As I mentioned in my Helles 1 post, I am now down to the last of 23 main categories – European Amber Lager. Kind of a coin toss between Oktoberfest/Marzen and Vienna Lager so I just kind of randomly picked Vienna Lager. I do like that it is a little less malty and a little drier than Marzen which can be a bit bready and malty sweet for my tastes.Serendipitously, I just got the March/April 2014 issue of Brew Your Own which has the standard Jamil Style Profile on Vienna but also has a “tips from the pros” section. Also, serendipitously I’ve recently had the best Vienna lager I’ve ever had from Devil’s Backbone in Virginia and low and behold one of the brewer’s covered in the article is Jason Oliver from DB. Cool!
In the article, it gives loose details on his recipe. The base is a fifty / fifty split of pilsner and vienna malt. The remainder is dark Munich and caramel malt. He also said the vienna, dark munich and caramel are continental so I picked weyerman vienna, munich II and caramunich II. He also laid out the hops as northern brewer for bittering and saaz for flavor/aroma. So with that I came up with this recipe:
Vienna 2
3-A Vienna Lager
Size: 7.5 gal
Efficiency: 80.0%
Attenuation: 75.0%
Original Gravity: 1.051 (1.046 – 1.052)
Terminal Gravity: 1.013 (1.010 – 1.014)
Color: 8.11 (10.0 – 16.0)
Alcohol: 5.02% (4.5% – 5.5%)
Bitterness: 28.3 (18.0 – 30.0)
Ingredients:
6 lb (42.3%) Pilsner Malt – added during mash
6 lb (42.3%) Vienna Malt – added during mash
1 lb (7.0%) Munich TYPE II – added during mash
1 lb (7.0%) Caramunich® TYPE II – added during mash
3 oz (1.3%) Acidulated Malt – added during mash
1 oz (50.0%) Northern Brewer (9.9%) – added during boil, boiled 60 m
1 oz (50.0%) Czech Saaz (3%) – added during boil, boiled 15 m
1 tsp Whirlfloc Tablets (Irish moss) – added during boil, boiled 10 m
2 ea Wyeast 2206 Bavarian Lager
Notes
mash salts:
1.2g Gypsum
3.1g CC
sparge salts:
2g Gypsum
5g CC
acidify sparge to below 5.8 (~10ml of 10% phosphoric in 10G of water)
should give mash pH of 5.4
16.25 lb of grain
1.5 qt/lb = 24.375 quarts = 6.1 gallons
mash @ 152
mash in water temp 162.4 so ~163.4 into mash tun
pitch @ 48 and ramp to 50 over 2 days then hold till done (~14 days). rack to keg and drop 2 degrees a day to 38 and lager for at least one month. rack to clean keg and force carb to 2.5 volumes.
3/31/14 normal brew day. yeast was a repitch of yeast harvested from helles 1 -> about 1Q of 2206 slurry collected which over a few days packed down to about 250-300ml of compact yeast. 81% efficiency. cooled to 48 but by the time it was in the fermenter it was up to 50. would rather pitch at 48 but 50 is fine so pitched yeast straight out of refrigerator that I had decanted off most the liquid from at 1:30PM. brew pi set to hold at 50 for 8 days then ramp 5 degrees a day to 60 and hold there till I rack to keg. here are my brew pi settings:
In the article, it gives loose details on his recipe. The base is a fifty / fifty split of pilsner and vienna malt. The remainder is dark Munich and caramel malt. He also said the vienna, dark munich and caramel are continental so I picked weyerman vienna, munich II and caramunich II. He also laid out the hops as northern brewer for bittering and saaz for flavor/aroma. So with that I came up with this recipe:
Vienna 2
3-A Vienna Lager
Size: 7.5 gal
Efficiency: 80.0%
Attenuation: 75.0%
Original Gravity: 1.051 (1.046 – 1.052)
Terminal Gravity: 1.013 (1.010 – 1.014)
Color: 8.11 (10.0 – 16.0)
Alcohol: 5.02% (4.5% – 5.5%)
Bitterness: 28.3 (18.0 – 30.0)
Ingredients:
6 lb (42.3%) Pilsner Malt – added during mash
6 lb (42.3%) Vienna Malt – added during mash
1 lb (7.0%) Munich TYPE II – added during mash
1 lb (7.0%) Caramunich® TYPE II – added during mash
3 oz (1.3%) Acidulated Malt – added during mash
1 oz (50.0%) Northern Brewer (9.9%) – added during boil, boiled 60 m
1 oz (50.0%) Czech Saaz (3%) – added during boil, boiled 15 m
1 tsp Whirlfloc Tablets (Irish moss) – added during boil, boiled 10 m
2 ea Wyeast 2206 Bavarian Lager
Notes
mash salts:
1.2g Gypsum
3.1g CC
sparge salts:
2g Gypsum
5g CC
acidify sparge to below 5.8 (~10ml of 10% phosphoric in 10G of water)
should give mash pH of 5.4
16.25 lb of grain
1.5 qt/lb = 24.375 quarts = 6.1 gallons
mash @ 152
mash in water temp 162.4 so ~163.4 into mash tun
pitch @ 48 and ramp to 50 over 2 days then hold till done (~14 days). rack to keg and drop 2 degrees a day to 38 and lager for at least one month. rack to clean keg and force carb to 2.5 volumes.
3/31/14 normal brew day. yeast was a repitch of yeast harvested from helles 1 -> about 1Q of 2206 slurry collected which over a few days packed down to about 250-300ml of compact yeast. 81% efficiency. cooled to 48 but by the time it was in the fermenter it was up to 50. would rather pitch at 48 but 50 is fine so pitched yeast straight out of refrigerator that I had decanted off most the liquid from at 1:30PM. brew pi set to hold at 50 for 8 days then ramp 5 degrees a day to 60 and hold there till I rack to keg. here are my brew pi settings:
4/1/14 8AM no activity. 10PM small 1/4″ kreusen but no bubblied. worried there may be a leak.
4/2/14 still no bubbling so put a worm clamp around base of carboy cap and voila! blow off tube started bubbling.
4/5/14 still steady bubbling with 1/2″ kreusen
4/6/14 kreusen started to fall but still steady bubbling and turbulent with yeast
4/10/14 very slow bubbling – ~ every 6 secs. yeast has started to drop out
4/11/14 bubbling every 11 sec
4/12/14 bubbling every 12 sec
4/13/14 bubbling every 14 sec
4/16/14 no activity. moved to bubbler. forced diacetyl test was negative. 1.010 FG. pH 4.55. very clean and already dropped very clear. good flavor but color is low. looked at beer tools pro and realized color was using “classic” color model. moved to morey and dropped from 10 SRM to 8 SRM which seems much more accurate. kind of a light copper color rather than light amber to copper. not way off but noticeable so for vienna III I’ll add a bit of carafa special to add a bit of color.
4/21/14 transferred to keg and started 2-3 degree a day drop to 40 at which point i’ll move to my lagering fridge at 35
4/2/14 still no bubbling so put a worm clamp around base of carboy cap and voila! blow off tube started bubbling.
4/5/14 still steady bubbling with 1/2″ kreusen
4/6/14 kreusen started to fall but still steady bubbling and turbulent with yeast
4/10/14 very slow bubbling – ~ every 6 secs. yeast has started to drop out
4/11/14 bubbling every 11 sec
4/12/14 bubbling every 12 sec
4/13/14 bubbling every 14 sec
4/16/14 no activity. moved to bubbler. forced diacetyl test was negative. 1.010 FG. pH 4.55. very clean and already dropped very clear. good flavor but color is low. looked at beer tools pro and realized color was using “classic” color model. moved to morey and dropped from 10 SRM to 8 SRM which seems much more accurate. kind of a light copper color rather than light amber to copper. not way off but noticeable so for vienna III I’ll add a bit of carafa special to add a bit of color.
4/21/14 transferred to keg and started 2-3 degree a day drop to 40 at which point i’ll move to my lagering fridge at 35