Sunday, April 17, 2016

Vienna Lager in Exile

Vienna Lager in Exile

Author:  Chris ColbyIssue: Jan/Feb 2006

Vienna lagers originated in Europe, but were "exiled" to Mexico in the last century. These "little Oktoberfests" are great everyday beers that showcase the flavor of Vienna malt. From Mexican Vienna lagers such as Negra Modelo and Dos Equis Amber to American craftbrewed versions of the style, learn the ingredients and brewing procedures necessary to brew a delicious, malty Vienna lager in your home brewery. Plus: three Vienna lager recipes

Tex-mex is hybrid style of cuisine, blending interior Mexican and Southwestern US (especially Texan) influences. Most Tex-mex dishes — including enchiladas, tacos, burritos (and chimichangas), nachos and fajitas — combine hard or soft tortillas and salsa with spiced meat and cheese. In central Texas, where I live, you can't swing a duck (pato) without hitting a Tex-mex restaurant.

The beer menu at these places usually features a whole raft of Mexican beers —  Bohemia, Carta Blanca, Dos Equis Special Lager, Modelo Especial, Pacifico, Sol, Tecate and, of course, the ubiquitous Corona.

These beers are all fizzy yellow lagers in the same basic Pilsner style that is sold all over the world. When I order beer at a Tex-mex place, I usually opt for a beer that is itself a hybrid — Negra Modelo, a Mexican Vienna lager.

"Negra Modelo" means dark Modelo, with "Modelo" being the name of the brewery that produces it (Cerveceria Modelo, Mexico City, Mexico). In Grupo Modelo's promotional literature, Negra Modelo is alternately referred to as a Vienna-style lager or a Munich-style lager. The Beer Judge Certification Program (BJCP) pegs it as a Vienna lager, though, and so do most beer authors. Brewed since 1926, Negra Modelo was for many years one of the few existing Vienna-style lagers in the world. European breweries abandoned the style for Pilsner-style beers or — if an amber beer was to be brewed — for Octoberfests.

Another Mexican beer — Dos Equis Amber — is also described as a Vienna-style lager by its brewery (Cerveceria Cuauhtémoc Moctezuma, Monterrey, Mexico). Bohemia, made by the same brewery, is sometimes described as a Vienna lager, but more closely resembles a Pilsner (although it's deep gold color is a little darker than most).

A few American breweries have added Vienna lagers to their lineups. The August Schell Brewery (of New Ulm, Minnesota) offers a Vienna lager called FireBrick in their year-round lineup and Leinenkugel's Red Lager is also sometimes described as a Vienna lager. Leinie Red is brewed by the Leinenkugel Brewery of Chippewa Falls, Wisconsin — a subsidiary of SABMiller.

Brewing a Mexican Vienna lager — or an all-malt American craftbrew style Vienna lager — is fairly simple, but there are a few things to keep in mind. 

Vienna Malt
The key ingredient in a Vienna-style lager is Vienna malt. This should make up the majority — if not the entirety — of your grain bill. Vienna malt is a 2-row base malt that is darker than most pale malts, but lighter than Munich malt. Pilsner malts, and generic 2-row pale malts, usually fall around 1.5–2 degrees Lovibond (°L). English pale ale malts usually rate around 3 °L. Vienna malt is typically rated around 3–6 °L, while light Munich malts rate from 8–12 °L and dark Munich falls around 20 °L. Homebrewers tend to think of Vienna as a extra-light version of Munich malt.

A beer made from all Vienna malt has a malty character, with a slight biscuity or nutty aspect, but that description really doesn't do it justice. Just as Munich malt has a distinctive character that you can recognize once you've brewed with it, so does Vienna. Vienna and Munich have a similar malty/grainy flavor, but you can tell them apart without much trouble if you've brewed with them a couple times. Weyermann, Durst and Briess make Vienna malts that are available to homebrewers. Weyermann also makes a Vienna malt extract, called Vienna Red, that is made with Vienna malt, Pilsner malt and melanoidin malt. 

Pilsner and Munich Malts
A Vienna lager may also contain Pilsner or light Munich malt. Adding Pilsner malt lightens the color and softens the Vienna malt profile while adding Munich darkens the beer and adds melanoidin-rich, Munich malt notes. Both may be added together, to "round out" the malt profile. As a rough guideline, I would say Pilsner malt could occupy up to about two thirds of the grain bill. The Vienna malt will still stand out against this background. A light Munich malt could maybe comprise up to around a third; more and it will overpower the Vienna malt flavor.

Some Vienna lagers are made from a mixture of Pilsner and Munich, with no Vienna in the mix. (Schell's beer is made from Pilsner, Munich, CaraPils and caramel malt.) Although you can get the right color and a very similar flavor, I think Vienna lagers should contain Vienna malt — your mileage may vary. 

Caramel and Color Malts
A small amount of crystal malt or caramel malts — including crystal malts from 30–60 °L as well as CaraVienne and CaraMunich® malts in the same color range — can be added to increase color depth and give a little sweetness to back up the malt character. Don't overdo it, though — keep specialty grains under 0.75 lbs. (0.34 kg) per 5 gallons (19 L). At most, the specialty malts should accentuate the malty Vienna notes. They shouldn't compete with (or overshadow) the Vienna malt.

Some homebrewers can't seem to formulate a light lager recipe without including CaraPils malt in the grist ("for body"). And, you can add up to 0.5 lb.. (0.23 kg) of CaraPils if you want. However, your Vienna lager should have enough body if you've added a bit of medium crystal/caramel malt and keep your mash temperatures constant.

If you'd like, you can add a very small amount of a dark malt — such as chocolate malt or Carafa® malt — to add a touch of color and change the hue of the beer from reddish to coppery. You don't want to add enough dark malt that you can taste any roasty notes or make the color too deep, however. A good rule of thumb is to keep color malts under 0.75 oz. (21 g) per 5 gallons (19 L) of beer. 

Corn Adjunct
Most Mexican Vienna lagers contain some corn in their formulation. As a homebrewer, you could add up to 20% corn — in the form of grits, flaked maize or brewers corn syrup — to your Vienna lager. You'll need to perform a cereal mash if you use grits, but flaked maize can be stirred right into the mash and brewers syrup can be added in the boil. Adding this adjunct will lighten the color and body of the beer compared to an all-malt beer. 

Recipe Formulation
When formulating your Vienna recipe, keep it simple. Although I have outlined a few options to accent the Vienna malt, all are optional. And personally, I don't think Vienna lagers benefit from adding a bit of this and pinch of that for complexity — start with a base of Vienna malt and maybe add one or at most two other grains to tweak the flavor.     

Extract brewers should either use a Vienna malt extract as their base, or use pale malt extract and steep (actually partial mash) as much Vienna malt as they can manage. 

Hops
Any hop without a strong varietal character will work as a bittering hop in a Vienna lager. Any hops, such as German noble hops, that traditionally appear in Octoberfests are a good choice. Domestic hops such as Willamette, Mt. Hood or even Clusters should be OK, especially for Mexican Vienna lagers, which are typically hopped less than American craftbrew versions. The slightly "spicy" Tettnanger is one of my favorite hops for this style.

As with everything else in a Vienna lager, the hops should support the Vienna malt, not compete with (or overshadow) it. A dose of bittering hops that yields 20–25 IBUs is what you should be shooting for. Too little bitterness and the beer will be too sweet; too much and you will obscure the Vienna malt character. If you simply must, you could add up to 0.25 oz. (7 g) of flavor hops for the last 15 minutes of the boil, but a single addition of hops for bittering is best. 

Yeast
Any lager yeast will work for a Vienna lager, but those that are typically used in malty styles will do best. Octoberfest yeast strains are an obvious choice, but strains designed for bocks and Bohemian Pilsners will work well, too. I personally like White Labs WLP920 (Old Bavarian Lager) yeast because it's a little more aromatic than other lager yeasts.

In order to run a good fermentation, make a yeast starter big enough to get the fermentation started within 12 hours and adequately attenuate the beer, but not so big that it will dry the beer out excessively. A 3 qt. (~3 L) yeast starter at a starting gravity of around 1.030, well-aerated, is optimal for 5 gallons (19 L) of beer.

If you can't maintain lager temperatures, you can still make a Vienna lager. A little-known fact about lager yeasts is that they can be used at ale temperatures. Your beer will be more estery than a standard lager, but will still taste like lager beer. Many times homebrewers who wish to replicate a lager beer at ale temperatures are told to use a clean ale strain (or a "steam" beer strain) of yeast. However, a clean ale does not really taste like a lager. A "dirty" lager, however, will still taste lager-like — it will just have more yeast-derived aroma.

If you do use a lager yeast at ale temperatures, you must make a starter and aerate your wort well. Low pitching rates and low aeration levels contribute to ester production as well as temperature, so you need those other two variables taken care of. I would actually make a larger starter than normal for an ale-temperature lager fermentation — 4–5 qts. (~3.75–4.75 L) per 5 gallons (19 L). And, of course, get the temperature as low as you can steadily hold it. 

Water
You can brew a good Vienna lager with almost any kind of water. Moderately hard, moderately carbonate-rich water is best, but unless your water is very soft or very hard, you're probably fine. For very soft water, add a half teaspoon of gypsum (calcium sulfate) and one teaspoon of chalk (calcium carbonate) per 5 gallons (19 L). For very hard water, "cut it" with some distilled water. 

Mash
As with almost all modern malts, a single infusion mash is sufficient to completely convert all the starches in Vienna malt. And, you can make a Vienna lager from a single mash. However, you will probably yield better results with a step mash. You can rest in the beta glucan range (121-131 °F) for about 15 minutes, then perform one or two rests in the starch conversion range. For more body — as in an American craft brew style Vienna lager — a rest around 154 °F (68 °C) will work well. For a little less body — as would be appropriate for a Mexican Vienna lager — a rest at 148–150 °F (64–66 °C) followed by a rest at 158–162 °C (70–72 °C), will yield a somewhat more fermentable wort. For an even drier beer, a rest around 140 °F (60 °C) could be added, but this could make the beer too thin. (Long rests — up to a couple hours — in this range are employed when making light American lagers.)

You could also do a step decoction mash, if you'd like. A single decoction from a beta glucan rest to around 154 °F (68 °F) is what I've done when I've made my Vienna lagers. Whether a decoction mash provides any flavor benefits is a matter of debate — I just do it because it I tried it once and liked the results.

For stovetop extract brewers, partial mashing a small amount of Vienna malt and using an extract late procedure is the best approach. A partial mash can be performed exactly the same way specialty grains are steeped as long as you keep the temperature and amount of water in appropriate bounds. The hops can be boiled in the wort from the partial mash (and perhaps some light dried malt extract) and the remainder of the extract — liquid Vienna malt extract — can be stirred in at the end of the boil. 

Boil
All-grain brewers should boil their their wort for 90 minutes, adding the hops with an hour left in the boil. This boil length will ensure a good hot break and better beer clarity. A pinch of calcium at the beginning of the boil may help drive the post-boil pH down, especially if your water is soft.

Extract brewers should boil part of their malt extract for 60 minutes, adding the remaining for the final 15 minutes of the boil. (Alternately, you can add it at the end of the boil and let it steep for 15 minutes before cooling).

Cooling
For best results, homebrewers should cool their wort all the way down to fermentation temperature. For brewers with tap water above 45 °F (7.2 °C) or so, this will require a little extra work. But, there are a few options to explore. All begin by using an immersion chiller and chilling the wort as much as possible with tap water.

After the initial cooling, you can use the immersion chiller as a pre-chiller leading to a counter-flow wort chiller. The pre-chiller is immersed in an ice bath leading to the water input of the counter-flow chiller. By measuring the temperature of the wort exiting the chiller and restricting its flow if needed, you should be able to hit your target temperature. When using a counter-flow chiller, you may want to collect the wort in a sanitized bucket first, then rack it to your primary fermenter once the cold break settles out. If you have a cylindrical-conical fermenter, just dump the cold break at your earliest possible convenience.

A second option is to circulate ice water through your immersion chiller once your tap water is no longer effective for cooling. A simple way to do this is make an ice bath in a 5-gallon (19 L) pot or picnic cooler. Connect two relatively short lengths of hose or tubing to your immersion chiller. Use a drill pump to push cold water through the immersion chiller and direct the outflow back to the ice bath. Since the wort has already been cooled with tap water, the ice will not melt immediately and can knock the temperature of your wort down to your target quickly. Once the wort is cool, let the cold break settle in your kettle before racking (relatively) clear wort to your fermenter.

A third option is to put the immersion chiller in an ice bath and siphon your wort through the immersion chiller. You will need to have cleaned the inside of your immersion chiller well before doing this. It will become sterile when submerged in wort for the initial chilling with tap water.

The final option is to cool the wort as much as possible with tap water, then siphon it to your fermenter (or a settling bucket). Cool the fermenter in a "swamp cooler" — a picnic cooler filled with ice water — until you hit your target temperature. This method works, but can be fairly time consuming. 

Pitching and Fermentation
Before pitching your yeast, you will need to cool it down to near fermentation temperature. At room temperature, your yeast starter will be about 20–25 °F (11–14 °C) above the temperature of your wort. Pitching the warm yeast into cool wort can shock the yeast and should be avoided. The simplest way to cool down your yeast starter is to place it in a refrigerator earlier in your brewday, perhaps at the end of the mash. A "temperature strip" stuck to the outside of your starter container will allow you to ascertain the temperature of your yeast.

During fermentation, keep the temperature constant until the fermentation is almost over. I like to ferment my Vienna lagers at the high end of their temperature range (or even slightly over) to get as much character from the yeast as possible, but you can ferment at the lower end of the range if you like cleaner lagers.     

Next, let the temperature rise to 60 °F (16 °C) if your yeast strain requires a diacetyl rest. After the diacetyl rest, rack the beer to secondary as quickly as possible to get the beer off the sedimented yeast. Unlike with most ales, which can sit on yeast for awhile with no ill effects, lagers will pick up off flavors from flocculated yeast fairly quickly. Cornelius kegs make a nice secondary fermenter or conditioning tank for lagers as you can blow off yeast sediment as it sediments during lagering.

If you ferment at (or slightly over) the high end of your yeast's range, the fermentation will go quickly (for a lager), a shorter diacetyl rest will be necessary (if at all) and you can quickly rack the beer off the yeast and into secondary and start lagering the beer. With an adequately sized starter, primary fermentation may take as little as a week. 

Lagering
Vienna lagers don't need to be lagered (cold conditioned) for a long time. Less than a month is common for commercial Mexican Vienna lagers. Bigger lagers such as Octoberfests and bocks may benefit from up to 3 months of lagering, but a Vienna lager will likely be ready in about 2 months, if not sooner. If you fine the beer with Polyclar AT in secondary, just before racking it to your serving keg (or bottling bucket), you may shave a week or so off this time. 

Similar Styles
If you replaced the words "Vienna malt" in this article with "Munich malt," you would have a pretty good description of how to make a Märzen — a style that, like Vienna lager, can be thought of as a "little Octoberfest." Throw in some dark Munich malt and just enough chocolate (or Carafa®) malt to get a hint of roast and you're on your way towards a dark Munich-style lager.

Vienna lagers are a great everyday beer. They're also a great "everyone" beer — appealing both to beer fans and folks who think of beer as fizzy, yellow water. The recipe for Vienna lagers is simple — as simple as Vienna malt and one hop addition — and your success in brewing one will come from your skill as a brewer, not from a complicated recipe.

Recipes:
On the Beautiful Blue Rio Grande
(Mexican Vienna Lager)
(5 gallons/19 L, extract with grains)
OG = 1.048 FG = 1.011
IBU = 24 SRM = 11 ABV = 4.7%
Ingredients

0.75 lbs. (0.34 kg) Coopers Light dried malt extract
0.75 lbs. (0.34 kg) corn sugar
4.0 lbs. (1.8 kg) Weyermann Vienna Red liquid malt extract (late addition)
2.0 lbs. (0.91 kg) Briess Vienna malt
6.33 AAU Hallertau hops (60 mins) (1.6 oz./45 g of 4% alpha acids)
1 tsp. Irish moss (15 mins)
1/4 tsp yeast nutrients
Wyeast 2124 (Bohemian Lager), Wyeast 2206 (Bavarian Lager) or White Labs WLP820 (Octoberfest/Märzen) yeast (3 qt./~3 L starter)
1 cup corn sugar (for priming)

Step by Step

Heat 0.75 gallons (2.8 L) of water to 165 °F (74 °C) in your brewpot. Heat 1.75 gallons (6.6 L) of water to 170 °F (77 °C) in a separate pot. Place crushed Vienna malt in a nylon steeping bag and steep grain in brewpot at 154 °F (68 °C) for 45 minutes. Remove grain bag and place in colander over brewpot. Rinse grains slowly with about 48 fl. oz (1.4 L) of 170 °F (77 °C) water from the other pot. Add remaining hot water to liquid in brewpot, to make about 2.5 gallons (9.5 L) of wort, and bring to a boil. When boiling, stir in dried malt extract, corn sugar and hops and boil for 60 minutes. At 15 minutes left in boil, add Irish moss and yeast nutrients. At end of boil, stir in liquid malt extract and let sit for 15 minutes before cooling. Cool wort in sink or with immersion chiller until temperature is about 65 °F (18 °C). Rack wort to fermenter, top up to 5 gallons (19 L) aerate and pitch yeast. Cool down to 58 °F (14 °C) overnight. Ferment at 58 °F (14 °C). Lager for 2 months at 40 °F (4.4 °C) or below.

Double Crossed
(Mexican Vienna Lager)
(5 gallons/19 L, all-grain)
OG = 1.044 FG = 1.009
IBU = 21 SRM = 10 ABV = 4.5%
Ingredients

5.0 lbs. (2.3 kg) Breiss Vienna malt
2 lb. 14 oz. (1.3 kg) Briess Pilsen malt
2.0 lbs. (0.91 kg) flaked maize
0.33 lbs. (0.15 kg) crystal malt (60 °L)
5.5 AAU Mt. Hood hops (60 mins) (1.1 oz./31 g of 5% alpha acids)
1 tsp. Irish moss (15 mins)
1/4 tsp yeast nutrients (15 mins)
Wyeast 2042 (Danish Lager), White Labs WLP850 (Copenhagen Lager) or White Labs WLP940 (Mexican Lager) yeast (3 qt./~3 L starter)
1 cup corn sugar (for priming)

Step by Step

In your kettle, heat 3 gallons (11 L) of water to 142 °F (61 °C), stir in grains and rest for 15 minutes at 131 °F (55 °C). Heat mash to 148 °F (64 °C) for a 30-minute rest then heat to 160 °F (71 °C) for a 15-minute rest. Heat to 170 °F (77 °C) and transfer to lauter tun. Collect about 5.5 gallons (21 L) of wort, add 1 gallon (3.8 L) of water and boil for 90 minutes, adding hops, Irish moss and yeast nutrients at times indicated in ingredient list. Cool wort to 56 °F (13 °C), transfer to fermenter and aerate. Pitch yeast from (cooled) yeast starter. Ferment at 56 °F (13 °C). Lager for 2 months at 40 °F (4.4 °C) or below.

Red Ball Express
(Vienna Lager)
(5 gallons/19 L, all-grain)
OG = 1.052 FG = 1.013
IBU = 25 SRM = 11 ABV = 5.0%
Ingredients

10 lbs. 12 oz. (4.9 kg) Vienna malt
9 oz. (0.26 kg) CaraMunich II® malt (45 °L)
6.66 AAU Tettnanger hops (60 mins) (2.2 oz./63 g of 3% alpha acids)
1 tsp. Irish moss (15 mins)
1/8 tsp gypsum (75 mins)
White Labs WLP920 (Old Bavarian Lager) yeast (3 qt./~3 L starter)
1 cup corn sugar (for priming)

Step by Step

In your kettle, mash in at 131 °F (55 °C). Pull a 1-gallon (3.8 L) decoction and heat it to 162 °F (72 °C), stirring constantly. (The decoction should be from the thickest part of the mash.) Rest decoction at 162 °F (72 °C) for 5 minutes, add a pinch of calcium (CaCl2) and bring decoction to a boil, stirring constantly. Boil decoction for 15 minutes, still stirring constantly. Transfer decoction back to main mash and heat mixture to 154 °F (68 °C) for a 45-minute rest. Stir well to even out mash temperatures. Heat mash to 168 °F (76 °C) then transfer to lauter tun. Recir-culate mash for 20 minutes, then run off wort and sparge with 170 °F (77 °C) water. (Do not let temperature of grain bed fall below 165 °F (74 °C); if it does, heat sparge water to 180 °F (82 °C).) Collect about 5.75 gallons (22 L) of wort, add water to make 6.5 gallons (25 L) of wort. Boil for 90 minutes, to reduce wort to 5 gallons (19 L). Add 1/8 tsp. gypsum with 75 minutes left in boil. Add hops with 60 minutes left in boil and Irish moss with 15 minutes left in boil. Cool wort to 55 °F (13 °C), let cold break settle, transfer to fermenter and aerate (preferably with a 45 second shot of oxygen). Pitch yeast (from cooled starter) and ferment at 55 °F (13 °C). Lager for 2 months at 40 °F (4.4 °C) or below.


Chris Colby thinks chimichangas (deep fried burritos) are the best culinary idea of all time. 

Vienna Lager: Tips from the Pros

Vienna Lager: Tips from the Pros

Author:  Issue: Mar/Apr 2014

Vienna lager originated in Austria in the 1830s but has since gone just about extinct in Europe, with breweries replacing the style with Pilsners and Oktoberfests. Austrian immigrants made Vienna lagers popular in Mexico later in the 19th century and today there are a handful of American craft breweries producing Vienna lagers as well. 

Jason OliverJason Oliver is Brewmaster for Devils Backbone Brewing Company in Roseland, Virginia. He has been brewing professionally since 1996 and attended the UC-Davis Master Brewers Program. Since opening in 2008, Devils Backbone has received numerous accolades including the 2010 World Beer Cup Champion Brewery & Brewmaster for a Small Brewpub, the 2012 Great American Beer Festival Small Brewpub & Brewmaster of the Year, and the 2013 Great American Beer Festival Small Brewing Company & Brewmaster of the Year. Devils Backbone Vienna Lager has also received gold medals from both the WBC and GABF.

For about half my career I exclusively brewed Germanic-style beer and in two of the breweries I worked, Marzen was one of the flagship beers and the best seller. When I left my last job to start Devils Backbone, I didn't want to brew another Marzen because I was never a huge fan of the style. I decided to have a Vienna-style lager be one of DB's flagships because they are slightly lower in gravity than Marzen, a little more refined, a little more rare, more delicate, and more to my taste. It has color, its smooth, approachable, nice malty flavor, goes great with food, and is rewarding. I like to say it gives you a lot but doesn't take anything from you because it isn't too heavy, bitter, sweet, or overly alcoholic. It has something for just about everyone. It's just a great drinking beer. And it's an attractive looking beer — our Vienna has a sparkling chestnut amber hue.

 So Vienna Lager was one of our original beers at our brewpub and is one of the two year-round beers we decided to lead with in package when we built our production brewery. In-house, Vienna used to sell on par with our IPA, in package Vienna is killing it. It's around 65% of our production, with the rest being IPA, Schwarzbier, and our specialty/seasonal brews. I think we hit the pulse of the Virginia beer drinker with the Vienna Lager.

The secret to a great Vienna lager, first, is it has to have a clean lager fermentation or else all bets are off. It should have that lager drinkability with an apparent malt character that is a balance of toasted and caramel malt flavors. Hops are a supporting role that should not overwhelm and essentially just hold the malt in check.

Our Vienna Lager is brewed from a base of roughly equal parts Pilsner and Vienna malt with dark Munich and caramel malt adding character in roughly equal percentages to each other as well. Our Pilsner malt is Canadian Malting Superior Pils, which I like because of its low DMS potential and its delicate flavor. It's a great base to build upon. The Vienna, Munich, and caramel malts are all of European origin.

For bittering we use German Northern Brewer. It's kind of an old fashion hop now, but I love it. It tastes and smells like a hop should. It has classic hop character, not just bittering potential. For flavor and aroma we use Czech Saaz. Hops play a supporting role in our Vienna Lager but they are important. If you asked me five years ago if the type of bittering hop mattered much I would have said "not really," but now I really think they do. I think all hops matter, and while you may not be able to put a finger on it all the time, bittering hops add more than just IBU's.

We cool the wort to about 52 °F (11 °C) and let the temperature rise into a fermentation range of 53-54 °F (12 °C). Our yeast likes it warm. Total production time for Devils Backbone Vienna Lager is about 5 weeks.

My advice for homebrewers would be to pick a gravity between 12 and 12.5 Plato, make it no more than 25 IBUs, do not add a lot of flavor or aroma hops (keep minimal), do not overdo the caramel malts, and have a clean, healthy lager fermentation. Also, use quality ingredients and intend for your beer to be excellent, that's probably the most important.

 

Chris Priebe copyChris Priebe entered the beer business in 1993 as a barkeep for Dubuque Star Brewing Co. in Dubuque, Iowa. He later graduated from the Seibel Institute of Brewing Science and became the Head Brewer for Millstream Brewing Co. In 2000 he purchased the brewery with Tom and Teresa Albert. He is still their Head Brewer as well as chief engineer. Many of his beers have won national and international acclaim, including a gold metal at the World Beer Cup in 2010 for their Vienna lager Schildbrau Amber.

Vienna-style lagers were the first beers I fell in love with during a high school trip to Germany at the enthusiastic age of 16. Later, while working at the Dubuque Star Brewery, I had the privilege of brewing this style as one of their main beers back in the 90s. Good Vienna-style lagers are smooth, malty, and slightly sweet. You want a good balance between the base malt and Munich malts. This appeals to a wide audience even in today's market. Schildbrau is still one of our flagship brews.

Darker crystal malts tend to be a little harsh or "roasty" for the style. I prefer medium-colored Munich malts — 20 °L is my favorite. Don't overuse the crystal malts, keep them under 30% or they become overpowering. We use 11.8% light Munich, 7.8% each of crystal 60 °L and Munich 20 °L. Then just two-row base malt.

The biggest key for me is aging — four weeks from the day it's brewed is a minimum, but 5 to 6 weeks is better. This really helps temper the hops and sulfury lager flavors.
We use Millennium as our bittering hop for Schildbrau. In today's hop market, Millennium has been consistently available to me and I am primarily concerned with the alpha acids on the first hop addition anyway. We used to use German noble varieties for the finishing hops, but their availability is somewhat intermittent. Mt. Hood is a good substitute and remains readily available. Schildbrau varies from 16-18 IBU because I adjust things from year to year as the malt flavors change. Yeast performance can also vary, which affects the final sugar profile. The IBUs are a little low for the style guidelines, but I do prefer a sweeter beer for this style, thus accentuating the malt character.

We ferment our lagers a little warmer than you will see recommended by most. For whatever reason, our lager yeast prefers to ferment at 60 °F (15.5 °C). That's a little warm, but we use a refrigerated cellar so I suppose it needs to compensate for the ambient cellar temperature. It takes 5-10 days for the primary fermentation, then I transfer it off the yeast and we age it for another 2-3 weeks.

Some advice for a homebrewer trying a Vienna-style lager for the first time is, as I mentioned earlier, don't go too dark on the crystal malts, keep the hops in check, age it cold, and promote the wonderful characters of the Munich malts. Also, water is very important for this style. If your water is hard, keep the O.G. higher (over 1.048) by using more base malt or blend in some distilled water when mashing.

 

JP WilliamsJP Williams became the Brewmaster of Trapp Lager Brewery in Stowe, Vermont in 2012. Prior to that he was a brewer at Magic Hat in South Burlington, Vermont before becoming the General Manager at Magic Hat. JP began homebrewing in college after his interest in fine beer was sparked during a trip to the Guinness Brewery in Dublin, Ireland.

Vienna lager is a style that is hard to brew. It puts your methods right out there in the open because is nothing to hide off-flavors. It is a style that can make a good brewer bad. A great Vienna lager is crisp with subtle hops and a residual sweetness. The aroma should be that of caramel notes. It should have a dry finish with the presence of malt and hop bitterness.

Most American breweries create bitter, drier versions of Vienna lagers, but we steer towards the more traditional European version of the sweeter-style lager. The decoction boiling process adds to the complexity of this recipe and creates the crisp lager we are looking for.

We make 15 bbl batches. The grain bill for our recipe is two-thirds Vienna malt and then about 17 percent light Munich malt, 8 percent dark Munich, 8 percent Pilsner and less than 1 percent Acidulated malt.

Our first hop addition uses Pearle and Hallertau, and for the second addition I use Tettnang and Saaz. The hops are subtle with a low noble hop aroma. Hallertau and Perle complement each other well with their earthy/spicy qualities. The Tettnang are peppery and act well with the delicate flowery aroma of the Saaz.

We ferment at 50 °F (10 °C) for four days, then give it four days at 54 °F (12 °C) for a diacetyl rest and crash at 33 °F (1 °C) for three days. Then we give it 30 days to lager at 36 °F (2 °C).

My best advice for homebrewers who want to try the style is to adhere to your fermentation and lagering temperatures. Your diacetyl rest is critical and can define your brew, not in a good way. The style should not have fruity esters or diacetyl in it whatsoever. If you are diligent in your techniques, you will be rewarded with a clean Vienna-style lager.

Thursday, March 5, 2009

No-knead Bread

RECIPE

No-knead Bread
(1.5 pound loaf)

(Original from Jim Lahey of Sullivan Street Cafe)
adapted from
here.

Ingredients
-Harvest King flour or
half unbleached all-purpose half bread flour:
468 grams (about 3 cups)-room temperature water: 382 grams, 1-1/2 cups plus 2 tablespoons/13 fluid ounces)
-instant yeast: 0.8 grams/1/4 teaspoon
-salt: 10 grams/1-2/3 teaspoons
-bran/semolina/cornmeal, coarsely ground oats for sprinking

Method
1. Put all the ingredeints into a large bowl, mix it around until they are blended (it will be quite wet), and keep the bowl in a warm place to rise for 12-18 hours - the longer the better.

If your house is cold, take a picnic cooler, keep a couple of bottles of hot water in it. Cover the dough well with plastic wrap, let the dough sit in the cooler next to (not touching the bottles).

2. After 18 hours, turn the dough on to a flat, well-floured board. Use a scraper to bring it together, flour the top, pat it, then use the scraper again to lift it and fold it over a couple times until you get a roundish shape. It does not have to be precise.

3. Take a coarse towel, sprinkle it with bran (or semolina or cornmeal). Lots of it. Put the dough on it, and cover it with a another towel or inverted bowl. Let it sit for another two hours.

4. Preheat the oven to 450F with the container you are going to bake the bread in.

5. Open the oven door, slide the shelf out a bit. Bring the dough over carefully, tilt the towel so that it rolls off the towel and onto your hand. Plop it into the hot container carefully without touching it. The bran side of the dough should be on top. It may look like a mess, but when it bakes, it wll puff up and take a balloon like shape.

6. Bake it in the container covered with foil or a baking sheet for 20 minutes, then uncover it and bake for another 15-20 minutes (Rose suggest taking it off the pot and putting it on a baking sheet for the second half, but we’ve burnt ourselves too many times to attempt it again.)

7. Take the hot container out carefully, set it on a rack for 5-10 minutes, take the bread out, and let it cool a bit more for the crust to set.

 

So far, we’ve been yapping away about flour, yeast and things related to bread-making. Now’s the time to get our hands dirty and create something edible.

How about something an six-year old can make? With one hand? Something that is impossible to mess up, and no matter what you do, produces results that you wouldn’t mind paying good money for in a European bakery?

No-knead bread is the buzz among foodies around the world since November 2006. That’s when Mark Bittman came out with the famous article in the NY Times about Jim Lahey’s creation at Sullivan Street Bakery. It’s been hailed as the best thing since sliced bread. See, it doesn’t even need to be sliced. Just break it off in big ole hunks and watch it disappear. Or carve it out into a magnificent bread bowl for soup.

You still don’t understand what the fuss is all about? Watch this video and tell us where you will find a recipe that says:

“Take some flour, water, salt and yeast, stir it around a couple of times, cover it and forget about it until the next day, put the gooey mess on a board, pretend to ’shape’ it, but you’ll fail anyway ‘cos it’s so sticky. Leave it alone for a couple more hours, throw the gooey mess in a pot in a hot oven, and after 40 minutes, take it out, and admire your work” ????

That’s our kind of recipe, and even though we try and incorporate whole grains in our baking, this bread is best made white.

We call it ‘hole bread’ or ‘balloon bread’. The high water content in the dough and the steam generated during the baking process give it a crackling crisp crust, and a very airy, porous inside. It has an almost sour-doughy taste because of the long fermentation process. If white flour is substituted with whole wheat in this recipe, it adds flavour, but compromises the porosity of the crumb and makes for a much denser loaf.

From Martha Stewart to the army of bakers in the blosgophere, everyone’s tried it and has tweaked the original recipe depending on what type of container they used to bake it in.

Ours is from the guru. After 10 attempts at measuring, taking temperatures and trying out different containers, she finally was satisfied. Rose Levy Beranbaum is very particular about her breads, and we follow her version.

Baking it on a stone gives the bread the most holes, but the dough being so sticky, tends to spread out. She prefers a cast iron pot to give it some height and a great crust.

Since no-knead bread has become so popular, people have been frantic to get hold of large-capacity cast iron Dutch ovens of the enamelised, or the plain uncoated variety - basically a large pot that can take very high heat, and has enough room for the bread to expand while baking. It must be covered, to trap the steam.

We have neither. We used a large ordinary Corningware container and covered the mouth with foil. Inverting a baking sheet on it works too.

Other suggestions:
a large soup pot
a metal roasting pan
the inner container of a crock pot
a cake tin
or divide the dough and bake it as two loaves in loaf pans, with foil or inverted loaf pans to cover.

For smaller loaves, see Rose’s Baby Bread recipe.