Help with Vienna Lager Formulation

Barley Water · Post by **Barley Water** » Thu Jan 29, 2009 7:36 pm

I am trying to formulate a Vienna Lager to enter in a contest in August. I tried this last year and the results were not that great so being subborn, I am going to try this again. Last time, I used a combination of Pilsner, Vienna and Munich malt plus a touch of Carafa for color adjustment. I am seriously entertaining the thought of going with basicly 100% Vienna malt with maybe just a little carapils and a touch of Carafa. I am however, open to suggestions since I have only tried this style once before and as I wrote, the results were not anything to write home about. I am currently in the process of growing up a starter of Wyeast 2206 so that is pretty much set in stone. Hopping I would think would be fairly simple, I figure about 25 IBU's with maybe just a little flavor hops, German noble varieties of course. I want the beer to have an O.G. in the 1.048-1.050 neighborhood and my plan is to get it pretty dry but malty. To that end I think maybe a single decoction would not only darken it up a bit but also add some of those lovely meloidins. Anyhow, if anybody out there is some good ideas, please don't be shy because I am going to the homebrew store on my way home after work tonight.

Subsonic · Post by **Subsonic** » Mon Feb 02, 2009 8:34 pm

I don't know but this guy is in your area and may be of use. Do a google search on Todd Kellenbenz. he's one of the foamrangers and has won a few medals.... Subsonic

edit1now · Post by **edit1now** » Mon Feb 02, 2009 9:47 pm

You want to be doing a Maerzen with Vienna rather than lager malt. Think red hoppy lager...

BigEd · Post by **BigEd** » Tue Feb 03, 2009 12:33 am

BW, I think you are on the right track with 100% Vienna malt. Trying to mix three or four malts together for this beer just muddies the waters. I really enjoy this style and my best results have come with 97% Vienna and 3% Weyermann CaraFoam. Decoction mashing is also a plus IMO. My schedule is 15 minutes @ 54 (128F), 60 minutes @ 65 (149F) followed by a decoction to mashout. Cheers!

Barley Water · Post by **Barley Water** » Tue Feb 03, 2009 3:12 pm

Thanks for that BigEd, I now feel a little more confident in what I ened up doing. My formulation was almost exactly like yours except I ended up adding just a little Carafa I for color adjustment (and I don't think the little I used will affect the flavor or aroma at all). I may end up on the dark side colorwise since I also did a decoction but if so, I will just say I was influenced by our neighbors south of the border. I didn't bother doing a protein rest and mashed in at 152F, I have had problems in the past with poor head retention due to protein rests so I now routinely skip them. I will let the laggering take care of any haze issues. What I did was mash in at 152F for 45 minutes, pull a decotion and boiled it for 30 minutes then added it back to the main mash. That got me to around 156-157F and I left it there for another 20 minutes then pushed the temperature up to 168F, recirculated for 20 minutes then collected the wort as usual. Although folks say that doing a decoction is a pain, I have done so many times now it really is not any big deal although it makes the day go longer. Anyhow, I got my volume at an O.G. of 1.051 and everything went like clockwork so I am a happy boy. I also had yeast activity after about 4 hours which is pretty good for lager yeast (because I usually grow up a pretty big starter, I want good attenuation and no fermentation byproducts) so I am optimistic that this will work out well. My attitude is that once you pitch the yeast, the brew is basicly in God's hands so I will check on things in a couple of weeks, rack the beer to secondary and start lagering after a brief diacetyl rest just in case. After that, I am inclined to harvest some of the yeast and do a Munich Helles before it starts getting warmer here in the heart of Texas.