International Amber Lager Gold Winning Speakeasy Amber Lager

Won Gold in European Amber Lagers at the 2013 German Fest Stein Challenge entered as a Vienna Lager.

For a 6 gallon batch:

9.5 lbs (72.0%) Vienna
3 lbs (22.7%) Munich
10 oz (4.6%) Crystal 40
1.5 oz (.07%) Carafa Special II

Mash 152 for 60 min 1.3 qt/lb

Sparged and collected 7 gallons preboil.

1 oz Hallertau(4.3%AA) @60 14 IBU
1 oz Hallertau(4.3%AA) @25 10 IBU

6 gallons post boil. Cooled to 46 and collected 5.5 gallons in fermentor. Pitch a huge starter of 2308/838 (1.75 million/ml/* Plato).

Let rise to 50 and ferment for 14 days

Raised to 62 for a 3 day D Rest, then cooled 3 degrees per day down to 36 and lagered for 35 days.

Kegged and carbed to 2.4 volumes.

Full malty flavor with a hint of bread, balanced hop bitterness and flavor, smooth crisp finish.

I'm doing this one today.

Haha, I did this one Sunday as well, with minor variations (hops).

Didn't get the efficiency I wanted, but OG of 1.045 should work!

I fell short on the OG too, but had a bit of DME laying around that was about what it needed, so I pitched that too. Pitched the yeast starter Monday afternoon and finally got visible activity Wednesday afternoon.

What was the gravity you were around when you started your D rest? Mine seems pretty high right now.

mpride1911 said:

What was the gravity you were around when you started your D rest? Mine seems pretty high right now.

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I believe it was around 1.020ish, it didn't drop much after the d rest for me.

Looks like a good recipe. The FG of 1.015 has me a bit worried though as the style is supposed to be dry at the finish. DO you taste the resigual sugars? Thanks!

It did finish higher than I anticipated, but I never remember thinking it was sweet. I think a couple things may have masked high fg: a bit higher co2 level, and some flavor hops. Also, if yeast fully attenuates, fg may be high but it won't seem as sweet as an underattenuated beer with a lower fg.

Ideally, I'd like it to have been around 1.012, but it ended up working well at this so I didn't complain much and judges score sheets seemed to think it was crisp still.

Mine seemed to have stopped at 1.020 as well.

FlyDoctor said:

Looks like a good recipe. The FG of 1.015 has me a bit worried though as the style is supposed to be dry at the finish. DO you taste the resigual sugars? Thanks!

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WAAAAAY old, but digging this one up.

I think I read somewhere recently that some EU versions of Vienna Lager actually finish a little higher than our native US versions. So as long as you're not too high on the FG, you should be still within style.

Heck, just looked it up...the BJCP states: American versions can be a bit stronger, drier and more bitter, while European versions tend to be sweeter. Many Mexican amber and dark lagers used to be more authentic, but unfortunately are now more like sweet, adjunct-laden American Dark Lagers.