What is your opinion about my Vienna Lager recipe

[meaulnes2]

I would like to have an opinion on the Vienna lager recipe that I am going to try to brew. It is my first one. Is it on target?

Since I don't brew very often, I try as much as possible to use the ingredients that I have rather than buying new ones and letting the others age in my garage.
As a result, my recipe does not seek to get close to a perfect model (if there is one) but only tries to bring together malts and hops that I have on hand and that are not too unusual in a Vienna lager.

Batch: 21 liters
Malts
Pale Ale: 4 kg
Caramunich light (15 EBC): 0.5 kg
Caramunich 3 (140 EBC): 0.5 kg
Mash: 67°C (152F) 60 min

Hops
Nuggets (AA 11.6%): 10 g 60 min 13.3 IBU
Nuggets (AA 11.6%): 15 g 10 min 6.9 IBU
Saaz (AA 3.8%): 15 10 min 2.3 I BU
Total 23 IBU

Yeast
Saflager W 34/70 Fermentis

Calculation made by Brewfather

ABV 5.1%
OG 1.051
FG 1.012
Color: 21.5 EBC
IBU: 23

 

[mashdar]

I think a Vienna Lager typically has a lot of vienna malt and little/no crystal.

But if you're trying to use ingredients, that recipe looks very drinkable.

Is Nuggets the same as Nugget? (edit: Honest question. The world is a strange place.)

 

[dmtaylor]

This recipe will not make a traditional Vienna lager or duplicate any commercial versions, but it should make a good lager nonetheless. Personally, I would recommend either deleting the Caramunich Light (15 EBC) and replace it with more base malt, or use a higher attenuating yeast such as S-189, or do both. 1 kg caramalts total is too much for this style and will lend too much sweetness, and the average attenuation of W-34/70 is weak and the style would be served better by using a yeast that can ferment more of the complex sugars, such as S-189.

No matter what you do... it is going to be a tasty beer. Just more or less to style, depending on the variables, if they matter to you.

Cheers.

 

[scrap iron]

It looks like way too much crystal malt as dmtaylor states. If you have some Vienna or Munich malt to add in with the Pale malt it would be closer. Also, Nugget hops are earthy and woody and better suited for English or American styles. But if that's what you have on hand then try it.

 

[Beermeister32]

Similar to a thread yesterday / Vienna lager does not use much in the way of late hop additions. I’d move the 10 minute Nugget back to 60 minutes, that way it is primarily used for bittering, then move the 10 min Saaz over to 30 min flavor addition.

 

[ntempleton]

Echoing what @dmtaylor said. This will make a fine lager, but it won't be a Vienna. If I'm limited to what you have listed, I would make the following changes. I'd drop the Caramunich 3 and add more Caramunich Light. You'll likely need to add some black malt for color. I would also combine the 60 and 10 min additions.

Do you have any other malts that you can play with for this batch?

 

[Cheshire Cat]

I agree with the above, here my grain bill for 22 litres.

Malts (4.85 kg)​

3 kg (61.9%) — Crisp Vienna Malt — Grain — 4 SRM

1.5 kg (30.9%) — BESTMALZ BEST Red X® — Grain — 15 SRM

200 g (4.1%) — Weyermann Carared — Grain — 24 SRM

100 g (2.1%) — BESTMALZ BEST Melanoidin Light — Grain — 25.5 SRM

50 g (1%) — Weyermann Carafa III — Grain — 525 SRM

 

[monkeymath]

I'd also shy away from using such large amounts of crystal malt in my recipes, but I've often seen some "award winning" recipes that have done so. I suppose.that, contrary to homebrew lore, going above 10% with your crystal malt won't make the beer insanely sweet and cloying.

I've only had very few beers labeled as "Vienna lager", but from its historical origins and everything I'd approach it similarly to a Czech Pilsner, just with maybe a 50/50 mix of Pilsner and Vienna malt. Decoction, lots of Saaz hops, long cold fermentation.
Not sure what exactly everyone else has in mind for the style. From what I've gathered, there are some Mexican breweries offering up their interpretation of this extinct (?) style of beer, but I wouldn't know what those are like.