Need Opinions on a Session Beer

[Brian1011]

I'm looking to brew a full flavored, low alcohol beer for the Super Bowl. I really don't care about brewing to a particular style; just trying to get a great tasting beer that you can drink a lot of without getting too drunk.

Here's what I'm thinking:
5 lbs 2-row American Malt
3 lbs Dark Munich
1 lb Chocolate Malt
1 lb 120L Caramel Malt
1 lb Briess Special Roast

Mash at 155 °F (trying for low alcohol)

4 oz Amarillo @ 15 min (going for lots of hop flavor, medium bitterness)
2 oz Goldings @ 5 min

Opinions? I don't really want a beer that's too bitter, but I'm concerned with the high mash temp, I might need more bitterness to offset the sweetness.

[Dr Scott]

I did some of the #'s, but you didn't say how many gals this recipe is for. This would help me figure out what you're looking at w/ this beer.

Cheers,
Dr Scott

[Brian1011]

Yeah, I guess that would help...

Recipe is for 5 gallons. My calculations put my O.G. at 1.045.

I'm planning on going simple with the yeast, something like Safale US-56

Thanks!

[Dr Scott]

At 5gals,75% efficiency I get:

OG=1.056
SRM=38.8
IBUs=87.9

That's not going to be your session beer that you're aiming for. Very dark and malty w/ significant alcohol (5.8 abv)

Might make a good robust porter. Though you might want to cut back on the IBUs.

What characteristics are you looking for (Besides low alc/bitterness)? You could go w/ this grain bill, Just lower the OG and change the % around a bit. Sounds like a fun build. I can help out if you want...

Cheers,
Dr Scott

[Brian1011]

My overall efficiency is 65%. I used whole hops, not pellets, and It's been my experience that I lose a lot of wort in the kettle due to absorbtion in the hops. For example, at my last session, I had 6.5 gallons in the kettle, post-boil, and ended with 5 gallons in the primary. So, I loaded up a bit on the grain and hops, anticipating that I'd be losing a lot.

My intention is to get a dark, malty beer, low alcohol with lots of hop flavor. I'm planning on using this for a Super Bowl party. Most of my guests appreciate good beer, so I wanted to give them something with a lot of flavor, but not something that will interfere with their ability to get home later in the night.

My thoughts on the grain bill are, with the OG around 1.045 (again, using 65% efficiency), if I used 155°F mash temperature, I wouldn't get a lot of fermentable sugars out of the mash, which would give me a higher FG, and thus, lower alcohol.

I wasn't getting such a high IBU level. After listening to the archive of the 7/3 show with Jamil, I wanted to try his method of adding all the hops at the late stages of the boil to get a good hop flavor and aroma. Here's the numbers I got (I'm using my own calculator for this, not Pro-mash - got the IBU formula off of the brewery.org):

4 oz of Amarillo @ 15 min (7.5% AA)
2 oz of Goldings @ 5 min (5% AA)
IBUs (by my calculator) = 41.4

The AA% are just guesses right now. When I actually get the hops, I'll adjust to match my desired IBUs. My intent was to have a fairly high bitterness to offset the expected sweetness of the malt, due to the high mash temperature.

Thanks again for the help.

[Dr Scott]

I punched in the new #'s and still get 71.8 IBU's

If you drop the Amarillo down to 3oz @ 10mins (Rather than 15min) it would bring you down to 43 IBU's I did try this late hopping method in a Pilsener and it does work!

One more thing, I like to keep the specialty grains in the 15-20% range other wise it can get a little syrupy. You are near 28% (I don't count the Munich as specialty grain) SRM=38.8 (pretty dark)

Cheers, Dr Scott

[Brian1011]

punched in the new #'s and still get 71.8 IBU's

If you drop the Amarillo down to 3oz @ 10mins (Rather than 15min) it would bring you down to 43 IBU's I did try this late hopping method in a Pilsener and it does work!

Thanks! I'll have to refine my IBU calculator. I'm anxious to try this method out.

One more thing, I like to keep the specialty grains in the 15-20% range other wise it can get a little syrupy

I'll drop all the specialty grains down to 1/2 lb each, and see where that gets me. I'll probably be brewing this one next Saturday. I'll let you know how it turns out. Thanks for all the help!

[Dr Scott]

Let me know how it comes out. I know Jamil would like the feedback too.

I'd be interrested in seeing your actual OG. 65% seems really low to me. Do you have any ideas as as to why?

Cheers,
Dr Scott