Lately I have been disappointed with session beers…and I want to make my own delicious tasting session with good hop character and slightly malty. What do you guys think about about this:
Session Pale/IPA (I only say slash IPA because pales don’t typically have a bitterness unit of 56.)
7.5 2 row
5.9% Munich
5.9% White Wheat malt
And a total of 56 IBUs using a mixture of Simcoe and Citra? I am worried it might be a little too bitter, but I hope to balance that with the malt.
If you’d worried about bitterness you might add some crystal malt
I am not an expert, but from what I have read, one of the keys to making a good session hop forward beer is body. Higher mash temp (154, or maybe even hochkurz step mash), some carapils or something to get some dextrins. Also, not sure what yeast you are using, but you may want to consider pitching at the higher end of the temp range to get some ester production.
What gravity? I would keep my IBUs slighly below the gravity (Ie if 1.050 gravity, shoot for 40 IBU) and get no more than half of them from the bittering addition.
Overall, recipe looks good to me, but contrary to what Rakim said, you need to sweat the technique.
Good luck and let us know how it turns out!
Thank you for the feed back. I am shooting for a final gravity of 4.7. I will double check my grain bill to see what the original gravity will be and adjust my hop schedule to adjust the IBU’s accordingly. I was thinking of using White labs American Blend, but I am not married to that decision. I will probably adjust the grain bill to fit in some carapils, I know that the white wheat malt will give it decent mouth feel and head retention but I think carapils is a good idea.
If you want a really good session recipe, I highly recommend this “Big Booted Bastid Pale Ale”. IBU’s are mid 30’s mostly from late hops. It’s mine for 20-22 gallons so scale accordingly. I have won a first place award with this and it is a great recipe to showcase a single hop variety. I also make it regularly with Falconer’s Flight, FF 7C’s and others. The Excel recipe is on my website under recipes too.
