This all started on a winter sun holiday in the Canaries - nice n warm n sunny - but the only beer available was of the San Miguel / Cruzcampo variety - i.e. identikit eurolager. Refreshing in the heat but just a bit monotonous and tasteless. Then we found an Irish bar with Guinness (not bothered) and a bottled beer menu with yet more eurolagers of different strengths. But there was one which was different - a vienna lager. It had a pleasant malty taste and was quite drinkable so it started me thinking - where would you find a vienna lager back home? …. nowhere! No brand name sprang to mind and still doesn’t.
Nevertheless I decided to brew one with no fixed standard to aim at. This is, by definition, an easy win - just call whatever you hit, the target. Internet research confirms that it is a recognised style - at least by BJCP (the US-based beer judge certification program) and a bunch of recipes were duly scooped and adjusted for what materials I had in stock. Didn’t want it too strong and the BJCP style says not too sweet, so used primarily vienna and munich malts with a small amount of caravienna for body and a spoonful of black malt for some colour.
Two “noble” hops - Tettnang and Hallaertauer - were used in the boil with no dry hopping. The resulting wort was fermented with a lager yeast and at a low-temperature, Inkbird-controlled at 13.5C. This was raised to 20C near the end of fermentation for a “diacetyl rest” to clean out certain yeastie by-products. I then dropped the temperature to 4C for a month for “lagering”.
OG = 1042. FG = 1008 (not too sweet) => ABV 4.5%
So an acceptable result on the numbers.
As it is a lager I packaged some in a 5l keg for a friend, most of it in a corny keg for use in the keezer, and bottled a few. Due to gas leakages in the keezer I never sampled the corny but I did sample some of the bottles over a period. Not bad but it was getting better as it aged in the bottle. So I decided to leave the corny keg to lager a bit longer - now at 2C - in the keezer.
I has been there for 4 months…. so what is it like?
First impression is that the colour is about right but it aint crystal clear, nor is it hazy, cloudy or murky. Could be coz the corny keg’s dip tube is at the bottom so will get the heavier suspended solids first and will clear later as more is drawn off? (he says hopefully).
Carbonation is OK but perhaps a bit low for a lager so I’m tentatively giving it a bit more gas - a delicate operation - too much and we’ll get a glass of froth that will take 20+ minutes to settle.
Tastewise it has no in-yer-face flavours - it aint hoppy, fruity, piney or any of those modern things - it’s like a slightly malty lager (right back where we started - and what we were aiming for!) Pretty refreshing and easy drinking though.
Not quite sure what’s the best serving temperature - the keezer is at 2C - seemed a bit too cold - maybe that’s coz the flavours get stronger as it warms up.
Hey stop it - it’s a lager… not supposed to taste of much.
Is it?