I recently got the brewjacket immersion pro, made my first Lagered beer (a Pilsner that came out awesome!) and am ready to make more!
I need ideas for recipes, and I’m having trouble finding ones that look good in my books and magazines I have. I’m a fan of IPA’s, so I’m wondering why I couldn’t just Lager one of my IPA recipes? Give me your ideas/input please! Is there a good book with Lager-type recipes for me to start dabbling with? I’m really excited to have this new door opened to my homebrewing!
I’ve used the Brewjacket so I understand your excitement. There’s no reason you can’t lager an ale. It’s usually referred to as cold conditioning, but it’s the same thing. For other lager ideas, look at something like a dunkel or maibock. They’re both delicious styles that don’t get enough attention.
This is awesome, I love the enthusiasm! After many years of brewing, I still feel this way when I make lagers that turn out well.
You can definitely lager/cold condition any beer, however if your definition of lagering is a long period of cold conditioning–say, many weeks–just be aware that long lagering can be detrimental to some styles, IPAs being one of them, if you aren’t ultra-careful about oxygen exposure.
The “necessity” of lagering to make a delicious, smooth lager is, IMO, one of the biggest myths that persists in homebrewing. That said, if it works for you, lager away!
Try looking at the BJCP style guidelines. Read about a lager beer that meets your wants as far as flavor profiles, bitterness likes and color desires. Try and formulate your own recipe based on that beers guidelines. If you have brewing software that you use then it makes creating a recipe that much more fun and easy.
Cheers!!
To take this one step further, Google is your friend. There are tons of recipes out that will give you ideas. When brewing something I have never done before, I look at different recipes and maybe take one ingredient from here and one from there to formulate the lager style I want to brew keeping in mind the BJCP style guidelines for flavor. You then have a baseline you can tweak to get the flavor profile you want. Alternatively, you can just grab a recipe off the web and brew it.
I have also taken a small amount of the specialty grains that I am going to use for a new recipe (in percentages that they will be in the mash when I brew the beer) and do a short, maybe 15-20 minute micro mash in a beaker to give me an idea of what the flavor profile is going to be after the beer is made. I generally leave out the base malt since that brings in a lot of sweetness in that will tend to obscure the flavors from the specialty malts.
That is the fun of homebrewing, making something that is uniquely you.
I am also sharing your excitement at the same time. I recently setup a deep freezer for a fermentation chamber/lager tank. I started out with a Vienna lager and a dunkel. Couldn’t be happier with them. They are both on tap now and I have the Vienna and a Pilsner in fermentors now. It’s definitely a fun addition to the ales.
Malt:
4 lb (41.0%) BEST Munich Malt - added during mash
4.5 lb (46.2%) BEST Munich Dark Malt - added during mash
1 lb (10.3%) BEST Pilsen Malt - added during mash
.25 lb (2.6%) Carafa Special® TYPE II - cold steeped and added to mash
Hopos:
.3 oz (100.0%) Magnum (14.5%) - added during boil, boiled 60 m
Your favorite lager yeast (I like WY2124 – appropriate sized starter or slurry)
Follow your preferred mashing regimen (it can be as simply as a single rest at 150 for 45-60 min). Either cold steep rosted malt on the side and add at sparge or make a coloring “tea” with a small grain sack and add contents or use sinimar.
Pitch yeast at around 50° and hold fermentation for about 1 week then slowly ramp to about 58-62 for D-Rest. Hold until fermentation is finished. Crash to lagering temps for 1-2 weeks. I like to fine with gelatin or biofine clear.
This same recipe can be adjusted in strength to brew Bock or Doppelbock. I like to add just a touch of CaraBohemian to my Bocks (not too much!)
Dave Carpenter (editor-in-chief for Zymurgy) authored a great book, Lager, that I highly recommend.
Once I had the proper equipment to brew lagers, it became, and has remained, my primary focus. At this point I brew lagers almost exclusively, with the occasional ale brewed here and there.
If you like hop focused beers, German Pilsner, Bohemian Pilsner, or the newer Hoppy American Pilsner in the style of Firestone Walker’s Pivo Pils, or Russian River’s STS Pils, might be right up your alley.