Anybody perfected a session "IPA"?

[EllisTX]

I've been brewing nothing but 7% and above beers lately and I'm really wanting to brew a low OG hoppy beer. Does anybody have any recipes that they've been successful with?

Looking at the ingredients I have I think a good start could be S-04, a 2 row base supplemented with some Vienna, and some CaraRed. I think that could get me the body and maltiness. Thoughts?

 

[Dark_Ale]

What gravity = a session beer I got a pretty good 1.052 if you want it

 

[Bensiff]

Sitting at work I'll shoot from my hip. Take Vinnies Pliny recipe, scale the malt bill to your desired gravity, remove the corn sugar as it will not be needed at the lighter gravity. Maybe swap the crystal for something that is a little toothier like a 40L and then use his hop schedule scaled down to 40-50 IBU's. That sounds pretty damn good to me...hmm, maybe I'll have to try that at some point.

 

[elproducto]

Although on the upper limit of "session", Tasty McDole's APA is phenomel, thanks to late hopping. It has the hoppiness of an IPA, but without the huge alcohol.

Great, great beer.

A ProMash Recipe - Tasty APA (by Mike McDole)

 

[EllisTX]

What gravity = a session beer I got a pretty good 1.052 if you want it

That's a bit higher even than I was thinking depending on what the fg is. 4.5%ish is what I'm thinking.

 

[MikeSteele]

Here's the AHA Pliny the Toddler Session IPA

Pliny the Toddler - Session IPA

Recipe taken from Zymurgy Magazine November/December 2011 Edition
All Grain
Ingredients for 5.5 U.S. Gallons
3.5 lb. Maris Otter
3.5 lb. Domestic 2-row
1.0 lb. Cara-Pils Malt
0.5 lb. Table Sugar
0.75 oz. Warrior 15.5% a.a. (60 mins)
0.75
oz. Columbus 11.4% a.a. (10 mins)
0.75
oz. Centennial 8.5% a.a. (10 mins)
0.75 oz. Cascade 8.5% a.a. (0 mins)
5 g Gypsum for water profile adjustment


Yeast
1 starter/slurry
White Labs WLP 001 California Ale Yeast


Specifics
Original gravity 1.048
ABV 4.7%
Boiling time 90 min
IBU 56
SRM 37


Directions

Single Infusion Mash at 152°F (67°C) for 60 minutes. 90 minute boil. Ferment at 65°F.
Extract Version:

Substitute 5.6 lb (2.5 kg) pale liquid malt extract for first two grains. Steep the Carapils in 158°F (70°C) water for 30 minutes, strain, add malt extract and sugar, bring to a boil, and proceed with recipe as written.

I read about this in the last Zymurgy and can't wait to try it. Funny thing is I just bought ingredients for a huge American strong ale, so after I do my largest brew yet, I'll transition to my lightest yet.

 

[EllisTX]

Although on the upper limit of "session", Tasty McDole's APA is phenomel, thanks to late hopping. It has the hoppiness of an IPA, but without the huge alcohol.

Great, great beer.

A ProMash Recipe - Tasty APA (by Mike McDole)

I'll search some more for Tasty's recipes. He's mentioned a few times on the BN that he has been trying to make a good session hoppy beer.

 

[daveooph131]

If you want a good session ipa use marris otter a your base and a about 6-8% honey malt. No crystal not anything else. Hop to your liking and I'm telling you you won't be disappointed

 

[Pdeezy]

I doubled the hops in BM's Centennial Blonde, added slightly to the OG, and dry hopped it. I just bottled it a few days ago - it had a great hop presence. I will give some tasting results in a week or so. Not sure if you want to brew before then or not, but I'll let you know anyways, Lol.

 

[ayoungrad]

I've been working on this myself. I consider a session beer anything under 4%. The two I made were 3.8 and 3.5% ABV. But in these 2 batches I have not been completely thrilled with my results.

Not sure I would agree with daveooph131 but, again, I have not been able to achieve my goals as of yet.

IMHO, anything to boost malt flavor and give a little sweetness is a good thing in smaller beers, especially if you hop them like an IPA. Along those lines I would recommend a yeast that only attenuates about 70% (not 80% like SO4). I used WLP002 on the last one and the malt flavor was definitely improved compared with my first attempt.

 

[ayoungrad]

Sorry daveooph131, missed that you mentioned honey malt in your post... I misread it as honey.

 

[KozHops]

If I was going to do this, the three things I would do is mash high (154-155) and come up with a BU:GU of around .9 - 1.0. I would also add some heavy dry/late hop additions for some pronounced hop flavor.

I might have to try something out like this soon.

 

[EllisTX]

Ayoungrad- any insight as to what you've done and what you'd do different?

 

[Pdeezy]

Have you tried looking at some hoppy APA recipes and adjusting? BM has a session SNPA recipe that would probably stand up to some extra hop additions.

 

[skeezerpleezer]

Micro-IPA with Nelson Sauvin | The Mad Fermentationist - Homebrewing Blog

 

[ayoungrad]

Ayoungrad- any insight as to what you've done and what you'd do different?

I think its all a balance. Unfortunately, such a small beer is really going to be affected by subtle changes. As a result, small recipe changes and differences in mashing/boiling/hops/yeast/fermentation will likely have big results in the final flavor.

In general, anything you put in should be with a specific purpose. And use a higher grist percentage of anything that adds a desired character. Like in my last batch I had the same amount of Munich as Pale Malt whereas normally I would have substantially more Pale malt. IMHO, it's kind of the opposite of scaling up a beer. But keep in mind that you have to keep enough diastatic power to convert the whole mash.

And late hop additions are a must. But you have to be careful not to overwhelm the malt which is what I have been doing. For IBUs, I think I'd shoot for a BU:GU of around 1.

 

[Srceenplay]

What if you split a regular ipa into two batches and water it down. Then dry hop as normal??

 

[ayoungrad]

I think that would taste like watered-down beer. You'd be surprised how empty a beer can taste if you just decrease the amount of each ingredient which is effectively what you are suggesting.

 

[EllisTX]

Great suggestions by everyone. Thanks for all the input.

Has anyone used "too much" Carapils in a recipe? What did it do to your finished product? I'm thinking that for the beer I'm looking to make that more than normal levels of CaraPils/Red would be helpful.

 

[jlpred55]

I have. Brew a bitter!!!

 

[Firebat138]

frankly a session beer for us is the Fresh Squeezed IPA... might as well make it worth my while.

 

[Oldsock]

I'm working on one. Using Vienna for the base malt, hot sacch rest, no-sparge, big late boil additions, fermenting with something English (1968?), and then blasting it with keg hops. I liked the Nelso Micro-IPA linked above, but it was lacking substantial malt character. I think I'll also go a bit bigger, say 3.5% (~1.040), call it a Half IPA?

 

[david_42]

Bent Rod Rye is my best shot at it. The rye adds a dimension to the malt that compensates for the reduced base malt. It started as 2/3rds of a Hop Rod Rye clone.

 

[Yooper]

You've hit on my "golden grail" of brewing. I want all of the great hoppy flavors of an IPA, with a nice malt backbone, in a lower ABV beer. I haven't been happy to totally nail it (yet), but here's a decent recipe of one of my attempts:

4.6% ABV- 11 gallon batch

14 lbs Pale Malt, Maris Otter (3.0 SRM) Grain 6 77.3 %
2 lbs Munich Malt - 20L (20.0 SRM) Grain 7 11.0 %
1 lbs Caramel/Crystal Malt - 20L (20.0 SRM) Grain 8 5.5 %
1 lbs Caramel/Crystal Malt - 40L (40.0 SRM) Grain 9 5.5 %

0.85 oz Cascade [5.00 %] - First Wort 60.0 min Hop 11 7.2 IBUs
0.50 oz Centennial [9.60 %] - First Wort 60.0 min Hop 12 9.0 IBUs
1.00 oz Magnum [13.40 %] - Boil 60.0 min Hop 13 20.8 IBUs
2.00 oz Cascade [5.00 %] - Boil 15.0 min Hop 14 7.7 IBUs
2.00 oz Cascade [5.00 %] - Boil 1.0 min Hop 15 0.7 IBUs

1.0 pkg Denny's Favorite (Wyeast Labs #1450PC) [50.00 ml] Yeast 16

1.00 oz Centennial [9.60 %] - Dry Hop 7.0 Days Hop 17 0.0 IBUs
1.00 oz Simcoe [12.70 %] - Dry Hop 7.0 Days

 

[trent]

You've hit on my "golden grail" of brewing. I want all of the great hoppy flavors of an IPA, with a nice malt backbone, in a lower ABV beer. I haven't been happy to totally nail it (yet), but here's a decent recipe of one of my attempts:

Yo Yoops...have you ever had Alpine Hoppy Birthday? It might only be a local boy here in SD, but it is a Session IPA. It is about 5% and has the full WC IPA taste. If anything, that is THE Session IPA to clone.

You know, I just checked Alpine's website, and they don't even list it. Maybe its only something on draught around these parts. Thank god I live in SD.

 

[midfielder5]

Yooper I was wondering how your creation of a session IPA like 21st Amendment's beer (Bitter American!) was going. I al,most sent you a PM then this response popped up.

 

[Yooper]

Yooper I was wondering how your creation of a session IPA like 21st Amendment's beer (Bitter American!) was going. I al,most sent you a PM then this response popped up.

The above is my closest attempt- but it's not a clone! I'm still working on it, as I can't seem to "get" all the great malt flavor and hoppiness that Bitter American has. This was my closest, though, and a good beer. Except for one fermenter that got infected and was dumped (and why I didn't have any to send you. ) on the kegging day.

 

[Srceenplay]

Another stupid idea....
What about boiling some off the alcohol like an non alcohol?

 

[Yooper]

Another stupid idea....
What about boiling some off the alcohol like an non alcohol?

The issue with that would be boiling off the aromatics that are typical in an IPA/APA.

 

[midfielder5]

The above is my closest attempt- but it's not a clone! I'm still working on it, as I can't seem to "get" all the great malt flavor and hoppiness that Bitter American has. This was my closest, though, and a good beer. Except for one fermenter that got infected and was dumped (and why I didn't have any to send you. ) on the kegging day.

OK good luck. Looking forward to your perfecting it!