Victoria Bitter Recipe?
- Thread starter swiftyp
- Start date
Help Support Australia & New Zealand Homebrewing Forum:
Fatgodzilla
Beer Soaked Philosopher
- Joined
- 22/5/07
- Messages
- 4,459
- Reaction score
- 117
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!
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!
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 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...
bum
Not entitled to an opinion
- Joined
- 19/2/09
- Messages
- 11,585
- Reaction score
- 911
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Nick JD
Blah Blah Blah
- Joined
- 4/11/08
- Messages
- 7,322
- Reaction score
- 456
HA!Parks said:Don't get Nick started on that!
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.
GalBrew
Well-Known Member
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).
Brewed the CPA 'whiteboard' recipe, but fermented @ 170C with s-05 and cold crash (More like crown though, but close enough).
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.
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.
iralosavic
Well-Known Member
- Joined
- 17/10/11
- Messages
- 1,131
- Reaction score
- 21
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).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.
Bribie G said:
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
HBHB
Well-Known Member
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:
h34r:Haha, such skill!!!!!!!!!!!!!!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.
