I’m interested in reading all of the book but particularly the section on technique. Have also found that lower gravity beers can be quite challenging to brew, at times requiring deviations from a ‘normal’ brew process. It’d be nice to not only know the ‘what’ but the ‘why’ of various techniques that might be used to brew a good session beer.
Rules of thumb in recipe formulation would be helpful too. Examples like, does BU/GU ratio scale? If I’ve got two roughly similar grain bills and hops and make 2 beers of the same BU/GU ratio, one 1.060 and the other 1.040 how do the beers compare? (ie - is taste perception of BU/GU linear?)
I also wonder about things like using a high mash temp vs using a lower attenuating yeast. Both may help me to get the FG to stop at the same place but I doubt that means they’ll be the same beer.
Feels like some explanations of things like this would help me learn faster. I tend to be playing with a variable or two each time I’m brewing but with so many variables to play with in so many different ways it’ll take me a really long time to truly understand how they all interact if I’m learning slowly by experimentation. Not too rough though as my experiments result in 5 gallons of beer. :cheers:
I like session beers, which is pretty much all I will brew. I like to sip on something all day, and when I switch from coffee to beer, I don’t want to have a couple beers and be out for the rest of the afternoon, evening or night.
Something that I think would be cool on a pro level, but something I do on my level, is that most of my beers are red. Ruby red. They all look the same in the glass, other than the amount of head on top.
Currently I have an ARA (american red ale), 1.050 OG, American Wheat, 1.046, Ruby red, Belgian 60 style, (red again), Swiller light Red (BMC style); 1.035 OG with AA added late in fermentation to dry it out. With these beers I do the normal recipe, and cap the mash at sparge with some roasted barley.
I also make porters, stouts, and try new things all the time, but of the 6 taps I have, most times 4 are session beers and they are all red.
They look the same, and I have fun messing with people about how looks are deceiving. They can’t believe the difference in flavors from the different beers, while their eyes same something else.
Besides, I get sick of people saying they don’t like dark beer. Its a pet peeve…
[quote=“Flip”]I’m interested in reading all of the book but particularly the section on technique. Have also found that lower gravity beers can be quite challenging to brew, at times requiring deviations from a ‘normal’ brew process. It’d be nice to not only know the ‘what’ but the ‘why’ of various techniques that might be used to brew a good session beer.
Rules of thumb in recipe formulation would be helpful too. Examples like, does BU/GU ratio scale? If I’ve got two roughly similar grain bills and hops and make 2 beers of the same BU/GU ratio, one 1.060 and the other 1.040 how do the beers compare? (ie - is taste perception of BU/GU linear?)
I also wonder about things like using a high mash temp vs using a lower attenuating yeast. Both may help me to get the FG to stop at the same place but I doubt that means they’ll be the same beer.
Feels like some explanations of things like this would help me learn faster. I tend to be playing with a variable or two each time I’m brewing but with so many variables to play with in so many different ways it’ll take me a really long time to truly understand how they all interact if I’m learning slowly by experimentation. Not too rough though as my experiments result in 5 gallons of beer. :cheers: [/quote]
I would only rely on OG:BU as a rough guide. I find that if you use more flavorful darker grains in your beer, you can increase the bitterness and still get a balanced beer, if that’s what you’re shooting for!
Not to belabor this too much, but there are English breweries putting out low gravity beers and calling them IPAs. Of course the two examples I remember from my last trip are both Scottish, Stewart Pentland IPA (3.9%) and Caledonian Deuchars IPA (3.8%). Maybe there needs to be another BJCP category :mrgreen:
At any rate, I’m looking forward to the book.[/quote]
Greene King’s IPA (UK) is 3.6% and is outstanding. I must admit to doing a double take when I saw the words IPA and 3.6% together. It was certainly not lacking in flavor.
I’d be interested in this book for sure. I think that “craft” brewing and homebrewing can be seen as at least a partial reaction to the ubiquitous BMC macro brews. In general these beers are very small, light and dull. Therefor I think it’s common for people coming to “Real” beer thinking that bigger everything is a sign of authenticity. I still love big beers, but I think it’s almost a sign of maturity as a brewer to consider brewing and appreciating smaller beers.
To me a session beer is primarily something that is lower in IBU’s, SRM and ABV. Something with generally delicate flavors and fewer places to hide flaws in your process.
Personally, I mostly craft and consume session-level beers as I have children, and I have the type of job where I have to be available to analyze and comment timely on data as it comes in. I have to be able to write and speak coherently at 3 AM if some problem arises half way around the world (and unfortunately they do more often than I’d like). I’m also of the opinion that if one really enjoys the taste of beer then one is tempted to drink it continuously, which obviously isn’t easy to do with something at 7+%. I also find many high ABV beers, especially those from the USA, to be sweet or unbalanced. As I get older, I find myself less interested in extreme or experimentation for its own sake and gravitating more towards the eloquent, balanced, sophisticated, and elegant. My tastes admittedly stray quite far from the Ratebeer and Beer Advocate hegemony. Besides, if I’m brewing session beers that means I can enjoy a beer with lunch daily if I want. I’m also consuming an amount of alcohol well within the guidelines of most medical advocacy groups, which is pretty much impossible with mainstream craft beer unless you’re drinking less than a bottle a night.
When it comes to producing a session beer, I definitely agree that crafting a great 4% beer is much more difficult than creating a high ABV beer, especially if you are limiting yourself to styles that involve minimal hopping. High alcohol, low attenuation, and high rates of hopping can amazingly cover a number of process flaws. There was a series of tips on brewing a session beer featured on the Brewing Network that I’ve found to be fairly helphul: http://thebrewingnetwork.com/shows/688. Michael Tonsmeire has also shared some useful tips: http://beersmith.com/blog/2011/09/15/se … podcast-22. Kristen, your work with Ron Pattison, has demonstrated to me that one shouldn’t fear sugar and adjuncts if one wants to produce great session beers. For some reason, American brewers are very anti-sugar and anti-adjuncts (“I don’t put corn in MY beer.”), but they’re more than willing to toss 7-8 malts into their beer with all sorts of weird ingredients not normally associated with beer.
