This week my guest is Mike Tonsmeire, aka “The Mad Fermentationist”. Mike walks us through the fine art of designing and brewing very low gravity beers called “Session Beers”. Session beers are eminently drinkable beers that are still full bodied and enjoyable, without weighing you down.
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This Episode Sponsored by MoreBeer!
MoreBeer is the sponsor of this week’s episode. You can show your appreciation to them on your next order by using the special order links here at BeerSmith.com/MoreBeer – a portion of each order will go to support the BeerSmith sites, podcast, and newsletters.
Also – BeerSmith 2 is out – You can grab your free 21 day trial copy of BeerSmith 2 here – and brew better beer the first time!
Topics in This Week’s Episode (43:40)
- This week’s guest is Michael Tonsmeire, aka “The Mad Fermentationist” who runs a brewing blog at TheMadFermentationist.com Mike will walk us through how to design and brew low gravity session beers that you can enjoy year round.
- I introduce this week’s sponsor at MoreBeer – you can support the BeerSmith sites by placing your next order with MoreBeer through our special order page here.
- Mike tells us why you might want to brew a low gravity beer
- He talks about the origin of the term “Session Beers” which is believed to have originated during the breaks that armament workers took during World War I.
- We talk through how to design a low gravity beer and how it is different from normal beers.
- Mike explains how light beer is slightly different than Session beer
- We talk about creating a grain bill for a session beer, and concerns with balancing hop bitterness
- Mike tells us why a higher temperature mash schedule might be better to preserve the body of a session beer
- We explore parti-gyle brewing which is a technique for getting more than one beer out of a single mash
- Mike talks about “out of style” session beers
- We finish with a discussion of low calorie beers
Thanks again to Mike Tonsmeire who was kind enough to take time from his very busy schedule to appear on the show!
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