Next year, there’ll be a competition organized by a commercial brewery in the Netherlands for a session beer. I may want to brew this, either just for the fun of it, or even to participate (the less likely scenario)
These are the constraints:
Session IPA
max 4.5 ABV
max 50 IBU
max 20 EBC
color: yellow to deep golden
clear to light haze
low to medium maltiness
only barley and wheat malts, nothing else
should be possible to be pasteurized(!)
To which I would like to add: only ingredients (I guess mostly hops) that can easily be found in Europe.
Not sure whether there’s anything that you will be able to come up with that I’ve already considered, but, by all means, shoot.
Obviously this is going to be demi water with brewing salts and low oxygen plus BTB all the way, but don’t let that stop you
40 IBU at 60 minutes from Hop Shot (if you can get it), or Magnum
Whirlpool:
1 oz/gallon of Mandarina Bavaria
0.5 oz/gallon of Kazbek
0.5 oz/gallon of Styrian Golding
Dry Hops:
Same hops as above with 1/2 the hopping rate
Ferment with WY1007 or equivalent
If you’re not limited to European ingredients and have access to them, then I’d use 3 of the following hops:
Citra
Vic Secret
Nelson Sauvin
Galaxy
Mosaic
I typically follow the hopping strategy above - a total of 2 oz/gallon in the whirlpool, and 1 oz/gallon of dry hops (if I dry hop). I pick one hop to play the lead note and use two others to support it and add complexity.
Most session IPAs IMO are too bitter for the lack of malt. I never want a second one, which to me is the bloody point of “sessionable”.
I would do what I can to up the mouthfeel and limit harsh bitterness. But not sweet, so no crystal etc.
Mine would look like this:
75% Pale Malt
20% Munich
5% oats or rye flakes
Mash High
40 ibus achieved at flameout/whirlpool, no boil additions. Whatever hops make you happy.
WY1450
EDIT: I didn’t see the color/malt restrictions until after I posted. I guess I just wouldn’t bother because I wouldn’t want to drink it.
I’m a big fan of this type of beer. Too bad you can only use wheat and barley. I put a pretty big dose of oats or rye in mine to get more mouthfeel. Also, on really low gravity beers I will add quite a bit of crystal malt - up to 10% of Caramel Pilsen from MFB. If you are going to give it a lot of hops I think it needs to have some body to back it up, otherwise it tasted like hoppy soda water.
I’d agree about using some of those intensely aromatic NZ/AU hops, but I’ll disagree with the bitterness level. I just put a enough in at 60 minutes to get about 10 IBU, then I’ll put about 4oz in at flame out (for 5 gallon batch). Hard to measure the IBU, but for a 1.038 beer I would guess it is around 25 IBU. Don’t forget to dryhop with at least as much as whirlpool addition.
Edit: diagreeing about bitterness with erockrph. pete b snuck in a response at about the same time I did.
Then make sure you are using the formula in Kunze, as tinseth and the like tend to be off ~3-5ibu. I have my tinseth hardcoded to 5ibu more, and that matches with my tastes and lab results.
Pete, I agree that it’s very hard to make a decent session IPA. Getting good hop character is easy, getting enough malt base in a 1.040-ish beer to carry 50 IBU and late/dry hops damn near impossible IMO. I like a decent amount of Munich (30ish) and 7 or 8% crystal 40 and WY1450 to give some malt depth and avoid the ‘hop tea’ effect that’s in pretty much all session IPAs IMO. But I gave up on brewing them - personally, I prefer a 1.052 APA with lots of late hop character as my ‘session IPA’ any day.
Not anymore Someone could add 12% carahell or carared, and when the wort is not oxidized the caramlats don’t taste cloyingly sweet, and serve as malt backbone. Homo this goes for you as well. My pale ale is 12% carared, and 50% pilsner, 50% pale ale malt. It has malt flavor for days…
It can definitely be done well, but it just doesn’t seem to be very often at the commercial level IMO. After experimenting and tinkering with it, I just decided I prefer a late hoppy APA of ~ 40-42 IBU. Definitely each his own, though.
I don’t think this brewery will understand the subtle difference between a session IPA and an APA. And they certainly will not want the type of hop bomb you guys are used to in the US.
1.038OG
35.7IBUs
8.6SRM / 16.9EBC
4.3%ABV
Yellow Balanced
148F Mash
Grist
30.6% M.O.
29.1% Pils
25.5% Dark Wheat
7.3% Caramunich
7.3% Honey *Malt -edit not actual honey
8-10IBUs Ahtanum or Galaxy at 20 mins Boil
11.2IBUs Idaho 7 10mins Boil
10.8IBUs Idaho 7 25min WP
6.1IBUs Amarillo 25min WP
Dry Hop - 0.2oz/gal
Amarillo & Idaho 7 for 4-7days
wlp090 E.FG 1.005 / wlp810 E.FG 1.010
Could be interesting… just taking a stab. 0.2oz/gal shouldn’t be to hard to swing at a dry hop. Honey malt and dark wheat would add a malt forward balance to the 0.93BU:GU with a San Super Yeast bringing you in at 4.3% and chewying away for EFG~1.005 sounds good enough to try, maybe?
