# Chasing All Grain Stella Recipe



## glen2605 (7/3/10)

hi guys just chasing a recipe for stella artois preferrably with joe white malts and adjuncts if necessary


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## Muggus (7/3/10)

glen26 said:


> hi guys just chasing a recipe for stella artois preferrably with joe white malts and adjuncts if necessary


I'd hazard a guess it would probably wouldn't be much more than Pilsner malt for the base. Mashed quite low, probably 64 degrees.
I do have a feeling they use some form of sugar (possibly dextrose?) to lighten the body, dry out the finish and get the abv up to 5.2%...is it still that strength?
As far as hops go, i'd stick with Noble German varieties, possibly even French? But yeah, only 20-25IBU tops, some late hops.
Clean lager yeast, fermented and conditioned nice and cool. You'd expect the OG to be before 1.010.

Not the kind of beer i've ever attempted, could be hard to get close, especially with Joe White malts. I think the key is very basic grain bill and hops, clean yeast, but more than anything else, a bit of adjunct to lighten the maltiness, as is the Belgian way. It's quite a difference beer from German pale lager really, so that sugar is important.


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## Thirsty Boy (7/3/10)

Stella is basically a toned down bohemian Pilsner - a bit less bitterness and perhaps less maltiness, but that depends on whether you are talking about local or imported versions.

Go with 100% pilsner malt, Joe White will be fine - Bitter it to 25IBU with some sort of neutral bittering hop like magnum (If you are looking to emulate the stella you get on tap in Australia... then you can go with POR for bittering) and finish it with Czech Saaz at the end of the boil. A nice low-medium mash temp will do perfectly well, 64-65 or thereabouts.. tweak for next time according to your results.

Ferment it with any good fairly dry lager yeast, but I'd say the 34/70 strain would be your best bet. So 34/70 dry or Wyeast 2124 - dont know the white labs number.


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## Nick JD (8/3/10)

I was searching for the same thing a few months back and copy&pasted this to the "To Brew" file.

_10 Gallons_ _Grains
14.00 pounds German Pilsen Malt (2-Row): Color (L): 1.5 L
0.66 pounds German Light Munich Malt Color (L): 5-6 L
4.00 pounds German Wheat Malt Light Color (L): 1.5-2 L
0.50 pounds American Dextrin (Cara-Pils) Malt Color (L): 1 L_

_Hops
1.00 ounces Perle 8.25% Pellets @ 60 minutes
0.80 ounces Hallertauer Gold 4.5% Pellets @ 30 minutes
0.60 ounces Hallertauer Gold 4.5% Pellets @ 5 minutes
0.60 ounces Hallertauer Gold 4.5% Pellets @ 0 minutes_

_Yeast
WYEAST Kolsh 2565 Liquid_

_Fermentation
Primary: 7 days @ 45 60 F
Lager: 28 days @ 36 45 F
Age: 28 days @ 50 55 F_

_Notes: Use a 24-48 hour diactyl rest between Primary and Lagering._


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## Bribie G (8/3/10)

They use maize as an adjunct _a-la-Belgique_ and I believe there's a touch of Styrians in the finish in the Euro Version. The Australian pub version is quite aromatic compared to our domestic beers so they obviously go for a fair whack of aroma hops at Yatala. Having drunk it in Belgium itself, the UK and Australia it is actually fairly consistent wherever they brew it. As a personal shot I'd go for:


4750 pilsener malt 
250 polenta 
maybe 300 of sugar in the boil if you want it to be a wife-beater B) 

20 German Northern Brewer 90 mins
30 Hersbrucker 10 mins
15 Styrian Goldings 10 mins
30 Hersbrucker flameout

Wyeast Euro Lager Yeast 2247


Edit: TB, I take it they do brew it at Yatala? Not Melbourne? Maybe you could suss out a recipe? h34r:


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## Ross (8/3/10)

Bribie,

I'd be amazed if it used anything like that amount of late hops. One 20 to 30 gm late addition should suffice. Not drunk Stella in a long time, so sorry, can't help with the hops.

cheers Ross


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## Thirsty Boy (9/3/10)

They brew it in Melbourne ( I made 200,000L of it today), been brewed here for ages. - Don't know; they might brew it in Yatala too.

Its Saaz hops as an aroma addition in Stella. Just Saaz. A single Bittering addition of clean bittering hop and a flame out addition of saaz. You can use an adjunct if you want to - we use a specially tailored syrup.... But it will be brewed with whatever adjunct is in common use at the brewery where it is being produced. I would make it all malt though, the adjunct isn't really doing anything except adding extract & helping to get the right FG given the malt we source & the processes used at the brewery - need to be combined with a non "CUB" yeast to make stella.

100% Pale (pilsner) malt

bitter to 25IBU with something clean and neutral

Aroma addition of Saaz at flameout or in the whirlpool... late. As much as you like. I'd go with 20g ish in a single batch. We use a little less than that on a g/L basis. But it could do with a little more, its a nicer beer when new seasons hops come in and the aroma is really popping for a few months.

I don't know which yeast strain it actually is.... but seeing as 34/70 is by far the most common lager strain used, odds are its that, and it tastes like 34/70 to me.

So Stella is - as I said - just a dumbed down Bohemian Pilsner. A little less malty, a fair bit less bitter


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## Fourstar (10/3/10)

Looks like a good reason to use up your Chinese Saaz peoples! h34r: 

(Resulting Stella Clone will vary.)


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## Bribie G (10/3/10)

Fourstar said:


> Looks like a good reason to use up your Chinese Saaz peoples! h34r:
> 
> (Resulting Stella Clone will vary.)



Thanks for the hints, TB.  

Great Minds 4* - I've just taken delivery of BB Galaxy Pilsener Malt and a foil of aroma Hallertau (not Saaz but they'll do  ) with the plan of using up the Chinese Saaz as a bitterer. I actually cracked my last bottle of all-CSaaz last night and apart from the lack of aroma there wasn't much to complain about. I've been away from Lager brewing for a few months, I'll run a few through with S-189 that I've had sitting around as I'm between orders with Ross and you can't get yeast locally. Glad I didn't compost my Chinese hops, the Saaz and Cluster really mellow out after a few weeks in the bottle.


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## Fourstar (10/3/10)

BribieG said:


> Thanks for the hints, TB.
> 
> Great Minds 4* - I've just taken delivery of BB Galaxy Pilsener Malt and a foil of aroma Hallertau (not Saaz but they'll do  ) with the plan of using up the Chinese Saaz as a bitterer. I actually cracked my last bottle of all-CSaaz last night and apart from the lack of aroma there wasn't much to complain about. I've been away from Lager brewing for a few months, I'll run a few through with S-189 that I've had sitting around as I'm between orders with Ross and you can't get yeast locally. Glad I didn't compost my Chinese hops, the Saaz and Cluster really mellow out after a few weeks in the bottle.




My current Blone ale that has been late additioned with Csaaz has been fantastic! (except for the hint of diacetyl).

The Pseudo Pilsner i made with nothing but CSaaz was terrible so im hesitant on using it all the way, it was my first tipper actually. However I prefer to write it off on the 3 weeks of 30+ days we had and me forgetting about the fermenter being under the stairs over it being a fault of the hops. The beer was so tannic, it was terrible. (hyrdo sample berfore fermentation was fine.)

With the lower temps around melbourne atm i might be able to get away with Cal Lager strain on this one. Besides, it gives me a reason to re-slant it. 

I mgiht go for something like.

95% JW Ale
5% Carapils
25IBU Magum @ 60 mins
2g/l whirlpool addition of C Saaz. (45g~)

Adjust water profile with CaCl2 to get Ca to around 100ppm and up the chloride levels to help push the malt abit more.


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## HoppingMad (10/3/10)

Lots of Homebrew Stella Clones suggest the Wyeast Budvar 2000. Seen at least 3 that do. Most brewers notes seem to suggest this yeast imparts some maltiness and a light fruit like the original beer.

Also quite a few with Hallertau MF at 90mins addition and Saaz late boil (like one at 15 and one at Shutoff/0 mins). But you could easily go Saaz right through and be fine.

But yeah, anything with 100% pils, or Pils with a dash of Carapils and Wheat will see you through and into the ballpark from the clones I've seen.

Hopper.

P.S: The PR on Stella claims it is "Brewed for 6-11 days longer than most beers for fuller flavour" whatever that means. Lagered longer? Left on yeast before racking longer? Beats me.


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## xomz (10/3/10)

I've wondered about the hops used in this beer. I don't smell or taste Saaz in it at all.
Almost think the Styrian might be the way to go.


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## Bribie G (10/3/10)

Hoppingmad, I also, on the spur of the moment, got a kilo of Carapils as well, so I'll put a third of a kilo in the next three lager brews.


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## RdeVjun (10/3/10)

Here's another variant without the late Saaz, not sure how far from a Stella my recipe is, it has been through a few generations since I was first inspired to do it last winter. I'm lagering some of these ATM, have to say it is fairly ordinary as a hydrometer sample but I am expecting it should improve once carbed up.


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## HoppingMad (11/3/10)

BribieG said:


> Hoppingmad, I also, on the spur of the moment, got a kilo of Carapils as well, so I'll put a third of a kilo in the next three lager brews.



All the best with it Bribie, one of the recipes I have suggests 10-11% carapils, 5-5.5% wheat malt, and around 85% pils.
Many of the US based clone recipes out there suggest flaked corn or using rice. 

If you do decide to use an adjunct like corn or rice then that can be up to 6-6.5% of the grain bill, making the pils amount lower to around 78/79%.

The adjunct addition might explain Thirsty Boy's discussion of 'syrup' in the commercial brew. It could be might be corn syrup or Candi Sugar? Or a combo? :huh: Dunno purely speculating.

Some trawling about, I found a post by Trough Lolly on another forum reveals that imported Stella uses Moravian Malt (as does Pilsener Urquell according to his post there). The closest grain available locally to get close to the Moravian flavour would be Weyermann Bohemian Pils grain. I reckon good old Joe White (or another local grain) would do the trick, but if you're wanting that smooth European maltiness without the bready flavour that Joe White can give then go the Weyermann. 

Hopper.


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