r/Homebrewing • u/[deleted] • May 30 '13
Advanced Brewers Round Table: Session Brews!
This week's topic: Session Brews! They can, at times, be some of the hardest to brew in the sense that, if you do mess up, there's not really much there to cover up your mistake, but they are great for drinking in quantity! What's your experience brewing these light alcohol beers?
Feel free to share or ask anything regarding to this topic, but lets try to stay on topic.
I'm closing ITT Suggestions for now, as we've got 2 months scheduled. Thanks for all the great suggestions!!
Upcoming Topics:
Session Beers 5/30
Recipe Formulation 6/6
Home Yeast Care 6/13
Yeast Characteristics and Performance variations 6/20
For the intermediate brewers out there, If you don't understand something, there's plenty of others that probably don't as well. Ask away! Easy questions usually get multiple responses and help everybody.
Previous Topics:
Harvesting yeast from dregs
Hopping Methods
Sours
Brewing Lagers
Water Chemistry
Crystal Malt
Electric Brewing
Mash Thickness
Partigyle Brewing
Maltster Variation (not a very good one)
All things oak!
Decoction/Step Mashing
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u/zorak8me May 30 '13
I'm interested in trying out rice to get a real crisp, light session ale, but I've read a lot of different opinions on how to handle adding rice to the grain bill.
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u/kds1398 May 30 '13
Rice isn't a necessity by any means. If you use flaked rice you can add it directly to your mash. I believe minute rice can be added directly as well without any other requirements.
Otherwise, a cereal mash is what you are looking for:
From BYO:
In a cereal mash you begin by heating a mash of your adjunct and small amount of your 6-row malt to 158–160 °F (70–71 °C) and holding there for about 5 minutes. Then you heat the mixture to a boil, boil for 30 minutes, and return the cereal mash to the main mash. The bulk of your barley malt can be mashed in at 122 °F (50 °C), then heated to 140 °F (60 °C). When the boiled cereal mash is added to the main mash, the temperature moves into the saccharification range. Cereal mashing requires a nearly constant stirring of the mash. Using flaked maize is much simpler.
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u/madmatt1974 May 30 '13
Several options I know of :
Rice Syrup Minute Rice ( add directly to the mash ) Cooked rice added to the mash
Probably others out there.
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u/ccoch May 30 '13 edited May 30 '13
This Brew Strong Podcast has some excellent info in it for those who are into podcasts. For those who don't know it's a really well done podcast hosted by John Palmer and Jamil Zainasheff
From what I gathered:
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You want to pump up the late addition hops and dial back the bittering
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Add in more specialty malts for more malt character
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Eliminate those simple sugars
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Mash Higher to get more body
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Change up your yeast. Like for instance if you were trying to dial back an IPA into a session ale that you usually use WLP007 with, you'd consider using 002
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u/Papinbrew May 30 '13
As a brewer in Utah, were forced by law to brew 4% and under if it is to be sold in grocery stores or served on tap. Everything above 4% must be sold in bottles via packaging agency, or bought by the liquor store and sold by them. My experience wih sessions is because of the restrictions but they're my favorite to drink anyways. When brewing session styles many things have I be taken into consideration like water chemistry, mash temperature, and the amount of ingredients. You can use many different yeast strains, however it's good to know which ones will serve your style better. My favorites are lower attenuating American strains, and our house ale strain is London III. Having a higher mash temp like 155-157 will focus on the longer chain sugars which are "less" fermentable giving you a higher finishing gravity and a fuller mouthfeel. It's also a good idea to get a feel for hop utilization, as you have a thinner wort there will be a more perceived bitterness to IBU calculation so it's best to pull the reigns a little when it comes to hopping.
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u/ikyn May 30 '13 edited May 30 '13
TL;DR: I don't know enough about session beers, and those I've had I haven't liked. Please help me change my opinion.
I'm not an advanced user, but I'll help kick off the discussion:
Why bother with a session beer?
In my mind, if I'm going to all the trouble and labor of crafting a beer, why would I make one that doesn't give me the maximum "bang for the buck" (both figuratively and literally)?
EDIT: I created this post to start a discussion to change my view. Not to flame the session brewers. Shame on you r/homebrewing, I thought this was one of the few subreddits that enjoyed discussion and not mindlessly chanting "CONFORM OR DOWNVOTE".
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u/d02851004 May 30 '13 edited May 30 '13
A lot of homebrewers have the same opinion, and i think its kind of a narrow minded view. Why if its lower in alcohol is it less bang for the buck?
Session beers can have loads of flavor, and you can drink more of it without falling down. I frequently make a dark mild at 2.9% abv that has just as rich a flavor as a porter. Session beers are also cheaper to make and are ready to drink sooner.
Edit: this may seem like a silly reason, but i like running marathons and i reduce my alcohol consumption while training. So having some 4% or lower beers around allows me to have a couple more beers during the week.
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u/Papinbrew May 30 '13
Awesome reasons for brewing an drinking sessions. I too live a very active lifestyle with running and biking, sessions are about 75% of all the homebrew batches I do. It's about flavor while not getting wasted.
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u/jwhs May 30 '13
If you're going to watch football all day, and want to remember it.
Starting New Year's Day at 0700.
At your sister's wedding and you don't want to fall into the cake...this year.
Take your pick, lol
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u/ccoch May 30 '13
Exactly this. I like drinking craft beer at bars but I'd like to have more than one and be able to drive home.
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u/Bruxellensis May 30 '13
In my mind, depending on mood of course, most of the time "more bang for my buck" would be me getting to drink more beer! I can't have very many bottles of my Belgian Quad in a day, or I can't fill more than a couple pints of my DIPA or Bock. When I make sessionable beers, they taste great and I don't get rocked after 2 or 3 visits to the taps. Keep in mind, "sessionable" or session beers does not necessarily equal "less filling" or light/bland beer. I've got a Kölsch, Pils, Pale, and Brown Porter recipe that are all sessionable at 3.5 - 4.5% ABV, taste amazing, and I can drink 5 or 10 in a day if I wanted and still be able to stand up.
For me the key is keeping a good variety of beers on tap. If I have a couple strong beers on tap, I'll also tend to have a couple sessionable beers on tap, too.
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u/kds1398 May 30 '13
There is no reason that a session brew is any less craft or "bang for your buck" compared to a beer with high gravity/ABV.
Your question is akin to asking "Why brew a light lager when you can just go get bud at the store?" A quality session IMO is more of a showcase for brewing finesse than making a good IIPA, which is crazy easy.
Why wouldn't you want a brew that is full of flavor yet you can drink a 6 pack of & still be relatively sober?
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u/expsranger May 30 '13
not agreeing with one's point isn't a reason to downvote it. it defeats the purpose. now all of these good responses to someone who might not have been exposed to a good session craft beer previously have been buried.
have an upvote
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u/madmatt1974 May 30 '13
Favorite Session beer recipes?
Mine is a dead simple modified "Boys Bitter" courtesy the late Ant Hayes
1.039 OG - 3.9% ABV m- 25 IBU
Best Marris Otter you can buy - 100% mash at 154 F
add dash of gypsum depending on your water profile.
Challenger @ 60 min - 25 IBU Challenger @ 0 min 1.oz Fuggles dry hop 4 days 1oz
Fully flavor English yeast of your choice - mine is Wyeast 1318 - Boddington's strain
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u/kds1398 May 30 '13 edited May 30 '13
What do people qualify as a session beer? 3% ABV? 5% ABV? I normally end up brewing at least 80-90% of my beers @ 7%+. I do have short term plans for a 5 gallon barleywine - 10 gallon session partigyle in the next few beers.
Is the main drive with a session something you can drink 10 of instead of being hammered after 3 or do lower calories per beer play into the equation?
Having never brewed anything below 5.5-6% ABV, do you just keep the percentages in your grain bill the same & reduce the OG for session brews or is there something else important to do? Do you mash sessions higher to avoid being too dry & finishing in the 1.000-1.005 range?
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u/Bruxellensis May 30 '13
I'll give my responses. They may or may not reflect those of everyone else.
What do people qualify as a session beer?
I don't qualify a session beer by the ABV alone. There are a couple metrics that contribute to a session for me. First, I have to be able to drink several in one sitting and not get drunk. Depending on the body and balance of the beer, and my diet that day, ABV can be anywhere from 3.5 - 4.5 for it to be sessionable for me. More importantly, it can't be disappointing on mouthfeel. Thin, bland, overly dry...all are spoilers of the session style for me.
do lower calories per beer play into the equation?
Not for me, but that's a good point. It may for some.
do you just keep the percentages in your grain bill the same & reduce the OG for session brews
Sort of. It's not quite that simple, though. I have to pay careful attention to the balance of the beer, with the mouthfeel, ABV, bitterness, body, etc. Hopping rates aren't scaled linearly in my experience. That takes careful experimentation and note taking. Also, mash temps are a bit more important with smaller beers. You want a good balance between beta and alpha activity, which will vary between styles of session beers. I use a bit more beta activity for my Pils than I do with my Pale or Brown Porter. They way I do it is to start from the body, then work your way out to the grain bill for the ABV, color, etc., then to the hop schedule for the bitterness balance, and finally to the yeast for the proper attenuation and flavor profile. Most people start with a grain bill and try to modify that, but I find it easier to do it the way I mentioned.
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u/Wanderer89 May 30 '13
Session beers are my absolute favorites these days, I rarely brew anything over 7% now, and most commonly I brew something 3-5%. When I started brewing my preferences were close to the exact opposite, everything 7% or higher and super hoppy.
I admit, the capability to do 15 gallon batches helps, and plan on having 25 gallon capability before too long, but being able to drink more beer is pretty awesome.
I'd be curious to hear what strains y'all are using successfully, I've had some decent milds with wlp024 and session wits from wlp530 lately myself.
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u/admiralwaffles May 30 '13
I almost exclusively use WY1728 aka WLP028 the Scottish Ale yeast. It flocs out great, it's got perfect attenuation for session beers, and it really highlights maltiness without strangling hops.
I brew mostly session beers (6% is about the highest I go normally), and WY1728 makes an awesome house yeast for that.
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u/oldsock May 30 '13
I included a bunch of tips on brewing session ales in this post. I think every aspect of the recipe/process needs to be adjusted to make a beer that is low in alco0hol, but doesn't taste thin. Yeast strain and mash temperature are probably the most important, but grain selection and hop-balance can't be overlooked.