Favourite session beer styles

[Che Soffe]

So on Saturday I am moving into my new house :)

In the next few weeks I plan on setting up a keezer/ kegerator and brewing lots of beer.

For my first brew I will be doing an ipa or apa (probably my second as well).

Then I will be looking to get a good session beer on tap for when mates come around.

I am considering a mild so I can go mild, brown ale, barley wine with the same yeast.

However I am considering other styles: bitter, blonde ale, anything really.

I was wondering what session beers you all have had success with that are liked by a wide range of visitors.

[Peter Church]

this is one of the "classics" from the forum,  bookbinder clone that people have had good results with, on the boundary between a best bitter and an ordinary bitter. 

 Reply by studio1 on March 19, 2010 at 8:16pm

Thanks to Stu and Mr Cherry for their Bookbinder advice. I've come up with the following as a start:

'Spellbinder'

OG 1.041
IBUs 27
Batch Size: 27L

--
4.20 kg Golden Promise
0.28 kg .Cara Malt
0.14 kg .Crystal, Medium
0.10 kg .Crystal, Dark
0.025 kg .Black Malt

80 min boil

60 min 10.00 gm.Riwaka
60 min 10.00 gm.Styrian Goldings

15 min 27.00 gm.Riwaka
15 min 27.00 gm.Styrian Goldings

1 min 27.00 gm.Riwaka
1 min 27.00 gm.Styrian Goldings

Just about to pitch a dollop of US05 yeast cake (2nd gen) from a 6% amber I kegged today

[Che Soffe]

I haven't tried any of the emersons beers. Will have to put this on the to try list. How close is the recipe to the original

[Peter Church]

the studio1 version featured in some of the early case swaps, search for spellbinder and the reviews should come up, some legends of nz brewing rated this pretty highly. I have made variations on this, riwaka can be hard to get hold of, anyway if your are looking for a good recipe, replicating a bloody good beer that is 3.8ish% and sessionable then I vote for this as a very good place to start

[Che Soffe]

What carbonation level would you suggest for this. All the crate swap reviews said it was a god beer but under carved.

[Peter Church]

Carb levels are dependent on peoples processes, results become variable when you do something different for a one off, if you normally keg then bottle for a case swap or you bottle straight from cold crashing so that there is a much higher starting level of CO2.

my experience with carbing is stick to the process that you normally use including doing things at the same temp each time. 

With the spellbinder it is good on a handpull and also up to ~2vol CO2 but I would aim for middle of the field using what ever is your normal process

[Che Soffe]

At the moment I'm bottling but plan to be kegging within the next month.

[Craig Howard]

What is your definition of a "sessionable beer"?

For me..its relatively low in alcohol with excellent clean flavours and aromas..but the flavours do not build and build in the mouth from each glass. ie. the flavours do not compound until one gets overcome by ones overloaded taste buds.

Same for food and  wine....but thats just me.

[Che Soffe]

Yeah something that's low in alcohol I.e. 3-4 % that can be drunk all day and still be pleasant.

[Darren Andrews (Daza)]

I am currently drinking the Moa "Session" pale Ale and it is actually a regular one of mine I buy it every week (still waiting on my first batch of beer to carbonate in the bottle) the Moa is very nice easy drinking but it sits at 4.7% so don't really class it as a session beer, but still a great beer. pack n save sell it for 22 bucks a doz, so really good value. Try it.

[DMAC]

I really like the bookbinder clone above but my favourite would be a kolsch type. Often done with a single malt and single hop. You can use the kolsch yeast and ferment cold or warm and it turns out fantastic. Us05 works well too.

[Peter Church]

+1 on a good kolsch too. 

[Mark Weusten]

+2 on the Kolsch. I have done two non traditional (kiwi hop) Kolsch's lately which have it all over cold fermented US05 type beers. Your mates will never leave, hmmm is that good or bad.....