Here is my recipe for Vienna lager. It employs a single decoction mash for wort production and uses kräusening to produce a crisp lager beer without that “homebrew lager” flavor. It takes a little extra effort to make, but results in an excellent “all-around” beer.
Wiener Blut
Vienna Lager
by Chris Colby
All-grain; English units
DESCRIPTION
An all-around, well-balanced amber lager. Malty, from Vienna malt and a single decoction mash, but also hopped enough to provide balance. Moderate body and carbonation.
INGREDIENTS (for 5 gallons)
Malts (for an OG of 1.053 at 70% extraction efficiency and 11 SRM)
5.0 lbs. undermodified Pilsner malt
4.75 lbs. Vienna malt
6.6 oz. CaraMunich malt (30 °L)
4.0 oz. CaraMunich malt (60 °L)
Hops (for 25 IBU)
Hallertau Hersbrücker hops (25 IBU)
1.5 oz., at 4.5% alpha acids, boiled for 60 minutes
Tettnanger hops (0 IBU)
0.33 oz., added at knockout
Yeast (for an FG of 1.013 and 5.1% ABV)
White Labs WLP920 (Old Bavarian Lager) yeast
(6-qt. yeast starter)
Other
1 tsp Irish moss
1/4 tsp yeast nutrients
4.5 oz. corn sugar (for priming to 2.5 volumes CO2)
PROCEDURES
In your kettle, mash in to 131 °F by combining crushed grains with 3.5 gallons of water at 142 °F. Pull a 1.0-gallon decoction and place in a smaller pot. Begin heating it. Stir constantly. Rest decoction at 158 °F for 5 minutes, then heat to a boil. Boil decoction for 15 minutes, stirring constantly. Return the decoction to the main mash. After stirring it in, adjust the temperature of the combined mash, if needed, to 152 °F. Hold for 45 minutes, adding heat as needed to maintain the mash temperature. Heat the mash to 168 °F for a mash out, then transfer it to your lauter tun. Recirculate wort, then begin wort collection. Sparge with water hot enough to maintain grain bed temperature at 168 °F. (You will need roughly 4.75 gallons of sparge water.) Collect between 6.5 and 7.0 gallons of wort over 60–90 minutes. Heat the wort as you are collecting it, so that the boil can start immediately after wort collection. Boil wort for 90 minutes. Add 1/4 tsp calcium chloride with 75 minutes left in boil. Add the bittering hops with 60 minutes left in the boil. Add the Irish moss and yeast nutrients with 15 minutes left. Chill the wort to 55 °F. Transfer 2 qts. of the wort to a sanitized container, such as a growler. Do not aerate or pitch this wort yet. This will be your kräusen beer. Place the vessel in your refrigerator. Run off the rest of the wort to your fermenter. Aerate thoroughly (swirl carboy as you oxygenate). Pour off the liquid from your yeast starter. Swirl yeast starter and pour roughly 1/5 of the yeast slurry into a sanitized mason jar. Store yeast in your refrigerator with lid slightly cracked. Pitch the remaining yeast to your main batch. Ferment at 55 °F. When fermentation slows (after 5 to 6 days), place kräusen vessel in fermentation chamber to warm up. Aerate and pitch the kräusen wort with the saved yeast the next day. Let the kräusen beer come to high kräusen and transfer it to a sanitized secondary fermenter. Rack main batch of beer into fermenting kräusen beer. Let fermentation finish, then lager the beer for 6 weeks at 40 °F.
Wiener Blut
Vienna Lager
by Chris Colby
All-grain; metric units
INGREDIENTS (for 19 L)
Malts (for an OG of 1.053 at 70% extraction efficiency and 11 SRM)
5.0 lbs. undermodified Pilsner malt
5.0 lbs. Vienna malt
6.6 oz. CaraMunich malt (30 °L)
4.0 oz. CaraMunich malt (60 °L)
Hops (for 25 IBU)
Hallertau Hersbrücker hops (25 IBU)
1.5 oz., at 4.5% alpha acids, boiled for 60 minutes
Tettnanger hops (0 IBU)
0.33 oz., added at knockout
Yeast (for an FG of 1.013 and 5.1% ABV)
White Labs WLP920 (Old Bavarian Lager) yeast
(6-qt. yeast starter)
Other
1 tsp Irish moss
1/4 tsp yeast nutrients
4.5 oz. corn sugar (for priming to 2.5 volumes CO2)
PROCEDURES
In your kettle, mash in to 55 °C by combining crushed grains with 13 L of water at 61 °C. Pull a 3.8-L decoction and place in a smaller pot. Begin heating it. Stir constantly. Rest decoction at 70 °C for 5 minutes, then heat to a boil. Boil decoction for 15 minutes, stirring constantly. Return the decoction to the main mash. After stirring it in, adjust the temperature of the combined mash, if needed, to 67 °C. Hold for 45 minutes, adding heat as needed to maintain the mash temperature. Heat the mash to 76 °C for a mash out, then transfer it to your lauter tun. Recirculate wort, then begin wort collection. Sparge with water hot enough to maintain grain bed temperature at 76 °C. (You will need roughly 18 L of sparge water.) Collect between 25–26 L of wort over 60–90 minutes. Heat the wort as you are collecting it, so that the boil can start immediately after wort collection. Boil wort for 90 minutes. Add 1/4 tsp calcium chloride with 75 minutes left in boil. Add the bittering hops with 60 minutes left in the boil. Add the Irish moss and yeast nutrients with 15 minutes left. Chill the wort to 13 °C. Transfer 2 L of the wort to a sanitized container, such as a growler. Do not aerate or pitch this wort yet. This will be your kräusen beer. Place the vessel in your refrigerator. Run off the rest of the wort to your fermenter. Aerate thoroughly (swirl carboy as you oxygenate). Pour off the liquid from your yeast starter. Swirl yeast starter and pour roughly 1/5 of the yeast slurry into a sanitized mason jar. Store yeast in your refrigerator with lid slightly cracked. Pitch the remaining yeast to your main batch. Ferment at 13 °C. When fermentation slows (after 5 to 6 days), place kräusen vessel in fermentation chamber to warm up. Aerate and pitch the kräusen wort with the saved yeast the next day. Let kräusen beer come to high kräusen and transfer it to a sanitized secondary fermenter. Rack main batch of beer into fermenting kräusen beer. Let fermentation finish, then lager the beer for 6 weeks at 4.4 °C.
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