My Latest Vienna Recipe

[jjpalmer]

This is my latest Vienna recipe. What I mean is that I can seldom brew the same thing twice - I always decide to change something. The recipe in my book is a Graf-style Vienna (ref. Fix and Fix) from Mexico, while this current recipe is a bit more on the Marzen side of the style.

The hops are newer American triploids of Noble types, namely Hallertauer Mittlefruh and Saaz, so If you can't get these varieties, just get something similar. Likewise the Yeast is Whitelabs Oktoberfest, but another lager yeast will also work. Whatever you use it will be your beer and it will be good.
Oh, let me see if I can't convert this recipe to metric units....

Vienna Lager - 21 Liters
Extract and Steeped Grain
1.055 OG, 1.012 FG, 10 SRM, 28 IBU
WLP 833 (drier) or WLP 820 (maltier)

3 kg of Pilsner liquid malt extract
.5 kg of Amber dry malt extract
.25 kg of Crystal 40L steeped
110 grams of Crystal 75L steeped
110 grams of Crystal 120L steeped
15 grams of Santiam 6%Alpha for 45 minutes
35 grams of Liberty 4%Alpha for 30 minutes
15 grams of Liberty 4%Alpha for 15 minutes

Primary Fermentation at 8-9C for 10 days.
Rack and lager at 2-3C for 3 weeks.
I use force carbonation in soda kegs these days, but you can prime and bottle also. You may want to retain some of your lager yeast from the primary and add about 20 ml to your priming solution to assure good carbonation.

Good brewing,
John

 

[SJW]

Thanks JP, That looks great.

 

[BJCP Education Director]

If anyone ever wonders what the butter/ butterscotch aroma/flavor is in some homebrewed lagers then thats diacetyl. Funny thing with is is that a lot of the population cant taste it an any level. If you cant taste it you can also get it by a slick feeling on your tongue.

How to avoid it? After your primary fermentation be sure to raise the temp up to about 15C for a 2-3 days for a diacetyl rest. Make sure and do this before you transfer b/c you need the yeast to eat up all the diacetyl still in solution.

BTW - Czech pilsners have small amounts b/c of the yeast they use but never German lagers.

Also, as a rule I try not to drop more than 3C per day into my lager so I dont shock the yeast and end up with them dropping out and a sweet beer.

 

[Ross]

If anyone ever wonders what the butter/ butterscotch aroma/flavor is in some homebrewed lagers then thats diacetyl. Funny thing with is is that a lot of the population cant taste it an any level. If you cant taste it you can also get it by a slick feeling on your tongue.

How to avoid it? After your primary fermentation be sure to raise the temp up to about 15C for a 2-3 days for a diacetyl rest. Make sure and do this before you transfer b/c you need the yeast to eat up all the diacetyl still in solution.

[post="51366"][/post]​

This quote from an online forum with Chris White (president of Whitelabs) suggests a week & also ponts out the need to do before gravity drops below 1020

"[dgonzalez] i think some of the guests might find this topic interesting. can you describe, in simple terms, how a diacetyl rest works? it's benefits? and downfalls of not doing one?
[cwhite] yeast make a compoud called acetolactate.
[ale] Excellent question, DG.
[cwhite] This goes outside the cell, where it is later oxidized to diacetyl.
[GSchmidt] ?
[cwhite] If yeast are still there and are metobolicly active, they will reabsorb it. If the yeast are removed, or are done, they might not reabsorb the diacetyl.
[cwhite] For lagers, you need to raise the temperature to ~65 for 1 week, starting when the beer is about 1.020. If you go much lower then that, the yeast will not be working strong enough to take up the diacetyl".

cheers Ross

 

[BJCP Education Director]

Great post. Im find with my own beer that I have plenty of healthy yeast and it takes about 2-3 days. However, I forgot about it once and it was diacetly resting for about 12 days Still came out great!

 

[Linz]

That settles my nerves....I got lazy with a batch and left it to "rest" for 5 days

 

[SJW]

BJCP Education Director: Takes first place in the "HOW TO THROW A THREAD OF THE TRACK" contest. I am sure JJPALMER will sleep well tonight knowing this was added to his thread.

Sorry "BJCP Education Director" it was all well said and very true.

 

[Snow]

I fully agree with SJW. All good advice, BJCP ED, but I think you should re-post that info under another topic, to help people when they search for it later.

Thanks for the Vienna Lager recipe, John!

Cheers - Snow

 

[SJW]

Thanks SNOW, your the first person to agree with me for a long time

 

[BJCP Education Director]

The only reason I put it is b/c it wasnt listed in his fermentation schedule and most people that havent brewed a certain beer before follow the recipe and processes to the letter and the beer wouldnt have came out as good as it could have.

 

[SJW]

I would of thought that :

Primary Fermentation at 8-9C for 10 days.
Rack and lager at 2-3C for 3 weeks.
I use force carbonation in soda kegs these days, but you can prime and bottle also. You may want to retain some of your lager yeast from the primary and add about 20 ml to your priming solution to assure good carbonation. (quote)

Would of covered it myself, but point taken. I guess?