Grolsch clone

[Frothy]

Yeah, I can't taste any maize in Grolsch

Cool I'm not so experienced in these matters, I know coors contains maize and bud uses rice etc. Is lager malt not so strong in flavour as i.e. Marris otter? In which case the maize would be good to thin out the flavour.

Matt

[steve_flack]

Rice is pretty tasteless in a beer but corn has a definite flavour. I can definitely taste it in Kronenbourg for example.

Lager malt is probably a bit less flavoured than Maris Otter but that's probably due to the lower level of kilning that Lager Malt gets compared to Pale Malt.

[Frothy]

Ok final mish-mash before I give it a go......
adjusted as the hops I've got are much lower % Alpha acid:

23L @1.048 27IBU

60minutes Saaz 3.0% 17IBU = 56.4g
60minute Halletau 2.1% 10IBU = 47.4g
Hop-back Saaz 3.0% 0 IBU ~ 14g

68% efficiency - single infusion mash @ 64-67oc
4.4kg Pale malt
0.75kg Flaked Maize (15% of total grain)

what do you think?
Froth
P.S. Next time I'll get hold of some proper lager malt

[Frothy]

Quite why it thought using a hop-back was a good idea.
Certainly not suitable to this style of beer. Fortunately it failed at the time and the lager is now lagering @ 4oc. Proposed primary was 2 weeks @10oc but it's been more like 5 now and it's ~ 1.018 so turning the fridge down to it's coldest setting now.

Frothy

[SteveD]

I drank considerable quantites of Grolsh in the early 80's owing to having gone over to Holland and bought back crates of the stuff.

(1) It did taste different to 'normal' lager, possibly because of the maize.
(2) It was stronger than most at over 6%

Once they brewed it here, it tasted like any other lager and they dumbed the strength down. I preferred the Dutch original.

[Frothy]

End Result
~ 4 weeks fermenting @ 8-10oc
Exactly 4 weeks conditioning @ 2-4oc

Force carbonated @ 20psi for 2 days (inc rolling keg around on the floor) aiming for 2.8vol/vol carbonation. Served at 20psi through an extra cold beer cooler.



Taste
A strong flavour from the hops very similar to Stella Artois (same hops) but stronger. A light maize flavour is there but if I hadn't made the brew myself I wouldn't notice. I like the idea of diluting down the Marris otter using flaked adjuncts and although this brew is infact nothing like Grolsch at current It's very drinkable and I'd like to repeat it with more bittering hops & using flaked rice instead of flaked maize, I would also raise the primary ferment temp to 10oc+. I notice tescos have now started selling this with the pudding rice I always wanted to make some proper lager.

cheers
Frothy

[mysterio]

Frothy,

I think you're right to keep the fermentation temperature at 10C or above. When I made my Oktoberfest the fermentation would stall when the temperature dropped below about 10, but was quite happy at around 11. Pitching rate also becomes crucial at the lower temperatures, I think the recommended rate is about 2% of the wort volume of yeast; even higher the lower you ferment. This may account for your slightly higher FG - what did it finish out as?

Glad it turned out well, anyway How would you say it differs from Grolsch?

[tubby_shaw]

Nice work Frothy
I got my flaked rice from Tesco a while back, it was short dated and I picked up 4kg for about a quid and a half
I love a bargain me

[SteveD]

Flaked Rice! Heathens!