session IPA tricks

Beer Recipes
1

Hi folks,

I’m planning to brew a session IPA for the summer. Any tricks on how to do this? How to increase body (apart from mashing high), which yeast to use, which hops, how much,  optimum bitterness etc.

I read a few threads on the forum but they are already a few years old, so maybe there are some new techniques floating around…

2

I know the brewers from Founders say that they use a lot of Crystal malt in their session IPA. You could also try and mash at a high temperature.

3

I was going to recommend a decent amount of crystal malt as well.

Most commercial examples I see are around 40-45 IBUs so I would probably shoot for BU:OG of 1. There are some that I enjoy and others that taste like hop water.

4

Make a really good APA.  :wink:

5

Before we get into this type of discussion, I would like to point out to you and everyone else that I have a Master’s degree in semantics.  :stuck_out_tongue:

6

Except that pretty soon someone will pop up and advice to use little crystal  :stuck_out_tongue:

7

Most likely. I myself don’t use much crystal malt in most my beers but I would think you would want a good amount in something like this…

8

I’ve added some white wheat malt for body, but then I find myself doing this for my normal strength APA’s and IPA’s as well.

9

Session IPA means what OG?

10

+1.  Munich would build some malty body for balance, too. Maybe 25-30% Munich, along with a higher amount of crystal (10%ish), and mashing @ 160ish would be a good start.

11

I have used variants of the “West Coast Bitter” recipe to very good effect.

12

Damn, thought it was in the new BJCP guidelines, but apparently it isn’t. So let’s take the ratebeer definition:
“typically 3.2 - 4.6 percent alcohol”.

The guidelines do say about the APA: " More balanced and drinkable, and less intensely hop-focused and bitter than session-strength American IPAs (aka Session IPAs)", so the Session IPA’s existence is herewith officially recognized.

13

And #1 on ratebeer is Hill Farmstead Walden: “A sessionable pale/blonde ale. <4% abv. 40 ibus. Hopped with Motueka, Amarillo, and Simcoe.”

14

And these are recommendations from Mike Tonsmeire on session ales - Vienna Malt Session IPA Recipe | The Mad Fermentationist - Homebrewing Blog :

Boosting Perceived Body:

  1. Add more crystal/dextrin malt, which will add sweetness and mouthfeel.
  2. Add unmalted grains (especially oats and rye) for their beta-glucans, which add body without sweetness, but can also contribute haze.
  3. Raise the saccharification rest temperature, a good choice to avoid the sweetness of crystal malts.
  4. Use a less attenuative yeast strain, English strains are especially well suited.
  5. Use a strain that produce a high amount of glycerin/glycerol, saison strains tend to excel at this.
  6. Lower carbonation, I find high carbonation makes light beers taste seltzer-like (although higher carbonation can help excessively thin beers, like gueuze).

Enhancing Malt Flavor:

  1. Use a more flavorful base malt like Maris Otter, Vienna, Munich, or dark wheat.
  2. Raise the percentage of specialty malts, especially toasty malts like Victory, biscuit, and melanoidin.
  3. Eliminate adjuncts like corn/table sugar, and corn which dilute malt flavor.
  4. Conduct a no-sparge mash to increase color/flavor, and minimize tannin extraction.

Maintaining Balance:

  1. For a hoppy beer reduce the IBUs proportionally to the expected residual extract (I think this is a better way to think about balance than the classic BU:GU ratio).
  2. Do not trim late boil additions as much to maintain a solid hop aroma.
  3. For dark beers consider increasing the percentage, but cold steeping your roasted grains to reduce harshness.
  4. Use a more expressive yeast because the lower gravity will result in a cleaner fermentation profile.
  5. Account for serving the beer fresher than you would a strong beer (e.g., use a highly flocculent yeast).
15

With a dual degree in pedantics, that’s an excellent combination.  But on a more serious note…  The ‘trick’ to a session IPA is to take an IPA bill and scale it down to get the ABV around 3 to 5% ABV (even though Session beer for me means below 4.5%).  I personally would not increase the crystal malts.

16

Session strength in respect to Session IPA is on page 38 of the 2015 Guidelines.

[quote]Strength classifications:
Session – ABV: 3.0 – 5.0%
Standard – ABV: 5.0 – 7.5%
Double – ABV: 7.5 – 10.0%
[/quote]

17

Start with a good APA recipe, then double up the bittering hops and step mash or even add some sugar to dry it out too much.

18

That’s where it’s even tough to give advice given the loose definition of ‘session IPA’. Though I don’t consider 5% abv to be ‘session’, a session IPA of that strength would be successful using Sean’s advice. But it’s a different strategy altogether to try to make one at 3-4%. Given the choice I think it makes a lot better beer to just make a hoppy APA. I guess in that sense it’s still more sessionable than a 6.5%+ IPA.

19

I just brew an 100% Zythos Session IPA

I targeted a gravity of 1.046 with 90 IBU

for 5 gallons
Pale Malt 2-row 91%
Victory Malt 5%
Carapils 4%

I added Zythos (9.2%) every 10min for 90min
90min 0.33oz
80min 0.33oz
70min 0.33oz
60min 0.33oz
50min 0.33oz
40min 0.33oz
30min 0.33oz
20min 0.33oz
10min 0.33oz
0min Step 15min 0.33oz

Yeast California WLP001

When fermentation it’s done, I do 4 dry hop (with the Zythos)
0.25oz 16 days
0.25oz 12 days
0.25oz 8 days
0.25oz 4 days (cold crash the 2 last days if you can)

I brew this because I love IPA, but in sunny I don’t want too much alcohol and I still have my hops :wink:

20

We have several local breweries who offer session ipa’s. They seem to be hoppy Natty Light. It’s interesting to see the heavier recipes you all are going with.