Any Know Of A Vb Recipe?

[marksy]

Hey All,

My dad really really like his VB. So I was wondering if anyone knows of or has a recipe roughly for this? (without using kits)

 

[Ducatiboy stu]

I would start by urinating in some longnecks and capping them.... :lol:

 

[Greg Lawrence]

Although this is only your second post, it appears that you have been lurking around these parts for some time (joined Dec 08). Do you honestly expect any serious answers to your post?
I wouldnt imagine that there would be too many that would have tried to clone VB, let alone admit it here.

 

[unrealeous]

http://www.aussiehomebrewer.com/forum//ind...=24031&st=0

 

[Mr.Moonshine]

You'll probably struggle to make something like VB, it has a very...original.... flavour profile. However, from what I can tell a decent standard style beer recipe like that would be as follows;

95% pilsner malt (fairly cheap stuff)
5% cane sugar
18-22IBU worth of POR (mostly bittering, wouldn't worry too much about flavour or aroma hops)
A fairly clean lager yeast (I beleive VB is fermented with a sort of hybrid yeast, kind of like that used at Boags, that can do ales and lagers just with different temperatures)
Ferment lowish, 10-12 degrees.

Nice and simple. You could bang 1-2% carapils in there if you were keen but that might make it a bit too malty for a VB clone. That's how I'd do it anyway.

Hope this helps,

Mr. Moonshine

 

[Bribie G]

You really need to do a mashed grain brew, extracts etc just won't hit the spot as a lot of the VB taste is in the malt, as there's not a lot of real hops in the stuff.

I'd use:

3.5 kg Australian Pilsener Malt mashed at 64 degrees for 90 mins

800g white sugar in the boil
A scattering of 10g or even less of Pride of Ringwood hop pellets in the boil to encourage break formation

Boil for 90 mins - partly to darken the wort slightly as VB is more of a golden than a straw colour, and also to drive off any compounds such as Dimethyl Sulphide.

A fairly reliable yeast would be S-189 Lager yeast, start fermenting at around 13 degrees then let it rise to around 18 degrees, aiming for a total fermentation time of about 8 days. Another good one would be W - 34/70 treated similarly. Rack to a cube and cold crash for ten days with the usual clearing agents (gelatine, Polyclar or just Isinglass). Before bottling or kegging, add isohop extract to taste. Now on this point I might need some advice as I'm not sure how much to put in, I have a vial that a fellow forum member sent me but I'm out of my depth with dosage requirements. I believe Ross at Craftbrewer (sponsor at top of page) sells it now and he should be able to advise.

Should get you pretty close.

 

[alowen474]

For the effort you would put in, go and buya 30 pack of cans for $30 and make yourself some tasty beer.

 

[Dave70]

I did a batch a little while ago.
Here's a photo of the fresh wort..

...sorry...

But in fact, you might actualy want to ring around to the brew shops and ask about their fresh wort kits, they might get you close.

I know Pat at Absolute Home Brew has a bunch of different styles.

 

[komodo]

You know I love that everyone pasts the shit out of VB (and well all mega swill) on here. At the end of the day the product sells extreemly well and a lot of people enjoy it and wouldnt have anything else pass their lips.
I have to say the other day I had a bucks night to attend and the only beer supplied was VB and you know what - I bloody well enjoyed having a VB with my mates.
Now if Marksy's old man likes a VB and marksy would like to do his darnest to make a clone for his old man then so be it. For all we know Marksy making a homebrewed / craftbrewed clone of VB might be just the ticket to opening his dads taste buds to other beers out there.

 

[Back Yard Brewer]

I would start by urinating in some longnecks and capping them.... :lol:

ROFL

Chill and then force carbonate as well :lol:

BYB

 

[Bribie G]

I've just read Randy Mosher's book "Radical Brewing" and also watched him in an episode of some podcast where he has visited a Bud plant in the USA and his comments really echo what Thirsty Boy would probably espouse as well re the Carlton products:

These beers are actually very well made. You might not like them and you might have many grounds on which to criticize their flavour profile etc, but at the end of the day they are produced in scrupulously hygienic and temperature controlled environments from strictly quality controlled ingredients which are the finest available - others being rejected. University trained brewers tweak and massage each brew to achieve a dead consistent product day in , year out and in the case of the likes of Bud or VB which have such a bland flavour profile, they don't have the luxury that we home brewers have, that we can hide flaws and shortcomings behind a shitload of cascade or an extra handful of crystal malt or a pack of BE2.

In a sense the commercial brews stand naked before the world - which is a world of yellow bland lager afficianados in their billions. The other side of the coin is that they are damned hard for home brewers to emulate. A lot of their character, such as it is, stems from proprietary ingredients such as the closely guarded yeast, and in the case of Fosters, the hop extracts that they manufacture in their own facilities. It's a challenge. In the forthcoming comps I'm actually going to try for a VB or Carlton clone and put it in the comps, if it does well then I reckon that's a well earned gong

 

[warra48]

VB may not be to our liking for most of us, but you must admit it certainly is popular with many drinkers out there.

I also feel you have to hand it to the major brewers that they are able to consistently produce a beer which appears to be the same from batch to batch all year round. That's no mean effort when you consider they need to deal with different malt lots and different hop vintages etc.

The beauty of homebrewing is we can attempt to brew anything we like which is to our taste, or to the taste of people you brew it for. If that happens to be VB, well so be it. It would take as much skill to get close to matching VB as it is to brew any of many other beer styles.

I don't have a recipe, as I don't brew many lagers, only 1 or maybe 2 a year, and I prefer to experiment with different styles of lagers. However, the advice from Mr Moonshine and BribieG looks sound to me.

 

[Effect]

I would try using the wyeast 2124 but ferment at about 18 degrees, the taste I don't like in VB you should be able to get from a high temp with that lager yeast. For the malts I would go 92/3/5 Pilsner/carapils/sugar. I actually think that vb is more around the 25-30 IBU, POR should be fine at 60 min. It has the same amount of bitterness as fat yak - which is confirmed by the brewery.

Hope that helps
Cheers
Phil

 

[Fourstar]

The question i want to put out there is, try and brew a plain Jane bland lager with the ingredients we use. Its a pretty hard job, even with 10% sucrose!

Heck, My Viet Rice lager for the last case swap got canned in beerfest for being to flavourful as a pale lager! :huh:

One thing to note is CUB brew to high gravity and then thin their product out (or so im led to believe) post fermentation. What would the effect of the high gravity brewing have on ester production? You be the judge.

So it might not hurt to brew a 10% beer and once fermented, thin out with boiled cooled water and add ISO hop to adjust IBU if need be. Hmmm... i might try this the next time i make a light lager! At least that way i can brew a 20L batch and end up with two kegs worth! :beerbang:

 

[Bribie G]

4* is dead right, I'd forgotten about that. They call the process "adjusting to Sale Strength" - sounds better than "watering down the piss" :lol:

 

[hazard]

4* is dead right, I'd forgotten about that. They call the process "adjusting to Sale Strength" - sounds better than "watering down the piss" :lol:

So when the ABV of VB went from 4.9% to 4.6%, I assume that this was achieved simply by adding more water to to the high ABV beer. Good trick, use same amount of ingredients, get more beer with less taste.

BTW - I read in the paper that CUB's brewery opperations is worth around $10 BILLION dollars, So whinge about VB (I hate the stuff personally) but someone is making a s..tload of money out of it.

 

[mje1980]

S23 lager yeast, sugar, not many hops. My guess

 

[Nick JD]

After a fair bit of trying to make clones of Aussie Megaswill Lagers and failing because my beer tastes nicer than CUBs I have come to the conclusion that one cannot make an accurate clone of a Carlton beer with hops. Well, I can't anyway.

My clones taste like PoR. VB doesn't. It tastes like Mercaptan, and God help you if it's warmed up above 6C. My Aussie Lagers taste great at 6C - and that's not-to-style!

Get some PoR isohop. You'll never make a great clone of a beer made with hop extracts ... without hop extracts.

2c.

 

[petesbrew]

Ah VB! One of the most popular drinks in Oz.
I'd say you can break down vb drinkers into the following groups:

13% Teens & apprentices who are getting a taste for beer.
27% Old pricks stuck in their ways. It's VB or VB. Nothing else.
41% Immigrants with a bad grasp of english. VB is easy to say.
31% Guys buying 10 x 30can blocks for a party cos they couldn't be arsed choosing something else.
5% Dumbarses who are invited round to a homebrewers house, and leave a six pack of this in the fridge as thanks... bastards.
44% Guys with drinks tokens at events.... "hmmm I can get one extra drink out of this roll of vouchers if I stick to VB... gulp"

These percentages are correct. Don't bother argueing... but feel free to add more.

 

[Fourstar]

So when the ABV of VB went from 4.9% to 4.6%, I assume that this was achieved simply by adding more water to to the high ABV beer. Good trick, use same amount of ingredients, get more beer with less taste.

BTW - I read in the paper that CUB's brewery opperations is worth around $10 BILLION dollars, So whinge about VB (I hate the stuff personally) but someone is making a s..tload of money out of it.

I believe i read somewhere, recipe tweaking was also used to try and adjust the flavour profile of the product. Put it this way, .2-.3% is the threshold of the tax requirements exceeding the noted ABV on the bottle (varies for bottle conditioned or force carbed). If it can vary that munch by and increase and no one screams bloody mary, why all of a sudden do they scream when its lower?

Bit of a placebo if you ask me! Also, for arseing around purposes ive taken hydro and refrac readings of Carlton Draught at times and have seen varied FG and different estimated OGs. Generally they are the same or lower but it shows there are some density differences batch per batch. Or my equiptment needs calibration! :lol: