When is "Session" not really "session"

[balrog]

Made a batch of @Yooper 's Dad's Cream Ale and the 149F mash together with US05 at 66F, on top of a 78% efficiency gave me 1.055--1.006 6.4% ABV. About 1% more ABV than I really wanted.

This one's a little hard to sell to the tennis crowd because after two or 3 pints on a hot day it's hard to serve straight. You know you're tossing one ball up in the air, but there're two or three of them suckers up there to hit.

 

[TNJake]

cut it with bud light

 

[OG-wan Kenobi]

Sounds like that ones yours and you get to try again . Mashing under 150 and using 05 your going to finish dry that's how I do my pumpkin beer

 

[TNJake]

I think I always finish really dry with US-05. I know a lot of people seem to like using California ale or hybrid yeasts for cream ales. Like WLP 001 and Wyeast 2112. Which makes me wonder how Mangrove Jacks 54 would go? I have always considered it to be the cheaper, faster, pre-dried version of 2112.

 

[balrog]

Hey @TNJake , howdy to where I grew up! South Knoxville, Young High (before it closed and became a Walgreens or something) on Chapman Hwy.

Anyway, I'm gonna try MJ54 in a warm ferm lager, there's a thread by @applescrap that's a fun read.

 

[TNJake]

Hey @TNJake , howdy to where I grew up! South Knoxville, Young High (before it closed and became a Walgreens or something) on Chapman Hwy.

Anyway, I'm gonna try MJ54 in a warm ferm lager, there's a thread by @applescrap that's a fun read.

Cool on both accounts. I'm not a native to TN but I like it, living in the Farragut area.
I'm a regular in that thread as well. I kegged a shiner bock clone brewed with mj54 recently, I should be finishing up my saison on tap to make room for this one in the kegerator this weekend... maybe even tonight with the way today has gone.

 

[Jayjay1976]

Any beer can be a session beer if you're a manly man.

 

[brewbama]

OP, you might try to brew a smaller version of that Cream Ale. Then you’ll have three beers to choose from: the small beer alone, the two blended 50/50, or the big beer alone.

 

[balrog]

OP, you might try to brew a smaller version of that Cream Ale. Then you’ll have three beers to choose from: the small beer alone, the two blended 50/50, or the big beer alone.

That's actually what I was thinking. Altho the "cut with bud lite" idea by @TNJake made me laugh, then wonder seriously for a moment, then cast the idea aside because I wouldn't want to be seen buying that, as it might harm my fragile rep.

 

[TNJake]

These taste like session beers. So that's often how they are consumed... At least by me.

 

[Lefou]

For me, a session beer is anything in a rangeup to and including 5-6% ABV.

 

[Calder]

Any beer can be a session beer if you're a manly man.

+

Just depends on how long you want the session to last.

 

[thehaze]

For me, session beers are those between 3 and 4.5% ABV.

 

[seatazzz]

Tennis is boring to watch...adding a few more ABV percentage points might make it interesting (and highly amusing). Horseshoes, now...that's when things can get deadly.

 

[madscientist451]

cut it with bud light

Or blend with lemonade to make a cream ale Shandy.

 

[bobeer]

+1 on the shandy. Or brew it again and maybe use sa04 since it doesn't attenuate as well as 05?

Sessionable beer stops for me at 6%+

 

[Lefou]

Tennis is boring to watch...adding a few more ABV percentage points might make it interesting (and highly amusing). Horseshoes, now...that's when things can get deadly.

There's nothing like a keg of beer and a friendly devolving game of Lawn Darts. I'm old enough to remember that game before it got banned. Not the drinking, but the darts. Back in the '70's they were called "Jarts" and were hazardous for children, small animals, and stupid adults.
The original tennis started out in France and was sort of a foofy game where the bird could bounce from and be played from more than one surface. A lop-sided bird could be worth quite a few laughs even if you're sober.

 

[catdaddy66]

Any beer can be a session beer if you're a manly man.

I'm not a tennis player but I fail to see the problem here.

 

[Lefou]

+
Just depends on how long you want the session to last.

One of my favorite session seasonal beers is the Octoberfest Wiesen or Hofbrau festbiers. I think those are pushing 6 to 6.5% and a session would last around 2-3 beers for me. Age compounds the ill effects so there's no reason to push the fun, so to speak.

 

[balrog]

There's nothing like a keg of beer and a friendly devolving game of Lawn Darts.

AB-SO-LUTELY!

Except we've recently taken up Kubb. Look it up. Throwing wooden sticks to knock over wooden blocks, across the yard. Keep the beer *WELL* off to the side.

 

[OG-wan Kenobi]

AB-SO-LUTELY!

Except we've recently taken up Kubb. Look it up. Throwing wooden sticks to knock over wooden blocks, across the yard. Keep the beer *WELL* off to the side.

$26.99

I can use my empties and a hammer for free

 

[snarf7]

I agree with you, a session should be under 5%, somewhere in the 3.5-5% range IMO.

But I too often overhoot the mark with them. I was brewing a Sessionable Saison just recently with a yeast strain I've never tried (WLP 590) and man did it perform. I was anticipating somewhere in the 4.5% range but it finished at 5.52% so what are you gonna do? It's delicious!

 

[jmarkkaufman]

+1 on smaller grain bill. Less attenuative yeast just leaves sugar there so if it makes a difference it gets taken up by being sluggish with less intoxication. More intoxication and less sluggish is probably funner than the other way around, so either smaller grain bill or let the game devolve.

 

[HB2 HughBHomeBrew]

There's nothing like a keg of beer and a friendly devolving game of Lawn Darts. I'm old enough to remember that game before it got banned. Not the drinking, but the darts. Back in the '70's they were called "Jarts" and were hazardous for children, small animals, and stupid adults.
The original tennis started out in France and was sort of a foofy game where the bird could bounce from and be played from more than one surface. A lop-sided bird could be worth quite a few laughs even if you're sober.

LOL I remember Jarts and wanting them. Then they got banned

 

[seatazzz]

There's nothing like a keg of beer and a friendly devolving game of Lawn Darts. I'm old enough to remember that game before it got banned. Not the drinking, but the darts. Back in the '70's they were called "Jarts" and were hazardous for children, small animals, and stupid adults.
The original tennis started out in France and was sort of a foofy game where the bird could bounce from and be played from more than one surface. A lop-sided bird could be worth quite a few laughs even if you're sober.

We had those when I was a kid, and no one was ever injured...stupid safety nazis. My uncle had a great horseshoe pit at his place, and watching my dad and his brothers get inebriated and play was almost the funnest part of every fourth of July.

 

[ebbelwoi]

To me, a session beer is under 5%. But there are some styles that qualify in terms of ABV but still aren't sessionable, for example hefeweizen. Between the yeast and the carbonation, after two 500ml servings, my stomach feels too inflated to manage a third.

 

[Jayjay1976]

...Back in the '70's they were called "Jarts" and were hazardous for children, small animals, and stupid adults.

My jarts are still up in the rafters of my mom's garage and when the time is right I'll bring them out again. We can't even get bump stocks banned, I'll be damned if they get my jarts. They may have pulled them off the market but if they want mine they can come and take 'em. I'll be in the backyard slamming (sessioning!) imperial stouts and playing a round of jarts blindfolded.

SORRY FOR THE OT POST!

 

[MaxStout]

I did a Kölsch and got much better brewhouse efficiency than I had predicted. What should have been ~5.5% turned out to be 6.7%. I call it an Imperial Kölsch and it's still going to be my lawnmower beer. I may not be mowing in a straight line, but it'll be fun...

 

[Jayjay1976]

I did a Kölsch and got much better brewhouse efficiency than I had predicted. What should have been ~5.5% turned out to be 6.7%. I call it an Imperial Kölsch and it's still going to be my lawnmower beer. I may not be mowing in a straight line, but it'll be fun...

That sounds exquisite. Mind sharing your OG/FG and grain bill?

 

[MaxStout]

That sounds exquisite. Mind sharing your OG/FG and grain bill?

Not at all.

Measured OG 1.060, FG 1.009

It was a SMaSH, so not exactly a Kölsch, but close enough.
10 lbs Vienna, mashed 148F BIAB (Shooting for 150F, but a couple degrees low). I milled with a 0.030 roller gap, so fairly fine crush.
2 oz Liberty @ 60 mins - 27 IBU
Wyeast 2565 in 1L starter
Ferm @ 60F 5 days, then 4-day D-rest @ 66F, then crashed to 39F for 30 days.
Bottle conditioned to 2.8 vols.

 

[seatazzz]

We've had too much rain here so far this spring to get started on the lawn; dry day today and a warm one tomorrow, so will get out the weedwhacker and tackle the jungle that my front yard has become. And will down several pints of my new Mosaic Pils (OMG it's fantastic) while doing so...sorry boss, can't come to work. Why? I weedwhacked my foot.

 

[balrog]

sorry boss, can't come to work I weedwhacked my foot.

There's a great, really bad, punnish innuendo hidden in that gem somewhere...