Low ABV summer (lawnmower) beer recipe/ingredient ideas

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Morrey

Morrey

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I call my Cream Ale my typical light SRM go to lawnmower beer in the summer. My current Cream Ale beer was 1.050 OG and finished at 1.008 making it 5.5%. I had just finished yardwork and tapped a pint....perfect thirst quencher. So good I tapped another pint...I felt the 5.5 kicking in. Maybe a bit too much too quickly.

Remembering my military days, we had a beer machine in our barracks lobby. We called the beer military beer or 3.5 beer. Clearly it had less oomph than what I am brewing now. Europeans are also known for making beer with less abv than Americans for what ever reason...tradition? Sessionability?

Anyway, I am looking for ways to make a flavorful beer but maybe in that military 3.5 range...or no more than 4% for sure. But I don't want to end up with a fizzy watery tasting beer. I know some yeast strains (like Windsor) are less attenuating than others which would be helpful albeit it needs to be suited for a light, lawnmower beer. Need the flavor component to be notable with backbone and possibly some spice....so searching for that. Maybe rye?

Any ideas are much appreciated. I have a hunch that we as home brewers are going to start embracing lower ABV but flavorful light SRM beers in the near future.
 
I've seen a lot of use of rye to boost the body in session beers (<4.5%). Experimental brewing put out a list last year with 14 session beer ideas. James Spencer of Basic Brewing Radio included his Rye Wit recipe clocking in at 2.8% You should be able to drop a liter or two and still be standing on a hot day with that.

https://www.experimentalbrew.com/session-beer-day-recipe-bonanza-14-recipes-you-brew

Or here is one that was published on AHA for a 3.2% English Summer Ale. I've brewed a close variant of this recipe and it came out great as my summer beer last year. I ended up using american 2-row and adding a little extra Munich which made it a bit darker and bumped it up to 4.2%
https://www.homebrewersassociation.org/homebrew-recipe/bastage-english-summer-ale/
 
You could brew a cream ale that has a lower abv than that. That to me sounds like a perfect lawnmower beer.

You could brew a blonde ale in the lowish abv range. You can brew one of those all-malt, so it'll have a maltier flavor than a BMC light lager.

You could brew a lower gravity (~4%) saison. Low FG with a lot of flavor. Probably also a great lawnmower beer.

You could try an English mild. They've got low gravity, although usually they're darker. Still, it's a beer that probably owed its historic popularity at least in part to being something that's easy to enjoy after long hours of manual labor.
 
Look up BierMuncher's Centennial Blonde recipe on the forum (https://www.homebrewtalk.com/showthread.php?t=42841). I just made two 5 gallon batches of this for an event I'm holding in a month. The first 5 gallons has been kegged and carbed for a week now and may not last until the event. The recipe as posted is supposed to be 4% ABV. Both of my batches came out at 3.7% (I got slightly lower attenuation using US-05 instead of Nottingham). It goes down sssmmmooottthhh, has good flavor and doesn't get you hammered (not quickly, anyway).
 
https://www.experimentalbrew.com/session-beer-day-recipe-bonanza-14-recipes-you-brew

This thread offers some excellent ideas. I think the recipe from James Spencer is the one I'll try as a starting point. He uses rye which I figured would work, so glad I have BIAB capabilities as this one would be a stuck sparge waiting to happen. I don't have any Nelson Sauvin in inventory, so I'll need to make a sub on that one for my FO/WP addition. I have bookmarked this thread...thanks!

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/showthread.php?t=42841

BierMuncher has some really good recipes tucked here and there, so glad to have this one to copy into my BeerSmith files. I believe this recipe would be a platform to play around with the hop bill to suit it to individual tastes. Like you, US-05 stays in my fridge as my house yeast so I'll go with that. Good recipe to play with!
 
I'll second the biermunchers centennial blonde. I brewed it last year and it turned out really well and I'm going to brew it again this weekend :mug:
 
I make a Patersbier almost every summer (just kicked this year's keg - obviously brewed too early) but Pilsner and Trappist yeast produces something really awesome. I use 1214. My recipe comes in around 4.5, but I'm sure you could use a little less grain and have it still be awesome.
 
In one of the suggested recipes using rye and wheat, it calls for Nelson Sauvin for the flavor/aroma addition at FO. I haven't used NS before and looked around for it only to discover it is hard to find. I think New Zealand's hop crop is probably coming in soon meaning last years supply is exhausted.

Are there suggestions for a reasonable substitute? Or suggestions where I can find Nelson Sauvin?

Thanks!
 
I'm planning on brewing a fairly-low ABV (4.5-5%) IPA this weekend. I don't have the equipment to do all grain yet, but here's the recipe:

Original Recipe (4.5 - 5% abv) makes 3 gallons

Code: 
Ingredients:
------------
Amt                   Name                                     Type          #        %/IBU         
1 lbs                 Honey Malt (25.0 SRM)                    Grain         1        15.4 %        
1 lbs                 Victory Malt (25.0 SRM)                  Grain         2        15.4 %        
8.0 oz                Caramel Malt - 60L (Briess) (60.0 SRM)   Grain         3        7.7 %         
1.00 oz               Cascade [5.50 %] - First Wort 60.0 min   Hop           4        25.1 IBUs     
4 lbs                 Extra Light Dry Extract (3.0 SRM)        Dry Extract   5        61.5 %        
0.50 oz               Centennial [10.00 %] - Boil 40.0 min     Hop           6        20.0 IBUs     
0.50 oz               Cascade [5.50 %] - Boil 20.0 min         Hop           7        7.6 IBUs      
0.50 oz               Centennial [10.00 %] - Boil 10.0 min     Hop           8        8.3 IBUs      
0.50 oz               Cascade [5.50 %] - Boil 5.0 min          Hop           9        2.5 IBUs      
1.0 pkg               Safale American  (DCL/Fermentis #US-05)  Yeast         10       -             
1.00 oz               Cascade [5.50 %] - Dry Hop 14.0 Days     Hop           11       0.0 IBUs


I tweaked it a bit for you to make the ABV a little lower, but it should still have a nice malty flavor due to the specialty grains and some nice hoppy kick? Feedback welcome!

Tweaked (3.5% ABV)

Code: 
Ingredients:
------------
Amt                   Name                                     Type          #        %/IBU         
8.0 oz                Caramel Malt - 60L (Briess) (60.0 SRM)   Grain         1        14.3 %        
8.0 oz                Victory Malt (25.0 SRM)                  Grain         2        14.3 %        
0.50 oz               Cascade [5.50 %] - First Wort 60.0 min   Hop           3        16.5 IBUs     
2 lbs 8.0 oz          Extra Light Dry Extract (3.0 SRM)        Dry Extract   4        71.4 %        
0.25 oz               Centennial [10.00 %] - Boil 40.0 min     Hop           5        13.1 IBUs     
0.25 oz               Cascade [5.50 %] - Boil 20.0 min         Hop           6        5.0 IBUs      
0.25 oz               Centennial [10.00 %] - Boil 10.0 min     Hop           7        5.4 IBUs      
0.25 oz               Cascade [5.50 %] - Boil 5.0 min          Hop           8        1.6 IBUs      
1.0 pkg               Safale American  (DCL/Fermentis #US-05)  Yeast         9        -             
0.50 oz               Cascade [5.50 %] - Dry Hop 14.0 Days     Hop           10       0.0 IBUs
 
I've brewed the BYO Ordinary Bitter a couple times now (recipe here). I've had it finish at 3.5%, but you have no idea it's such a low ABV for the relatively big flavor punch it packs. Also gets you a nice copper color.

I've done it with WLP002 and S-04. Think with S-04 it's still dry enough and not so ester-ey to make it good for summer drinking. US-05 would probably be bump up the dryness.
 
This is not a low ABV lawnmower beer, but it's close. And it had enough body I think you could increase the hops a little and add more water at bottling to get it down to about 4.5%.

https://www.brewersfriend.com/homebrew/recipe/view/314720/dampfbier

I brewed it again a couple of weeks ago, moving the 20 minute hops out to 30 minutes, used American Munich malt instead of dark German, and fermented with K-97. It's conditioning in the bottles right now. I think I'll buy a bottle of seltzer and see how the beer stands up to being diluted.
 
Morrey said:
In one of the suggested recipes using rye and wheat, it calls for Nelson Sauvin for the flavor/aroma addition at FO. I haven't used NS before and looked around for it only to discover it is hard to find. I think New Zealand's hop crop is probably coming in soon meaning last years supply is exhausted.

Are there suggestions for a reasonable substitute? Or suggestions where I can find Nelson Sauvin?

Thanks!
Click to expand...


Nelson Sauvin has a unique aroma and flavour, no subs that I can think of.
 
Morrey said:
In one of the suggested recipes using rye and wheat, it calls for Nelson Sauvin for the flavor/aroma addition at FO. I haven't used NS before and looked around for it only to discover it is hard to find. I think New Zealand's hop crop is probably coming in soon meaning last years supply is exhausted.

Are there suggestions for a reasonable substitute? Or suggestions where I can find Nelson Sauvin?

Thanks!
Click to expand...

I haven't used it yet, but the descriptors of Hallertau Blanc (http://www.bear-flavored.com/2011/12/bear-flavoreds-ultimate-guide-to-hop.html) sound like Nelson-lite to me. I have half a pound waiting for a saison later this summer.
 
isomerization said:
I haven't used it yet, but the descriptors of Hallertau Blanc (http://www.bear-flavored.com/2011/12/bear-flavoreds-ultimate-guide-to-hop.html) sound like Nelson-lite to me. I have half a pound waiting for a saison later this summer.
Click to expand...

I found 3 ounces of Nelson Sauvin at a LHBS about an hour from me. He said they are nitrogen sealed Hopunion sachets from 2015. I think they will be ok and BeerSmith has a built in tool that helps calculate AA% losses due primarily to age. If properly stored, says up to 3 years is probably acceptable, but I'll plug in 10% loss to be assured I don't go too low. This addition will be at WP anyway, and I think I'll drop to 180F before adding in.

Owner says he got no NS in during the 2016 year despite ordering weekly. He feels the big commercial operations sucked the NS hop up before the homebrewers had a go at them. Its harvest time now so I'll be watching to snag a pound if I like it as much as many folks say I will.
 
JonM said:
I make a Patersbier almost every summer (just kicked this year's keg - obviously brewed too early) but Pilsner and Trappist yeast produces something really awesome. I use 1214. My recipe comes in around 4.5, but I'm sure you could use a little less grain and have it still be awesome.
Click to expand...


+1. Just tapped my Patersbier. Also, try Yoopers Fizzy Yellow Beer.
 
Sure - 10 lbs of Pilsner, an ounce of Saaz at 60, another at 10. Mash at 150, soft water (I think I use 5 g of CaCl in 4 gallons of mash water)

1214 or white labs' equivalent Wlp500, but I'm sure any Trappist yeast would be awesome.
 
JonM said:
Sure - 10 lbs of Pilsner, an ounce of Saaz at 60, another at 10. Mash at 150, soft water (I think I use 5 g of CaCl in 4 gallons of mash water)

1214 or white labs' equivalent Wlp500, but I'm sure any Trappist yeast would be awesome.
Click to expand...

That's a pretty neutral platform so I'm thinking the yeast will have lots of influence with this one. Looking forward to a new yeast adventure!! Thanks!!!
 
- 9 lbs. Belgian Pilsner malt

- 1 oz. Tradition (60 min)
- 0.5 oz. Saaz (60 min)
- 0.5 oz. Saaz (10 min)

- Trappist/Abbey Ale Yeast
 
I am going to try a couple of low ABV beers for the summer. First will be a rye/wheat with Nelson Sauvin at FO. This is extremely low abv at 2.8% but wit good mouthfeel being reported. The other is the Patersbier being discussed currently. The LHBS had no Trappist liquid yeast but I did pick up a pack of Danstar Abbaye dry that the owner said should work ok. We shall see.
 
I just tapped a Centennial Blonde I want to take to my daughter's wedding in August. 11.5 bs two row, 1lb Crystal 10. Hops were .5oz Centennial at 60 and 30. It came in at 5.2%, and is very smooth and goes down easy. Next batch I'm lowering the 2 row to 10 lbs to get it below 5%, and using Cascade at 30 to give it a small juicy kick. It's my new House lawnmower beer.
 
JonM said:
I make a Patersbier almost every summer (just kicked this year's keg - obviously brewed too early) but Pilsner and Trappist yeast produces something really awesome. I use 1214. My recipe comes in around 4.5, but I'm sure you could use a little less grain and have it still be awesome.
Click to expand...


That's what I like. I do patersbier with lemongrass, orange, and coriander. Like a wit.
 
First off, lawnmower beer is one of my favorites. Specifically, Deathbrewer's Cream Ale recipe. I brewed this up a couple months ago in anticipation of an early dry spring here in NorCal. Didn't happen, but drank the beer anyway! It's wonderful.

4lb 6oz 2-Row
2lb Pilsner
1lb Flaked Yellow Corn
1lb Flaked Wheat
11 oz Munich
8 oz Vienna

Mash @ 156 for 45 mins

1.5 oz Fuggles @ 60
.75 oz Saaz @ 60
2 oz Saaz @ 5
WLP080 Cream Ale Yeast

OG 1.050, pitched at 65 and kept it there for about 2 weeks. Mine finished around 1.008 (!).
 
I have done the RyeWhit from BBR and that is tasty. I also worked out a small "IPA" that people have liked a lot. 4lbs Munich, 3 lbs Rye.

One thing to take into account is that hops don't scale down that predictably. At least in my experience. It takes less bittering hops than you would think. So the above sIPA has 14g CTZ FWH and 28g (Zythos,or Citra,or Falconers Flight - I have used each at some point) at 10 min. and 28g at flame out. This works out OK if you are looking for a real IPA type bitterness. It comes in around 3 or so ABV.

I have some that I forgot about and has been in the keg since October (so over 6mo.) and it's drinking more like a bitter now since some of the fresh hop notes have died off a bit. Still tasty.
 
I love to drink beer, but I'm not a fan of getting hammered. I make all my beer 3.9 to 4.0 ABV. Just my preference, I make dry / crisp beers with some unfermentable malts to add body and malty taste.

I love (almost) 100% Best Malz Red-x, .25% Melanoidin, and .5% Carapils.
I like cluster hops, with noble hops at 10 minutes making up 30% of the IBUs.
 
Morrey said:
I call my Cream Ale my typical light SRM go to lawnmower beer in the summer. My current Cream Ale beer was 1.050 OG and finished at 1.008 making it 5.5%. I had just finished yardwork and tapped a pint....perfect thirst quencher. So good I tapped another pint...I felt the 5.5 kicking in. Maybe a bit too much too quickly.

Remembering my military days, we had a beer machine in our barracks lobby. We called the beer military beer or 3.5 beer. Clearly it had less oomph than what I am brewing now. Europeans are also known for making beer with less abv than Americans for what ever reason...tradition? Sessionability?

Anyway, I am looking for ways to make a flavorful beer but maybe in that military 3.5 range...or no more than 4% for sure. But I don't want to end up with a fizzy watery tasting beer. I know some yeast strains (like Windsor) are less attenuating than others which would be helpful albeit it needs to be suited for a light, lawnmower beer. Need the flavor component to be notable with backbone and possibly some spice....so searching for that. Maybe rye?

Any ideas are much appreciated. I have a hunch that we as home brewers are going to start embracing lower ABV but flavorful light SRM beers in the near future.
Click to expand...

Pilsner malt for an OG of about 1.047 with a small touch of Munich or Vienna. Maybe a small touch melinoidin malt too. The small amount of the other grain will give you flavor and a bit more body but still keep it light. Think Helles. Prost!
 
It's been a while since I've done this, but I posted a recipe for a session saison that I've brewed quite a few times. Since 3711 attenuates so well, I go for low OG and high mash with some pretty flavorful malts. You could sub Belle Saison, too. Probably similar idea to the patersbier, but darker.

Something else I did last year that will probably be an annual summer beer is Berliner Weiss. I mashed Pils, 30% wheat, and I think some flaked oats, soured in an old, scratched fermenter near 120 until tart (about a week in my case), boiled 15 min (literally 1 hop pellet/gallon), then fermented with US-05. It wasn't as sour as a true berliner, but the kicker was adding a bunch of citrus zest at flameout of the priming solution at bottling time. I used orange, lime, and lemon, and it blended well with the tartness of the beer beautifully. At 2.5%, it was a real quaffer!

Morrey said:
I am going to try a couple of low ABV beers for the summer. First will be a rye/wheat with Nelson Sauvin at FO. This is extremely low abv at 2.8% but wit good mouthfeel being reported. The other is the Patersbier being discussed currently. The LHBS had no Trappist liquid yeast but I did pick up a pack of Danstar Abbaye dry that the owner said should work ok. We shall see.
Click to expand...

I've used T-58 yeast which has a decent Belgian profile but is lower attenuating--perfect for trying to get a session beer's lower ABV and keeping the body intact.

Sbe2 said:
I just brewed this but subbed in Mosaic for the final hop additions

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/showthread.php?t=449595

Post#94
Click to expand...
Just FYI, you can click the little 94 in the corner of the post and it'll open up a separate page for just that post. It's nice to use in situations like this so you can link directly to the post you want.
 
I brewed a Scottish 60-/ that's a perfect lawnmower beer. 3.1% and malty, but very dry and refreshing.

OG 1.032
IBU 12
SRM 13

5 lb 8 oz Golden Promise
8 oz C60
6 oz C120
4 oz C40
2 oz Chocolate Malt

.65 oz EKG 4.8% @ 60

WLP005 British Ale

Mash at 158° for 60 min

Ferment at 64°F

Mine fermented out and dropped crystal clear in 6 days. Fastest I've ever gone grain to glass.

I have that one and BM's Centennial Blonde on tap right now and they're both fantastic for the hot weather.
 
I've been using rye quite a bit over the last year - I love it - but I've not seen any ABVs below 5.2 from what I've brewed. I've called low alcohol beers small beers but, after a little search on the Googlebox I see that Session Beer is the same thing. I too am interested in small beer brewing because, like the starter of this thread, I've come in from mowing, edging, leaf blowing, power washing the house and the driveway, applying my "keep the palmetto bugs out" solution and some weed preventor, took in a couple of Saisons, felt an odd breeze, looked down and am now wondering where the hell my pants are...Anyway, I quite like this thread and plan on trying out some of these small beers as soon as I sober up...So thanks to everyone who's posted. Wonderful discussion!
 
I bought a couple of pounds of caramel wheat and caramel rye malt last year because it sounded interesting. Haven't used it yet 'cause I'm not sure what it's good for. Maybe for adding character and body to a small beer?

BTDT with the pants ;)
 
When I think about Lawnmower beer a low ABV Kolsch comes to mind. My all time favorite beer. Recipes all over the place but just simple 90% pilsner and maybe a little Munich or a small amount of wheat. That's it. 60 minute 1 oz Hallertau or any other German Noble hop and 1 more about the 30 minute mark. Hit it with a Kolsch yeast and ferment at 63-64. 2 weeks fermentation then cold crash 2 weeks. Transfer to keg and while still cold crashing hit it with about 16 psi of gas for a week at about 38 degrees. Easy peasy and a delicious result!! Good Luck.
 
I use Maris Otter for lawnmower beers. You can crank out 4% beers that still have awesome malt character. 3.5% shouldn't be a problem either.
 
Petite saisons, grissette, bitter, mild - look to England & Belgium for your sub 4% beers. It's about 90% of my recipes these days.
 
I'm surprised no one has mentioned any sours for lawn mower beers. Maybe it's just me, I was raised with a constant source of lemonade in the summer.

Anyways, I make a Berliner Weisse that is 3.6% abv, medium-light bodied, and with a flavorful but extremely clean tartness to it. Credit to Devil's Backbone "Berliner Metro Weisse"

3.8lb German Pilsner
3.8lb white wheat
4 oz acidulated
4 oz flaked barley
Rice hulls if your into that sorta thing

Mashed at 148 @15min, 152 @45min
No hops, 10 minute boil
Sour with wyeast 5335 (L Brevis), WL 677 (L delbrukii), and if you have a whole foods, toss in a shot of mango goodbelly probiotics ( L Plantarum). Kettle sour for 2 days.
Reboil for 60 min, Saaz hops: 1oz @ 60, 0.5 @ 20, 0.5 @5.
Pitch with German yeast WY1007, or just 2 packs of S-05. The acidity makes this wort a little more inhospitable, treat it like a high gravity and overpitch.

The key is to pitch clean tasting bugs, and attenuate like a beast to keep this as clean as possible. For any light bodied low abv beer, any slight mistake will show up. Cheers!
 
I just brewed this one, and it's been a crowd pleaser amongst those who do not have an affinity for hoppy brews, and for me when I want something light and cold on a hot day. To me it doesn't taste like a Mexican lager at all, more like a macrobrew with better flavor.

Recipe Type: All Grain
Yeast: WPL940 (Mexi Lager)
Yeast Starter: No
Batch Size (Gallons): 11
Original Gravity: 1.053
Final Gravity: 1.010
IBU: 15.3
Boiling Time (Minutes): 60
Color: 3.3 SRM
Primary Fermentation (# of Days & Temp): 7 Days 52 Deg
Additional Fermentation: Lower temp 5 Deg/day till 32 Deg Lager for 6 weeks
Secondary Fermentation (# of Days & Temp): 6 days 62Deg

Recipe Specifications
--------------------------
Batch Size: 11.00 gal
Boil Size: 14.07 gal
Estimated OG: 1.053 SG
Estimated Color: 3.3 SRM
Estimated IBU: 15.3 IBU
Brewhouse Efficiency: 80.0 %
Boil Time: 60 Minutes


Ingredients:
------------
Amount Item Type % or IBU
7 lbs 12.8 oz Corn, Flaked (1.3 SRM) Grain 39.0 %
7 lbs 12.8 oz Pale Malt (2 Row) US (2.0 SRM) Grain 39.0 %
4 lbs 6.4 oz Pale Malt (6 Row) US (2.0 SRM) Grain 22.0 %
2.10 oz Liberty [4.30%] (60 min) Hops 15.3 IBU
1.20 oz Liberty [4.30%] (0 min) (Aroma Hop-Steep)Hops -
2 Pkgs Mexican Lager (White Labs #WLP940) (I actually used a 1/2 gallon starter that I stepped up from 1 vial)


Mash Schedule: Single Infusion, Light Body, No Mash Out
Total Grain Weight: 20.00 lb
----------------------------
Name Description Step Temp Step Time
Mash In Add 7.60 gal of water at 159.3 F 140.0 F 45 min
Step Bring temp up to 152.0 F 152.0 F 60 min

Primary fermentation: 7 days at 52 degrees
Diacetyl rest: 6 days at 62 degrees
Secondary/Lagering: bring temp down 5deg/day until 32 degrees is reached and lager for 6 weeks.

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/showthread.php?t=30885
 
my summer "low abv" beer is a simple, and it's good, not OMG, not GOTTA have it, but a good hot day boating beer.
5 lbs 2 row, 1 lbs corn sugar
2.5 ML hop oil for bittering
1 oz citra flame out
1 oz citra 5 days
us-05
 

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