Low ABV IPA?

okoncentrerad

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I was looking for a low alcohol IPA and there is quite a few of them when I'm browsing the recipes. Is there an IPA in particular anyone can recommend? And generally speaking, how do one "construct" a low ABV beer? Just reducing the grain bill? Wouldn't that result in a rather boring beer?
 
I've made a hoppy session Pale a number of times and even at 4.25% it's a nice beer, full-flavored. If your IPA will be at least that or closer to 5%, there's no problem with making it a solid beer. Use some good floor malted Pilsner as a good portion of the grist along with some Marris Otter or other deeper-kilned Pale 2-row. Then add up to 20% Munich and maybe a little wheat malt for body. Up to 5% of a toasted/lightly roasted malt can lend some interesting notes that support the sweet maltiness and add some nutty/bready qualities - I use Victory or Biscuit. You can use some Carapils for dextrin or just do a step infusion at 150 or so and throw in a dextrin rest at 158-160 and that'll give you body and head retention.
Yeast is key. Use a low-attenutating yeast that will leave a softer profile. Some English yeasts will give you good results and the lower attenuating American ale strains will work well. If you lighten the malt bill and use a high-attenuating yeast like Nottingham, you'll end up with thin, dry beer. Not a bad way to go for a crisp Pale, but an IPA with some bite will want some extra body and residual.
Shoot for a "softer" water profile if you do additions.
 
Founders All Day IPA clone seems to be THE session IPA these days. You could clone that.

also depends what kind of IPA you're making...could go West Coast style with a more Sulfate to chloride and the Chico yeast, or go east coast with more chloride to sulfate and pick a good English strain like London 3.

For the grain bill, I keep all of my IPAs simple, mostly 2-row and oats. sometimes some Munich 10l...But just keep the grain bill lower and punch it into the calculator to make sure you're aiming for the right target, especially on pH with such little amount of grains. My session IPAs I keep between 4.25 and 4.75 ABV.

Then pick out your favorite hops, do bigger additions at 15 or 5 min. And big additions at whirlpool and dry hop.
 
Here is what I do for sessions to get better mouth feel.

Make sure to use some Munich.
Mash at a a higher temp.
If you do water chemistry bump up the calcium chloride.
 
I was looking for a low alcohol IPA and there is quite a few of them when I'm browsing the recipes. Is there an IPA in particular anyone can recommend? And generally speaking, how do one "construct" a low ABV beer? Just reducing the grain bill? Wouldn't that result in a rather boring beer?
In answer to the "boring beer" question, no. One of the most interesting beers I've done in a while came in at 4%. And a low alcohol IPA tends to resemble a pale ale. I'd look for "session IPA" recipes. NEIPAs are quite sessionable, to me, brewed to a low enough alcohol level. All of the above tend to create more sessionable beers that have flavor to them.
 
Thanks all, lots of good info. Actually I was looking to go even lower on alcohol, somewhere like 3.5%...is that possible? And still be tasty of course. I know some commercial brewers around here makes IPA in that ABV, some taste rather good and some not.

I'm a BIAB brewer but that probably doesn't matter?

Mashing at higher temp...check.

Use munich... deeper kilned 2-row...pilsner....wheat malt

If I don't want to cut down too much on the grain bill ...then I have this thought of making my mash efficiency low...is that a bad idea? I mean, mashing with low efficiency, does that also affect any flavours you would get from the grain? less efficiency = less flavours? By making efficiency low I guess I mean not squeezing the bag etc.

Does mash time matters? I think I recall reading somewhere that short mash time may result in getting out less sugar from the mash.

A low attenutating yeast it will be.
 
If you want to go that low and don't want hoppy, look into a British Mild. Berliner Weisse is a good one in that range if you like sour. Grodziskie/Gratzer is a good smoked beer in the low alcohol range. Belgian light beer is called Patersbier - I brewed a very tasty one not long ago. Low mash efficiency means starch haze, not necessarily a bad thing. Low attenuating yeast may throw diacetyl and not clean up after itself. An all-Munich SMASH in the alcohol range you're discussing might be a good beer. What I wouldn't do is load up on hops - they can cover up everything else you want in the beer pretty quickly.
 
If you want to go that low and don't want hoppy, look into a British Mild. Berliner Weisse is a good one in that range if you like sour. Grodziskie/Gratzer is a good smoked beer in the low alcohol range. Belgian light beer is called Patersbier - I brewed a very tasty one not long ago. Low mash efficiency means starch haze, not necessarily a bad thing. Low attenuating yeast may throw diacetyl and not clean up after itself. An all-Munich SMASH in the alcohol range you're discussing might be a good beer. What I wouldn't do is load up on hops - they can cover up everything else you want in the beer pretty quickly.
Thanks, I do have a British Mild I want to brew soon, but I do like to brew a low ABV hoppy IPA too...for my wifes sake. What do you mean with load up on hops? Too many of them or too much of it? Keeping the IBU in the "recommended" level with a ABV that is low ABV...less than recommended (for that style)....not ok?
 
For session IPA I would stick between 4-5%. Really hard to nail one under 4% that is tasty.

I will look at my session recipe book this weekend and see if they have an ipa under 4
 
Thanks, I do have a British Mild I want to brew soon, but I do like to brew a low ABV hoppy IPA too...for my wifes sake. What do you mean with load up on hops? Too many of them or too much of it? Keeping the IBU in the "recommended" level with a ABV that is low ABV...less than recommended (for that style)....not ok?
If you're modifying a higher ABV version, remember the "BU/GU" ratio. Divide the IBUs by the OG gravity points. Scale the IBUs for the session version down by this amount, if not a bit more. You may not hit this beer exactly on the first try, it's kind of hard to do well.
 
How about a traditional English IPA. Below is an original recipe for Whitbread IPA...

1923 Whitbread IPA
pale malt 2 row 4.50 lb 58.06%
pale malt 6 row 2.25 lb 29.03%
No.1 invert sugar 1lb 12.90% (Golden Syrup)
Fuggles 90 min 1.00 oz
Fuggles 60 min 1.00 oz
Goldings 30 min 1.00 oz
OG 1036
FG 1008
ABV 3.7
IBU 43
SRM 5
Mash at 154º F
Sparge at 165º F
Boil time 90 minutes
pitching temp 60º F
Wyeast 1099 Whitbread Ale

For me I'd sub the two pale malts for Maris Otter and Golden Promise... and at 3.7 ABV is just what your looking for...
 
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How about a traditional English IPA. Below is an original recipe for Whitbread IPA...

1923 Whitbread IPA
pale malt 2 row 4.50 lb 58.06%
pale malt 6 row 2.25 lb 29.03%
No.1 invert sugar 1lb 12.90% (Golden Syrup)
Fuggles 90 min 1.00 oz
Fuggles 60 min 1.00 oz
Goldings 30 min 1.00 oz
OG 1036
FG 1008
ABV 3.7
IBU 43
SRM 5
Mash at 154º F
Sparge at 165º F
Boil time 90 minutes
pitching temp 60º F
Wyeast 1099 Whitbread Ale

For me I'd sub the two pale malts for Maris Otter and Golden Promise... and at 3.7 ABV is just what your looking for...
That's an interesting ale I like the english IPA, didn't knew they come in on that light ABV in original recipe! I might brew that one just for myself if nothing else, my wife prefers the hoppy fruity american ones!
 
How about a traditional English IPA. Below is an original recipe for Whitbread IPA...

1923 Whitbread IPA
pale malt 2 row 4.50 lb 58.06%
pale malt 6 row 2.25 lb 29.03%
No.1 invert sugar 1lb 12.90% (Golden Syrup)
Fuggles 90 min 1.00 oz
Fuggles 60 min 1.00 oz
Goldings 30 min 1.00 oz
OG 1036
FG 1008
ABV 3.7
IBU 43
SRM 5
Mash at 154º F
Sparge at 165º F
Boil time 90 minutes
pitching temp 60º F
Wyeast 1099 Whitbread Ale

For me I'd sub the two pale malts for Maris Otter and Golden Promise... and at 3.7 ABV is just what your looking for...
Btw, I've been looking into that barclayperkins.blogspot.co.uk site for some weeks now, really interesting information and ale recipes there.
 
Also. If you'd like more citrus. I'd sub the Fuggles and Goldings for First Gold hops, while keeping the English hop character.

Bred at Wye College in 1995, First Gold is a cross between WGV (Whitbread Golding Variety) and a dwarf male. It features many of the flavor characteristics of WGV and has found favor in both general kettle and late or dry hopping applications.



Aroma: Specific aroma descriptors include smooth, with tangerine, orange marmalade, apricot, geranium and magnolia.
 
just made this up for you, this is a great beer, this should be perfect

https://www.brewersfriend.com/homebrew/recipe/view/581332/baby-penguin-ipa
That looks pretty perfect. Extremely similar to my house pale malt bill and hitting all my favorite hop combos. I keep the IBUs lower (matching IBUs to gravity points, more or less) and the hop schedule a little simpler, but if the OP brewed that, he wouldn't be disappointed. ;)

And here's a lower-ABV variation of a Pale that I used for a brewing workshop where we were looking at hop bio-transformation during fermentation...https://www.brewersfriend.com/homebrew/recipe/view/581493/bio-trans-blonde
By dry hopping at yeast pitch, yeast metabolism makes changes using the aromatic molecules from different hops and creates interesting complexity. Citra, Mosaic and Centennial are others that would work well with Amarillo this way. The IBUs here are fairly low because the hops are mostly late addition, but it'll be very lush and juicy with enough bitterness to satisfy.
 
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That looks pretty perfect. Extremely similar to my house pale malt bill and hitting all my favorite hop combos. I keep the IBUs lower (matching IBUs to gravity points, more or less) and the hop schedule a little simpler, but if the OP brewed that, he wouldn't be disappointed. ;)

And here's a lower-ABV variation of a Pale that I used for a brewing workshop where we were looking at hop bio-transformation during fermentation...https://www.brewersfriend.com/homebrew/recipe/view/581493/bio-trans-blonde
By dry hopping at yeast pitch, yeast metabolism makes changes using the aromatic molecules from different hops and creates interesting complexity. Citra, Mosaic and Centennial are others that would work well with Amarillo this way. The IBUs here are fairly low because the hops are mostly late addition, but it'll be very lush and juicy with enough bitterness to satisfy.
So many beers to brew and so little time :confused:
This one looks great as well, my recipe-beer-to-brew book starts to get pretty full :)
 
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All of the session IPA recipes in my book were all around 4.5% and these are commercial clone recipes. I would try and stick around that. That seems to be the magic number for session IPAs.
 

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