Back in the Day American Light Lager

[estricklin]

I'm wanting to brew a beer for my buddies' band record release, the name of the single they have out right now is "Back in the Day" so hence the name. It feels really special that they asked if I would brew them a beer so I couldn't say no. They usually drink BMC stuff but they have exceptions to that rule sometimes. I've been wanting to start work on a low ABV beer that's really light and clear, It is going to have some hop flavor but not a ton of bitterness. Hopefully this will make a beer that is easy to like. I'm shooting for about 75% efficiency. I am going to be using pellet hops during the boil and dry hops for dry hopping. Will probably ferment for 15 days, then a slow ramp up in temperature for a nice 70F diacetyl rest, then back to 40F or so for lagering. If I lager any longer than 2.5 weeks I will drop the temperature to about 32F. Oh and I should mention, these are all leftover ingredients I'm using, otherwise I might use 6 row, some different hops, liquid yeast and carapils. I'm sure this is version 1.0 so will take any of your thoughts or ideas on ingredients for the next batch, really any advice is appreciated in advance.

5 lbs Maris Otter
5 oz Rye Malt
5 oz Caramel 60
.5 oz chinhook at 90 min
.5 oz chinhook at 5 min
Saflager S-23
1 oz of Cascade for dry hopping.
Beersmith's Guess for ABV is 3.8.

I'm thinking about dry hopping during my diacetyl rest? And I do have some other ingrediants also that I could use, oats, flaked barley, maltodrextrin, corn sugar, lactose, a lot of dark specialty grains, and some DME.

 

[Pie_Man]

Your recipe looks fine, but with MO base and the crystal malt, it's not an American Light Lager.

With your "Back in the Day" theme, I think a Classic American Pilsner would be an excellent beer style choice. From a historical perspective, this style was brewed in the US commerically, but died out after prohibition, so it's a back in the day beer style. It's also a great choice for BMC drinkers.

If you're not set on your recipe, or insisting on using left over ingredients, here's a recipe that should serve you well: https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f58/2013-nhc-bronze-medal-winner-classic-american-pilsner-419449/.

To answer your question, I think you're fine to dry hop during the diacetyl rest. You could probably dry hop during the last 1-2 weeks of the lagering phase as well. That way dry hopping and lagering conclude at the same time and you bottle/keg. You may lose some of the dry hop aromas if you choose to dry during the d-rest depending on the length of your lagering phase.

 

[estricklin]

Thanks for the advice and the link. Yeah I understand this beer is way out of style for an American Light Lager, so nothing I could enter into competition.

When I brewed this Saturday, I came in pretty low on my gravity, something like 1.033. The color seemed, well there wasn't much color at all.

Using Pilsner malt is a great idea. I haven't tried many Pilsners before, so not totally sure what I would be going for. I will take a look at the BJCP guidelines for that style though. I mean it would be nice if I COULD enter this beer into competition since it's something I'm going to brew many times, but it's most important that I like the way it tastes. Seems from the recipe in that link the American Pilsner is closer to what I"m making anyway, and I didn't realize they had that much hop flavor.

I think on 2.0 I will change the yeast to a liquid strain, maybe WLP800. I will keep the Rye, as for the Caramel I will wait and see the color of this beer to determine if that needs adjustments. The Magnum hops seem ok, I might also consider Hallertau.

Until then I will be patient and see how this one turns out!