Tuesday 21 June 2011

Session Beer

Just the other night I was in the John Bull with a mate who didn't know what a session beer was. The truth is its just broad terminology for any beer you can happily knock back several pints of without falling over. You don't have to look hard to find them, they're everywhere,  and its not just their approachability that makes them popular.


In the brew house your light golden session ale is easy to brew and cheaper to produce. Runoffs are quick and easy, ingredient costs are low, tax is reduced, and things like extract efficiency notch up a bit. Its also nicer to dig out a mash tun short of a hundred or so kilograms of spent grain.

Light golden ales are sure fun to brew, that's why last Saturday I decided to fire up my little Panda and Frog home brew kit at Mordue brewery for the second time to brew my own 3.4% summer quaffer. Just a little mash made up of Lager malt, Extra pale ale malt and wheat before it was hopped with Cascade, Hersbrucker and Amarillo hops in the copper. You could call it my take on the eminently drinkable 3.6% Mordue Summer Tyne, which we will be brewing a lot of this summer, but at 20IBU's my birthday barbecue next weekend should finish off most of the batch.   

3 comments:

Mark Dredge said...

Sounds like a cracking beer! That's exactly the sort of thing I want to spend all summer drinking!

Rob said...

Indeed. It's a shame the cask only contains 16 pints tho.

Mark N said...

Love the hop combo. Make sure you let us know how it turns out.