Can you Make a Really Good Lager with Corn?

[Clint Yeastwood]

I made a lager in February. I have been neglecting it because I favored some other beers I brewed later. I have been trying to figure out what to do about my high iron levels, so tonight I am sampling all the beers I have in the keezer. I can't find anything wrong with this beer. Not sure what to do about iron, but I am buying Brewtan B anyway to see if it makes any difference in future beers.

I created this beer to try to hook a Bud addict on actual beer. It did not work, but I was amazed at how much I liked it, myself. It's supposed to be a lawnmower beer. To be consumed cold and in big servings on hot days. I put corn in the grain because I thought it would make it taste more like cheap beer, but it's fricking wonderful. The Magnum hops, which I would expect to be boring, throw off a magnificent aroma, and it tastes about like an all-barley lager to me.

The other day I was wondering why I had a pound of Magnum hops in the freezer, and now I remember. I think I'll make this my default hop for light-colored lagers.

I'm not much of a lager guy. Give me a 1970 Buick convertible with a 455, not a BMW. I lean toward ales. Lager people, tell me: is it possible to make a really excellent lager with corn in it? I don't mean "excellent" by my standards; I mean, can you make a lager that lager people will respect? I know the lager world is a little snootier than the ale world.

This stuff makes me think of Gosser, which I got plastered on in Austria when I was 16. We had such horrible chaperones.

Maybe I'll get hollered at for keeping a lager for 273 days, but then I just started working on a container of sour cream with a 2022 date on it.

8.5 lbs. pilsner
0.75 lbs. crystal 10L
1.5 lbs. flaked corn

Magnum for 60 minutes to get it to about 30 IBU. The recipe also says to steep 1.5 ounces of Magnum at the end of the boil. Went from 1.051 to 1.014.

 

[FromZwolle]

I've made pretty tasty ales and lagers with pretty much every form of corn. They all seemed to add something a little different.
Creamed corn
Cracked corn
Corn meal
Popcorn
Flaked corn.

 

[Clint Yeastwood]

The thing about this stuff is that when I drink it, I can imagine myself drinking it from a huge stein in Munich. It just tastes like a hoppy, aromatic lager with lots of body and a touch of sweetness. It doesn't set off an alarm that says "CORN beer made for Americans." If I had never had it, and you put it in a glass stein and told me it was from Germany or Austria, I wouldn't doubt it. That surprises me.

You could never make me think Corona or Budmilcoors or even a decent cheap American beer like Point was from Europe.

 

[fluketamer]

yes corn all the way. i love corn. mashed flakes, dextrose, syrup solids. i like corn in my lagers to thin and also add a little corny sweetness. i grew up on bmc with lots of adjunct so corn is fine by me. i make all my lagers with differing amounts of some form of corn. i like the abv boost and drying effect. my mexican lagers need the corn in there grain bill or they just arent the same.

i have put corn in stouts to increase abv i wouldnt reccomend that.

 

[Clint Yeastwood]

I'm really loving this stuff. I don't know why people say Magnum hops are just for bittering. The aroma sweeps you away.

 

[AmarikinBrew]

I'm really loving this stuff. I don't know why people say Magnum hops are just for bittering. The aroma sweeps you away.

In my youth, I used to get me a cupla foaties of Miller Magnum Malt liquor when I'd get off work, I loved that stuff. 5.5 ABV and tons of Magnum hops -well hoppier than MOST at the time in the 80s, grainy 2-row and 6-row blend of grain and CORN. I guess they don't make it anymore. It was NOT any light beer!
That's one malt likker I'd like to clone.

 

[passedpawn]

Peroni (italian pilsner) has corn it it. It also uses magnum and saaz hops. Here's my 6g recipe, give it a whirl. I made some of this yesterday.

 

[AmarikinBrew]

@passedpawn: Any particular reason you chose Barke over other pils as base?

 

[passedpawn]

@passedpawn: Any particular reason you chose Barke over other pils as base?

I just happened to have it on hand. I made the perfect pilsner (no corn) a few years ago and the recipe used that malt. I cannot really say it's better than any other though, but I'm sticking with it due to that one success.

BTW, I don't think that carapils in the recipe is necessary. Just an experiment I'm doing, but likely will have no effect on the beer.

 

[passedpawn]

Also note there is no 60m hop addition. That's another experiment lol

 

[AmarikinBrew]

Carapils has a threshold of sweetness approaching the 7% mark IMO.

 

[Tomahawk47]

8.5 lbs. pilsner
0.75 lbs. crystal 10L
1.5 lbs. flaked corn

That's a good grain bill, about what I use.
i was about to tell you to use Hallertauer for flavor & aroma until I saw your later post . Now you have me thinking about Magnum.

 

[AmarikinBrew]

Anybody have a clone of Michelob from the 70-80s? It supposedly had only 15% rice.

 

[beersk]

What yeast are you using? I feel like 30 IBUs is a bit high if you're trying to hook someone used to drinking Bud Light, which has about 10 IBUs max. I'd aim for about 20 IBUs to start.

 

[Bramling Cross]

You can make really good beer with corn. You can also make excellent beer with corn. It’s no different than any other ingredient: you just need to put the time and effort into learning it.

It’s also worth remembering that while corn and rice currently get a bad rap for being cheap adjuncts, the German brewers that first started advocating for the use of corn in lagers did so to improve the *quality* of their beers.

Which gets us back to putting in the time to learn our ingredients. Any ingredient (no matter how traditional, or expensive, or cutting-edge trendy it may be) can be abused, but if you really know the ingredient you’ll use it in the right grist at the correct percentage.

I hope you have fun learning about corn. It’s really useful stuff!

 

[DuncB]

I made a lager in February. I have been neglecting it because I favored some other beers I brewed later. I have been trying to figure out what to do about my high iron levels,

Regular blood donation will help.