Looking for a nice malt-forward session beer

I'm looking for a good session ale with a lot of flavor that is malt-centered. I'm not as familiar with the English styles, but I've heard there are some good malty, flavorful styles that aren't too boozy. It doesn't have to be English, could be from any region, but I figure German are most likely Lagers, Belgian are mostly yeast focused, and American are usually hop focused.

If you guys know of any good recipes, or can point me in the right direction, I would appreciate it. Let me know of any good commercial examples too, so I can try some different styles.

Thanks!

TheZymurgist said:

I'm looking for a good session ale with a lot of flavor that is malt-centered. I'm not as familiar with the English styles, but I've heard there are some good malty, flavorful styles that aren't too boozy. It doesn't have to be English, could be from any region, but I figure German are most likely Lagers, Belgian are mostly yeast focused, and American are usually hop focused.

If you guys know of any good recipes, or can point me in the right direction, I would appreciate it. Let me know of any good commercial examples too, so I can try some different styles.

Thanks!

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Munich Helles is good

Pretty sure that's a lager.

A lot of the English styles will work for you, so will the Scottish ales (except for the Scotch ale/wee heavy). If you want German, try an Alt.

For English beers, try to pick up a bunch of different Samuel Smith beers. Pelican, here in Oregon, makes a great Scottish ale, but no idea if it's available in your area. As for Alts, the only ones I can find produced domestically are Sticke Alts, and wouldn't meet your needs.

I brew my session beers with whatever hops I have around, trying to hit around 30 IBU. My grain bill is almost always the same. For a ten gallon 4.5%er, I take 13lbs Maris Otter (Crisp or Gleneagle), 2lbs Scottish 60L Crystal Malt and 1lb Cara-pils. Mash at 156 F for 60 min Sparge and boil 60 minutes. I add Irish Moss with 15 min to go. My favorite hop bill has been 2oz Cascade @ 60 min 2oz Willamette @ 15 min and 1.5oz Simcoe @ flame out. Chill and ferment with Nottingham or Windsor dry English yeast. I know this is high IBUs for a traditional Bitter, but I don't care. Hope this helps you a bit.

Check out British Milds. They are malty and low abv. Should lead you in the right direction.

Amber ales are good, especially with a little bit of lactose sugar added.

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f67/reapers-mild-1st-place-2011-hbt-competition-239228/

This is on my to do list.

Very much a session beer, very malt forward.

Red Hook ESB Clone

Batch Size 5.132 gal Boil Size 5.882 gal
Boil Time 60.000 min Efficiency 70%
OG 1.052 FG 1.013
ABV 5.0% Bitterness 40.9 IBU (Tinseth)
Color 13.6 srm Calories 171

Fermentables Total grain: 10.500 lb
Pale Malt (2 Row) US 7 lb
Toasted pale malt (2 Row) 2 lb
Caramel/Crystal Malt - 60L 16 oz
Cara-Pils/Dextrine 8 oz

Hops
Willamette 5.5% 1 oz 60 min
Tettnang 6.5% .75 oz 30 min
Willamette 4.6% .75 oz 20 min
Tettnang 6.5% .5 oz 5 min

Yeast
Wyeast - British Ale

Mash
Conversion Infusion 3.397 gal 169.919 F 157.000 F 60.000 min
Batch Sparge Infusion 3.850 gal 177.913 F 165.200 F 15.000 min

danielofthedale said:

Check out British Milds. They are malty and low abv. Should lead you in the right direction.

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That's what I was going to say! A British mild is the perfect session beer- many are under 1.037-1.039 OG. I love them.

Alternatively, an English ordinary bitter would be great as well. From the BJCP guidelines:

Aroma: The best examples have some malt aroma, often (but not always) with a caramel quality. Mild to moderate fruitiness is common. Hop aroma can range from moderate to none (UK varieties typically, although US varieties may be used). Generally no diacetyl, although very low levels are allowed.
Appearance: Light yellow to light copper. Good to brilliant clarity. Low to moderate white to off-white head. May have very little head due to low carbonation.
Flavor: Medium to high bitterness. Most have moderately low to moderately high fruity esters. Moderate to low hop flavor (earthy, resiny, and/or floral UK varieties typically, although US varieties may be used). Low to medium maltiness with a dry finish. Caramel flavors are common but not required. Balance is often decidedly bitter, although the bitterness should not completely overpower the malt flavor, esters and hop flavor. Generally no diacetyl, although very low levels are allowed.

Sure, it's not "malty" in the sense of a big German malt bomb. But it really has a nice malt flavor, and it's not hoppy enough to interfere with the malt. They are typically 3.2-3.8% ABV, so a great sessionable beer.

Yooper said:

That's what I was going to say! A British mild is the perfect session beer- many are under 1.037-1.039 OG. I love them.

Alternatively, an English ordinary bitter would be great as well. From the BJCP guidelines:

Aroma: The best examples have some malt aroma, often (but not always) with a caramel quality. Mild to moderate fruitiness is common. Hop aroma can range from moderate to none (UK varieties typically, although US varieties may be used). Generally no diacetyl, although very low levels are allowed.
Appearance: Light yellow to light copper. Good to brilliant clarity. Low to moderate white to off-white head. May have very little head due to low carbonation.
Flavor: Medium to high bitterness. Most have moderately low to moderately high fruity esters. Moderate to low hop flavor (earthy, resiny, and/or floral UK varieties typically, although US varieties may be used). Low to medium maltiness with a dry finish. Caramel flavors are common but not required. Balance is often decidedly bitter, although the bitterness should not completely overpower the malt flavor, esters and hop flavor. Generally no diacetyl, although very low levels are allowed.

Sure, it's not "malty" in the sense of a big German malt bomb. But it really has a nice malt flavor, and it's not hoppy enough to interfere with the malt. They are typically 3.2-3.8% ABV, so a great sessionable beer.

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Google " reapers mild" and you should find the right HBT recipe thread if i remember correctly

Thanks for the responses! I think I will look into that Reapers Mild, and see if I can find some good commercial examples. Sweetwater, here in Atlanta, makes a version of an ESB, and it's really great, but I'm not sure whether it's a great example of the style. I've heard great things about Samuel Smith's Nut Brown, so I'll have to give that one a try as well.

Southern english browns (man, I'm sounding like a broken record in my posts today) are my favorite malt focused session ales. I pretty much always have one on tap (even brought one down to the NHC). Sits right around 3.5% abv. Good carmely, slight choclatey malt backbone to it.

This is my recipe for a 5 gal. batch.


Recipe: Nutshire
Style: Southern English Brown Ale
TYPE: All Grain

Recipe Specifications
--------------------------
Boil Size: 7.51 gal
Post Boil Volume: 6.76 gal
Batch Size (fermenter): 6.00 gal
Bottling Volume: 5.50 gal
Estimated OG: 1.040 SG
Estimated Color: 23.2 SRM
Estimated IBU: 15.0 IBUs
Brewhouse Efficiency: 70.00 %
Est Mash Efficiency: 75.8 %
Boil Time: 60 Minutes

Ingredients:
------------
Amt Name Type # %/IBU
7 lbs Pale Malt, Maris Otter (3.0 SRM) Grain 1 73.7 %
1 lbs English Dark Crystal (75.0 SRM) Grain 2 10.5 %
8.0 oz Extra Dark Crystal (160.0 SRM) Grain 3 5.3 %
8.0 oz Special Roast (50.0 SRM) Grain 4 5.3 %
6.0 oz Pale Chocolate Malt (225.0 SRM) Grain 5 3.9 %
2.0 oz Midnight Wheat (550.0 SRM) Grain 6 1.3 %
1.00 oz Fuggles [4.50 %] - Boil 60.0 min Hop 7 15.0 IBUs
1.0 pkg English Ale (White Labs #WLP002) [35.49 Yeast 8 -


Mash Schedule: Single Infusion, Full Body, Batch Sparge
Total Grain Weight: 9 lbs 8.0 oz
----------------------------
Name Description Step Temperat Step Time
Mash In Add 3.22 gal of water at 171.4 F 154.0 F 45 min

Sparge: Batch sparge with 2 steps (1.80gal, 3.88gal) of 168.0 F water

If you haven't done one already, this might be a fine opportunity to try the simplicity of a SMaSH beer. I recently made a 5 gal. batch with 8 lbs. Maris Otter, 2 oz. East Kent Goldings (1 at 60 min, 1 at 15), and a packet of S-04. Very tasty, and sessionable at around 4% ABV.

TheZymurgist said:

Thanks for the responses! I think I will look into that Reapers Mild, and see if I can find some good commercial examples. Sweetwater, here in Atlanta, makes a version of an ESB, and it's really great, but I'm not sure whether it's a great example of the style. I've heard great things about Samuel Smith's Nut Brown, so I'll have to give that one a try as well.

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I also really enjoy the Sweetwater Motorboat ESB. I think it is a great session beer but at 5.6% abv most would not consider it a session beer. Most Milds are in the 3.5% range, some a little higher and some lower. Also the ESB is a little more hoppy than a Mild would be.

Gduck, that looks delicious. I'll add that one to the list as well.

MaxStout, I have done a couple Smash brews, but I think I want something with more complexity here. The vast majority of what I've brewed has been over 7%, and the lowest ABV beer I've done was at least 5.5%. Generally, I gravitate towards the in-your-face, complex flavored beers, but they're too heavy to be able to drink more than one without getting boozed, especially since I'm a light-weight. Since I have a few go-to session ales that are hop forward, I figured I would look for a tasty, complex malt focused beer.

Mongrel said:

A lot of the English styles will work for you, so will the Scottish ales (except for the Scotch ale/wee heavy). If you want German, try an Alt.

For English beers, try to pick up a bunch of different Samuel Smith beers. Pelican, here in Oregon, makes a great Scottish ale, but no idea if it's available in your area. As for Alts, the only ones I can find produced domestically are Sticke Alts, and wouldn't meet your needs.

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Long Trail Ale from Vermont is an Alt. They also have one called 'Doublebag' which is a Doublealt at 7.3% ,and is one of my all-time favorites. Also sometimes have a 'Triplebag' which is 9% and just a bit too much for me.

For me, however, an Irish Red is a glass of malty goodness, and would be a great choice. Pretty easy to brew as well. I believe that it is NB's biggest selling kit.
Ken Leonard has a great IR recipe, called 'Homerun Hitter'. I haven't brewed it yet, but it has great reviews.

+1 on the English mild and German Alt.

I've been refining a malty table beer using Belgian yeast:
Grain bill:
59% pilsner
13% honey malt
12% 2-row
10% vienna
4% crystal 10
2% flaked barley
Hops:
BU:GU ratio of 0.5. I've been using Hallertau and st.goldings

You can turn any of your fav recipes into a session beer by (1) reducing the base malt while maintaining the specialty malt % s, and (2) maintain the BU:GU ratio

Kolsch is also an epic session beer and usually very low ABV

whatever recipe you choose white labs 002 or wyeast 1968 are great for making malt forward beers.

+1 on the many suggestions for British Dark Mild - I brew one about every 6 weeks. It is a great beer to drink. 1.37-40 usually. Nice flavor, low alcohol. I like 1469 or 002 for yeast in it.

Another possible option - if you don't care about "style guidelines" and are just looking for something that tastes good. Brew a "festbier." Basically, take an oktoberfest, or vienna and scale it back to a 1.040-1.045 type beer and then use either a kolsch yeast or german ale yeast on it. You will essentially be making a "mocktoberfest" - but they are great beers, malt forward, super drinkable and fairly quick on the turn around - at least compared to lagering an oktoberfest.