Historical Lager, why did this style disappear?

On July 4th I brewed a recipe I found in Palmer's How To Brew for a preprohibition lager. It uses 6-row and corn so an extensive step mash is required, which time and money constraints is probably the answer to my question, and cluster and styrian hops. It's not fully carbed yet but I've already been tasting it, and it is awesome. Has a really smooth finish with hardly no bitterness, any BMC drinker would be in love. I will definitely make this again, anyone else making any historical brews?

Love me some Brooklyn Lager

CKing said:

Love me some Brooklyn Lager

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Never heard of a Brooklyn Lager, what is it?

i've got that same brew ready to bottle (your father's mustache). i split the batch between 2 lager yeasts. tastes pretty amazing cold and flat.

i'm a baby so i just did a single infusion with it.

k_mcarthur said:

Never heard of a Brooklyn Lager, what is it?

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http://brooklynbrewery.com/brooklyn-beers/perennial-brews/brooklyn-lager

progmac said:

i've got that same brew ready to bottle (your father's mustache). i split the batch between 2 lager yeasts. tastes pretty amazing cold and flat.

i'm a baby so i just did a single infusion with it.

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Which strains did you use? On the advice of my trusted LHBS I used WL Pilsen/Lager strain instead of the recipe's Wyeast Bravarian. Turned out very clean.

k_mcarthur said:

Which strains did you use? On the advice of my trusted LHBS I used WL Pilsen/Lager strain instead of the recipe's Wyeast Bravarian. Turned out very clean.

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Wyeast 2035 (American Lager) and White labs 862 (Cry havoc, rumored to be the budweiser strain). The cry havoc seemed smoother, but it is too early to say for sure. That a difference existed between the two strains was obvious at first taste.

progmac said:

Wyeast 2035 (American Lager) and White labs 862 (Cry havoc, rumored to be the budweiser strain). The cry havoc seemed smoother, but it is too early to say for sure. That a difference existed between the two strains was obvious at first taste.

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I might try White Labs Mexican Lager next. On their website White Labs says its their best cleanest strain, coming from them that means a lot.

k_mcarthur said:

I might try White Labs Mexican Lager next. On their website White Labs says its their best cleanest strain, coming from them that means a lot.

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i've been meaning to get that. it is a special order yeast from my LHBS so i need to manage to plan in advance.

I've done a couple 1800's-style IPA's. The first one didn't come out that good. That was before I got into water chemistry. The second one I brewed is out of Mitch Steele's IPA book. It's the Ballantine Burton IPA. I used Burton Ale yeast (WLP 023). It's still in the fermentor so no verdict yet.

LovesIPA said:

I've done a couple 1800's-style IPA's. The first one didn't come out that good. That was before I got into water chemistry. The second one I brewed is out of Mitch Steele's IPA book. It's the Ballantine Burton IPA. I used Burton Ale yeast (WLP 023). It's still in the fermentor so no verdict yet.

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Awesome! What makes it a 1800's style?

progmac said:

i've got that same brew ready to bottle (your father's mustache). i split the batch between 2 lager yeasts. tastes pretty amazing cold and flat.

i'm a baby so i just did a single infusion with it.

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How did your efficiency turn out only doing a single infusion? What temp did you do? That's the only thing I didn't like about this recipe, glad I use an e-herms setup otherwise I'm not sure it would be possible. I guess the flaked maize from the LHBS is pregelatinized, if it wasn't I probably wouldn't have brewed this. Cooking cereal is a pain in the @$$.

k_mcarthur said:

How did your efficiency turn out only doing a single infusion? What temp did you do? That's the only thing I didn't like about this recipe, glad I use an e-herms setup otherwise I'm not sure it would be possible. I guess the flaked maize from the LHBS is pregelatinized, if it wasn't I probably wouldn't have brewed this. Cooking cereal is a pain in the @$$.

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I'll have to check. I think i was around 62-65% but I didn't sparge.

k_mcarthur said:

Awesome! What makes it a 1800's style?

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It's called "marketing"

I used Nugget for bittering, Fuggles for flavor and aroma, and dry-hopped with East Kent Goldings.

Now I can't even find where in the book I got the recipe. Maybe I found it somewhere else. But it will be beer!

LovesIPA said:

It's called "marketing"

I used Nugget for bittering, Fuggles for flavor and aroma, and dry-hopped with East Kent Goldings.

Now I can't even find where in the book I got the recipe. Maybe I found it somewhere else. But it will be beer!

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Sounds tasty regardless of where it came from.

progmac said:

I'll have to check. I think i was around 62-65% but I didn't sparge.

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I followed the mash schedule per the recipe; 104° 10min, 122° 30min, 140° 15min, 154° 40min, 170° 10min. All with my e-herms, with a 60min fly sparge. Ended up with 89% efficiency. Love my e-herms system!

Cluster & Styrian hops...sounds like PBR!!!

There is a Mass Brewery that puts out beers from over the past 200+ years. They literally have a beer historian translate actual grain bills and recipes from historical archives and brew it to the exact standards. Some are quite amazing:

http://www.oldbeers.com/

k_mcarthur: i'd love to do a brew swap of our pre-prohib lagers if you are interested. we could post notes and differences in this thread.

progmac said:

k_mcarthur: i'd love to do a brew swap of our pre-prohib lagers if you are interested. we could post notes and differences in this thread.

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That would be awesome, I've never sent some before. Can you send it through mail?

1800s parti-gyle scotch ale/twopenny from Greg Noonan's Scotch Ale

http://www.brewtoad.com/recipes/140-wee-heavy-double-mash

Calichusetts said:

There is a Mass Brewery that puts out beers from over the past 200+ years. They literally have a beer historian translate actual grain bills and recipes from historical archives and brew it to the exact standards. Some are quite amazing:

http://www.oldbeers.com/

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This is great! I've never heard of this brewer but I'll have to look for them.

K_mcarthur and I ended up swapping beers ... more in this thread

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f38/historical-lager-three-beer-swap-432301/#post5513597