AG Lager

[Westwinds Brewery]

Hi
To keep the better half interested has anyone a recipe for a Stella/1664 type bier?
Thanks :drink:

 

[tubby_shaw]

Hi WW,
To be brutally frank with you at your experience (Correct me if I'm wrong but I don't think you've made a grain beer yet?)level I wouldn't attempt a pale lager from grain just yet, these are some of the more difficult beers to get right. By this I mean that you can make a good pale lager from grain for your first ever attempt at mashing but it won't come close to tasting like stella or 1664.
To come even close you are going to need speciality grains good water treatment and temperature controlled lagering facilities.
I do not want to put you off or sound discouraging but In my experience you would be better off making up an extract recipe with DME for your first attempt at a pale lager.
I can give you an extract recipe if you like or if you have your heart set on a grain lager have a go at scaling Alemans recipe HERE

 

[Westwinds Brewery]

Thanks TS
That sounds like good advice to me, an extract recipe would be great and I'll make my first AG from the 'how to' thread

 

[tubby_shaw]

Ok extract recipe :thumb:

To get the best from this recipe please treat your water to de chlorinate and reduce temporary (carbonate) hardness. Use whichever method you are most comfortable with.

To give 23L at OG 1.050 35 IBU 5% abv
3kg light dried malt extract
350g caramalt
400g glucose

25g Northern brewer hops 10.9% aa 90 minute boil
25g Saaz hops 2% aa 90 minute boil
25g Saaz last 5 minutes of boil

Lager yeast (if specified a pilsner strain)

dissolve the dme in as much of the water as you can safely boil (it is preferable to boil 30L and end up with 23L due to evaporation) and heat
Contain the caramalt in a muslin bag or similar and suspend in the wort as it heats, remove the bag and contents as the temperature reaches 70 C
Add the northern brewer hops and bring to the boil, once it's boiling add the first of the Saaz additions, 85 minutes into the boil add the last 10g of Saaz and the glucose, boil for 5 minutes.
Cool as rapidly as possible.
Pitch the yeast at 20 C, once the beer shows signs of active fermentation cool to 12 C and allow to ferment out.
Ideally this should then be lagered at 2 to 4C for 4 weeks before bottling or kegging.

 

[Westwinds Brewery]

Thanks for this it looks great

Question on lagering, does this mean secondary fermentation, obviously at a cool temperature - in a fridge?

 

[tubby_shaw]

No lagering is a maturation period prior to carbonating. Lager is from the German meaning to store :thumb:
Lagering allows the yeast to slowly clean up some of the by products of fermentation and allows further precipitation of proteins etc which could otherwise lead to chill haze, this is what helps give pale lagers that clean crisp taste.
To condition your lager you will need to rack the beer of the sediment while still chilled, then bring the beer to room temp and add a working yeast and primings if you are going to bottle, if you are using a corny you can rack straight into it from the lagering vessel and force carbonate.
Of course all that is the theoretical best practice, you can of course just ferment cold, leave your brew on the yeast for a few days after initial fermentation is over and then bottle and prime as normal and then once carbonation is complete store the bottles in the fridge for a few weeks prior to drinking

 

[Westwinds Brewery]

Thanks for that, no I have a spare fridge so may as well do it properly.
I'll let you know how I get on
Thanks again for the help :