Recommend a Recipe! - (German/import)

[JMD87]

Hey guys... I'm looking to start another AG batch, and want to do something less Americanish. I'd love a nice light German Ale, sort've like a German "Centennial Blonde". I cannot Lager yet, so anything but that would be great.

I'm not very experienced with German beer's, but I know I do not really like wheaty German Hefe's, and I do like 'Hofabrau' style. Yes I know it's a lager, but its that specific German taste I'm looking for. What is it, Munich? Pilsner?

Anyway, any input is greatly appreciated.

Happy Brewing

 

[DeathBrewer]

Do a SMaSH brew with Vienna Malt and Saaz or Tettnanger for hops.

light on the IBUs, look at your styles. You may enjoy a Kölsch or Alt style beer and these can be fermented at relatively high temperatures to produce a nice clean beer. ferement in the low to mid 60s if at all possible.

Go for one of the German Ale Yeasts from white labs:

http://whitelabs.com/beer/homebrew_strains.html

WLP003 German Ale II
WLP029 German Ale/ Kölsch Yeast
WLP036 Dusseldorf Alt Yeast

 

[Glibbidy]

Do a SMaSH brew with Vienna Malt and Saaz or Tettnanger for hops.

Yeah right! Good luck finding Saaz, let only with a reasonable AA% or price.
Go with the Tett or some Hallertau variety. Crystal will work well too. Your better off finding those mentioned at a reasonable price & adequate AA%.

While you can ferment an alt or Kolsch on the high side, they make a much cleaner beer the cooler the fermentation temps.
Might as well do an upward infusion too, while your at it.

 

[RICLARK]

You could also use Mt.Hood there seem to be a little more of them around the hallertaur.

 

[DeathBrewer]

my LHBS has some 7.0% saaz that is actually quite nice.

tettnanager, hallertau, mt. hood, styrian goldings, sterling...all of these would be wonderful in that recipe.

i made a SMaSH with Vienna and Northern Brewer that was AMAZING...but that's more of an APA

 

[JMD87]

I appreciate the input guys.... however I'm still a recipe newb, so if you could actually give me a more complete recipe that would be awesome. Otherwise I'll be posting a "Critique my first recipe!" thread.

I figured I'll find a brew that I really want to do over and over, and then I'll experiment.

 

[menschmaschine]

That German taste you're looking for is German Pilsner malt, German noble hops, and German lager yeast (fermented clean). But you'll get close with substitutes. I think the hops are slightly less important than the other two.

 

[RodfatherX]

A SMASH ale recipe would be a single malt (all 2 row US or UK or whatever base malt) and then all of the same hop.

So as Deathbrewer was saying


Use say 9 or 10 lbs of all Vienna malt. And then do an all German hop hop schedule.


I'm not really sure about what the hop schedule would be though. I'd speculate on it being say a 1 oz for 60 min and then probably a 30 or 20 min addition. But that is all speculation.

As for yeast probably do Nottingham and ferment really cool (about 58 or so)

 

[DeathBrewer]

try this, for a light german ale (i'm assuming you brew all-grain...if you want an extract recipe, let me know and i'll throw something together.)

Malt
5 lbs German Pilsner Malt
5 lbs German Vienna Malt

Hops
1 oz Tettanger - 60 minutes(this is the only important one...you can omit the other additions if you'd like)
½ oz Tettanger - 20 minutes
½ oz Tettnanger - 5 minutes

Yeast
WLP003 German Ale II or
WLP029 German Ale/ Kölsch Yeast or
WLP036 Dusseldorf Alt Yeast

there's your recipe. if you know the AA% of your hops i can help you further and if you need to substitute let me know as well.

PM me if you want to do extract or partial mash or if you have any further questions.

 

[Glibbidy]

my LHBS has some 7.0% saaz that is actually quite nice.

What kind of Saaz is it at 7%AAU? Other then Czech or Belgian I don't know of any with such a high AAU.

 

[DeathBrewer]

american

 

[JMD87]

try this, for a light german ale (i'm assuming you brew all-grain...if you want an extract recipe, let me know and i'll throw something together.)

Malt
5 lbs German Pilsner Malt
5 lbs German Vienna Malt

Hops
1 oz Tettanger - 60 minutes(this is the only important one...you can omit the other additions if you'd like)
½ oz Tettanger - 20 minutes
½ oz Tettnanger - 5 minutes

Yeast
WLP003 German Ale II or
WLP029 German Ale/ Kölsch Yeast or
WLP036 Dusseldorf Alt Yeast

there's your recipe. if you know the AA% of your hops i can help you further and if you need to substitute let me know as well.

PM me if you want to do extract or partial mash or if you have any further questions.

This looks nice. I'm going to throw this into beersmith later and see what I come up with. Like I said I really have no experience with German beer, so I'll do a little research on the yeasts you all recommended and post my recipe.

Thanks guys

 

[JMD87]

So based on everyone's comments and a little research, I'm thinking I want to try my hand at a Kolsch. The only problem is, I've been trying to find a commercial example to taste, and nobody around my area has it! I've tried 3 different places for any Kolsch, and no luck. I'm going to try a few more places today, and hopefully I'll find something.


Anyway, Kolsch seems like a great compromise between a lager & an ale, and its made in Germany, so hell I imagine it's what I'm looking for.

In the past few days I've had Hofbrau, Spaten, St Pauli Girl & Stella Artois. They all seem to have that German 'flavor' I'm looking for, but also have some funky skunkyness to them. I'm hoping brewing my own Kolsch will help me find what my tastebud's are looking for.

 

[srm775]

So based on everyone's comments and a little research, I'm thinking I want to try my hand at a Kolsch. The only problem is, I've been trying to find a commercial example to taste, and nobody around my area has it! I've tried 3 different places for any Kolsch, and no luck. I'm going to try a few more places today, and hopefully I'll find something.

A true Kolsch is only brewed in the city of Koln in Germany. There are a few examples, but they may be fairly difficult to come by. Goose Island makes a Summer Time beer that is a kolsch-style beer. It seems slightly more hopped than a traditional kolsch. A kolsch is a light, clean tasting ale that is fermented on the cooler side of ale temps and then lagered. An excellent summer time beer.

For a Kolsch recipe, you'll need to include some wheat. It's a fairly simple beer. Mostly pilsner malt (perhaps a little vienna) and malted wheat. You're hops will be hallertau or tett, although saaz wouldn't be out of style. And not very aggressively hopped.

 

[JMD87]

So I made a few calls and looks like I can get some Reissdorf. Seems like the closest thing to real here in America.

They also have the Harpoon Summer Ale which is a Kolsch. Anyone try it?
I just don't want an Americanized version of a Kolsch.