Small Table Beer - Similar to Bells Third World Beer

I've been trying to slim the waist for summer, and so far have been doing good, but I'm trying to make a few smaller beers that I don't have to feel so guilty about drinking a few of. I already have plenty of big beers for when I want to splurge

I had Bells Third World Beer the other day, which is about 5%, but I liked the light, dry crispness of it, with the noticeable centennial hops. Its like a REALLY toned down Two Hearted.

I want to get something similar; nice and crisp with a noticeable hop flavor, both floral and slightly citrusy. But I also want a decent balance of malt/mildness to round it out. So I figured I'd throw in some EKG along with a little cascade. I have Willamette also, if that would be better.

I don't have much in regards to specialty grain at the moment, other than maybe some c-15, c-120, flaked barley, caramunich 60, and flaked wheat & oats. This is another reason I went with some english hops to round it out. Let me know what you guys think.

SG: 1.032
SRM: 5
IBU: 20
IBU/SG: .655

Amount Item Type
6.00 lb Pale Malt (2 Row) US (2.0 SRM) Grain
0.50 lb Caramel/Crystal Malt - 15L (15.0 SRM) Grain
0.25 lb Barley, Flaked (1.7 SRM) Grain

FWH@60 0.30 oz Centennial [6.00 %] (60 min) (First Wort Hop)
30 min 0.50 oz Goldings, East Kent [5.00 %] (30 min)
20 min 0.30 oz Cascade [5.40 %] (20 min)
0 min 0.30 oz Centennial [6.00 %] (0 min) (Aroma Hop-Steep)
0 min 0.30 oz Citra [12.40 %] (0 min) (Aroma Hop-Steep)

Dry Hops
0.50 oz Citra [12.40 %] (Dry Hop 7 days) Hops
0.50 oz Centennial [6.00 %] (Dry Hop 7 days) Hops

Yeast: S-05 ferment around 66-68

Probably going to mash around 150 for 60 min to get it nice and dry. Maybe 90 min would even be a good idea to get good attenuation.

ABV: 3%
Calories: 140/pt (was shooting for 100 calories, but I still want an enjoyable beer)

Thanks for any feedback/suggestions


Edit: 6/5/11 Brewed this up, subbed out 1lb of 2-row for 1lb of Maris Otter(man that stuff is tasty!!) and changed ALL of the hop additions to .5oz for an estimated 29 IBUs, SG: 1.031, IBU/SG Ratio: .922. Mashed at 151 for 3 hours(had some errands pop up in the middle of brewing)

The hop schedule looks good, the only advice I would give is that in my experience making small beers (somewhat limited), you want to mash a bit higher, so that they don't taste thin. I did an American Bitter a little bit back and mashed it at 149...it was watery thin. If I had it to do again, I would mash more like 154.

heywatchthis said:

The hop schedule looks good, the only advice I would give is that in my experience making small beers (somewhat limited), you want to mash a bit higher, so that they don't taste thin. I did an American Bitter a little bit back and mashed it at 149...it was watery thin. If I had it to do again, I would mash more like 154.

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Thanks I was kind if thinking that, and it definitely makes sense. I just remember reading you want to minimize residual sweetness, as the smaller beers can get more cloying. I plan on using S-05, so that should get me pretty dry already, and I'm not using a ton of crystal malt.

Picked up a lb of marris otter while I was at the lhbs today. I'll just trade it out with a lb of the 2 row. Thought it may actually make a difference considering the minimal amount of base malt. Should help to give it just that little extra malt flavor.

Any other thoughts? I don't think I'll get to brew this until next weekend, so I have a little time to plan. Looking forward to it though.

Nope...looks good to me. Let us know how it turns out.

Do you mean Third Coast Beer? (I don't think I'd drink something called Third World Beer! )

Anyway, Third Coast Beer is one of my summertime favorites. I've found that a really simple recipe of nothing but Maris Otter, mashed around 150, and a 60 minute addition of Centennial for about 35-40 IBU is pretty darn close.

I'm also looking for lower gravity recipes so I'd be interested to see where this one goes.
This recipe is from a thread on tastybrew.com. Someone also mentioned "the July/August 2003 Zymurgy has all the Bells recipies". From the recipe and reviews I've read it doesn't sound like this beer is low gravity. One review stated 10%.


1.095
80 ibu

5.5 gallons

mash 150-152
24 lb 2 row
1 lb victory
.5 lb 40 crystal
.5 lb 80 crystal

2 oz 10% aa centennial 60
2 oz 10% aa centennial 20
.5 oz 10% aa centennial 0

pitch on slurry of american or english ale strain

From Bells website.

Third Coast Old Ale is a cellerable American-style barleywine that has notes of dried fruit and caramel embedded in a rich malt background that will grow more complex over time.
Alcohol by Volume: 10.2%
Original Gravity: 1.098

JonM said:

Do you mean Third Coast Beer? (I don't think I'd drink something called Third World Beer! )

Anyway, Third Coast Beer is one of my summertime favorites. I've found that a really simple recipe of nothing but Maris Otter, mashed around 150, and a 60 minute addition of Centennial for about 35-40 IBU is pretty darn close.

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Haha your right, it's third coast beer. I've been having trouble keeping that straight, especially with the confusion of their old ale being called the same thing.

Regarding one addition at 60, I really want to get some late additions in there, so it will be more of a sessionable pale. Big hop flavor and aroma in a small beer but not too big of course. I am considering going with .5 oz on the fwh just for a little more ibus, but looking at the ibu/sg chart, 20ibus looks like it's about the max for what you would want in a 1.030 beer. What was your SG on that one? I know 35-40 ibus might be too much in a 3% abv, but it sounds good to me

Bithead, the third coast old ale is the one you're talking about. Thats some good stuff too! Got one or two in my "cellar" That was the only recipe I was able to find also, just because of the name. I'll have to make that someday also!

Ah yea, too confusing, Third Coast Beer and Third Coast Old Ale. Don't know much about Bell's since we don't get it here in NJ. I did score a bottle of batch 10000 when I was in Virginia over New Years. Good stuff.

Bell's website says the beer is "Assertively Hopped" and "offers a crisp, dry bitterness with a mixture of floral & herbal aromas".

Bithead said:

Ah yea, too confusing, Third Coast Beer and Third Coast Old Ale. Don't know much about Bell's since we don't get it here in NJ. I did score a bottle of batch 10000 when I was in Virginia over New Years. Good stuff.

Bell's website says the beer is "Assertively Hopped" and "offers a crisp, dry bitterness with a mixture of floral & herbal aromas".

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I couldn't seem to find that beer on their website, only the old ale. I wonder if they use some other hops to get the "herbal" aroma. Either way I like how this recipe is looking. Now I really want to brew it before next weekend

chapa said:

I couldn't seem to find that beer on their website, only the old ale. I wonder if they use some other hops to get the "herbal" aroma.

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I had a problem finding it at first but Google found it for me. It's under Brands then you have to click on the Year Round link, it's in there. They don't provide any info about the ingredients.
Please post your results with this recipe. I'm messing around with a version. Maybe my wife will want to visit her sisterin VA soon and I can score a 6'er for a side by side.

chapa said:

Haha your right, it's third coast beer. I've been having trouble keeping that straight, especially with the confusion of their old ale being called the same thing.

Regarding one addition at 60, I really want to get some late additions in there, so it will be more of a sessionable pale. Big hop flavor and aroma in a small beer but not too big of course. I am considering going with .5 oz on the fwh just for a little more ibus, but looking at the ibu/sg chart, 20ibus looks like it's about the max for what you would want in a 1.030 beer. What was your SG on that one? I know 35-40 ibus might be too much in a 3% abv, but it sounds good to me

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My batch was 1.050. I think you're right - spreading out the additions a little bit would be great. I actually did just that last weekend. (this time I bittered with Hallertau and threw in a 30 and 5 min addition of Saaz. Unfortunately, itll be a couple weeks before I get to try it but expectations are high!

I've been trying to gear more towards making smaller beer to keep off the weight. I dumped 15lbs in the past few months and I'm sure most of that is beer weight so I'd like to avoid putting it back on.

One thing I've been looking at is how to retool my bigger beer recipes so that I can partigyle them and produce like one gallon of big beer and 4-5 gallons of session beer. So I could do 1 gallon scotch ale/4 gallons 60 shilling scottish ale; 1 gallon tripel/5 gallons Belgian blonde; etc.

i think small beers are harder to balance than big beers personally... so far it seems like longer mash works best for me. tried mashing low and didn't like the result all that much but a longer one seems to provide more body while attenuating well.

Ya a partygyle would be great but I'm running low on malt right now so just going to make the small beer for now. I'll definitely go ahead and mash at 154 for 90. That sounds like the best bet. I'd rather it be a little sweet than watery.

ReverseApacheMaster said:

So I could do 1 gallon scotch ale/4 gallons 60 shilling scottish ale; 1 gallon tripel/5 gallons Belgian blonde; etc.

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Mmmmmmmm scotch ale!! I have some yeast in the fridge ready to go for a scotch ale! I can't wait! And to partigyle it with a scottish is a great idea. I really need to look more into how to calculate one. Last time I just winged it, and added a few extra pounds of base malt, but it came out good.

Should be making this over the weekend. Can't wait.

My 4% brown porter was tasting pretty good when I tried the sample too.

Brewed this up yesterday. It was a great brew day and the weather was awesome! Even took a few dips in the pool here and there.

Everything went very smoothly, aside from not hitting my mash temp. I was shooting for 154, and somehow only hit 151, but I ended up having an errand to run so I just let it mash low and slow for about 3 hours!! Hit an OG of 1.031 and just under 5g. I ended up rounding up all of my hop additions to .5oz, rather than .3oz. The only downside I see to that is I may have overpowered my EKG, but I just wanted that for some extra depth. Ended up @ 29 IBUs.

The sample at the end was a nice golden color and was very smooth and malty with a light hop bite finish. I'm looking forward to this one. Debating on dry hopping, as I don't want to overpower it, and already hit flame out with .5oz of Centennial AND Citra!

You could dry hop it and go for something along the lines of Stone's Levitation ale.

That is kind of what I'm going for, something light and hoppy. I liked levitation, but not as much as bells third coast beer. Bells hops seemed much brighter and more crisp.

I am definitely going to consider dry hopping still, just depends how hoppy it is already. Knowing me, I probably will though I just got done dry hopping my 125 IBU IPA, which is only a little over 4gallons, and I dry hopped with 3 oz total of Amarillo, Simcoe and Citra!