Let's Talk about Session Beers!!!

Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum

Help Support Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

estricklin

Well-Known Member
Joined
Apr 29, 2012
Messages
2,537
Reaction score
623
Location
Oklahoma City
I know those of us who are into sessions are probably in the minority, especially if you look at the staggering number of liver blaster IPAs out there today. Some of us believe that lower ABV beers can be equally delicious as an Imperial Cirrhosis for example.

I get rubbed the wrong way when I hear someone talking about a nice session they were drinking at the party when I find out "that" session was 5.5%.

I've been brewing more and more sub 1.040s lately, even a 1.033, and let me tell ya the more I drink e'm the more I wanna brew e'm! It's almost like cheating, to throw back 6 3.75%s and feel like you've only had 3 at most.

I've got a feeling there are loads of lower OG brewers like me out there, and I wanna hear the recipes, the techniques, potential pitfalls, and why going low is important, (or not important), to you.

I'm willing to experiment, swap beers, there's really no where I won't go for a good session. To fully confess, it's the main reason I started homebrewing in the first place.

I looked around for quite a while to find a thread like this, but couldn't. I found some similar older ones that died out; so I said screw it I'll go for it.
 
love the session beers. I really like to drink beer, like lots of it. I am proud of my homebrew, and I wanna sit down and enjoy multiple pints of it at a time. session beers let me do that.

I've got a really nice session pale ale, that is about 3.5%, has 40 ibus, all from australian galaxy hops in the last 20 minutes. Freakin awesome.

I think the keys to a good session beer are to mash a little higher, use a little more crystal than you'd plan on, use a less attenuating yeast. Without those three things, it's tough to leave behind enough body to make the beer enjoyable.
 
There is a really nice recipe for a Boston Bitter in BYO magazine, I think last issue that turned out really nice for me.
 
I have two session saisons in my recipe dropdown. The first has a more traditional hop profile, the second uses Belma hops. The Belma version comes in around 2.9%. I've also brewed a session pale ale, and a failed attempt at a session milk stout. I'll probably try the stout again soon, but the pale ale will wait for spring/summer.

I mash a bit higher, and also, when brewing low OG beers, my efficiency jumps up from 73% to around 85%, so I have to adjust my grain bill accordingly.
 
I'm a big fan of ordinary bitter. I've been playing around with JZ's recipe lately, changing the amount of Special Roast, the type of hops, and the yeast. The one I currently have on tap is as follows;

6 lbs Marris Otter
0.5 lbs Crystal 120
0.25 lbs Special Roast

1.1 oz Fuggles (4.9%) @ 60 min
0.7 oz Fuggles (4.9%) @ 20 min
0.5 oz Fuggles (4.9%) @ 0 min

1 pack Wyeast 1968 London ESB

I used this to build up a starter yeast for an ESB. The time before this I brewed it with a little more Special Roast, EKG hops and London Ale yeast. Didn't have any left to do a side by side, but they were very different beers. It's funny, people never seem to say much about them, but they keep getting up and refilling their pints again and again. To me, this is the sign of a great session beer ... nothing flashy just a great beer to promote an afternoon or evening of casual conversation without intruding. Hard to believe I almost never see them around here in stores or bars. Underrated beers which disappear faster from the keg than anything else I brew.
 
http://byo.com/stories/item/1151-mild-ale-its-not-dead-yet

Here is a good article about British Milds that fall in the category of Session beers. I actually scaled down the Raven Hair Beauty recipe to a 3 gallon batch to use my mini mash cooler for an all grain brew. The beer is currently carbonating. The final gravity came out at 3.8%

I'll report back how it turned out.
 
I have two session saisons in my recipe dropdown. The first has a more traditional hop profile, the second uses Belma hops. The Belma version comes in around 2.9%. I've also brewed a session pale ale, and a failed attempt at a session milk stout. I'll probably try the stout again soon, but the pale ale will wait for spring/summer.

I mash a bit higher, and also, when brewing low OG beers, my efficiency jumps up from 73% to around 85%, so I have to adjust my grain bill accordingly.

What went wrong with the stout? I'm thinking of brewing a session stout next. I've brought one in at about 4.5 before but never any lower.

So glad to see so many replies this quick!! I'll try and post some of my recipes and brewing notes as soon as I can.

One thing for me on my sessions, is a little extra carbonation. Not sure why or how it helps, but seems to make the beer taste bigger.
 
What went wrong with the stout? I'm thinking of brewing a session stout next. I've brought one in at about 4.5 before but never any lower.

There were two big problems: 1) high FG; I was aiming for 1.011, but it finished at 1.021; 2) it got some kind of infection resulting in gushers.

Yes, I know what you're thinking. "If your FG was so high, are you sure it was done fermenting?" Yes, I'm sure. Checked the gravity regularly, and it wasn't changing. It was good for the first couple weeks in the bottle, but after a couple months they really started to boom, and picked up a plastic phenolic taste. I'm guessing whatever was in there started eating the lactose, hence the gush.

Here's the recipe, which I'll probably try again soon, maybe with a few tweaks.

5.5 gallons, 84% efficiency

5.75 lb UK pale ale malt
1 lb Crystal 60L
12 oz UK chocolate malt
12 oz flaked oats
2 oz black patent
12 oz lactose

.5 oz EKG (5.8% AA, pellet) - FWH
1 oz EKG - 60 min

Fermentis S-04 English Ale yeast

OG: 1.044
FG: 1.011
ABV: 4.3%
IBU: 24.6
SRM: 30
BU:GU: .55

Mash: 156 for 60 min
Mash-out: 170 for 15 min
Boil: 60 min
 
Eulipion2,

Noticed that your recipes are BIAB. How much water do you mash in and how do you keep the temperature constant.

If you have a link to how you do it that would be great.

First off, you don't need to brew the recipes as BIAB. They'll work just fine on your regular system as is. Make sure you use the appropriate hop schedule (chilling vs no-chill). If you want to go BIAB, check out THIS THREAD for more info.

:off:
I have a 17 gallon kettle, so I add all my water and grain. I use THIS CALCULATOR to figure out my total water needed and add that. You'll need to figure out the variables on your system, but once you do it gives fairly consistent results. If you use Beersmith or some other software and get accurate results, use that. Just remember that with BIAB your water absorption will be less than if you sparge (I set it for .08.)

To keep the temp constant I usually stir and check the temp every 10-15 minutes, turning on the heat when I need to, stirring constantly while the heat is on. In cold weather I might check even more often.
:off:
 
Thanks for the link and explanation. I just do mini counter top mashing with a 2 gallon cooler so I only mash about 4 or 5 lbs of grains at a time.

To get us back on topic, I forgot that over the summer my son and I brewed a Saison Shandy. The goal was to produce a low alcohol shandy all in one bottle. The results were pretty good. It did not have too much lemon flavor but definitely had a tartness to it. Carbonated it on the high side and it had a great effervescent quality. The ABV came out at 2.6%. This is also the beer I use to "Toast the Beer Gods" when I'm doing early morning brewing.

Which makes me think that fruit beers are probably good candidates for session beers since you are trying to bring the fruit flavors forward and body may not be a priority.
 
I brewed three 10 gallon batches of a session IPA right before summertime that was loaded with hops at the end of the boil. I used some Chinook for the bittering and then mixed Cascade, Citra and Nelson Sauvin for my end of boil hops. My buddies all loved it and I'll most likely be brewing it again next summer. It finished up right at 4% with 70 calculated IBU's. If you're a hop-head it was perfect for summertime.
 
I brewed three 10 gallon batches of a session IPA right before summertime that was loaded with hops at the end of the boil. I used some Chinook for the bittering and then mixed Cascade, Citra and Nelson Sauvin for my end of boil hops. My buddies all loved it and I'll most likely be brewing it again next summer. It finished up right at 4% with 70 calculated IBU's. If you're a hop-head it was perfect for summertime.

Almost exactly what I was planning on doing, except I will bitter with Fuggles because I have a pound of them laying around. Plan to flavor and aroma with amirillo and Nelson Sauvin. That Nelson Sauvin is a really interesting hop that I have became a huge fan of recently. Expensive though. I've been having a lot of problems with my low IPAs coming out too sweet so I'm thinking maybe only 4 ounces of C60 or 40 this next time. I don't care for the sweet ones, I'm looking for a bright IPA, with a huge hop character. Was thinking 70 might be too bitter for such a low alcohol, according to some experts bitterness is perceived different depending on ABV, so I recalculated my recipe from around 70 down to 40. You didn't feel it had too much bitterness I'm guessing?
 
After reading about Belgian "table beers" and the saisons intended for workers I was inspired to brew one. I didn't use any crystal even, nor did I mash high, though of course those are good strategies.

What I did do was use unmalted spelt as about 1/4 of the grain bill because it supposedly contains even more proteins than unmalted wheat and there is a tradition of using unmalted spelt. I didn't even cereal mash, just a fairly long step mash and it seemed to convert just fine according to my efficiency calculations. The only other grain was pilsener and just a touch of Munich. A flavorful Belgian yeast doesn't hurt either :) It is just under 4%.
 
I really like the idea of having 3-4 beers at the house and only start to feel the effects. I brewed BierMunchers Nierra Sevada recipe back in spring and getting ready to brew it again to see if I can repeat it. Then I will try to get the ABV down closer to 4%

Basic Brewing Radio Sept 12, 2013 had Chris Lohring of Notch Brewing on talking about session beers.

His biggest point was that they have to use more of the specialty grains to get the flavor up.

Basic Brewing Radio MP3
Notch Brewing
 
Like this thread. I've been trying over the last couple of years to keep more lower abv beers around.

I just did an Americanized version of JZ's dark mild. I tried something similar a while back but didn't end up liking it too much. I went overboard with amber malt and didn't have enough crystal I think. Changed it up a little and used American hops. I need to look at my recipe to remember what I did exactly. We'll see if it's any good first then I'll let you know.
 
cool thread. Ive been playing around a bit with this lately. I've been doing a lot of parti-gyle batches, and find that I'm often more excited to try the little beer than the big one.
I did a little lager a while back, I think it weighed in at about 1.040. Super simple recipe, 95% pilsner and 5% CaraPils, hopped with Saaz (and some randoms in the bittering addition) and lightly dry hopped. Turned out really well.
Also did a berliner wiesse that was 3.7% ABV, that turned out great, (it was the -unboiled- second runnings from a hefe.) I pitched a kolsch yeast and a pure lacto strain rather then leave the fermentation entirely to chance. Only complaint with that beer was that it didn't carbonate the same way a normal yeast ferment would have- little flat even tho I added priming sugar to carbonate to 3.5vol!
 
cool thread. Ive been playing around a bit with this lately. I've been doing a lot of parti-gyle batches, and find that I'm often more excited to try the little beer than the big one.
I did a little lager a while back, I think it weighed in at about 1.040. Super simple recipe, 95% pilsner and 5% CaraPils, hopped with Saaz (and some randoms in the bittering addition) and lightly dry hopped. Turned out really well.
Also did a berliner wiesse that was 3.7% ABV, that turned out great, (it was the -unboiled- second runnings from a hefe.) I pitched a kolsch yeast and a pure lacto strain rather then leave the fermentation entirely to chance. Only complaint with that beer was that it didn't carbonate the same way a normal yeast ferment would have- little flat even tho I added priming sugar to carbonate to 3.5vol!

Also recently did a Pilsner, something like 95% also, the rest was a touch of caramel and rye. Hopped with Magnum lightly. It clocked 3.76 and tasted great, keg kicked a while back, my only complaint was the Pilsner flavor was overpowering.
 
Agreed. I emailed Notch about their session milk stout, and that was the recommended temp the brewer gave me. Better attenuation on a commercial scale?

Could be, or they could be using a lower % of lactose than your recipe
 
I did a 10 gallon 1.035 OG kentucky common last week. Some dark grains and a little rye makes the flavor outstanding, and I can have 5-6 sitting with friends and not have to go straight to bed.
 
I did a 10 gallon 1.035 OG kentucky common last week. Some dark grains and a little rye makes the flavor outstanding, and I can have 5-6 sitting with friends and not have to go straight to bed.

I've been wanting to make a KY common. Can you post the recipe? did you sour the mash?
 
Could be, or they could be using a lower % of lactose than your recipe

I've got the Excel file he sent me, but it's an invalid file type for the forum. I had to scale the info down from a 5 Bbl recipe, but here's what he sent me:

171 lb (73.5%) Crisp pale malt
23 lb (9.9%) Crystal (no Lovibond rating given)
2.5 lb (1.1%) Black malt
18 lb (7.7%) Chocolate malt
18 lb (7.7%) Oats
--------------------------
233 lb (100%)

Plus an additional 20 lb (8.6%) Lactose

The recipe says pre-lactose OG should be 1.044, and post-lactose gravity should be 1.048. I probably screwed up with adjusting the lactose.

Target mash temp is 155. Apparently I overshot, but only by a degree.

EDIT: Their target FG was 1.016. I was aiming a little lower at 1.011.
 
I reconfigured a few things, and here's what I've got for a session milk stout, based on the above. I should note that my efficiency increases with smaller grain bills. I list 154 as mash temp, but I'll probably lower it a little.

5 gal, 83% efficiency

6.5 lb UK Pale Ale malt
14 oz Crystal 60
11 oz UK Chocolate malt
11 oz flaked oats
2 oz Black Patent malt

12 oz Lactose - 15 minutes

1 oz East Kent Golding, 5.0% AA, pellet (Notch uses WGV) - 60 min
.75 oz EKG - 30 min

Safale S-04

Mash: 154 for 60 min
Mash-out: 170 for 15 min
Boil: 60 min

OG: 1.049
FG: 1.016
IBU: 25.2
SRM: 30.4
BU:GU: 0.52
 
I've been wanting to make a KY common. Can you post the recipe? did you sour the mash?

I used Revvy's recipe. Here is his thread. His version, and so mine, is not soured. He posted some links and there is plenty of discussion about sourness in the style. I may try a sour batch sometime.
 
I've had great results from a lite classic american pilsner. (Almost a lite american lager). I like the nice fresh malt and corn character with the lemon/lime+spicy Motueka hops showcased.

I BIAB...

8# American 2 Row or US Pilsner Malt
3# Flaked Corn
Bitter with Magnum (about .25 oz)
.5 oz Motueka @ 10 min
1.5 oz Motueka @ 0 min

Lager fermentation with S. German Lager, Mexican Lager or a combination of each.

OG of about 1.040
Ends up at about 3.75%-4% abv
 
I used Revvy's recipe. Here is his thread. His version, and so mine, is not soured. He posted some links and there is plenty of discussion about sourness in the style. I may try a sour batch sometime.

Thanks! my farmer friends have unloaded a lot of grain on me, including about 150 lb of rye so I've been looking for ways to use it non-stop!
 
Let me know what ways you come up with to use rye. I have about 25000 pounds in a bin and its moisture content is too high to sell right now.
 
I love session SMASH lawnmower beers. Take enough Maris Otter or Golden Promise or 2-row or whatever (Golden promise is my current favorite) to get to 1.040, mash way low like 149, add enough hops to get 30ish IBU.

I also have Northern Brewer's Scottish 70/- in the keg right now and it's really, really good. Just about 4% ABV.
 
Let me know what ways you come up with to use rye. I have about 25000 pounds in a bin and its moisture content is too high to sell right now.

You probably already know that it is wonderful in a pale ale. This weekend I'm going to try a something with a large % of rye, not sure what yet, but probably not that KY common. I'll keep ya'll updated
 
I also am pursuing the art of the mild, ordinary bitter, table beer.
I still like 5 abv and higher beers but I like drinking beer i brew for the enjoyment and taste of the ale and not to get a buzz. I am the odd one out in my circle of friends because i dont like getting drunk and rarely even get buzzed even.

The big craze is in imperial, double, huge, long aged beers. I dont really get into any of that.
My latest obsession is a session bavarian hefeweizen. A great enjoyable flavor. I just brewed the bavarian hefeweizen in the wheat beer recipe section but used beer smith to lower it down a bit. It came out wonderfully and I also harvested yeast so i can brew it as often as i need, since its like 15 days from brew to drink.
 
Lately I have been making low abv beers just because I don't want to get drunk off of 3 beers. Ive been mashing higher (155-158) so I get a decent amount of mouth feel and to balance the ibus. I've found that 40 ibus in a pale with abv of 3.5 is just too high. Whatever your goal ibu is, I've found it's best to drop 5-10 ibus. Unless its a light ale with a target of 12 or so. I've not made one of those except for a hefe so it didn't really make much of a difference
 
Really nice thread. The most "sessiony" beers I've made have been BM's Centennial blonde and a recent pale ale (JZ) that I ended up watering down some. Also used older previously opened hops. I'll know in about a week how it went. The sample at bottling was a tad bitter but it was a nice pale yellow. Attenuation was a bit too strong, ending below 1.010. Look forward to following more as I do get tired of the >1.060 beers I've been making. I like to mix it up and something like a nice light rye ale sounds wonderful.
 
not gonna lie - 1.3% sounds like a waste of a brewday to me. I'd rather just drink iced tea at that point.

3% is probably my bottom limit.
 
Back
Top