What am I brewing?

[McCall St. Brewer]

OK, I understand. What kind of a question is that?

Usually when I go to my LBHS I go with a recipe in hand and buy the ingredients to make it. Sometimes I as the owner for a ____________ (insert your favorite style of beer). He then gives me the ingredients and puts in an instruction sheet with the name of the recipe written on top.

Today, though, I went in asking for some Kolsch yeast, but he didn't have any, so I asked for another suggestion. Here's what I ended up with:

6lb. light malt extract
1lb. munich malt
2oz. saaz hops
Wyeast 2112 California Lager Yeast

So, what am I making? We never did talk about that and it's not on the top of the recipe sheet.

 

[Fiery Sword]

Sounds like some sort of Steam type beer, but that's not really my area of expertise. What I would say is to ask more questions at the store as they don't seem to be making this easy for you. Perhaps getting your hands on a good book (Papazian or Palmer) would be a good suggestion they should have made. Putting sugar, flour and water in one's basket does not a cake make!

 

[the_bird]

Do you know how to do a mini-mash? The Munich really needs to be mashed, not just steeped, or you won't get all the flavor out of it (and you will pull out a lot of starches).

If you mash the Munich, should be good - as Fiery says, it's a steam beer, looks like it'll have a real nice malt character (Munich is an awesome character malt, IMHO).

 

[clayof2day]

Munich will self-convert, so all you need to do to mini mash this is hold your grain at saccharification temps. Just "steem" near 150-155, and in this case you're mini-mashing (as the munich contains enzymes). Sounds like it will be tasty, but as far as what it is exactly, I would say a "Bavarian Steam", it seems sort of like a "steam" version of a bavarian style pilsner.

 

[McCall St. Brewer]

I looked at my recipe books. It looks like we're trying to make her is a czech pilsener, but with a yeast that will work at slightly higher temps than normal lager temps. Will be interesting to see how it turns out. I think I'll also try adding the extract later in the boil to try to keep the color lighter.

 

[JohnnyK68]

Dosent a pilsner get fermented at Lager temps? If you fermenting at Ale temps then thats a steam beer.

 

[the_bird]

Dosent a pilsner get fermented at Lager temps? If you fermenting at Ale temps then thats a steam beer.

He's got the steam-beer yeast (2112), so, yeah, it's a steam beer (as Fiery Sword and I mentioned)...

 

[clayof2day]

Hey don't leave me out to dry, I mentioned it too!

 

[McCall St. Brewer]

Ok, so maybe it's a Czech pils style steam beer? Whatever it is, I can't wait to brew it and drink it to see how it tastes. Could be awhile, though, before it's ready.

 

[Brewsmith]

Sounds good. What temps do you plan on using? If you do it at normal ale temps, primary should take the normal amount of time. If you go below 60, you may need 2 weeks or more just for primary.