Tips for making a hoppy-yet-very-low-gravity ale

[AdamWiz]

I'm talking VERY low gravity, even lower than a standard pale ale. Something in the neighborhood of 3.5-4% ABV.

Back story: As I was drinking a Short's "humalupalicious" yesterday, I gave my wife a taste. She complained about how she loves the hop aroma and flavor of IPAs, but she can't drink a full one because they are just too high in alcohol, bitterness, and body for her. Of course, I took this as a challenge : make a truly sessionable, light-bodied beer that still has a good amount of hop character without being overly bitter. Have any of you done anything like this? I was considering basically going with the grain bill of a light lager, very small amount of low-alpha hops for the 60 minuite addition, and a lot of late boil and flame-out hops. I'll be using WLP001 for the yeast. I'm looking for any advice anyone may have: grain bill, mash temp., gravity/bitterness ratio, or anything else you might have.

 

[Gfei]

Check this out for some ideas.

He has tasting notes here.

 

[elproducto]

Hopbursting and watch the IBU's.

 

[AdamWiz]

I should have known that the mad fermentationist has done this - that guy has done everything. Every time I go to his site, I end up stuck on there forever reading all the interesting stuff he has done. Like him, I will be using Nelson Sauvin hops. My main concern is what my mash temp. should be on such a small grain bill. I don't want a lot of body, but I don't want it to be watery either. I want this to be a really easy to drink beer above all else.

 

[Bob]

See "Pride of Raubsville" in my recipe dropdown. Tried and proven Bitter.

Bob

 

[Yooper]

You've hit on my lifetime brewing challenge! I LOVE IPAs. Love them, love them, love them. But in order to get all of that wonderful hoppiness, you need to have a malt backbone. It's been really hard for me to make an IPA taste really awesome under about 6%. I weigh 135 pounds, and can't drink 7% beers all night long.

Scaling it down doesn't really work, as there are some issues with the balance and the mouthfeel, so I've been trying to sub in some malts like aromatic malt to help trick myself into feeling a beer is "maltier" than it really is. This works pretty well, but I wouldn't call any one of my "Session IPAs" a huge success.

I've hit 5% or so with some nice hoppy beers that I would repeat, but not really with the true IPA balance that I love.

This one is 5.3%, mostly because I only got 68% efficiency! But it came out really good:

10 gallons

19 lbs Pilsner (2 Row) Ger (2.0 SRM) Grain 82.84 %
1 lbs 8.0 oz Caramel/Crystal Malt - 40L (40.0 SRM) Grain 6.54 %
1 lbs 8.0 oz Munich Malt - 10L (10.0 SRM) Grain 6.54 %
8.0 oz Caramel/Crystal Malt - 10L (10.0 SRM) Grain 2.18 %

1.50 oz Magnum [13.40 %] (90 min) (First Wort Hop) Hops 36.2 IBU
1.00 oz Cascade [8.00 %] (15 min) Hops 6.8 IBU
1.00 oz Amarillo [4.50 %] (15 min) Hops 3.8 IBU
1.00 oz Centennial [9.60 %] (15 min) Hops 8.1 IBU
1.00 oz Cascade (homegrown) [5.00 %] (0 min) Hops -
1.00 oz Centennial (Homegrown) [8.50 %] (0 min) Hops -
1.00 oz Amarillo [4.50 %] (0 min) Hops
0.50 oz Centennial (Homegrown) [8.50 %] (Dry Hop 7 days) Hops -
0.50 oz Amarillo [4.50 %] (Dry Hop 7 days) Hops -
0.50 oz Cascade (homegrown) [5.00 %] (Dry Hop 7 days) Hops -

90 minute boil, mashed at 153. I used S05 for the yeast and fermented it at 65 degrees.

 

[ayoungrad]

I did a 3.8% pale ale/IPA session beer that scored a 35 in the pale ale category in a recent contest with over 550 entries. Didn't place but I thought that was pretty good for such a small beer in one of the most popular categories.

At any rate, I don't have the recipe on-hand but essentially I took a normal recipe and kept all the amounts the same except for the pale malt which I decreased to a level to attain a 3.8% ABV. I hopped it with a BU:GU of slightly more than one, heavy on late additions.

I haven't seen my scoresheets yet (only the score) but in my opinion, the result was that it was a beer with good hop flavor but a little low on malt flavor and a little too thin. I used US05 which was a mistake. When I do it again, I'm going to use a lower attenuating yeast, mash slightly higher for more malt flavor (maybe 154 instead of 152), and use double the carapils (I think I used 0.5 pounds initially).

 

[mabrungard]

+1 to Lorena (Yooper)'s comments regarding session IPA's. I'm in agreement, its a tough task.

I have to relate an interesting beer I tasted this summer. I was at North Peak Brewing in Traverse City, MI and they brought out their 'session' IPA. My first thought was: 'isn't this just another name for Pale Ale?'. Upon tasting and hearing the specifications, I had to say that they did hit the mark. It did taste like an IPA while having a modest 4.2% alcohol. They said it won gold at either GABF or WBC (I don't remember which). They call it Wanderer Session IPA. Try it out if you see it.

With regard to creating a beer like this, I agree with much of what ayoungrad says. Keeping the accessory grain content constant while reducing the base malt of a typical IPA grist to bring the gravity down to a desired level makes sense. I think that Jamil Z does something similar for his Scottish 60, 70, and 80 recipes.

I'm not sure I would change the BU:GU ratio as ayoungrad did. Their reported competition results do speak volumes, though. I like my IPA's malty and hoppy while modestly assertive bitter. I guess I would start at a similar ratio to begin with and move the bittering to suit my palate.

As ayoungrad mentions, reducing the attenuation and enhancing the mouthfeel is paramount as you reduce gravity. A low attenuating yeast (I like WY1338) and increasing the mashing temp (say 156 to 158F) would be a good start. I have had very good success with these techniques for my award winning Milds. This session IPA would be a variant of that style and its goals.

 

[Oldsock]

Check this out for some ideas.

He has tasting notes here.

I was really happy with the way that beer turned out, but I'm planning on doing another one that isn't based on final runnings. I'm planning to go mostly Vienna for the malt, and ~5% medium crystal. Flaked rye is a great way to add body as well if you are concerned. Mashing hotter ~156 F, and doing a no-sparge to maximize the amount of malt character.

I was happy with the hopping on the last batch, but I’ll probably try hop bursting the next one (maybe upping the IBUs slightly to account for the smoother bitterness from late hop additions). I’ve got Simcoe and Amarillo left from last harvest that I need to burn through. Probably ferment with 1056 again.

 

[AdamWiz]

The mash on my first attempt at this is resting right now. I went with mostly Golden Promise, with a bit of 40L crystal, honey malt, and flaked rice. I'm shooting for an OG around 1.038. I will be using a small amount of Liberty hops for bittering(at 3.4%, the lowest alpha variety I have), and a bunch of Nelson Sauvin at the end of the boil. I'm mashing at 156 degrees, and using White Labs San Diego super yeast(WLP090). A lot of these ingredients were dictated by what I had on hand that I needed to use soon, other than the Nelson Sauvin hops. My main goal with this is a light, easy to drink beer that will let the hops be the focus without being overly bitter.

 

[AdamWiz]

After only a 3 hour lag time, fermentation has begun! I ended up getting really high(80%+) efficiency, so my OG was about 1.042-1.044 instead of the 1.038 I was anticipating. Not sure why my efficiency was so much higher than normal. The mash was pretty thin since the grain bill was so small, that's the only thing I did differently. I only did about 20 IBUs (tinseth), with the majority of that being from the late boil Nelson Sauvin. This was my first time using this type of hop, I really like the aroma. Very fruity, but not at all like American fruity hops - they smell more like berries or grapes than citrus fruit. And the best part is, since I used the SD super yeast it won't need to ferment for very long. I would have liked to use a lower attenuating strain for such a small beer, but I really had to use this yeast soon, it was 2 weeks past the "best by" date. But it's OK, I'm not too concerned about having much body on this one.

 

[dankev]

I'm late to the party, and I don't have a recipe, but this made me think of Levitation Ale from Stone. It's 4.4%, so a little stronger than you had in mind, but it's pretty flavorful for being so light. I imagine a recipe could be found for it.

 

[duckmanco]

Late here also but I've made a few of these, often call them Nor Cal bitters even though I'm in Richmond VA. My Chinook version has been by far my favorite and I constantly say to myself I'd order it by the pint at a craft beer bar.

Chinook American Bitter
5 gal.
1.045 OG
Wyeast 1056

4.25 lbs golden DME (that's it.... Yup that's it)

.75 oz Chinook for 38ibu @ 60
1 oz. Chinook for 18ibu @ 10
.75 oz. Chinook @ 0 - flameout steep hop--- prior to adding this hop addition, kill flame, begin a whirpool and maintain stirring for +- 1 min, throw in hops and let steep (I toss all hops in loose) for 20 min prior to turning on chiller.

Dry hop till keg kicks on 1.5 oz Chinook

Such a simple cheap easy recipe, as chinook is an under appreciated readily available hop unlike simcoe and Amarillo citra etc. That said, I just put an Amarillo version of this in the ferm fridge today... Can't wait to see how it turns out.

 

[AdamWiz]

I did the first taste test of this today ( my first kegged batch! The cure for my bottle conditioning impatience is finally here! ) I really like it, very nice crisp hop flavor and aroma. I can't believe that it only has 20 IBUs, it tastes like a lot more due to the low gravity. It ended up at about 4.2% ABV. I am curious to have some others try it to see what they think. I don't think it would win me any competitions or anything, judges would probably say it lacks balance. But it's pretty much exactly what I was going for - hoppy yet easy drinking.

 

[skeezerpleezer]

I did a nice 5% all galaxy APA, from bewday to keg spitting was 17 days. Take away the week dryhop and some gravity and i bet it could be done in 10.

I used lots of late hops -4 oz- and had great efficiency or it would of been 4.5 or so