AG #4 Vienna Lager -Rapid Wien - brewday & updates

[Manx Guy]

Hi,
Thanks for your comments - I doubt it will be very polished or an award winner but so far it seems to be low on undesirable flavours... So for me this is a major plus! Hopefully after a few weeks lagering before bottling and then another few weeks time I'll have a better idea what it will be like - fingers crossed I wont be dissapointed.

I was half expecting a sulfury apply/fruity disaster but seems my procrastination has paid off!

I would say that its at the hoppier end of the style guidelines as there is deffinately a late hop presence and a fairly bitter finish - but its hard to tell as there is still quite a lot of yeast in evidence(early days I guess).

My Oktoberfest recipe is pretty simpe:
Grist - Pils 66.8% Munich 28.3% Caramalt 3.3% Aromatic 1.6%
Hops Tettnang to 25IBU
90 min mash @66C I 'may' do a mashout decoction time permitting and if the mood takes me
90 min boil

other than that I plan to keep it simple and concentrate on getting the ferment as close as I can to ideal.

I'll be pitching 300ml the yeast cake from the vienna which I will 'activate' 24 hours in advance of pitching with 500ml 1040 starter wort which will be kept at 12c so its already at pitching temp.
Once there is sign of an active ferment I'll take the FV of the stool and place direct onto the cellar floor where the temp is a steady 10c (I spent about 10 days monitoring the core temprature of a FV of water in various positions in the cellar-sad but it appears time well spent)

I can then raise it back onto the stool and switch on the immersion heater for the diacetyl rest (@~SG1020)

by the time this will be ready for lagering I wil have bottled the Vienna and can use the same PB and frisge set up for the Oktoberfest - but I'll allow this 3-4 weeks as its going to a be a bit paler than the Vienna.
Hopefully it will give it a nice polish

Cheers

Guy

[Manx Guy]

Hi,
Just an update on this brew...
After having 31 days lagering at 2c I finallay got this bottled last night...
I left the last litre in the bottom of the PB to avoid bringing ovre the haze causing proteins etc that I'd just spent a month letting drop out...

After boiling my priming sugar in 200ml water and allowing to cool I decided to add a dozen or so grains of Nottingham to help carbonation in the bottle on the likely hood of most of the viable yeast from the brew having settled out during largering...

This was left to rehydrat at 28c in the flask for about an hour or so before I began bottling...

Bottling went well and I've earmarked a bottle each for Jonty, Leedsbrew and Lancssteve.
However there was disaster when cleaning up I slipped while I had my 500ml conical flask in my hand which then broke once it came into forceful contact with a heavy pyrex jug in the sink...

Overall Im prety pleased with it! its clear at 3C - malty (ever so slight initial sweetness) well attenuationed and with a nice hoppy dry finish
No discernable 'offf lavours' to me at least -although its a young brew I'm pretty sure its clean - but as its 'green' I cant shake the thought that there may be a little bit of appleyness in the background but this could also be the fruity notes from the Hallertau H ( I used a fair amount of aroma/flavour hops as is permissable in the style 'guidelines')

Anyway once this is carbed up I'll be posting samples to the aforementioned forum members for second opinions, so I guess I'll know soon enough

I am 100% certain that I'll manage toforce down my stock of bottles though... so no worries there!


Thanks to all those who helped me out on this brew!

Cheers

Guy

[Manx Guy]

Hi all!

If you have read this thread you are probably wondering how this first lager attempt turned out..?

Well acording to what versions I've tried & the style guidlines I think its pretty close...

Toasty malt with initial sweetness a f soft spicey fruit and spice from the hops and nice dry slightly bitter finish...

Heres a couple of pics:

A photo of the Vienna just after pouring:


Heres one after 5 minutes - the head retention is good...



Overall I'm quite pleased with it, I think Id do it again but use German Vienna malt with a little carafa for colour next time nad stick with Hallertau or Tet hops wise


A couple of my mates love it, another refuses to beleive its a lager as its the 'wrong colour mate, cant be a lager'

I hope to get a few more discerning opinions from a few forum members who hopefully by now have received a bottle in the post...

Fingers crossed they like it too...



Guy

[mysterio]

Looks great!

[Manx Guy]

Looks great!

Thanks it is pretty clear but as you can see the glass has a lot of condensation on it...

I'm hoping my second lager (Oktoberfest) will be as good if not better...
*crosses fingers*


Cheers!

Guy

[leedsbrew]

I haven't had time to try it yet guy, but I'm off work tomorrow and my brother is over so we'll be tucking into a few then! Can't wait! It's a cracking colour! What yeast did you use, it has taken a pig of a long time for it to settle, it's a little loose still as well.

[Manx Guy]

Hi LB

No worries...

I used Wyeast 2206 Bavarian, and the eyast sediment is loose in all the bottles

With hindsight I should have allowed all the yeast to settle out in lagering and then re seeded with an (Ale ?) yeast that sticks like Sh*t to a blanket!
Lesson learned for my Oktoberfest (currently coming up to its 5th week in lagering) ...

To be honest I'm really pleased with th ecolour as a deep gold/copper colour was what I was after!



Guy