Lately I’ve been working a lot and session beers are really appealing to me. I like to be able to drink one or two and not feel it at all in the morning.
My favorite has is O’flannagins stout! It came out to about 4.2% abv and very tasty.
So what are your favorite session beers recipes?
I’ve been working on a session Pale Ale in the mid-4% range and a roast porter right at 4%. Neither recipe is quite where I want them yet, but even in their current not-ready-for-primetime incarnations, they are still quite tasty and go down real easy. The key is finding that sweet spot where it is flavorful without blowing out your palate, and easy-drinking without being thin-bodied.
I like enough munich to get me to 1.036, enough boil hops to get me to 30-40 IBU and lots of flame out and dry hops.
If no munich around, pale ale and an lb of medium (c45ish) crystal will do.
I like a helles, pilsner, or Berliner weisse. Very simple recipes.
I am a big fan of the English Mild. There is a solid recipe on the AHA website as a starting point.
Northern Brewer has Dry Dock Brewing Co’s Mild included in their pro series recipe kits. I haven’t made the beer myself, but I have had it many times at Dry Dock and it’s one of the best milds that I’ve ever had.
http://www.northernbrewer.com/shop/brewing/recipe-kits/pro-series/dry-dock-brewing-co/dry-dock-ss-minnow-mild-pro-series-all-grain-kit.html
ive not tried it, but the San Diego Session Ale in the back of Greg Koch’s Stone Brewing book is one I am planning on making soon.
I make a rye ale that is basically 80% Base 20% Rye, with a healthy amount of Crystal and Pacific Jade, and a touch of Perle hops, that is spicy, herbal, and delicious, and is about 4.5 abv. My English Mild is quite good as well starting at 1.036. Otherwise, I love a good dry stout at about 1.040, with the roast malts being 5% Pale Chocolate and 5% Roasted Barley. Love me some session beers.
+1 on Kelsey McNair’s West Coast Bitter. Made it twice. Fantastic brew!
I am working on fine tunning the NHC commerative San Diego Dark session ale with some modifications. Converted all the grains to British equivalents. English Yeast (WLP007) then hop bursted with classic “C” hops for about 25 IBUs. Basically English Mild with American hops 
I am still doing small adjustments to my Timothy Taylor clone.
http://www.homebrewersassociation.org/forum/index.php?topic=11209.msg139369#msg139369
Probably a little on the water (more SO4), pitch rate (more), and fermentation temp (higher). Also some Extra Dark British Crystal.
+2 on the West Coast Bitter mentioned above. Excellent. Thanks hoser.
Is that is a SanDiego session?
At my house I call it an American Bitter
use mostly homegrown hops
and am using Dennys favorite yeast for this latest rendition.
Yep, the American Bitter. Hopped like an IPA, under or at 4%.
Cheers
I brew this one quite a bit.
1.040 og
30 ibu
95% maris otter
5% wheat malt
challenger @ 60 min
Mt Hood @ 10 min
Mt Hood dry hop
mash @ 149ºf
90 minute boil
wyeast 1318 London Ale III
I’ve got a 1.040 Lemongrass wit
Yes. I believe the San Diego Session from Stone and the West Coast Bitter are the same beer, different name. The Bitter American recipe from 21A is also fantastic. I think their is a recipe from Shaun O’Sullivan floating out there somewhere…maybe the morebeer or BN forum?
I brought at 2.6% ABV mild to NHC this year,
40% Pale
40% Light Munich
10% Dark Munich
5% Crystal 60
5% Chocolate
Started 1.042, ended 1.026. Mashed at 162. Was very drinkable, not cloying at all. Tasted like a bigger beer than it was. The version I brought to NHC had 1qt of Cold-brewed coffee and 2cups of Cocoa Nib Tincture added.
Very drinkable.
I like milds (hoppy and unhoppy) and bitters. For low gravity brewing I go with a no sparge method just bumping up the pale malt from the original fly sparge recipe to achieve my OG at reduced efficiency and draining my lauter bucket into the kettle and adding water before boiling to get my initial kettle volume. I found my bitters especially to be somewhat astringent with fly sparging.
Two recipes stand out from the past year include a hoppy mild based on an old memory of Grant’s Celtic Ale at OG 1039 and 39 ibus with Willamettes and Cascades plus dry hops in the cask; and a version of How to Disappear Completely from the Brewing Network’s BrewDog show at OG 1041 and 99 ibus (their recipe calculated out to nearly 200 ibus and I backed it off a bit).
And I bottled a Scottish 60/- with only 6 ibus today.