session ales vs. high gravity at the local pub

Weezy said:

Surely! It started with WLP510 Bastogne yeast. It's a nice, mild Belgian yeast that's light on the traditional belgian esters. The most pronounced ester is black pepper. From there I paired the black pepper with honey malt, which I like much. Adjust the honey malt % to your liking.

Grain bill is a play on the Bastogne/Ardennes region between Belgium, Germany, & France:

59% Belgian pilsner
13% honey malt (I use Gambrinus)
12% Franco-Belges pale
10% German Vienna
4% crystal 10 or 15
2% flaked barley

plug that into your software to get to an OG of 1.036. It finishes around 1.009-1.010 for ABV of ~3.5%.

mash high: 154*F

Hops:
I try to keep to a BU:GU ratio of 0.5-0.6. I've been using Hallertau for the bittering part (about 18g at 60 min) and late additions of st.goldings (10 min & flame out, about 20g total). Next time I want to try some of that french hop for the late addition, Strisselsplatz (or whatever it is hehe). Weights here are for 4 gallon batch so go by your software and the BU:GU ratio.

OH, sans the WLP510, use Safbrew T-58! It's a peppery belgian. The WLP510 is unfortunately a platinum strain. I got it and brewed a 2L starter and divided that into a pitch for my first batch and 3 slants for freezing, for future batches.

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In my experience, t-58 is on the lower attenuation side, which makes it great for session beers--more body/sweetness with less alcohol. I haven't used it like this yet, but I might try it instead of 3711 in my session saison.

I just made a Dark Mild ish ale that's only 2.5% and tastes alright. The grain bill was sort of an accident (pre-mixed specialty grain where i added too much caramel for a stout), but I rolled with it. Mashed high and used s-04 and it stopped around 1016!

Yeah, the dark mild that I have on tap was like that. It was a circa 2004 Jamil recipe with like 18% crystal in it. I knew it was going to be crazy sweet, but wanted to try it anyway. Partly just because what you're talking about. The recipe showed it going from 1.035 to 1.011 on WLP002, mashed at 154*F. With 26% specialties and starting at 1.035, I could not see how this thing was going to attenuate so far. It *had* to hit a wall of fermentables long before 1.011. It stopped at 1.018 (I was surprised it got that far).

It's something I'd like to run some small batch tests on, to investigate real attenuation based on % of specialty malts, to better guesstimate unfermentables in a recipe. Maybe like 5 one-liter batches, each with differing ratio of crystal to base 2-row malt, say 5%:95%, 10%:90%, 15%:85%, 20%:80%, 50%:50%. Specific gravity can't tell the difference between what the yeast will eat and what it won't. This is especially important on these small beers, where your real attenuation might be 60%.

Kai has some real nice info on his site:

http://braukaiser.com/wiki/index.php?title=Understanding_Attenuation

I'm in the slow (i.e. need $$) process of building an ebrewery in a space in my house. I keep trying not to brew and put the money towards the room...but it's hard when you keep thinking things up that you want to try.

Here in Jersey, we have Carton Brewing, they make a nice low gravity IPA / Pale ale...heavy on. the citrus flavor and aroma...about 4% IIRC

for those interested, we have a sub 1.030 beers thread that is regularly updated. some good recipes in there. OP has contributed a lot to it.

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f14/sub-1-030-beers-378450/

Repeat post.

danielofthedale said:

Now when you all go out for a session how long are you usually at the bar and how many would you like to drink? Just courious about this new beer subculture.

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2-3 hours, 6-8 imperial pints is a proper session. New? It's been around all my drinking life.

patto1ro said:

2-3 hours, 6-8 imperial pints is a proper session. New? It's been around all my drinking life.

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Yep, same for me, since I was 17 and looked 18. Although those were the quiet nights.

Subbed.

Weezy said:

And a porter which is pretty decent.

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Resurrecting an old thread. Weezy, would you mind posting the session porter recipe? I am in need of this exact beast.

Whenever I go out, I usually end up drinking Fat Heads Sunshine daydream at some point. 4.9% session ipa. A lot of the places I go have a bunch of 3-4% gose on tap during the summer months which is great.