Vienna Lager Labor of Love Vienna Lager

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MrOrange

Well-Known Member
Joined
Jul 18, 2011
Messages
287
Reaction score
34
Location
Louisville
Recipe Type
All Grain
Yeast
WLP830 German Lager
Yeast Starter
3L
Additional Yeast or Yeast Starter
Nope
Batch Size (Gallons)
5 Gallons
Original Gravity
1.052
Final Gravity
1.011
Boiling Time (Minutes)
90 Minutes
IBU
24
Color
10-16
Primary Fermentation (# of Days & Temp)
16 Days @ 50F
Secondary Fermentation (# of Days & Temp)
45 Days @ 34F
Additional Fermentation
None
Tasting Notes
Rich malty flavor with just enough bitterness to balance it out. Delicious!
Grain Bill

- 6 lbs Vienna Malt
- 3 lbs Munich Malt
- 1/2 lb Crystal 40L

Hops

- 1 1/2 oz Hallertauer (4.3%)

Yeast

- WLP830 German Lager

Mash

Single Decoction Mash

- Dough in with 5 1/2 gallons of water to hit 122F and rest for 35 mins
- Pulled a thick decoction just under 8 1/2 quarts
- Boiled decoction for 15 mins and added back to mash to hit 150F, rest for 45 mins
- Sparged with 4 gallons at 170F

Notes

This is my first decoction mash and it turned out awesome! I could not be happier with this beer. It is rich and malty with just enough bitterness to balance it. Beersmith told me that it would only be about 7 SRM but the decoction darkens it quite a bit past that. This is going to be my new house beer.

IMG_0407.jpg
 
First of all, your recipe is amazing!

I was looking for a lager that could be dry-hopped, so I found your this recipe and did some modifications:

- Steeped the Crystal 40L

- I don't have the right equipement for decoction neither enough space in my mash tun to perform more than one rest, so, I split the mash in two (21% and 79%) and used different temperatures on each mash (160 F and 147 F, respectively) in order to create alcohol and body after the fermentation. Also, I could perform the dough in on the first mash before raising the temperature to 160 F.

- Put the lid on the kettle and waited to cool for 10 hours between the end of the boil and siphoning to the primary, so all the trub got compacted at the bottom of the kettle. I know it's dangerous but I'd like to take this risk to have the beer as clear as possible.

- I used two kegs without the lid and put it inside my kegerator for the primary fermentation. This batch was my first attempt at open fermentation.

After 15 days in the primary, I bottled 3 litres so the remaining beer fitted in only one keg to lager. My plan is to do the dry-hopping (1/2 oz Hallertauer Mittlefrüh) in the keg 7 days before switching to another keg to serve.

Now, having 15 days bottled, I can tell it's already fantastic. Malty, no fruity aroma neither ester taste. Finally I found a tasteful lager. Can't wait 45 days lagering :cross:

Thx for sharing.
 
Very cool approach on this one. Keep me updated and let me know how it turns out. I'm interested to know what effect the the to separate mash temps have on the finished product. Was there are reason you did open fermentation or were you just trying something new?
 
The real effect of splitting the mash I cannot tell for sure. My beer tasting skills are still under development :rockin:

Anyway, this subject deserves a separate discussion. I found this tiny old thread: https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f36/split-mash-question-172331/ that I just gave some input in an attempt to put it back to live.

In regard to the open fermentation, the previous two lagers I made last year had a bad ester smell that now I tried to avoid by letting the primary fermenter open. This batch turned out much better, however it might be due to the yeast strain. I didn't used the liquid yeast on the previous lagers.
 
Greetings MrOrange,
I brewed your recipe just about spot on with some minor changes in the mash process to accommodate my system. Also I may have done the first rest a 133 instead of 122 now that I try to remember the brew day(don't have my notes). This was a mistake by the way I was trying to replicate the results exactly. Anyway, I ended up with a FG of 1.006 when I transferred to secondary so something may have went wrong during the mash.
Finally the question, I plan on lagering the batch for 12 weeks but it is already looking very clear and I dropped the temp pretty fast not gradually like I've heard to do. I'm wondering if there will be enough yeast to bottle carb when this is all said and done after 3 crystal clear months of lagering. Any insight on this or does everyone keg lagers around here to avoid this exact question.
Thanks for the recipe by the way!
 
I would think you will be completely fine dropping the temperature fast instead of gradually, I have done this before without any noticeable difference. After three months of lagering the yeast should be fine carbing no problem. Remember just because the beer is clear does not mean that there isn't any yeast in suspension still. I lagered one beer for around that time and it came out awesome. If you were really concerned you could transfer a bit of sediment to the bottling bucket just to be sure. I'm glad you decided to try this recipe and I hope you like it as much as I did. Keep me posted with results and/or pictures.
 
I bottled yesterday, and ended up with no short pour for a sample. Fortunately I did get a taste 2 weeks ago when taking a gravity sample. The beer was absolutely different than the sample going into secondary/lagering. It tasted like BMC when young, this lately was just like I had hoped. There was the toasty bread from Vienna and very clean no sulphury undertones like the young beer.
I hope two weeks is enough to carb because I'm not waiting any longer than that to try it again.
 
I added 1-1/2 oz at 60 mins remaining in the boil and it turned out awesome. I think the bitterness was perfect for this beer.
 

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