Viennese Gold - Vienna Lager 17.April.2010

[bosium]

Hi all,

I am brewing my first Vienna lager tomorrow. Have a look at my recipe and feel free to comment


Viennese Gold - Vienna Lager
OG: 1.050
FG: 1.012 (Hopefully)
IBU: 26 (Tinseth Formula)
SRM: 9

Grain Bill
93% Weyermann Vienna Malt
3% Flaked barley
2% CaraMünch (40 SRM)
1% Melanoidin Malt
1% Carafa Special I

Hop Schedule
25 IBU - Tettnanger - 60 Mins
1 IBU - Tettnanger - 10 Mins
Whirlfloc tablet and Servomyces capsule added at 10 mins left of boil.

Water
Maldon, Essex tap water. Moderate carbonates and minerals.
Will reduce total alkalinity of the beer to approx 5 using CaCl2 and a dash of CaSO4

Mash and Fermentation Schedules
Mash for 60 minutes at 154F. Vorlauf and single batch sparge.
White Labs WLP800 - Pilsener Urquell - one vial grown up in a 6L 1.030 starter with (almost) constant aeration.
Pitch at 6C, ramp up to 10C in 1C increments every 12 hours.
Diacetyl rest at 80% AA. Lager at -2C for at least 4 weeks.

[pantsmachine]

I've never brewed a lager so strange alien stuff for me in the recipe. Looks good.Out of interest how long from pitching will it take for it to ferment out and how are you keeping it cold during that? I ask as i think read somewhere about 3 months?

[bosium]

The ferment takes about two weeks at 10C, and then I'll keg it and lager it at -2C for about a month. That's it! I found with my other (bigger) lagers that they really only start tasting fantastic after about two months of lagering, although apparently the colder you lager at, the shorter the time it takes.

I have a spare fridge with a temperature controller for this, don't know how I ever brewed without it. I even use it for ales now, it gives so much control over the fermentation and the end product really shines because of it.

[mysterio]

Bosium, PM me your address and i'll send you one of my Vienna's and one of my Rauchbiers.

I'm sure you'll do fine with this, your last lagers were first rate.

[bosium]

Cheers Mysterio, that would be awesome!
PM sent.

[Barley Water]

Interesting that you are adding flaked barley to a Vienna formulation. What's your thinking there, I have never seen that in German beers (could be a neat new trick)?

[bosium]

Interesting that you are adding flaked barley to a Vienna formulation. What's your thinking there, I have never seen that in German beers (could be a neat new trick)?

It's a trick I learned from Steve Flack. It ups the protein content of the beer and makes for a lovely creamy head with great retention. It may contribute to haze but I lager the beer and therefore the haze settles out anyway. I use it in all my beers now.

[mysterio]

I believe he said it's virtually identical to 'chit' barley which the Germans use for head retention.

[DarloDave]

Noob question, but what does upping the protein content of a beer do?

[mysterio]

'Beer foam stability' aka better head.

This is why wheat beers tend to have big dense heads of foam, because wheat is higher in protein than barley malt.

[DarloDave]

Ah right! I had a quick google but couldnt find owt. Cheers!

[bosium]

Well this went pretty well. I had a stuck sparge, although it was just the grain bed compacting rather than gummed up by glucans. Never had this happen before and don't know what caused it, but it was quite annoying as I had to drain off what I could, then mix everything up again and re-vorlauf and drain until it happened again. Had to do this about 3 times, very annoying but eventually got everything in the boiler.

Had a very high efficiency (84%), seem to get this number on the button every time I use Weyermann malts. I guess the yield from them is just higher, maybe less moisture content or something. No matter, I just used more hops to compensate and watered it down from 1.053 to 1.050, although I did consider leaving it at 1.053. I now have about 5L extra wort to do something with, thought I might actually pitch a belgian yeast (I have a saved bottle of Wy1762 that I was going to chuck out) and make a small belgian ale from it. Maybe boil it down a bit more and concentrate it to 1.060 first. Any suggestions?

Couple of mandatory pics:

Malts:


Mash:


Second hop addition with Servomyces and Whirlfloc:


Running off into FV:



FV installed in fermentation chamber:

[bosium]

Ok, so I took the remaining wort and boiled it down to 1.058 and pitched a slurry of Wyeast 1762. Got it in a 1 gallon fermenter in my insulated mash tun so I can control the temperature. Hopefully it will turn into a nice little Belgian ale, if nothing else it's a nice experiment. I normally would have frozen it to keep for starters, but I already have 2L from when I brewed my Czech Pils.

[WishboneBrewery]

How long have you had the Fish tank thermometer, it was only about 3 brews and mine broke!
Hope this little Belgium thing turns out well

[bosium]

How long have you had the Fish tank thermometer, it was only about 3 brews and mine broke!

First time I've used it, but not impressed with the quality or accuracy really. Still, it's handy for times like these. I have my cooler in my under-stair closet where the temperature is the most stable in my house, with the LCD on the outside of the closet.

Checked on my beers this morning, the lager is now up to 10C and is showing signs of life. The ale is at 17C and is still waiting to take off. Hopefully I will have krausen on both by the time I get home this evening.