Ryetronic Pale Ale

Back in January, I resolved to try and brew more session ales this year.  This decision was made for a number of reasons, including the challenge of making flavorful lower gravity beer.  Last month, in support of the goal, I decided to make up a recipe for a pale ale with around 3 percent ABV.  Lower gravity ales I have made in the past have been bland or watery, particularly around the middle of the flavor profile.  So, I decided to boost the middle by using flaked rye, which is not malted, and should provide both flavor and mouthfeel.  Now that the beer, called Ryetronic Pale Ale, has aged and carbonated, I figured I would post some tasting notes and the recipe.

The beer pours golden copper colored hue with a thick and pillowy white head.  The head forms slightly irregular lumps as the pint is consumed and leaves a nice lacing pattern on the glass.  The beer's aroma is spicy and interesting, including hints of biscuit and bread crust.

The beer's flavor is initially spicy along the lines of pepper or all-spice.  This character fades to a mid-palate creaminess, with a slightly slick mouthfeel similar to an oatmeal stout.  The flavor ends with a hint of bitterness, but one that is barely there.  This smooths out of a period of several seconds before rinsing clean.

Overall, the beer is very drinkable and balanced.  It has more character that other lower gravity ales I have made in the past, which have often been watery and bland.  I think I would like a bit more character in the middle of the flavor palate and would consider bumping up some of the specialty malts to try and achieve that.  Perhaps increasing the crystal malt or the biscuit malt would provide that missing character.  But, overall, I am extremely happy with how this 3 percent ABV session ale has turned out.

Have you brewed an interesting lower gravity ale in the past?  If so, what are some tips that you could share on how to keep these ales both flavorful and drinkable?

Cheers.

TW

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Recipe: Ryetronic Pale Ale
Brewer: Tom Wallace
Style: American Pale Ale

Recipe Specifications
--------------------------
Boil Size: 7.97 gal
Post Boil Volume: 7.02 gal
Batch Size (fermenter): 6.00 gal  
Bottling Volume: 6.00 gal
Estimated OG: 1.037 SG
Estimated Color: 7.2 SRM
Estimated IBU: 43.3 IBUs
Brewhouse Efficiency: 72.00 %
Est Mash Efficiency: 81.0 %
Boil Time: 60 Minutes
Mash: 155 F for 60 min

Ingredients:
------------      
7 lbs - Pale Malt (2 Row) US (2.0 SRM)      
8.0 oz - Biscuit Malt (23.0 SRM)        
8.0 oz - Caramel/Crystal Malt - 80L (80.0 SRM)    
8.0 oz - Rye, Flaked (2.0 SRM)      
12.00 g - Warrior [16.00 %] - Boil 60.0 min
10.00 g - Perle [7.70 %] - Boil 60.0 min    
1.00 Items - Whirlfloc Tablet (Boil 15.0 mins)
14.00 g - Cascade [7.30 %] - Boil 5.0 min
14.00 g - Challenger [7.20 %] - Boil 5.0 min  
14.00 g - Cascade [7.30 %] - Boil 1.0 min    
14.00 g - Challenger [7.20 %] - Boil 1.0 min  
1.0 pkg  - Safale American  (DCL/Fermentis #US-05)    

Notes:
------
3/23/13 - Racked to secondary, as needed the larger carboy for another beer.  Beer is very clear and has a neutral nose, but a rather full flavor with biscuit and spice, at room temperature.

4/14/13 - Kegged the beer.  Nose is neutral.  Beer has a pretty copper color.  Flavor is smooth and light  with hints of caramel and biscuit.

4/29/13 - Beer is really turning out nicely and has been well received by friends.  If any changes should be made, perhaps bump the biscuit or crystal malt for more mid-palate flavor.

2013 Brewing Resolution

New Year's resolutions seem to be in the air at this time of the year.  One look at all of the TV and magazine ads clearly shows that people try to make changes in their lives around January 1.  For the most part, I think this is a good thing, with the exception of the now ridiculous crowding at the gym.  In this spirit, I decided to set a  brewing resolution this year - to massively increase the amount of session beer that I brew.

The term session beer should be familiar to readers of this blog.  While definitions vary, the concept is that session beers are flavorful low-alcohol brews that allow people to consume several pints and still get home safely.  Session beers are historically prevalent in most brewing cultures, which makes sense given their lower cost in raw materials and aging time.  But, their production has been limited here with the United States craft beer movement focusing on anything Imperial.  From the homebrewing perspective, session beers can be harder to make well.  The flavors of a session beer have to be balanced carefully, as with lower alcohol concentration, the beers can seem watery or insipid.

For these reasons, including the ability to drink several pints and the challenge in making them, my 2013 Brewing Resolution is to make two out of every three batches of of homebrew based on session beer recipes (66%).  For these purposes, I define session beers as those with 4.2% ABV or lower.  Practically speaking, this will be difficult unless I only include the beers I am making just for myself, rather than for summer parties or homebrewing club competitions.  But, I think the goal is possible and I am already starting lay out recipes to try.

Wish me luck, especially given that the first beer I brewed in 2013 is a big Belgian tripel that will likely weigh in at over 9% ABV.

Cheers,

TW

The Diminutive Belgian Golden Strong

With Thanksgiving around the corner and the fact that we will have plenty of guests visiting come Turkey day, this weekend I broke out the brew kettle so I could be ready with fresh beer on tap. In searching for what beer to brew, I kept coming back to one of my favorite recipes – a Belgian Golden Strong (BGS) which has won me several awards. However, keeping everyone’s cup full of a 9% ABV beer is wanting for trouble. So what about trying to shrink the recipe down for a more sessionable Belgian Pale Ale (BPA)?  That could prove to be an entertaining experiment and (hopefully) a good beer to boot. 

Using Tom’s two prior posts on making big beers smaller as reference, I went about modifying the recipe for my BGS into a BPA. If I could get the similar flavor profile and dry finish, the end result would be excellent. I was fortunate in that the recipe is fairly simple and straight forward. Tom had mentioned his trouble with modifying our Wheat Wine Braggot recipe, which had a complex list of ingredients (multiple wheat malts, two types of honey, etc). For the BGS, there were only three ingredients which I am hoping will simplify the scaling process. 

For the BPA malt bill, I did not change the amount of either specialty grains (Wheat, Melanoiden) from the original BGS recipe.  Only the base malt was modified.  Additionally, the BGS calles for 2 lbs of sugar to be added, which was dropped.  Lastly, I dropped the number of IBU's a bit to make sure the bitterness stayed in balance.

The brew day went off well with the only trouble being the gusty winds that knocked over everything except the brew kettle. Reflecting back after the brew day, there were to modifications to the recipe that I am conflicted on. The first was that the local homebrew shop did not have the yeast I wanted (WLP570), so I had to take a substitution (WLP500). Secondly, I kept going back and forth with whether to leave the beer color the golden hue that the BGS would have been, or to modify it so that it was within the color ranges of the BJCP guidelines (which makes it more of an amber beer). I’m still gritting my teeth about it, but I did add 2 oz of Weyerman’s Carafa Special II to darken the SRM color.  The Carafa should add minimal flavor contributions, so I'm hoping the only effect is on the appearance.

While the beer is not an exact translation of my favored recipe, I did enjoy the recipe modification exercise and I’ve got a beer bubbling away in the fermentor to look forward to. Below is the recipe I ended up brewing – I’ll be sure to report back on how it turned out in a future post.

Belgian Not-so-Golden, Not-so-Strong Ale

Recipe Specifics
-----------------
Batch Size (Gal): 5.5
Total Grain (Lbs): 11.13
OG: 1.050
FG: ?
SRM: 9.2
IBU: 24.6 (Rager)
ABV: 5% (target)
Brewhouse Efficiency: 73%
Wort Boil Time: 90 Minutes

Grain/Extract/Sugar:
---------------------
10.0 lbs German Pilsner Malt
0.50 lbs Melanoiden Malt
0.50 lbs White Wheat Malt
2.0 oz Carafa Special II Malt

Hops
------
All hops are pellet hops
1.1 oz Sterling (6% AA) at 60 minutes

Yeast
-------
WLP500 - Trappist Ale Yeast (2L starter)

Mash Schedule
----------------
60 min at 152° F

Notes
--------
Brewed on 11/12/2011 by myself.

After the boil was complete, chilling was accomplished with an immersion chiller.  Being a little lazy on brew day, I let the wort chill for 2-3 hours before racking it into the fermentor.

Aeration was accomplished via an aquarium pump and diffusion stone, run for 30 minutes.

Aerated wort was placed in the fermentation chamber at around 60° F.  The beer was allowed to free rise up to 67° F, where the temp controller kicked in to maintain a 67° C fermentation temp.

Fermentation activity kicked off within 24 hours of pitching.

Slainte!

-JW


"It is not 'just beer', it is a noble and ancient beverage which, like wine, food, and television advertising, can be extraorinarily good or unmercifully bad."
-Stephan Beaumont

Midnight Mini-Wheats

Back in April, I posted an article about how to make a big beer smaller, but still keep the flavor.  The basic idea was to take a high alcohol beer recipe, in this case, our Midnight Wheat - Wheat Wine Braggot, and make a version of it that was lower in alcohol.  The base recipe is one of my favorite beers that Jeff and I have done together, but at 11% alcohol by volume (ABV), it is not a daily drinker.  Using some techniques I described in the previous article, I hoped to make a session beer with much of the same flavor as the original.  The recipe, entitled Midnight Mini-Wheats, can be found at the bottom of this post.

My friend, John, my wife, and I recently had an opportunity to taste the two beers side-by-side (wheat wine braggot is on the left in the picture).  This is the best way to compare similar beers, as it is easier to compare subtle differences when the flavor and aromas are so fresh in your mind.

Midnight Wheat - Wheat Wine Braggot (10.8% ABV)
Appearance:  The braggot pours extremely clear deep amber color, with a thin white head.  The carbonation bubbles are very fine, almost like champagne.

Aroma:  The braggot has a complex sugar aroma that is very apparent.  It contains hints of brown sugar, toffee, caramel, and even a bit of molasses.  The sugar character is also mixed with the sweet aroma of alcohol.

Flavor:  The braggot tastes much as it smells, with a layered complex sugar character.  Molasses is the key dominant character, and reminded the tasters of shoofly pie.  There were also elements of brown sugar and caramel in the flavor.  The tasters compared the braggot to a commercial beer, Lagunitas Brewing Company's Brown Shugga.

Midnight Mini-Wheats - American Wheat (3.8% ABV)
Appearance:  The beer pours a hazy deep amber color, with a thin white head.  The carbonation appears lower than the braggot.  The tasters suspect that the beer has not aged as long as the braggot and has not had a chance to drop out some of the malt fines, which makes it cloudy.

Aroma:  The beer is very neutral in smell, with a very faint malt aroma, but little else.  The tasters noted the lower carbonation level between the two recipes, which could prevent as much aroma development.  Additionally, braggot's higher alcohol may well have driven its complex and layered aroma.

Flavor:  The beer has a distinctive grainy character, much like one can get from straight pilsner malt.  The beer also has a slight bitter and sour edge to it, which was even more noticeable when the beer was younger and less carbonated.  The beer lacks any of the sugar complexity that makes the wheat wine braggot so interesting.  On flavor alone, they are very different beers and, as my wife said, the drinker would likely have no idea they were related unless told so.


In conclusion, the experiment to get the interesting flavors of the wheat wine braggot into a session beer failed.  While the Midnight Mini-Wheats is a good beer, it was definitely found lacking.  However, I am going to take some of the lessons I learned here and try again in the future.  For one thing, I will only try to get down to 6% ABV, as the braggot's alcohol contribution is so important.  The braggot also had a much larger honey character, so I will try to boost the honey percentage in the next batch, while increasing mash temperature to keep a solid body to the beer.  The next batch will also receive a higher level of carbonation.

Cheers,

TW

-------------------

Midnight Mini-Wheats

Recipe Specifics

-------------------

Batch Size (Gal): 5.0

Total Fermentables (Lbs): 8.5

OG: 1.039

FG: 1.010

SRM: 11

IBU: 29 (Rager)

ABV: 3.8%

Wort Boil Time: 60 Minutes

Grain/Extract/Sugar

---------------------

3.25 lbs Maris Otter Malt

2.25 lbs White Wheat Malt

0.75 lbs Torrified Wheat

0.90 lbs Caramel Wheat Malt (46 L)

0.33 lbs Caramunich Malt (56 L)

1.00 lbs Honey

0.50 lbs Rice Hulls

Hops

-----

0.75 oz Perle Pellet Hops (7.7% AA) at 60 minutes

0.75 oz Williamette Pellet Hops (5.6% AA) at 15 minutes

0.75 oz Hallertau Pellet Hops (5.0% AA) at 15 minutes

Extras

-------

1.0 Tab Whirlfloc at 15 minutes

1.0 gram Chalk in mash

1.0 gram Calcium Chloride in mash

2.0 grams Baking Soda in mash

1.0 gram Chalk in boil

1.0 gram Calcium Chloride in boil

32 drops of Foam Control in the boil

Yeast

-----

11 grams – Safale US05, Dry Yeast

Mash Schedule

-------------

60 min at 156°F

Making a Small Beer with Big Flavor

The craft beer movement in America is currently dominated by big beers.  It is not hard to understand why, as Imperial-style beer tends to have larger flavor profiles, more alcohol, and can be harder to get, which can create a greater demand (i.e. cult beers).  However, it is often unwise to consume more than one 10 percent or greater beer in a sitting.  Is it possible to take the flavors that someone loves in an Imperial-style beer and inject them into a beer of more sessionable alcohol strength?.

Brew Strong, on the Brewing Network, featured a show on making session beers on October 18, 2010.  One segment of this show discussed how to make full-flavored session beers from larger recipes, ones that have plenty of character and are enjoyable to drink.  The main points the Brew Strong hosts presented included:

• It only takes about 2 percent alcohol for a beer to taste like a beer
• Increase the flavor and aroma hops to provide larger hop character, though keeping with the style or recipe concept
• Raise the percentage of specialty malts, which gives the impression of a bigger and richer beer
• Adjust the base grains so that they provide greater flavor complexity; for example substitute a portion of 2-row to pilsner or British pale malt
• Reduce the base grains to lower the alcohol content, but leave the specialty grains the same
• Use a yeast that does not attenuate as much, which will leave more flavor behind
• Eliminate or minimize simple sugars, which provides a larger malt character in the finished beer
• Build the body of the beer by increasing the mash temperature to provide a larger mouthfeel

Last Thanksgiving, Jeff and I made a wheat wine braggot that we called Midnight Wheat.  This beer has quickly developed into one of my favorite recipes that Jeff and I have done together, one that has even won a recent award.  One of the main drawbacks of the beer, when it comes to making it a regular drinker, is its strong alcohol content (10% ABV).  Its alcohol strength makes it great for aging, which is one of the goals of the recipes that Jeff and I develop together, but it is not a beer I would want to drink often.  I wanted to use the Brew Strong advice to see if I could create a smaller beer that I could keep on draft and enjoy more regularly.

Taking the Brew Strong information, I made the following adjustments to the original Midnight Wheat recipe:

• Reduce the base grain quantity by approximately 60% to lower the overall alcohol
• Leave the specialty grain quantity the same as the original recipe, in order to provide a richer character
• Reduce the amount of honey drastically, but do not eliminate it completely, as it adds some flavor
• Add a small amount of black malt to mimic the original recipe's color
• Increase the mash temperature to have more mouthfeel
• Reduce the quantity of bittering hops, to keep the approximately the same specific gravity to bitterness ratio
• Increase the late hops to have more hop flavor and aroma

The altered recipe, along with side-by-side tasting notes, will be presented in a future post, so be sure to check back.

Cheers,

TW

The Session #40: Session Beers

Welcome to The Session – a collaboration of bloggers writing on a common beer-related topic.  For the month of June, Erik Lars Meyers from Top Fermented chose Session Beers as the collective topic to explore.  A round-up of all the blog posts will be posted in the near future.  You can read more about Beer Blogging Friday (“The Session”) over at the Brookston Beer Bulletin.

Session beer in the American Craft Brewing scene today is in a strange role-reversal position; they are almost a countercultural product.  Historically speaking, session beers were the drink of the masses.  They sat at the center of pub life and were the reason for the success or failure of public drinking establishments.  Their low alcohol strength and lower cost appealed to blue-collar workers slaking their thirst after a long day.  While brewers also made higher-gravity special beers, these were reserved for special occasions or special people (i.e. royalty).  But, the judge of a brewer’s success was the ability to produce quality session beer, as it paid the bills.

Here we find the enigma.  In the present day Craft Beer scene, brewers are judged by what was once only a special occasion beer - higher-gravity products.  Today's Craft Beer fans are typically most interested in bigger beers.  The brewers who recieve the most praise and accolades are those who are constantly pushing the boundaries ahead, looking for the next bigger and better beer.  This can be seen through obvious exapmles such as Brew Dog's  and Schorschbrau's  battle who has the title for the world’s strongest  beer, which at the time of this post is currently held by the 43% version of Schorschbock (43% ABV).   It is also visible on a less obvious scale, such as the massive increase in popularity in imperial and oak-aged beers.

To like full flavored session beers is counter to the current beer culture.  To actively pursue them and enjoy them makes you almost a rebel os sorts.  How is that for a role reversal?

Session beers have a rich history and importance in our collective beer culture.  They are challenging to brew and enjoyable to drink.  I hope that the session beer rebels can help brew masters remember the importance of the session styles and help pull the extreme and imperial beer trend back towards the middle.

Go out and be a rebel.

Cheers,

The Wallace Brothers


PS - Don't forget to join us next month as Lug Wrench Brewing hosts Session #41 where the topic is Craft Beers Inspired by Homebrewing.