Dry Hopped Miller Lite on Tap

[vacuumcleanerbob]

I know what a lot of you are thinking.. Ewww gross, Miller Lite. I'll admit, any beer that fits into that category is pretty bland. Everyone has an opinion and a preference when it comes to light beer. Some might agree that after a period of drinking so much heavy beer, it is nice to have something light, crisp and refreshing.

This being the case, I have just discovered my love for Miller Lite. I have hated on the beer for years and years. After 2 years of avid homebrewing, I believe it has given me more of an appreciation for this style and the difficulty in brewing the perfect pilsner. I could sit here and tell you why Miller Lite is better than all other beers in its category, but that is not the point of this thread. So let's cut to it! Me and a buddy were drinking Miller Lite and were up to the norm, (geeking out about brewing) and somehow the idea was presented to us, let's dry hop some Miller Lite!

As with every idea I think that I have, someone on homebrew talk or the interwebs has already done it. So the next step was to see if anyone had ever done it. In fact, it had been done, but not to the extent that we wanted to accomplish. There were some posts about putting hops in bottles in order to identify the flavor profiles of the hops. But our idea was to buy a Sanke and transfer to three cornys. Figuring out how to pressure transfer was a fun science project! It is the simple things like this, that makes making beer so exciting. There is so much to learn, and the knowledge is endless! The only thing we needed to purchase in order to complete the pressure transfer was a tapper and an adjustable pressure valve. And I guess OF COURSE!! the Keg...

Each of the 5 gallon kegs got 3oz. of hops. Two kegs each got one ounce of Citra, once ounce of Delta and once of Cascade. The other keg got one ounce of Simcoe and two of Cluster. We are really excited to see what the results bring and cant wait to drink this in a week!

I just want to say, thank you to everyone who puts in their input to this website. I'm sure that I'm not speaking for myself when I say that I would not be near as far as I am with out the help of this homebrewing community. So cheers to you! Keep on brewin!

 

[Gerry_P]

I'm a Schlitz man when it comes to your typical American light lagers. But to me Miller Lite is head and shoulders above other macro "light" beers. You can actually kinda taste hops in it.

 

[GPP33]

This should be interesting. Never thought about dry hopping a beer that's already carbonated.

Personally I have never found a pils that I actually enjoy (miller light included), and I've tried. Kolsch is my go to light beer, but I hear what you're saying about being able to just enjoy a nice crisp light body/light abv beer.

 

[bobeer]

now that it's football season, and day drinking is acceptable, I always want something sessionable around. This sounds like a great idea and I"m looking forward to hearing how it turned out!

 

[GonzoNerd]

I am curious to see the results.

 

[littletommy]

Years ago, miller lite was my go to beer, that was back when beer cans actually had pull tabs on them. Recently, my son left a few in my beer fridge, I hadn't had one in forever, so I tried one, I got an immediate sense of familiarity! I don't think it's a bad beer, and as others have said, sometimes I'm not wanting to drink something heavy and strong, so I think this is a fantastic idea! Keep us posted!

 

[oceanic_brew]

I was very surprised by how tasty a miller light was just the other day. never had one up here in Canada and I was just expecting something as terrible as bud light, labatt light, or coors light but it was great.

 

[E_Rock]

Not to turn this into a Miller Lite confessional or anything, but...

I found a place for ML in my life this summer. As the weather heated up in late spring, I really found my old appetite for IPAs and pale ales to be waning. I really started enjoying sours, but they don't always suit my mood. A friend is a devoted ML drinker and one day I was at his house in the backyard sweltering heat. I tried one and was surprised that I didn't hate it. It was crisp and dry and suited the hot day. No one was more surprised than me the day I bought a case of it.

In September, a friend from out of town came to visit. A few years ago, I had turned him on to craft beer and he really dove in. When he arrived, I confessed to him that I was now drinking ML from time to time. He started laughing. "Dude! I love Miller Lite! I've been drinking it for years." How come you never mentioned it before? "Well, you turned me into a beer snob, but sometimes I just wanted ML." We found this all pretty funny and after having a few homebrews and craft beers, we drank our fare share of ML.

2 weeks later, a neighbor comes by the house to try my NE Pale Ale. He manages a pub that has a great beer selection. It had been a long day of food and football by the time he arrived. He had a keg of Grapefruit Sculpin on tap at home and brought a growler with him. When he offered, I decline and he asked what I was drinking. I came clean about new found appreciation of Miller lite. "I love miller lite!!! It's cold and crisp! We should always drink Miller Lite when we hang out!"

As I said, no one's more surprised than me.

My experiment with the 34/70 at warmer temps has really gotten me hoping it works out. My tastes are really switching towards the lager,pilser, kolsch side of things. Less and less am I enjoying bigger and heavier beers. We'll see how things go as the weather changes.

 

[jddevinn]

How did you purge the corneys? This style of beer is ridiculously easy to oxidize post fermentation.

FYI after purging instead of using the spunding valve, a tube beneath some StarSan will allow a quicker transfer at lower pressure.

 

[rippajak]

I am generally not a fan of any beer with "Lite" in the name, but this sounds like a really cool experiment. I would imagine that a light American lager would serve as a kind of blank canvas, really accentuating the flavor and aroma of the dry hops. I'm excited to hear how this turns out.

 

[xCSx]

I actually had a miller genuine draft yesterday on tap and was pleasantly surprised, it was much better than i thought it would be.

 

[vacuumcleanerbob]

The dry hopped miller turned out pretty tasty. With such a clean base beer, we were able to really identify the differences in the hop characteristics. If I were to do it again, I would have used less hops. 3 oz was a little over the top.. But it was worth the experience. It was also pretty cool learning to pressure transfer. Looking forward to setting up a pressure transfer system in the future to naturally carbonate during fermentation.

 

[vacuumcleanerbob]

How did you purge the corneys? This style of beer is ridiculously easy to oxidize post fermentation.

FYI after purging instead of using the spunding valve, a tube beneath some StarSan will allow a quicker transfer at lower pressure.

I purged the corny's with CO2 and then pressurized them to about 5psi. For the pressure release, I used an adjustable pressure release valve similar to the one in this link and was able to dial in to about 12psi.

https://www.morebeer.com/products/ball-lock-qd-adjustable-pressure-valve-wgauge.html