Brick **** House - Mr Beer Vienna Lager

[Scot_chale]

Batch number 3- another Mr. Beer experiment. This time it's Octoberfest Vienna Lager modified. Brewing tomorrow. So far, here's the run down:

1 can Mr Beer Octoberfest Vienna Lager HME
Booster
1/2 oz Galena Hops
1/2 oz Willamette Hops
1 cup Brown Sugar
3 grams Munton's Dry Yeast
3 gallons water


bring 1 gallon of water to boil
add hops in hopsack and boil for 45 minutes
remove heat, stir in booster, return to boil for 5 minutes
remove heat, stir in brown sugar, return to boil for 10 minutes
remove hops, remove heat, stir in HME
stir hard and let sit for 5 minutes in the fridge
stir hard and add to keg that has cold water waiting
top with cold water and stir

meanwhile...

boil a cup of water and let cool
add to a sanitized bowl and add dry yeast
boil a small amount of water with 1 tsp sugar
wait till yeast starts to churn or bubble and when the
wort is ready in the keg, pitch it.
let sit for 10 minutes.
stir it and cap it.


2 weeks primary
transfer to secondary and dry hop 1/2 willamette
let sit in secondary for two weeks
bottle and carbonate for two weeks
cold condition in the fridge for two weeks
drink.



the idea here is to get as close to Schell's Firebrick Vienna Style Lager as I can with what I have to work with. Yes, it's annoying that Mr. Beer calls it a "Vienna Lager" when it comes with ale yeast and is technically a "vienna ale" or "red ale". hope it turns out. feel free to suggest anything and i'll keep this updated as she goes.

 

[BradleyBrew]

are munton packs 6 grams? Just use the entire package.

 

[Scot_chale]

they are 6 grams- i used 3 on my last batch so I used the other half of the pack. I rehydrate the yeast so i can tell if it's active or not. it had small bubbles forming at the top at the time i was ready to pitch it so i'm sure it's fine. i also covered and let sit for 5 minutes after each addition. I went with an ice batch instead of the fridge to chill it. initial taste before pitching the yeast was sweet with a nice hops kick at the back end. the color was murky brown/grey, but i've never brewed a darker batch yet so hopfully i get a nice dark red. I ended up using 1oz of Gelena and boosted the brown sugar to 1.5cups. This should get the alcohol content up to 5.2% and hopefully it'll be nice and hoppy. i'm gonna dry hop with 1/2 oz Willamette and secondary. fermentation is active after 24 hours so i'm happy so far.