|
|
As Seen In |
Vienna in Summer by Doug King (Published in the September 1996 Brews and News) Six Falcons met at The Home Wine and Beer Shop on July 27th to brew a Vienna Lager. Rich Schmittdiel, Dick Watson, Thom Rogers, Mick Deering, Mark Swallow, and I were on hand to attempt to duplicate an award winning brew that Mark Swallow and I made a couple of years ago. A couple of us got things started at 8, the idea being to try to finish early to beat the heat. Oh, did I mention that it was about 100 and really muggy? I hope this brew turns out as well as the original, the crew deserves some good beer for all their hard work and sweat. Rich and Mark each took 5 gallons home to ferment and bottle, I took 5 gallons to ferment and keg for the club. The brew went very well, no major glitches. We used the system a little differently than usual. Since this was a lager brew, the wort needed to be cooler than average counter-flow chiller temps. With tapwater running at 80 deg right now, c-f chilling only gets you to 85-90 deg. The solution? An immersion chiller packed in ice water, connected downstream from the c-f chiller. The system needed to be configured a little differently to accomplish this. We switched the positions of the mash tun and boiler, giving us enough altitude to run both chillers with gravity. This worked out well, with only a minor inconvenience of having to hand feed the wort up to the boiler. The payoff? Wort that was noticeably cold to the touch; much, much cooler than c-f alone, probably 20+ degrees cooler. This was another outstanding crew. Everyone stayed for the duration, in spite of the sweat factor. We all worked in short shifts, taking turns at the hottest, most labor intensive parts of the brew day. Two volunteers went for sub sandwiches for lunch, saving anyone from having to BBQ in the heat. We had plenty of homebrew and water to keep our thirsts in check. I brought some Dos Equis XX and Negra Modelo to sample while we brewed. These are two commercial examples of the style we were brewing, Vienna Lager. With all the good beers, good lunch, and smooth running brew, I think everyone had a pretty good day. Here's a rundown on how we brewed the beer. I'd love to try brewing this beer using a traditional triple decoction mash schedule to see how it might benefit. As a stepped infusion mash, it came out XLNT the first time, wish us luck on this batch. It might be rushing things a bit, but we're going to try to serve some at our Oktoberfest bash. 27lb 12 oz German 2 row 1 lb 11 oz German crystal 50L 1 lb 11 oz Scottish carastan 35L 1 lb 6 oz German crystal 10L 3 1\4 oz Tettnanger leaf hops 2.5%AA 60 min boil 2 5\8 oz Hallertau Mittelfruh pellets 3.6%AA 30 min boil 1 1\2 oz Saaz leaf 15 min boil Wyeast 2308 Munich lager yeast, 1 gallon starter O.G. 1.060 Mash schedule: 30 minutes @ 95 deg, 20 minutes @135 deg, 60 minutes @157 deg, 10 minutes @170 deg. Ferment @ 48-50 deg for ~2 weeks, lager as long as possible. Back to The Roost || Brew Recipes || Brews & News |
