I am currently drinking a Vienna lager that I recently made and I was hoping to get some input from people here. I am looking to make a more malty type of Vienna lager, kinda of like Beerito from Oskar Blues. The problem i have with the recipe below is that it turned out very dry, almost astringent. I can’t detect any off flavors, just super dry without any head retention or body. I think I may need to a rest in the low 150’s instead of the 147 rest and mash out.
My main question is what sort of darker malts that people use in their Viennas that they feel give them a nice malt backbone? Should I just adjust the dark munich up?
The recipe is:
3.25# Wey. Floor Malt Pils
3.25# Wey. Vienna
1# Wey. CaraRed
1# Briess Dark Munich
.5 oz Merkur @ 60
1 oz Tett @ 15
WLP 835 - German Lager X
147 for 30 min
155 for 20 min
170 for 10 min
The malt bill should be decently malty. Bumping up the mash temps should give a more rounded mouthfeel.
My last Vienna was about 1/3rd each pils, Vienna, and Munich with a little late hopping and lower mash temps to keep it from straying towards Marzen.
Mine too had a bit too dry finish.
My issue was water. A little to hard with too much sulfate. I had to start with RO water and build for a more malty profile. I kept the 150 mash to let the finish stay a bit clean.
I was thinking about my water as well and I usually just add a campden tablet and call it good. The last time I had a problem with a beet that was this dry was a BGSA that I did a multi step mash where I think I made the wort super fermentable.
What was the FG? For anything German influenced that needs color, I use carafa as my dark malt outside of Munich 9l and small amounts of Caramunich when necessary. Just the approach that works for my goals…
Purely my opinion: go with majority Vienna malt, little if any crystal malt, and carafa special malt to get the color where you want it.
I don’t know that too much about beerito but is it supposed to be a Mexican style Vienna? If so, some corn is likely needed. My Mexican inspired vienna is 60 Vienna/20 light Munich/20 flaked corn with some Carafa for color. It’s too malty for the style but I like it.
My Vienna lager? I just use 95% Vienna, 2.5% melanoiden, 2.5% carafoam (don’t know if that actually does anything). Not malty per se, but toasty. I was actually thinking of adding 10% munich just for some added maltiness. Obviously I don’t care about colour correction, but if I did, I’d add a dehusked black malt.
Mash 152.
Balanced water profile so the bitterness isn’t too pronounced.
34/70.
If that’s a five gallon batch you posted, you might just want to use more grain, unless of course you don’t want a beer that’s at or above 5%.
If you want to go the Mexican route, I assume some corn is necessary. In my experience, the sweetness from the corn can accent munich malt in an adverse way. Mine straddles the line of being almost too sweet and malty but it finishes at 1.011.
I brewed a Mexican-style Vienna this spring, and I did notice the toastiness of the Vienna and sweet corn flavor were initially quite prominant and at odds with each other. It took a couple of weeks on gas for those flavors to mellow out, but when they did I ended up with one of my favorite beers I’ve brewed in a long time.
Here’s my recipe, FWIW. I didn’t get the chance to order WLP940, so I used S-189. It is on the hoppy side (flavor-wise) for a Vienna, so you may want to skip the flameout addition if that’s not what you’re going for. I do think the higher IBU’s help balance the corn, so you might want to leave the boil addition as-is.
