WBC

Recipes 

I have been wanting to make a Becks clone and figure that they most likely just use pale malt and Saaz or a combo of saaz and another hop? Becks is a very dry beer and so they may mash at 146 F. Any ideas?

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Cheers,
WBC

Fermentor 1: Bill's House Ale II, Fermentor 2: German Helles, Fermentor 3: Bill's Schworzbier (Black Bier)
Tap 1: Bill's House Ale II, Tap 2: German Hefewizen, Tap 3: Nut Brown Ale
Future Brews: Stone IPA Clone, Blonde Ale, Budvar Clone, Newcastle Clone
New toy: Blichmann 27 gallon fermentor

“If you find yourself in a hole, the first thing to do is stop digging”

“Good judgment comes from experience, and a lotta that comes from bad judgment”

BierMuncher

Recipes 

Sounds good. How are you going to get that slight "skunk" aroma (which I happen to like)?

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jdoiv

Recipes 

Simple. Bottle it in green bottles and let it sit out in the light for a couple of days.

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WBC

Recipes 

That's what I thought someone would answer. They must lager a long time and the hops that are used must create this taste? I have no other explanation.

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Cheers,
WBC

Fermentor 1: Bill's House Ale II, Fermentor 2: German Helles, Fermentor 3: Bill's Schworzbier (Black Bier)
Tap 1: Bill's House Ale II, Tap 2: German Hefewizen, Tap 3: Nut Brown Ale
Future Brews: Stone IPA Clone, Blonde Ale, Budvar Clone, Newcastle Clone
New toy: Blichmann 27 gallon fermentor

“If you find yourself in a hole, the first thing to do is stop digging”

“Good judgment comes from experience, and a lotta that comes from bad judgment”

Glibbidy

Recipes 

It's those green bottles looking into the light.

denimglen

Recipes 

I like Beck's as a session beer, it would be great if you could let us/me know how you go. I've looked around before but never found a recipe.

Orfy

Recipes 

Here's some ideas. FOR BMC stuff....


I don' like full bodied ales and prefer a fizzier, light coloured easy to drink beer like what I am used to. And my wife likes it and my friends all drink it by the bucketful.

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Okay, not really but to show I am not always an EAC here’s some pointers for those that do.

Millions of people like to drink Bud/Miller/Coors (BMC) style beers. These beers are loosely grouped under the style of American Pilsners although they have little in common to a true Pilsner. They are light in colour and body and lightly hopped.

So how is it made?

Well Beer is made from Water, Malt, Hops and Yeast. The main addition to this is the use of corn or rice because it is cheap, adds very little body, colour or flavour to the beer, which is what gives it its properties. The corn and rice is unmalted so relies on the enzymes from the malted barley to convert the starch from the rice/corn to fermentable sugars. Because of this 6 row barley is used because of its higher diastic properties. To help beer production take less space instead of brewing lots of weak beer some of the breweries brew a stronger beer and then water it down at production.

If you are going to try this then you should be aware that because there are no heavy or strong flavours and off flavours caused by method or ingredients will show through and not be masked so fresh ingredients should be used.

Malt:
UK 2 row pale malts are generally to dark for pilsners and don’t have enough diastic power, so a US 2 row or German Pilsner 2 row can be used. 6 row has a grainier profile than 2 row hence the reason for using some 2 row.

Adjuncts:
To get Corn into the mash then you can use; Flaked maize which is pre-gelatinised and add it to your mash. Corn syrup can be added late to the kettle. You can also use corn grits but they need a separate mash. The same goes for flaked maize, rice syrup and rice grits.

Hops:
Obviously a lot off American hops are used although some foreign styles of hops are grown domestically as well as some imports are used. Importantly the bitterness is low at around 10-14 IBU.

Yeast:
Obviously a lager yeast is the best bet. It’s difficult to tell what the big boys use bit an American Lager yeast is a good choice, like Wyeast 2035 os similar.

So far we have an outline of the beer.

OG 1040 - 1045
FG 1005 – 1007
SRM - ~ 2-4
IBU 10-14
ABV 4-5%


So from the info above we can put a list together.

2 row pale or pilsner malt
6 row pale palt
Rice or Corn adjunct
Hops from the list of : Noble, Cascade, Willamette, Spalt, Newport, Sterling and a few others.
Yeast. Lager, American, Wyeast 2035.

A good clean tasting water is a must especially if you plan to brew strong and water it down. Sterilised water can help with this but you’ll need to add brewing salts to it. You can also use Camden tablets to take out chloramines and boil to remove chlorine.

Now that info above is well is enough to get you well in the way to understanding how to brew a BMC style beer.

Now this is where the EAC bit comes in. I’d say it’s all toooo much effort and it’s much easier toy just go buy a case for $20 dollars or what ever it costs and use your brew time to brew a Real Ale worth the effort. But because I’m in a good mood here’s a little more info.

You need to mash for a highly fermentable wort, which means at the lower end of the mashing scale maybe 150-152 or if you have the inclination ability to step mash then do some lower temp steps with a rest at 140 really helping to get a dry beer. I’m no expert on step mashes so can’t really help more than that.

With sparging clarity is important so fly sparging can help or at least returning plenty of the first mash back to the mash when batch sparging. You need to be careful not to sparge bellow around 1010.

A good boil is required to make sure you boil off any DMS and allow a good hot break.

Also note that due to poor handling and clear bottles that these beers quite often get skunked and the beer swilling masses have got used to it and see it as a positive flavour in these beers. So short of finding a passing skunk...I suggest looking after a few bottle and also letting a few bottles skunk in daylight. Taste two side by side warm then tast two side by side chilled to see what you think.

That’s enough for now. If any one who is less of an EAC wants to pick up on the actual recipes, hop additions, fermenting ageing and carbing schedules please feel free.


I’m off for a Real Beer.

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BigEd

Recipes 

German pilsner malt and Hallertau Hersbrucker will get you extremely close to a Beck's profile. I also like to use about 10% flaked barley for the grainy flavor I have always detected in Beck's. For yeast try the Wyeast 2042 Danish lager strain. Beck's is probably dry because it is very well attenuated. My mash schedule would be 132F for 20 minutes, 151F for 60 minutes via decoction and 10 minutes at mashout. If you do a single infusion try 148F for the main sacchrification rest. Make a very big starter, pay attention to the fermentation temp and give it at least a few weeks of true lagering.


Sample Beck's Recipe/5 US gallons

8 lbs German pils malt
1 lb flaked barley (there might be chit malt in Beck's if you want to hunt some down)
1/2 lb CaraPils/CaraFoam (optional)

1 oz Hallertau Northern Brewer 6% AA for 60 minutes
1 oz Hallertau Hersbrucker 3% AA for 30 minutes
1 oz Hallertau Hersbrucker 3% AA for 5 minutes

Est OG 1.052
Est IBU 34

WBC

Recipes 

I had considered Hallertau Hersbrucker too so I will try this out and see what happens. I am making 12 gallons though so will resize using Beersmith. I'm going to age for 6-8 weeks in the kegs.

__________________
Cheers,
WBC

Fermentor 1: Bill's House Ale II, Fermentor 2: German Helles, Fermentor 3: Bill's Schworzbier (Black Bier)
Tap 1: Bill's House Ale II, Tap 2: German Hefewizen, Tap 3: Nut Brown Ale
Future Brews: Stone IPA Clone, Blonde Ale, Budvar Clone, Newcastle Clone
New toy: Blichmann 27 gallon fermentor

“If you find yourself in a hole, the first thing to do is stop digging”

“Good judgment comes from experience, and a lotta that comes from bad judgment”

BierMuncher

Recipes 

Orfy? I'd say you were in a good mood....

__________________
*******
Check Out My Rolling Kegerator

BierMuncher Tried & Trues:
Tits-Up IIPA (3-Time Medalist), Black Pearl Porter, Kona Pale Ale, Outer Limits IPA, Centennial Blonde (4.0%), Nierra Sevada (SNPA), SWMBO Slayer Belgian Blonde,