Getting set up to brew a Vienna lager. Couple of reasons. It’s one of the styles our club is featuring in June. And right now my basement is a cozy 48 degrees. 

I had everything here so I didn’t even have to hit the Lhs.  

It’s a winter sized 3 gallon batch. And I went with..

5 lbs Vienna

1/2 lb flaked corn

1/2 lb crystal 80

1.5 oz of roast barley

1/2 oz each of willamette and Saaz @ 50

1/2 oz Saaz @ 15

I had some S-23 yeast here so I’ll use that. 

Why the flaked corn you ask? 

Well I’m trying to make an attempt at Dos XX. 

No recipe, just put in what I can see, smell and taste in it. (Might be a tad dark though.)

It’s been a while since I last brewed so starting at with out warning is a bit hectic.

But so far numbers are on and it’s looking good. 

Had a few beers from last couple brews while cookin and they sure seem undercarbbed. I’ll have to take a look at what’s going on. 

Sounds like another post though. 

 

With the winter coming some brewers pack the brewing equipment up for the season. I, how ever am the opposite. Winter is my favorite time to brew. Even more so now that I have been gravitating to electric.

I actually started electric brewing, just so that I could brew more often. The new set up was set up for 3 gallon batches. But now with several electric batches under my belt, plus the need to build something, I am feeling the need to go full 5 gallon electric batches.

It sounds like this means another money dump and a bunch more of things to buy. But when I think about it,, this is not the case.

I have decided to stay with the mash tun instead of the BiaB. (for no reason other than I am just used to my cooler mashing. BiaB is perfectly fine otherwise) So no extra equipment there At all.

I have finally gotten around to getting the counterflow chiller working, so again there is nothing extra to buy there.

The only place I need to spend a few bucks is on the actual boil kettle. But even here, all I need to do is build and install two more elements into my current 12.5 gallon kettle.

While using my 8 gallon kettle for the 3 gallon batches, I always felt like those two 1500 watt elements were a bit of over kill. So I upped to 4 gallon batches. This meant a boil volume of 6 gallons

 

I see almost no difference from the 5 gallon boil.

I see no reason why the two elements wont boil one more gallon just as well. But my small kettle wont handle a full 7 gallon boil. I will need to build the bigger one and hope it works. But I don’t see a problem. If there is, I think extra insulation would be enough to help it.

It’s been kegged and carbonating for a week now. So of course we need to be tasting it. 

If you have an IPA in your glass, you know it. This is not an IPA. (But then again, in today’s beer world it might very well be.) 

Everything was right on track the way I had intended it. Bitterness, taste, look, numbers,, but aroma failed. 

Very little aroma at all. But the beer it’s self is good.

But with the new Guidelines I think it fits squarely in British Strong Ale. 

Decent beer, just not how I expected the hops to react. But I do think the base beer is perfect. Work on the hopping.