beers. There are a lot of good English strains for this (Wyeast Whitbread is one of my favorites.. plus it gives a nice subtle fruity flavor to the beer). When using the yeasts I used to use I'd lean a little too heavy on speciality grains and had some muddy tasting beers, and some that were good but not really something I wanted to kick back with several of. With a lower attenuating yeast I feel I have a lot more options.

stevek767 said:

Wow, edmanster, that looks really good!

I really like that hop profile. How much does the Citra come through and how long do you let it condition before you drink?

Click to expand...

i really like citra for being more of a orange & tangerine hop rather than a grapefruit profile.. this recipe is a juice bomb but was a little excessive(little hop astringent) and would do a little better with .75oz at the 15,5,0 additions but keep the dry hop at 1oz.. i did a 8.5% DIPA for a comp with the same hop recipe profile but dry hopped with 2 ounces and it turned out right.. i kind of pushed that one out a little fast (grain2glass 1 month) and only scored a 31 but from what i here they were tough ant that was considered an excellent score.. from what ive been told if i would of waited 2 more weeks it would of been in a medal position

edmanster said:

if i would of waited 2 more weeks it would of been in a medal position

Click to expand...

But then you would have missed the competition...

bleme said:

But then you would have missed the competition...

Click to expand...

exactly

I just kegged this a week ago and it turned out great. Great hop flavor, low bitterness, and great mouthfeel. I even mashed this around 150-152.

Type: All Grain
Batch Size: 6.00 gal
Boil Size: 7.56 gal
Boil Time: 60 min
Brewhouse Efficiency: 70.00

Ingredients

Amount Item Type % or IBU
5 lbs Pale Malt (2 Row) US (2.0 SRM) Grain 47.62 %
4 lbs Pale Malt, Maris Otter (3.0 SRM) Grain 38.10 %
1 lbs Wheat, Torrified (1.7 SRM) Grain 9.52 %
8.0 oz Caramel/Crystal Malt - 15L (15.0 SRM) Grain 4.76 %
1.00 oz Centennial [10.50 %] (15 min) (Aroma Hop-Steep) Hops -
1.00 oz Simcoe [12.90 %] (15 min) (Aroma Hop-Steep) Hops -
1.00 oz Simcoe [12.90 %] (10 min) Hops 9.6 IBU
1.00 oz Centennial [10.50 %] (10 min) Hops 7.8 IBU
2.00 oz Simcoe Dry hop in keg
WLP001- 2l Starter


Beer Profile

Measured Original Gravity: 1.045 SG
Measured Final Gravity: 1.010 SG
Actual Alcohol by Vol: 4.56 %
Bitterness: 17.5 IBU
Est Color: 4.6

The first beer that comes to my mind is Stone Levitation. Definitely not as light or dry as the rest of their beers, but the flavor is all there. 12 bucks a 6 pack aint worth it for a session beer (or in general) but brewing your own totally would...

this was in may-june 2011 issue of byo that i shared with the local micro..

I would argue that with session beers, simplicity is better than the kitchen sink and your brewing process/fermentation is more important than the recipe itself.

jfr1111 said:

What are you shooting for here ? If it's some kind of english ale, I'd simplify that grain bill a lot: lose the flaked barley, lose the continental malts and use something like Maris Otter or Golden Promise. You'd have something that looks a bit, grist-wise, to Jamil's Ordinary Bitter recipe (minus the aromatic malt which is probably not used by any commercial brewery in the UK anyway).

Again, if you're going for a a bitter, just increase your bittering additions to get to 25 or + IBUs (I use Tinseth). If you're not, it'll produce a fine beer anyway. I like my ordinary bitters to have a strong affirmative bitterness, so I shoot for a 1.0 ration of IBU to SG.

As far as yeast goes, I don't have any experience with English yeast and Munich or Vienna base malts. But if you opt for an english base malt option, any of the low(er) attenuation strains will work wonderfully: 1968, 1187, 1469, 1768, 1318, etc. My comment higher up was a veiled attempt to get you to stay away from the ultra clean and voracious strains (US-05, for example). S-04 can also work with smaller bitters, you just have to mash a tad higher and realize it's going to finish dryer and without a whole lot of fruity esters. I like dryer and subtle sometimes, especially the more caramel malt I put in a recipe. My favourite wet strain for versatility and ease of use is 1318. Bitters, porters, milds, IPAs it can do it all.

Regarding mash temps, with 12oz of crystal and 8oz of victory in a 1.036 beer, you wouldn't really need to mash higher than 152F to get adequate body and mouthfeel, provided you ferment with a less attenuative strain. What I've come to realize over the 20 or so batches of low gravity ales I've made (some as low as 1.028SG) is that you tailor your recipe to your yeast choice, and not the other way around. For some 1.040+ beers, I'll even add some SUGAR if I'm using certain strains to insure they don't finish too sweet (1318 and 1768 notably). It's traditional, but for ordinary bitters, I prefer not to.

So the important points are:
1. Use a less attenuative/more interesting strain
2. Mash higher if your grist is very simple or you want to add body

Trying to mess around with the yeast by filetring or getting the beer off the yeast too early is not advisable.

Click to expand...

I wasn't really going for a style. Just something that would be good. I'd like to be able to brew a 3.2 ABV beer that would taste like a normal beer. Not necessarily a particular style but just a good tasting beer. I had picked WLP011 because it has low attenuation and really preserves the malty flavors. That said, it doesn't contribute a ton of other flavors like an English yeast would. Maybe I'm overly worried about getting enough maltiness and mouthfeel.

Interesting to hear your tips. Thanks.

DrHop said:

I wasn't really going for a style. Just something that would be good. I'd like to be able to brew a 3.2 ABV beer that would taste like a normal beer. Not necessarily a particular style but just a good tasting beer. I had picked WLP011 because it has low attenuation and really preserves the malty flavors. That said, it doesn't contribute a ton of other flavors like an English yeast would. Maybe I'm overly worried about getting enough maltiness and mouthfeel.

Interesting to hear your tips. Thanks.

Click to expand...

A 3.2% beer IS a normal beer. The biggest beer producing country in the world isn't Germany or the US, it's the UK, where gravity is lower overall than what us North American drinkers are accustomed too, at least when it comes to ales.

A "session beer" (I prefer lower gravity beer as far as terminology goes) is by definition a beer that can be drank in big quantities. As such, it cannot be a beer that clubbers your taste buds into submission or fills you up with heavy maltyness and mouthfeel. They are much more subtle affairs and are far less tolerant of mistakes in the process and fermentation regime.

Since you are just venturing into low gravity territory, I'd really suggest starting with an established style and recipe, just to get your process down and give you an idea of what you need to do to make the beer better. On my system, I mash at 152F and get all the maltyness I need using MO and some crystal or amber malt. It might be different for you. Bierhaus has a very good blog called the perfect pint with a lot of good recipes and tasting notes (altough he does hold the Whitbread strains in aversion ). Also, try to find some commercial examples of lower ABV beers and see what you like.

jfr1111 said:

A 3.2% beer IS a normal beer. The biggest beer producing country in the world isn't Germany or the US, it's the UK, where gravity is lower overall than what us North American drinkers are accustomed too, at least when it comes to ales.

A "session beer" (I prefer lower gravity beer as far as terminology goes) is by definition a beer that can be drank in big quantities. As such, it cannot be a beer that clubbers your taste buds into submission or fills you up with heavy maltyness and mouthfeel. They are much more subtle affairs and are far less tolerant of mistakes in the process and fermentation regime.

Since you are just venturing into low gravity territory, I'd really suggest starting with an established style and recipe, just to get your process down and give you an idea of what you need to do to make the beer better. On my system, I mash at 152F and get all the maltyness I need using MO and some crystal or amber malt. It might be different for you. Bierhaus has a very good blog called the perfect pint with a lot of good recipes and tasting notes (altough he does hold the Whitbread strains in aversion ). Also, try to find some commercial examples of lower ABV beers and see what you like.

Click to expand...

Thanks, yeah I am probably woefully ignorant to the style. It sounds even worse when I say this but what is a good example of the style that I can find? I don't know if I've ever seen a "good" beer at a store or bar at ~3 ABV or less. I'll have to look up some more into the recipes you suggested.

DrHop said:

what is a good example of the style that I can find? I don't know if I've ever seen a "good" beer at a store or bar at ~3 ABV or less.

Click to expand...

BeerAdvocate has a great database of commercial beers. I hate navigating websites so I will usually just Google something like "beeradvocate English mild" and get a list of the Top 50 rated, with ABV listed right there.

edmanster said:

i really like citra for being more of a orange & tangerine hop rather than a grapefruit profile.. this recipe is a juice bomb but was a little excessive(little hop astringent) and would do a little better with .75oz at the 15,5,0 additions but keep the dry hop at 1oz.. i did a 8.5% DIPA for a comp with the same hop recipe profile but dry hopped with 2 ounces and it turned out right.. i kind of pushed that one out a little fast (grain2glass 1 month) and only scored a 31 but from what i here they were tough ant that was considered an excellent score.. from what ive been told if i would of waited 2 more weeks it would of been in a medal position

Click to expand...

Alrighty! I'll make those adjustments in Beersmith and hopefully will try to do this soon.

Thanks!

bierhaus15 said:

I would argue that with session beers, simplicity is better than the kitchen sink and your brewing process/fermentation is more important than the recipe itself.

Click to expand...

I would agree that simplicity is always better, however, I am finding that the recipe is more critical than in bigger beers (process is always very important regardless of ABV, probably also more so for low ABV beers - both recipe and process are more important). With less overall grain being used, I find small changes in the grain bill (other than the main base malt) are more noticeable compared to bigger beers. I am being drawn more and more to low ABV brewing as I find that while they lack strong flavors, the flavors that are there are cleaner, and with a good recipe, the complexity is more apparent. I'm finding them quite enjoyable for their subtleness, rather than in-your-face flavors

Another thing I change is I mash thin. I find it makes the wort a little less fermentable... I usually mash with 1.3 qt/lb, for a small beer I'll mash at 2-2.5 qt/lb

Mike Tonsmeire, a.k.a. The Mad Fermentationist, did a BeerSmith podcast a year ago specifically about session beers. I just listened to it yesterday on recommendation of another HBT thread regarding session beers. Worth a listen.