There's an article in the New York Times on session beers that's campaigning for more of them. Besides mashing at 160 degrees, I have no idea how you make a flavorful beer at 1.9% alcohol, and that would be a syrupy bizarre drink, not so much notable for malt as unfermentable, sweet dextrins. That's not quite fair, but it would certainly be hard to do. Fermentation and hops are the only significant sources of flavor for such an ale, unless you want to go an absurd route with adjuncts. The case the article mentions is a Belgian-style "Beir de Table," so my guess is that it is fermentation (if that beer is flavorful at all...)

I'm a little annoyed that Anchor's Small Beer isn't mentioned in the article. It's 3.2% if I recall.

It seems to me that session ales should be more readily available than they are. Although I've never brewed in a commercial setting, my guess is that many of the 9%+ beers we see waste a lot of the runnings. There's a small beer in that tun when the wort for the Russian Stout, Barleywine or double IPA is collected. (That is fact is what Anchor does: their small beer is the classic case, made from the final runnings of the mash for their barleywine.)

I may try a small beer soon.

I think I've planned my next beer, which will be my 2008 anniversary beer, brewed on the same day as the first beer I ever brewed. This year, I think I'm too busy to brew on Sept. 1st, but close enough will do. I have always done some version of IPA and will do so again this year. Moreover, there's always a variation on the basic theme that I'm trying, and this year will be no different. The first I ever did was from a kit. The second was using all belgian malts. The third was an imperial IPA. This year's will be "continuously hopped." Instead of doing several discrete additions, I'm going to add small amounts of hops every five minutes for the last twenty-five minutes of the brew. (Okay, techincally, that's several discrete additions, but the basic idea is that I'm adding hops almost constantly throughout the aroma/flavor period of the boil.)

I'll blend sterling and cascade in a ratio of 1:1. By adding 1/3 ounce of this to the boil every five minutes from 25 to flame out, that's six total additions for a total of 2 ounces of finishing hops. There will be some at the start of the boil, for bitterness to a BU:GU ratio of .9. I'm probably going to use plain old Cali Ale from white labs for this one, and I'll probably attenuate the devil out of it.

My good friend, a.k.a. The Capmaster, is back in town. We're brewing.

We're going to do a single boil for an American brown ale and American pale ale. We'll mash maris otter, light crystal malts and possibly some additional base malt for a target gravity of 1.058 (it's a strong pale ale.) Then we'll do separate steep grains with darker crystal and chocolate malt to make a 3/4 gallon addition to go with 4.25 gallons of the 9.5 gallons of wort we should end up with. That will give us 5 gallons of pale ale wort at 1.058 and 50 IBU and brown ale at 1.049 and 42 IBU. This is clearly an American brown ale, as it is way to bitter to be a British brown. Indeed, it will be on the verge of a porter, but that's what American brown is anyway.

Here's a more detailed version of the recipe:

Mash
18 lbs. Maris Otter Malt
1 lb. 10-20L Paul's crystal malt
.75 lb. 40L American Crystal malt
@ 152 degrees for 50 minutes with 7.5 gallons of water.

Sparge to yield 11 gallons.

Boil wort for 75 minutes with 1 oz. Target and 1 oz. Simcoe hops. Add 1 oz. each yakima goldings amarillo hops with 2 minutes remaining in the boil.

Steeped Grains (prepared during the boil)
Steep one half pound each british chocolate malt and 120L crystal in 3/4 gallon of tap water for 30 min at 155 degrees in a grain bag. Add the extract to a sanitized carboy.

Drain 5 gallons of the chilled wort into one sanitized carboy and 4.25 gallons into the carboy with the steeped grain extract. Ferment with Safale American Ale Yeast.


Expected results:
American Brown Ale A well-bittered American brown with ample caramel/honey flavors of crystal malt to balance the roast character of chocolate malt. Pleasant aroma of hops dominates the nose, but the malt characters come through in the taste, providing a dynamic drinking experience.

Capmaster's Back Pale Ale Caramel, honey and malt combine with potent bitterness do deliver a drinkable yet malt-driven beer. The strong aroma of hops gives an impression of hopiness on the palate, making this beer very much a pale ale without overwhelming the malts.