Hi everyone! Last summer we brewed a great lime lager for a graduation party. This year, my son is graduating college and came home singing the praises of Busch Light Apple. I’m planning to brew an American Light Lager with apple juice added when it gets kegged. In order to elevate this above Busch Light, I’m planning a small addition of Carahell and Carapils, the intent being to add a little bit of caramel to the apple flavor – not enough to move it from a light lager, but just enough to impart a little caramel to compliment the apple. Looking for some opinions on this recipe. Will it stay in the light lager territory, even with the planned malt additions? Any advice on the apple juice? Thanks in advance!
I think those malts are so light and in such small amounts that it’s unlikely they will give you any caramel flavor. Also, keep in mind that even if you keep the keg cold, the apple juice will slowly ferment.
not to be annoying but i feel like there are more people than in the past homebrewing to make beers like this, and i dont get why. if you want a very mild pale american lager with apple flavour - just buy it?
i do see that you want to “elevate” this above busch light (a truly high bar). simply doing a proper fermentation without high-gravity + dilution brewing as NAILs are done would make this a superior tasting product.
i havent had this apple-flavoured light beer but the simplest answer would likely be to add apple flavour extract to a mild, bland lager brewed with WLP840.
if you wanted it to have a caramel flavour, just use a small amount of C80 to C120. though the single digits increase of SRM from this may deeply intimidate the potential drinkers.
I’ve never had a Busch apple lager, but if it’s like other flavored beers that I’ve had, I suspect you’ll hit closer to the mark by just using an apple flavor extract. That’ll be non-fermentable, too.
Thanks for the input everyone. I agree that fermenting the apple juice is a risk. I was hoping that by adding it at kegging, while it is cold, will help mitigate that a bit. I hadn’t thought about apple extract. I’ll definitely check that out. Maybe a touch more caramel malt for flavor. Like I said, I don’t want to deviate too far from a light lager. Like Fred the cat said, these people might be easily intimidated!
A yeast-derived apple note is a common characteristic of a NAIL, and WLP840 is known to produce it. You could try simply fermenting a bit warmer to increase the apple character and dispense with exogenous apple flavoring altogether.
Carahell and carapils are practically flavorless compared to your base malt. Increasing them will just add thickness, which you don’t want. I would replace them with 1-2 lbs of vienna.
I agree with all other comments. In addition, the apple juice will ferment in the keg and this will produce a ton of sulfur – apple juice tends to throw a ton of sulfur when it ferments and you’ll be holding all of it in the keg. So you’re better off using an apple extract.
I also think using Crystal 20 or 40 would be better for a caramel flavor than the lighter Cara malts… IF you want detectable caramel flavor.
I’ve brewed a cider saison that had 40% of the fermentables from cider. It worked well to ferment the apple cider. Not sure I’d like the sweetness from added juice.
If that’s the route you go- and happy graduation by the way- I’d calibrate the amount of juice to add by adding small measured amounts in samples of the beer, then scale up based upon your findings.