Vienna AIPA

[DaveGillespie]

So, long story short - I am moving house in a few months so I'm trying to use the odds and ends of grain I have so that I have less stuff to move, but have just found a supplier very close to me with decent prices so I can get an extra kg of various grains without much trouble or doing a large order. I also have an unopened 3kg bag of Vienna that I threw in with my last order for some reason and have thought to use this in an American IPA - a style I have not brewed yet.

Most grain bills for this style seem to be American Pale Malt, Munich and Crystal. I already have some Munich and British 80 EBC Crystal so was thinking the following as a grain bill:

5kg Vienna
450g Munich
225g Crystal 80

Should come out around 1.056/1.057 for 23L. Does this look nuts? Any suggestions on what hops would pair well with this? I am thinking Magnum for bittering and maybe Citra with or without something else - Sorachi Ace seems to be a decent price at Worcester Hop Shop at the minute.

[Jocky]

Nah, I'm sure it'll be great. I recently did something similar - I had a spare bag of vienna, so combined it with left over Maris Otter, and lightly hopped it to 20IBU (just to avoid overpowering the vienna so I could see what it was like).

Have a look for left over beer in the brew days if you're interested.

[CestrIan]

Ive made some lovely vienna lagers in the past, but never tried what you are suggesting, but my advice would be get rid of the munich and the crystal from your recipe. It will be far too syrupy. Keep the ibus low as jocky suggests 20 to 30 max and go easy on the late additions max 28g citra in the last ten minutes. Use a neutral yeast and ferment at a low temp 16, 17C. Should turn out a lovely pint but not an AIPA as you wanted, more of a vienna steam beer.

AIPAs usually add munich to compemsate for the low maltiness of US 6 row. If you're using MO then no munich required. If you want to use vienna as a base malt it will be too malty for a hop fwd beer like AIPA and a waste of vienna which is not cheap.

[Fuggled Mind]

It's not what you were hoping to do but I brewed Graham Wheeler's recipe for Bass Mild subbing the mild ale malt with vienna malt and carafa III. It turned out great. If you decide not to do an IPA you could always use the vienna as a base malt in something like the others and myself suggest. As the others mention, the hops with beers using Vienna are used sparingly.

Cheers

Jason

[DaveGillespie]

Thanks for that chaps, I'll probably stick close to Cestrians suggestion. Definitely won't be brewing anything like Bass anyway - it's Diet Smithwicks!

[Middo]

With IBUs in the 20-30 range and that much Vienna malt it will turn out more like an American Amber Ale, if you're looking to label it with a particular style. If you can dilute the grain bill with some Maris Otter then you could still add some crystal for the caramel flavour without it being too overwhelmingly syrupy. And why not try lots of late/dry hopping with Citra for that true American touch?

[DaveGillespie]

How about something like this - smaller batch size than I would normally do, Vienna only & not English hops but conforming to Ordinary Bitter levels of IBU, OG & Colour.

Fermenter Volume - 18L
Boil size - 20.5L
OG 1.039
IBU 26.5
Colour 9.5 EBC/4.84 SRM

Grain:
3kg Vienna

Hops:
FWH - 12g Magnum (14.9%), 16 IBU
5 Mins - 25g Sorachi Ace (14.1%), 10.5 IBU

[CestrIan]

Sounds nice! Let us know how it turns out.

[DaveyT]

I like the sound of this:
http://www.themadfermentationist.com/20 ... ecipe.html