Session Brewing Questions

[hbhudy]

I have been brewing session beers for the last couple of years and have a couple things I was hoping other session brewers might give some feedback on... My current process is as follows,,
- Mash high at roughly 158 for nearly everything
- Sub Vienna or Munich for about 25% of the of the 2row
- treat the yeast right (No off flavors allowed)
- don’t over crystal.. I don’t think upping the crystal malt is the only way to keep body

Anyone else have ideas or other process they use for session beers...

 

[Kent88]

Do you mash conventionally, or BIAB?

Do you sparge? If so, how?

Are you trying to make a really good example of a particular style?

The thing I keep saying, but people keep telling me I am wrong, is be careful not to just blindly sparge to a certain volume as you might end up oversparging. Better to stop when your runnings get to 1.012 or 1.010 and top off with plain water than oversparging. Take that with a grain of salt.

 

[hbhudy]

Do you mash conventionally, or BIAB?

Do you sparge? If so, how?

Are you trying to make a really good example of a particular style?

The thing I keep saying, but people keep telling me I am wrong, is be careful not to just blindly sparge to a certain volume as you might end up oversparging. Better to stop when your runnings get to 1.012 or 1.010 and top off with plain water than oversparging. Take that with a grain of salt.

I batch sparge in a cooler and use a 2-2.5qrt per pound grist.. Never have a issue with anything from an over sparge standpoint..

I don’t try to copy any specific styles just general themes like hoppy pale ales, English ales, and Belgian, Saison, galore

 

[Kent88]

So you have a formula for how much water you sparge with, you don't just sparge to a certain pre-boil volume. That is probably better practice than just looking at the recipe and going "oh hey, I need to have x many gallons before I boil, I might as well sparge until I have that much"

 

[brandonlovesbeer]

Do you mash conventionally, or BIAB?

Do you sparge? If so, how?

Technically BIAB is not a mash style... it’s a Sparge Style.

And before I get 100 replies saying “Ignore Brandon lovesbeer’s response” let me explain.

Conventional mash is when you soak grain in hot water around 140-160°F for around 60 mins.
Then remove the liquid from the grains.

This liquid removal can take many forms. But the end result is the same... the liquid is separated from the grain.

Hence, BIAB is a sparge style.

 

[d3track]

Wouldn’t that be a lautering style then...

 

[d3track]

I have been brewing session beers for the last couple of years and have a couple things I was hoping other session brewers might give some feedback on... My current process is as follows,,
- Mash high at roughly 158 for nearly everything
- Sub Vienna or Munich for about 25% of the of the 2row
- treat the yeast right (No off flavors allowed)
- don’t over crystal.. I don’t think upping the crystal malt is the only way to keep body

Anyone else have ideas or other process they use for session beers...

I’ve also been doing full volume mashing for session strength beers. Probably a good test if I can pull it off: full volume vs sparged session brew.

 

[hbhudy]

I’ve also been doing full volume mashing for session strength beers. Probably a good test if I can pull it off: full volume vs sparged session brew.

Full volume makes sense to me.. I will put that into that into the rotation with some known recipes and see what we get..

 

[SanPancho]

Technically BIAB is not a mash style... it’s a Sparge Style.

Then how do you explain the non-existance of a sparge? How can NOT sparging be a style OF sparging?