Style 14.5A - Vienna IPL

[acolman]

Hello everyone,

First of all thanks for taking a look at my thread!

So, here we go, i made my first batch of beer on a total whim a few months ago just because my friend said he knew how and i thought it would be fun. So we made a batch... all wrong! We made a lager with a primary fermentation at 72 for three weeks and a secondary fermentation... in bottles! We didnt rack it, in fact when we went to bottle it i added half a cup of white sugar and because we using a huge 18 gallon wine demi-john we had to shake it all up to make sure the sugar was dispersed properly. When we bottled we did the amateur siphon starter move... i wont say it because i am a little embarrassed. But i didn't drink my first one until at least one month after bottling! I knew that part!

Gong Show!

I have come along way since then! I have been reading like crazy, a lot on this forum, i work in a book store so that helps and also i got some brewing software. Wow did we do everything wrong.

So for my second batch i decided i was going to do everything right! In fact i decided i was only going to make a one gallon batch so i could control everything more closely. I decided again to make a lager,i put the one gallon container in a window cut out where i can control the temperature by leaving my door open to my room to let warm air in and cover the cut out with a pillow case to keep the cold air in: it now sits perfectly at 55. It is wrapped in tin foil of course to keep the light out.

So here is my issue, not that its really an issue...

the recipe i used was this, walk up to the buckets of grains knowing that i needed about 2-3 pounds of grains to make a beer. i tasted them all, read the descriptions and picked the ones i like best. I ended up with 2lbs of vienna malt, .5 of honey malt, .25 carafoam. I then went and picked a munich lager (because vienna and munich are closer than california and vienna- logic!!) And i picked saaz for hops becasue last time we went they didnt have any and that was a big deal... well that i meant i really had no choice but to get it now that they had it it.

well i brewed'r up, and stashed in my cold place... and continued along with my reading. I found out that using vienna malt and munich lager yeast was a pretty normal thing! Yeah i made a vienna lager... but wait. I used saaz hops? And then i got the program beer tools pro and entered in my recipe and it did not even come close to matching the specs of a vienna lager: only the color. I went through every style trying to match up my specs and i fit almost perfectly in an American IPA. Only my bitterness was 1.5 points low.

So i used the ingredients of a Vienna lager and got the specs on an American IPA but i used a saaz hop which i only see used frequently used in pilsner. Have i created style 14.5 A or 3.5 A/B - Vienna IPL (India Pilsner Lager)?

Thanks

Andrew

tha ks

 

[bradsul]

You've created Style 14.Andrew, not often seen but from the description sounds pretty tasty! I love vienna lager!

Edit: And welcome from a fellow Canuck!

 

[acolman]

Thanks for the welcome, when it is so far out of any style does it actually get one? is it just a really badly put together vienna lager or does is venture in to he style to which it's specs resemble the most?

 

[bradsul]

There is a style (I think it's 23 but I'm too lazy to look it up) that covers 'everything else' so you'd do much better entering it there than as a vienna lager.

 

[acolman]

lol found it its called specialty beer and nailed it! it allows for absolutely anything! thanks! ill send you a bottle of this if you want since you've been so welcoming and helpful! its its good of course... if its not well ill just keep it to myself.

 

[khiddy]

First off, welcome, Andrew! (Especially if just welcoming you gets a bottle of your brew!)

Anyhow, here's the deal about brewing "to style" - if you create a beer that you like, that you find drinkable, that your friends are happy to drink, then you simply don't need to worry about whether or not it meets the criteria of one of the recognized styles 100%. If you brewed a beer that you like, then go with it! Brew it again! Don't change it!

The only reason we have "styles" at all is so that at competition, there will be ways to compare beers that have similar characteristics. And you know what? At competitions, the judges don't have scientific calculators there to tell them that your beer is 1.5IBUs shy of being an American IPA. They wouldn't be able to tell the precise FG of a beer. They can only go by sensory (that's their God-given ability) evaluation. So if your beer is close by scientific method, that's good enough!

Good brewing!