# Victoria Bitter Recipe?



## swiftyp

Hello from the states! 

A good friend of a friend served some military time in Australia and while there, he loved the stuff. Would someone send me a brew sheet so I can fire up a batch and taste it myself? 

Thanks!

Swifty


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## Fatgodzilla

settle petals ...........................

actually its a very good exercise for a home brewer to brew a beer to taste like VB - will teach you a lot about what you really know about the craft ...

personally Kansas, no self respecting home brewer south of the tropics would even think brewing VB is worth anything. Kind of like trying to brew a Budweiser or Millers or similar mass swill. No respect for the swill, so no interest in trying.

That said, Australian lager is in our beer comps so, why not. Anyone want to go to the AABC (or whatever alphabet it is) and insert Oz Lager specs for our American friend - since he asked nice!


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## swiftyp

Hahahahaha! Yeah, I saw some of the reviews. I swear we drink good beer for the most part but, dude liked it so I must choke one down. He'd get a kick out of getting another one even if it's dreadful. 

This is what I've found online so far:

-OG = 1.042 (or 1.060 if you want to high gravity brew for authenticity)
-FG = 1.006
-soft water
-30% sucrose
-2 row well-modified lager malt
-encourage fermentability via 63-65C rests with pH ~ 5.2 @ mash temp.
(no protein rest!)
-Step infusion mash.
-Fermentation - pitch at 14C, allow to rise up to 18C
-Choice of yeast critical. Fosters use their own strain. Some yeasts
won't ferment well with this much sucrose and will either stick and/or
produce truckloads of acetaldehyde. Try Wyeast Danish lager.
Addition of a yeast nutrient (nitrogen) is wise with so much sucrose
-22 IBU with pride of ringwood hops (any high alpha will do)
-no hop flavour or aroma
-No diacetyl.
-Serve so cold you can't taste how vile it really is, and don't forget
to hold your nose...

Doesn't look very tasty...


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## bum

The info you have there is much better than the usual responses these threads normally get.

Brew it up and report back to help out the next person who asks. Something to offset the cat piss jokes, etc.

Good luck with it, swiftyp.


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## Damien13

Yeah, I gotta be honest, I love a challenge and brewing a VB, in my opinion is just that. A challenge. It would be kind of bittersweet obviously, owing to the fact that if you nailed it, you would still have a very boring kinda skanky beer. But hey, a challenge is a challenge right?! And to anyone who says brewing this beer is easy. Blow me. It isn't.


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## Bribie G

I'm currently working my way through a keg of Aussie Standard Lager I'm entering in a comp this month, and it's quite palatable as a quaffer. The main problem is that it's possibly a bit too tasty, probably because I used POR flowers as opposed to some hop extract squirted in at kegging time. However it was indeed made along the lines that swiftyp suggested above:

Base malt, 63 degrees then a ramp up to a mashout
Around 25 IBU (oops) with POR flowers
30% gravity from cane sugar

Wyeast Danish

13 degrees then rise to 19 degrees over ten days
ten days lagering at -1

It's not at all objectionable as a lawn mower, to me it's very reminiscent of Cascade Pale - green label - a little sweetish and soft with a firm bitter background.

I think with the VB a lot of the "harsh" character is from the extract that would not be available to us. For example I understand that Melbourne Bitter and Victoria Bitter start as the same base beer, but are "dressed" differently on the way to the packing line with caramels and separate hop extracts. And no it's not just isohop, MB has a nice hop nose for what it is.

edit: swifty if you want some POR, PM me with your address and I'll send you 30g no worries.

Also I used a good dose of sulphates in the mash which I understand is typical.


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## Nick JD

High gravity wort with 30% sucrose and a lager yeast warm?

That's pretty much how I always do it.


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## Bribie G

Ross at Bacchus once did a convincing Aussie at 19° with S-23 then lagered in his cold room for 10 days.


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## Parks

Bribie G said:


> Ross at Bacchus once did a convincing Aussie at 19° with S-23 then lagered in his cold room for 10 days.


Don't get Nick started on that!


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## Nick JD

Parks said:


> Don't get Nick started on that!


HA!

Another thing I think is important in getting that "Aussie Lager" signature aftertaste twang is using Aussie base malt (BB Ale has it in spades). It's an earthy ammonia-like taste I reckon comes from the base malt because when I make Aussie Lagers with Wey Pils it's not there. Often attributed to PoR too I think.

ED: probably difficult to get in the 'States.


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## mxd

I'm planning on converting my 20 ltr Golden Strong (1.070) to VB, I'll add 2 ltrs oh hope tea, POR 30 min boil, and x ltrs of cold water to get the OG to 1.046 ish.


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## Rowy

Get one horse to urinate in a keg and........wallah!


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## GalBrew

These types of beers seem to be the ones drained from my kegs the quickest though....

Brewed the CPA 'whiteboard' recipe, but fermented @ 170C with s-05 and cold crash (More like crown though, but close enough).


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## Feldon

...


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## Bribie G

Galbrew, your'e onto a winner there I reckon. I like my own version of Aussie Standard lager, but the ten days ferment and ten days of chewing electricity at -1 is a total PITA. I'm going to do a series with American Ale 2, POR and something slightly aromatic to finish, sort of a JS 150 lashes meets VB.

Cold condition for three or four days then keg.

Yes I'm sure that mouse piss twang is in the malt. You get heaps with VB, CD and XXXX but not with Carlsberg BUL - I did a deliberate taste test when I was up at Brunswick Heads where all are on tap at the same bar. I understand that they have to use imported malt for the Carlsberg and have inspectors come out from Denmark. The imported malt isn't an outrageous idea when you think that we can brew with Wey or Bairds for not a whole lot more expensive than domestic. Also they charge a premium of about 60 cents a schooner that would cover it.


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## iralosavic

swiftyp said:


> Hahahahaha! Yeah, I saw some of the reviews. I swear we drink good beer for the most part but, dude liked it so I must choke one down. He'd get a kick out of getting another one even if it's dreadful.
> 
> This is what I've found online so far:
> 
> -OG = 1.042 (or 1.060 if you want to high gravity brew for authenticity)
> -FG = 1.006
> -soft water
> -30% sucrose
> -2 row well-modified lager malt
> -encourage fermentability via 63-65C rests with pH ~ 5.2 @ mash temp.
> (no protein rest!)
> -Step infusion mash.
> -Fermentation - pitch at 14C, allow to rise up to 18C
> -Choice of yeast critical. Fosters use their own strain. Some yeasts
> won't ferment well with this much sucrose and will either stick and/or
> produce truckloads of acetaldehyde. Try Wyeast Danish lager.
> Addition of a yeast nutrient (nitrogen) is wise with so much sucrose
> -22 IBU with pride of ringwood hops (any high alpha will do)
> -no hop flavour or aroma
> -No diacetyl.
> -Serve so cold you can't taste how vile it really is, and don't forget
> to hold your nose...
> 
> Doesn't look very tasty...


This recipe will produce a beer that tastes better than VB, I reckon. Not saying it to dig shit, but I brewed a CD clone (basically the same recipe with lower IBU and a hotter ferment to encourage sulfur) and it was nothing like CD and more like VB, but better (by better I mean more well balanced/less dilution/urine and isohop twang).


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## swiftyp

Wow. This thing blew up. Bribie, I appreciate the offer man. You'll have to let me ship you something from here that you all don't have access to. I'll PM ya when I can get to a real computer (on my phone now). Thank you guys for your advice on this thing.


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## Screwtop

Bribie G said:


> Yes I'm sure that mouse piss twang is in the malt.



Hahaha! The first time I heard that quote, we were tasting Bribie's Aussie Lager which he calls Rellie Juice 

Describing his beer which was quite good and very close in many ways to a number of Aussie Lagers, Bribie says "it even has that Delicate Mouse Piss aroma don't you think". 

What an epiphany! such a description rang true deep in my memory. Now when people ask if I can make a clone of their particular Aussie Lager I actually use the description to describe just how close I can come. "yes I make a clone and it even has that Delicate Mouse Piss Aroma/Flavour that you find in" (insert brand of Aussie Lager). I swear you can hear the wheels going around as they recall past experiences. HaHaHa love it!!!!

Never down a persons personal choice in beer, simply use an explanation such as Bribie's to describe what it is that he/she loves about it. 

Screwy


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## HBHB

Screwy, Ask Mal about that Carlton Mid clone I designed up for his Brother In law ..... spot on. He said it was "Perfect".............I felt so dirty.

h34r:


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## Screwtop

HBHB said:


> Screwy, Ask Mal about that Carlton Mid clone I designed up for his Brother In law ..... spot on. He said it was "Perfect".............I felt so dirty.
> 
> h34r:


Haha, such skill!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


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## manticle

I'm interested to know when you last tried mouse piss for comparison Screwy.

Last time I had it, I wound up with some of the worst gastro I've ever had. Cute little fuckers plagued the warehouse I was living in at the time. Plenty of traps about the place and they got turned into sculptures.


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## Bribie G

Don't let your kittens or puppies get too close to Manticle :unsure:

Mouse keeping was very popular in the UK and living in fairly closed rooms compared to most of Australia (leave the lounge room or kitchen door open and you would get either "we don't live in a field tha knows" or "put t'wood in t'hole" ) - you always knew if the kids in any house you visited had a mousecage somewhere, an aroma you remember forever.

We were quite well off, I had hamsters B)

edit: forgot to close bracket


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## manticle

Bribie G said:


> Don't let your kittens or puppies get too close to Manticle :unsure:



I'll resist the tired ahb meme thing and just suggest my two cats look great on a plinth.


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## Tony

swiftyp said:


> Wow. This thing blew up. Bribie, I appreciate the offer man. You'll have to let me ship you something from here that you all don't have access to. I'll PM ya when I can get to a real computer (on my phone now). Thank you guys for your advice on this thing.


Haha..... don't stress swiftyp........ threads about brewing VB clones always blow up on an Aussie home brewing forum.

It is probably one of the most despised beers by Australian home brewers, and usually the reason we make our own beer...... because we want something better.

Saying that...... i also have met plenty of brewers who are happy to make beers like VB because they like them, and you will find most brewers like that dont usually frequent these pages, because they are happy with what they have and are not so interested in learning to improve their beers to perfection.

Cloning an aussie commercial lager is not always easy because they don't tend to use techniques available to the average home brewer. In fact most usually find that their attempts to brew a poor quality beer usually ends up being far superior to the commercial swill they are trying to emulate.

as said above.....

about 30% surcorse or glucose
a cheap non euro lager malt 1.046, mashed at 63 to 64 deg C
Pride of Ringwood (a clean high alpha US hop should do) to about 22 IBU
ferment with danish lager yeast allowing it to warm up through fermentation.
CC for a week,
Filter the life out of it.
Serve at -1 dec C (just over freezing point) with the glass filled all the way to the top with almost no head.

easy 

Cheers


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## Bribie G

Swyftyp: sending you hops in the morning (missed post today) - I'll send you enough for two batches in case you like it.

Man, my current batch is so DRINKABLE it's frightening, dreading it when the keg empties as it takes bloody weeks. As Tony said, I ended up with more of a premium lager, maybe leave it out in the sun next time for half a day.





I got about two inches of ice on the beer during lagering, maybe it should be described as an eis-piss ??? 

Edit: the head and lacing is a bit of a worry as well, maybe need to add defoamer next time.


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## tazman1967

WoW, thats a scary pic there Bribie, lt looks quite good...
My old man loves his VB. The only beer he drinks.


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