Let's Talk about Session Beers!!!

[ColoHox]

Thanks! my farmer friends have unloaded a lot of grain on me, including about 150 lb of rye so I've been looking for ways to use it non-stop!

Wow, I'm jealous. I put rye in almost everything I make.

 

[RM-MN]

Let me know what ways you come up with to use rye. I have about 25000 pounds in a bin and its moisture content is too high to sell right now.

 

[JonM]

I love session SMASH lawnmower beers. Take enough Maris Otter or Golden Promise or 2-row or whatever (Golden promise is my current favorite) to get to 1.040, mash way low like 149, add enough hops to get 30ish IBU.

I also have Northern Brewer's Scottish 70/- in the keg right now and it's really, really good. Just about 4% ABV.

 

[roastquake]

Let me know what ways you come up with to use rye. I have about 25000 pounds in a bin and its moisture content is too high to sell right now.

You probably already know that it is wonderful in a pale ale. This weekend I'm going to try a something with a large % of rye, not sure what yet, but probably not that KY common. I'll keep ya'll updated

 

[PastorofMuppets]

I also am pursuing the art of the mild, ordinary bitter, table beer.
I still like 5 abv and higher beers but I like drinking beer i brew for the enjoyment and taste of the ale and not to get a buzz. I am the odd one out in my circle of friends because i dont like getting drunk and rarely even get buzzed even.

The big craze is in imperial, double, huge, long aged beers. I dont really get into any of that.
My latest obsession is a session bavarian hefeweizen. A great enjoyable flavor. I just brewed the bavarian hefeweizen in the wheat beer recipe section but used beer smith to lower it down a bit. It came out wonderfully and I also harvested yeast so i can brew it as often as i need, since its like 15 days from brew to drink.

 

[dlaramie08]

Lately I have been making low abv beers just because I don't want to get drunk off of 3 beers. Ive been mashing higher (155-158) so I get a decent amount of mouth feel and to balance the ibus. I've found that 40 ibus in a pale with abv of 3.5 is just too high. Whatever your goal ibu is, I've found it's best to drop 5-10 ibus. Unless its a light ale with a target of 12 or so. I've not made one of those except for a hefe so it didn't really make much of a difference

 

[Malty_Dog]

Really nice thread. The most "sessiony" beers I've made have been BM's Centennial blonde and a recent pale ale (JZ) that I ended up watering down some. Also used older previously opened hops. I'll know in about a week how it went. The sample at bottling was a tad bitter but it was a nice pale yellow. Attenuation was a bit too strong, ending below 1.010. Look forward to following more as I do get tired of the >1.060 beers I've been making. I like to mix it up and something like a nice light rye ale sounds wonderful.

 

[motobrewer]

just kegged at 3.8% porter. my first beer I ever made was a 1035 bitter.

 

[tshinefield]

Sorry if this is a repeat... Check out a recent Basic Brewing video where James made a Rye and Wheat beer that has a 1.3 abv. Might have to give it a try.

http://ec.libsyn.com/p/2/8/5/28572d...1ce3dae902ea1d01c08434d2cb5983ad&c_id=6282469

 

[motobrewer]

not gonna lie - 1.3% sounds like a waste of a brewday to me. I'd rather just drink iced tea at that point.

3% is probably my bottom limit.

 

[JonM]

Recently, I've been batting around the idea of doing a session Belgian less-than-single. I did a basic saison a while back that was all pilsner at about 1.050 with just a touch of hops at 60. I might do the same thing again but use some of the 1214 I have sitting around.

 

[NateLTB]

Almost exactly what I was planning on doing, except I will bitter with Fuggles because I have a pound of them laying around. Plan to flavor and aroma with amirillo and Nelson Sauvin. That Nelson Sauvin is a really interesting hop that I have became a huge fan of recently. Expensive though. I've been having a lot of problems with my low IPAs coming out too sweet so I'm thinking maybe only 4 ounces of C60 or 40 this next time. I don't care for the sweet ones, I'm looking for a bright IPA, with a huge hop character. Was thinking 70 might be too bitter for such a low alcohol, according to some experts bitterness is perceived different depending on ABV, so I recalculated my recipe from around 70 down to 40. You didn't feel it had too much bitterness I'm guessing?

Since most of my IBU's came from late additions it was more grapefruity/citrus than bitter. I wanted to brew it after trying Lagunitas Daytime. I added a half ounce of Cascade, Citra and Nelson Sauvin at 15, 10, 5 and flamout and also added an ounce of each for dry-hopping. I bought a pound of all three hops so I could save some money but that Sauvin was still pretty spendy. I love that hop though, I've used it in three or four of my beers.

 

[fuzzy2133]

not gonna lie - 1.3% sounds like a waste of a brewday to me. I'd rather just drink iced tea at that point.

3% is probably my bottom limit.

It is worth watching just to see and hear what problems they ran into with a mostly rye grain bill. Definitely could use 2-row to get the ABV up.

 

[estricklin]

Sorry if this is a repeat... Check out a recent Basic Brewing video where James made a Rye and Wheat beer that has a 1.3 abv. Might have to give it a try.

http://ec.libsyn.com/p/2/8/5/28572d...1ce3dae902ea1d01c08434d2cb5983ad&c_id=6282469

Thanks for the post, I love Basic Brewing Radio, especially since these guys are in my home state.

 

[Malty_Dog]

I remember an episode from those guys on a Roku channel where they did a low abv rye with some tacos as a food compliment. I think it was different from the episode linked above, but they raved about the beer which I believe as in the 2.5-3.0 range. I'll look for the episode and try to link if I can find it.

*Looks like it was the 8/9/12 episode featuring "Rye Wit and Tacos": http://ec.libsyn.com/p/3/0/1/301e01...1ce3dae902ea1d01c08433d1cb5f67ae&c_id=4803576

.pdf of recipe: http://ec.libsyn.com/p/b/5/1/b51188...1ce3dae902ea1d01c08433d1ca5e246f&c_id=4815139

I will brew this one!

 

[Waynep005]

it is nice to see that others are into session beers. I have been trying to keep one of my three taps with a 4% or lower beer. my next session will be the Scottishheavy 70 from brewing classic styles.

 

[estricklin]

I had a crazy idea earlier today. Thinking of making a basic American Light Lager, clocking 1.040 or so, with about .020 of that coming from cooked rice. Keep the IBUs around 12-15, but just totally go hop crazy in the last 15 minutes, like 3 or 4 ounces? Ferment with a lager yeast at 65 F. Always wanted to play around with rice anyway....

Edit:

Ok I'm thinking 2 lbs of rice, and 5 lbs 6 row.

 

[gregkeller]

I've actually found that in my session beers I wanna leave a bunch of unfermentables so it's not so thin. Your example if just rice and six row might leave you with an extremely hoppy beer with no malt to back it up. I have a session pale on tap that has 3 oz of galaxy, all in the last 20 minutes and 2 oz of galaxy in the dry hop. Great hop aroma and flavor.ild bitterness. BUT my OG was 1037 and my FG was 1016. That residual gravity helps stand up to the 40 or so ibu's in the beer.

Also have you ever used a lager yeast at 65? I might be worried about lots of off flavones fermenting it 15 degrees above its standard range. Then again, who knows, it might be awesome. It's homebrew we can do whatever we want.

 

[estricklin]

I've actually found that in my session beers I wanna leave a bunch of unfermentables so it's not so thin. Your example if just rice and six row might leave you with an extremely hoppy beer with no malt to back it up. I have a session pale on tap that has 3 oz of galaxy, all in the last 20 minutes and 2 oz of galaxy in the dry hop. Great hop aroma and flavor.ild bitterness. BUT my OG was 1037 and my FG was 1016. That residual gravity helps stand up to the 40 or so ibu's in the beer.

Also have you ever used a lager yeast at 65? I might be worried about lots of off flavones fermenting it 15 degrees above its standard range. Then again, who knows, it might be awesome. It's homebrew we can do whatever we want.

Oh it's just one of those "what if" things. I could definitely change the mash temp to leave more unfermentables. My biggest concern is how hard it would be to lauter. I've always wanted to enter an American Light Lager into a competition, this might at least help me to come up with a process for sparging and cooking the rice.

I have used lager yeast at a wide range of temps, in the upper 40s to lower 70s. Usually I go about 55 but I have really liked the character I can get from a West German Lager strain at 65, I still lager the beer at 31 or so.

 

[ScootersAle]

I'm a big fan of session beers. Austin Homebrew has a line of kits that are specifically designed for Session beers - I think most come out to 3.9%. I've made their Brown Porter and Am Brown a couple of times each, and they are very tasty. Not blow you away, but I don't think you would say they are 'session' beers just by the taste. I've brewed JZ's BCS Bitter a few times now and I oak it every time. Adds so much to it.

I've had good success with session Saisons, where I start with 7.5-8 lbs of Pilsner malt and add in a small amount of Special B and Oats or Wheat or Rye. Usually comes out 4.5-4.8%

 

[BreezyBrew]

not gonna lie - 1.3% sounds like a waste of a brewday to me. I'd rather just drink iced tea at that point.

3% is probably my bottom limit.

Agree.