I'm looking for some tips elaborating a session IPA. Or Session APA, or EPA, or pale ale, or however one wants to call it (google-fu seems to suggest some controversies ). I've looked through google and the search engine here, but with mitigated results.
For of all, to describe what I'm striving for a little better, I want something that's pretty crisp, refreshing, and with strong hop aroma. Not restricted to noble nor citrusy hops. I've seen some "session" examples that are almost 6% ABV... to me that's just a regular ale. I'm aiming for something in the 3.x % ABV range.
I've looked at a few styles for inspiration, like Kölsch, Ordinary Bitter, English Pale Ale, American Pale Ale, India Pale Ale, etc. They fall into some of the windows I'm aiming for, but I don't care to respect any specific style.
For an extra layer of complexity, I'm looking to work only with local malts, but let's just ignore that for the time being and I'll try to figure out conversions later.
IBU to OG ratio, what should I be looking for? I'm thinking of something along 0.5, but I'm not sure if the low AVB will influence the ratio I'm looking for. 0.5 fits most pale ale styles, being the lower limit of the most bitter IPAs. I'm wondering if maybe it should be even lower. Goal is drinkability, here.
Grain bill, I'm looking at the equivalents of 2 row pale malts and marris otter. Alone this gives me a very pale result, though, so I've also added some 20L crystal malt, representing 2.3% of the grain bill. Grain bill is 65% 4SRM malt, 33% 11SRM malt, and 2% 20L crystal, on my first draft. This gives me an 1.043 OG for an est 3.8% ABV and 7.7 SRM color.
To get that 0.5 IBU:OG ratio, I've added Magnum hops to 60 minute boil to reach 22 IBU. Post-fermentation, I'm looking at a 4g/L dry hop addition of an undetermined aroma variety.
On the yeast side, I'm not quite sure. I've done some good brews with WLP590 French Saison and WLP028 Edinburgh Scottish, but I'm thinking the former might be too attenuative for a session beer. Ideally I'd like something pretty clear, so the very flocculating WLP002 English is rather tempting. I'm probably going to run a number of small batch trials to test the yeasts, but I'd still appreciate some input on the choice. I've read not to select something that's too "clean" fermenting for a session ale, but I also want the hop character to come first, not yeasty flavors (all while remaining a balanced and flavorful brew, of course). I'm probably going to try both WLP028 and WLP002 alone and combined.
Fermentation temperatures will be fairly stable, at around 16°C to 38°C, depending on where I decide to leave it to ferment. I've read some somewhat conflicting tips on whether I should strive for the low end or the high end of the recommended fermentation temperatures, 65-68°F for WLP002 and 65-70°F for WLP0268 (18C-21°C). That said, my temperature choices are mostly about 18°C, 25°C, or 34°C, unless I figure something out to keep it at something else.
Finally, for carbonation level, I was thinking of about 2.8 volumes of CO2.
I've brewed a good 3.5% ABV ale before, but it wasn't really anything like this, so I'd appreciate any input from people of experience to see if there are tweaks I should be looking into.
For of all, to describe what I'm striving for a little better, I want something that's pretty crisp, refreshing, and with strong hop aroma. Not restricted to noble nor citrusy hops. I've seen some "session" examples that are almost 6% ABV... to me that's just a regular ale. I'm aiming for something in the 3.x % ABV range.
I've looked at a few styles for inspiration, like Kölsch, Ordinary Bitter, English Pale Ale, American Pale Ale, India Pale Ale, etc. They fall into some of the windows I'm aiming for, but I don't care to respect any specific style.
For an extra layer of complexity, I'm looking to work only with local malts, but let's just ignore that for the time being and I'll try to figure out conversions later.
IBU to OG ratio, what should I be looking for? I'm thinking of something along 0.5, but I'm not sure if the low AVB will influence the ratio I'm looking for. 0.5 fits most pale ale styles, being the lower limit of the most bitter IPAs. I'm wondering if maybe it should be even lower. Goal is drinkability, here.
Grain bill, I'm looking at the equivalents of 2 row pale malts and marris otter. Alone this gives me a very pale result, though, so I've also added some 20L crystal malt, representing 2.3% of the grain bill. Grain bill is 65% 4SRM malt, 33% 11SRM malt, and 2% 20L crystal, on my first draft. This gives me an 1.043 OG for an est 3.8% ABV and 7.7 SRM color.
To get that 0.5 IBU:OG ratio, I've added Magnum hops to 60 minute boil to reach 22 IBU. Post-fermentation, I'm looking at a 4g/L dry hop addition of an undetermined aroma variety.
On the yeast side, I'm not quite sure. I've done some good brews with WLP590 French Saison and WLP028 Edinburgh Scottish, but I'm thinking the former might be too attenuative for a session beer. Ideally I'd like something pretty clear, so the very flocculating WLP002 English is rather tempting. I'm probably going to run a number of small batch trials to test the yeasts, but I'd still appreciate some input on the choice. I've read not to select something that's too "clean" fermenting for a session ale, but I also want the hop character to come first, not yeasty flavors (all while remaining a balanced and flavorful brew, of course). I'm probably going to try both WLP028 and WLP002 alone and combined.
Fermentation temperatures will be fairly stable, at around 16°C to 38°C, depending on where I decide to leave it to ferment. I've read some somewhat conflicting tips on whether I should strive for the low end or the high end of the recommended fermentation temperatures, 65-68°F for WLP002 and 65-70°F for WLP0268 (18C-21°C). That said, my temperature choices are mostly about 18°C, 25°C, or 34°C, unless I figure something out to keep it at something else.
Finally, for carbonation level, I was thinking of about 2.8 volumes of CO2.
I've brewed a good 3.5% ABV ale before, but it wasn't really anything like this, so I'd appreciate any input from people of experience to see if there are tweaks I should be looking into.