Vienna lager - 14/01/11

[mysterio]

Boiling this at the mo.


Type: All Grain
Date: 14/01/2011
Batch Size: 12.00 gal
Brewer:
Boil Size: 13.74 gal Asst Brewer:
Boil Time: 60 min Equipment: My Equipment
Taste Rating(out of 50): 35.0 Brewhouse Efficiency: 72.00
Taste Notes:

Ingredients

Amount Item Type % or IBU
9.00 kg Vienna Malt (3.5 SRM) Weyermann Grain 88.76 %
1.14 kg Bohemian Pilsner (2 Row) Weyermann (1.0 SRM) Grain 11.24 %
28.30 gm Magnum [14.00 %] (60 min) Hops 19.4 IBU
50.00 gm Saaz [4.00 %] (0 min) Hops -
50.00 gm Hallertauer Hersbrucker [4.00 %] (0 min) Hops -



Beer Profile

Est Original Gravity: 1.048 SG
Measured Original Gravity: 1.010 SG
Est Final Gravity: 1.013 SG Measured Final Gravity: 1.005 SG
Estimated Alcohol by Vol: 4.63 % Actual Alcohol by Vol: 0.65 %
Bitterness: 19.4 IBU Calories: 43 cal/pint
Est Color: 5.1 SRM Color: Color

My Mash Step Time Name Description Step Temp
75 min Step Add 28.39 L of water at 71.9 C 66.0 C

[mysterio]

Done and dusted, hit around 1.050, dropping the last degree or two to pitch some Bock yeast. Will ferment at 10 C and check back in 10 days or so.

Must remember to oxygenate, I forgot the last time I made a lager...

[mysterio]

This is kegged and in the fridge now. Having a taste to see where it's at, and I'm pretty shocked how light it is! It's straw coloured and a bit like if I had made a beer with Maris Otter base malt. Flavour is a little sulphury as you would expect at this stage.

[Manx Guy]

wow that was a quick ferment!

Mine is amber/copper coloured which is what I aimed for... I'd say its a few shades lighter than white sheild...

For my Oktoberfest I'm aiming for golden/amber about 16EBC or so.. somewhere in the middle between a darker traditional stylke and the almost helles like beers they serve at the fest these days..


I'm sure youre brew will be a cracker!

when i took a taste of mine the other day it was still very yeasty with a bit of sulphur but you could pick out a bit of malt and hops under the bite of the yeast

do you think that a decoction is how they get the amber beers using 100% Vienna grain bill?

Cheers

Guy

[steve_flack]

Vienna's seem popular at the moment. I'm doing one at the weekend.

[mysterio]

Steve - with Weyermann ? What's your recipe? Have you done one before?

[steve_flack]

Yes, just Weyermann Vienna and a touch of Carafa Special 3. I've done a couple of Vienna's but not an all Vienna malt one. Hopping with Magnum and Tettnang and using the Bock yeast (third outing for this one).

[mysterio]

Weyermann Vienna is totally different to the British stuff. Much much paler.

What do you think of the Bock yeast. It has a pretty sulphury whack to it but when it ages out it is a nice yeast I think.

[steve_flack]

My first time with the Weyermann so it's a bit of an experiment. If it works out well I might end up using it as a base in my lower gravity ales.

The previous two brews are still getting better so it's hard to tell how it will end up. Seems better than dried W34/70 already. Certainly a bit wiffy young though.

[mysterio]

OK, sampling this now it is about 90% of as good as it's going to get. A couple of more weeks in the fridge will only improve it.

A couple of notes for next time.

- To re-iterate, Weyermann Vienna is WAY less intense than the British stuff. The British Vienna malt will make you an orangey coloured, full bodied, bready beer. The Weyermann malt at 90% of the grist tastes more like a helles. So in that sense I am disappointed with this recipe as it's not really what I set out to make. However, the beer is good, very soft and "German" tasting. For next time I would drop the pilsner malt completely, add a smallish percentage of Munich and add a little of Carafa special for colour. Maybe a little melanoidin malt ?

- The Bock yeast is great but a major sulphur producer, and it takes a bit longer to reach terminal gravity so I would advise leaving it in primary for a good two weeks. The lager yeasts I'm used to working with will reach terminal gravity in 7 days easily, this is more like 10 - 12. I would strongly advise ramping up the temperature to get rid of the sulphur too. I made a mistake of kegging this before it reached TG and as such, it fermented a little further in the keg. I let it vent for another 3 or 4 days but I have trapped some sulphur in, so I get a bit of a "Burton snatch" when I first pour a sample. Hopefully this will reduce a bit.

- This beer is a little soft on the hopping which is more traditional but I think it could stand up to a little more late hopping, the venting I did in the keg probably didn't help.

[196osh]

Thats a great write up mate. Really helps if you are thinking of doing a similair recipie.

Will do something similar to that last IPA.

[mysterio]

Yeah I think it helps to take proper notes, if I physically wrote them down they would be lost instantly