Return to GF Lager

[glutarded-chris]

The first batch I did was a GF kit lager (sorghum base). I quickly shifted toward ales because I didn't have a convenient way to keep the carboy cool for the lagering phase. I don't remember there being a huge difference between the lager and the subsequent sorghum based ale batches, but those were early batches and quite "thin". After 60 ale batches, I decided to go back and give a lager yeast another go. Now that I have a fermentation fridge, I was prepared for a long and low temp ferment and lager. With some research I found that the prevailing homebrew method was to ferment cold and then raise up to ~65F for a few days for a diacetyl rest to insure that it finishes and to allow sulfur compounds to escape. Then I read a series of exbeerament articles that were pretty convincing that for certain lager yeasts like Saflager W-34/70, you can essentially ferment at a normal 65F temperature and get a brew that was indistinguishable from one that was fermented initially cold and then brought up to a diacetyl rest.

http://brulosophy.com/2016/02/08/fe...ager-yeast-saflager-3470-exbeeriment-results/

My guess is that if you are going to bring the fermentation up to 65F for any length of time, you get whatever negative effect that comes with that and there is not a huge reason to ferment initially low. Armed with that I did my lager batch.

I went totally base malt and low hop load to get a good feel for yeast effect. I was astonished. Huge difference!

5 Gallon Batch

9 lb pale millet (Grouse)
1.5 lb pale rice (Eckart)
1.5 lb pale Buckwheat (Grouse)

Hops (total calculated IBU=38):
Bittering: 0.5 oz Magnum (14.6% AA) @ 60 min
Flavoring: 0.75 oz Hallertau (4.1% AA) @ 30 min
Aroma: 0.75 oz Hallertau (4.1% AA) @ 15 min

Yeast: Saflager W-34/70 (1.5 sache)

OG: 1.047
FG: 1.006
ABV: ~5.3%

7 days in the primary @ 65F
Cold crashed to 50F and conditioned for 3 weeks.

Full disclosure: My hop bag sprung a leak at the end of the boil and I got some hop matter in the fermenter. I did not want to leave it on that trub for longer than I had to so that is why I racked it after a week to a secondary. Then I went to Europe for two weeks so had to leave it for several weeks in the secondary. Later batches I may just leave it in the primary and keg it after two weeks like I normally do with ales. It was plenty clear after two weeks.

I think I really like it and will now try to dial in a small amount of lightly roasted malts and different hop profile.

 

[BBBF]

My first GF lager is cold crashing right now. 70% unmalted millet / 30% unmalted corn.

 

[glutarded-chris]

Cool. Would be great to see more details and your impression when you get a sip of the finished product.

 

[glutarded-chris]

I have now spent some time with this and I really like it. I tried it next to a gluten reduced lager I brought back Germany trip (picture below) and mine was similar. Not in the same league, but similar. I would not normally do that but my German friends said this one was an authentic Pilsener and I had to take one for the team to see.
I think the pale barley malt just has more flavor than the GF malts. My next batch I will add some roasted grain that would normally not be in a Pilsener to try and bring out more malt character. Maybe some biscuit rice malt. I think I will add a little more hops in the later additions as well.

 

[glutarded-chris]

New Favorite - lager yeast at ale temperatures

The latest batch came out really good. I am getting closer to nailing my preferred GF brew. I am really liking the Saflager 34/70 lager yeast brewed at ale temperature. I am going to attach my batch calculation and documentation sheet as well as my water addition calculation sheet in case anyone is interested.

For this batch I lowered the grain bill a bit to lighten it up a bit. For simplicity, I did not change any of the water additions. The temperatures calculated were close enough and the only significant change was that the water/grain ratio was a little higher. I ended up getting higher efficiency than I normally get. Not sure why that was. Could be it was just the batch of grain had a higher potential and it had nothing to do with anything that I did. It could be that a higher water/grain ratio with a good healthy enzyme addition was responsible. Something to consider and test out!

For later batches I will probably stick with the 5% roasted grain, but have some of that be a darker roast level. I will likely also try some hop varieties that are a little more forward than the Hallertau. Open to suggestions for this type of brew!

 

[JMath]

It's good to see you're getting great results. I'll use this when I eventually do a lager.