Slow Ride

[RedBEERd]

Has anyone tried the New Belgium Session IPA called Slow Ride?

just curious.

[Kealia]

No, but I just looked it up and will be on the lookout for it.

It sure reads like it would be good.

[mashani]

I'm drinking some right now (on my second bottle). More tropical fruit/peachy vibe then any other session IPA I've had. I'm liking it quite a lot for the most part, I think I like it more then most other session IPAs I've had, it's more complex. Seems to have more mouth feel then other ones too. That is a good thing. The only thing that bugs me a little bit is the "sucking on a peach skin" vibe I get in the finish. Sort of like what I get in beers with Citra in them (there may be citra in this too, I dunno). But it only is bugging me a little bit, and not enough to keep me from enjoying it.

So, I could drink this stuff happily anytime, although I'd rather drink my "yanks 3 continent esb". But that's just personal hop/yeast/malt preference more then anything (IE, I'd personally like it more if they used Simcoe instead of Mosaic for example as a primary hop I think).

[RedBEERd]

That's why I want to try it since the write up sounded like something I'd enjoy. As much of a STONE guy that I am, I'm not sold on the Go To IPA because while it's dank, it doesn't have much body, seems watery. And I'm not necessarily a Founder's commercial either (Devil's Dancer aside) but I thought their All Day IPA was better so I figured I'd try this one. I'll be doing so soon I hope.

[swenocha]

I like all of the session options out there now. My favorite continues to be Evil Twin Bikini beer, which comes in much bigger in flavor than one would expect for a 2.7%abv beer. Been wanting to get my hands on Sour Bikini, but haven't seen it around here yet. I also quite liked the Full Sail session beers, and Founders All-Day and Terrapin RecreationAle are both pretty solid as well. I found Lagunitas DayTime to be a bit thin and watery, but YMMV. Haven't picked up the Stone or New Belgium yet, but figure I'll try them sometime soon.

[RedBEERd]

2.7%? Wow. Most are about 4 to 4.5% That's really low.

[Kealia]

That is crazy low.....

So far I've been a big fan of Lagunitas DayTime, Firestone Easy Jack and a few others that don't come to mind at the moment. Stone's GoTo is good, but doesn't top my list and I'd prefer one of the aforementioned over it. Slow Ride does sound very intriguing - peach skin and all.

[BlackDuck]

I like the Evil Twin Bikini beer too. And I think it's my favorite session IPA so far also. You would never know that it's 2.7%. I wonder how they did it.

[swenocha]

Brooklyn Brew Shop sells a licensed homebrew kit if anyone wants to try. I've found attempting to make these lo-grav sessions to be a fun, but challenging, endeavor. Getting it not to be too thin is a real challenge... I figure to try The Mad Fermentationist's session beer recipe at some point. Here's what he had to say on the subject:

Reducing the amount of malt can also result in a thin body, and the lower sweetness can lead to an unbalanced flavor. A few ideas to combat those pitfalls:

Boosting Perceived Body:
1. Add more crystal/dextrin malt, which will add sweetness and mouthfeel.
2. Add unmalted grains (especially oats and rye) for their beta-glucans, which add body without sweetness, but can also contribute haze.
3. Raise the saccharification rest temperature, a good choice to avoid the sweetness of crystal malts.
4. Use a less attenuative yeast strain, English strains are especially well suited.
5. Use a strain that produce a high amount of glycerin/glycerol, saison strains tend to excel at this.
6. Lower carbonation, I find high carbonation makes light beers taste seltzer-like (although higher carbonation can help excessively thin beers, like gueuze).

Enhancing Malt Flavor:
1. Use a more flavorful base malt like Maris Otter, Vienna, Munich, or dark wheat.
2. Raise the percentage of specialty malts, especially toasty malts like Victory, biscuit, and melanoidin.
3. Eliminate adjuncts like corn/table sugar, and corn which dilute malt flavor.
4. Conduct a no-sparge mash to increase color/flavor, and minimize tannin extraction.

Maintaining Balance:
1. For a hoppy beer reduce the IBUs proportionally to the expected residual extract (I think this is a better way to think about balance than the classic BU:GU ratio).
2. Do not trim late boil additions as much to maintain a solid hop aroma.
3. For dark beers consider increasing the percentage, but cold steeping your roasted grains to reduce harshness.
4. Use a more expressive yeast because the lower gravity will result in a cleaner fermentation profile.
5. Account for serving the beer fresher than you would a strong beer (e.g., use a highly flocculent yeast).

These are certainly not all things that should be done concurrently for one batch of session beer, but it is a good idea to pick the ones that make sense for the type of beer you are brewing

[BlackDuck]

Very timely Swen...because in a short two and half weeks you'll be able to taste my latest attempt at a session IPA. It's not 2.7% sessionable, but 4.5% surely does the trick. And I like it very much, but that's also a biased opinion.

[RedBEERd]

That is crazy low.....

So far I've been a big fan of Lagunitas DayTime, Firestone Easy Jack and a few others that don't come to mind at the moment. Stone's GoTo is good, but doesn't top my list and I'd prefer one of the aforementioned over it. Slow Ride does sound very intriguing - peach skin and all.

Firestone? I envy you so much ......my one and only experience there last summer was MEMORABLE.....and fortunately I had a designated driver.

[swenocha]

Forgot to mention the other one I plan to try soon... Brooklyn Brewery's 1/2 Ale, which is a session saison.

My Whole Foods has the Bikini Beer homebrew kits... but only in the "starter" set that comes with fermenters and such. I would have bought one today had they had it in refill form...

[bucknut]

Forgot to mention the other one I plan to try soon... Brooklyn Brewery's 1/2 Ale, which is a session saison.

My Whole Foods has the Bikini Beer homebrew kits... but only in the "starter" set that comes with fermenters and such. I would have bought one today had they had it in refill form...

Evil Twins Bikini beer is pretty good, would never guess it was 2.7%. I seen the brew kits online and the hops used are simcoe and cascades for bittering and FF for flavor/aroma, not sure on the malt but If I had to guess at it........pale ale 2 row, crystal 10 and maybe a little munich and mash at about 158 should get you close. Hmmm might have to try this myself.

[pengins27]

I just purchased my first kit (non HME, i am 17 batches into the MrB kits) -

I bought the Brooklyn Brew Shop - Everyday IPA. Any tips for a beginner that i should take note of? Every hobby needs to progress and i'm trying to take small steps

[mashani]

I just purchased my first kit (non HME, i am 17 batches into the MrB kits) -

I bought the Brooklyn Brew Shop - Everyday IPA. Any tips for a beginner that i should take note of? Every hobby needs to progress and i'm trying to take small steps

My impression is that they give good instructions with those kits, so for that batch just follow them and see how the process works. The only trouble you might have is maintaining your mash temperature with the small water volume. If you can put your pot in the oven, then when you have the grain/water at mash temps in the pot then put it in there, heat the oven to whatever your lowest possible temperature is, turn off the heat and walk away for an hour. The oven heat will help keep the temperatures from dropping too much. I do this with my small BIAB batches, it works great. They might even tell you to do that, I don't know. But this is better then firing up the stove repeatedly.