I am in need of suggestions, friends. I had to abandon a batch of pilsner because of bad scorching on my mash and boil that kept giving me an error mid-mash. I'm now out of pils malt, no LHBS, but i want to brew this weekend. The pils was to be my first lager, and the lager yeast is all I have. I'm not sure what I can do with what I have on hand, looking for any suggestions. Here's what I have: Base malt: rahr 2 row Specialty malts: Briess C60 Bairds carastan Mecca Grade Vienna Simpsons extra dark Crystal Carafa 2 special Briess chocolate malt Hops: Saaz Hallertau Perle Centennial Cascade El dorado Magnum Yeast: saflager 34/70 Thanks in advance
How much Vienna do you have? It is a base malt, not a specialty malt. I would be tempted to blend it with the two row and carafa to make something approaching a Vienna lager. Add more carafa, a little chocolate, and perhaps a smidgen of one of the crystals, and you could make a dark lager, maybe approaching a Schwarzbier. Since the German styles tend to use more characterful malts than two row, the amount of Vienna you can use probably determines whether this will turn out more like a German beer or an American version of German beer. Either way, I think you can make something tasty. German hops if you go with one of these ideas. Plan C. India Pale Lager, because you have those American hops
I only have 1/2lb of the Vienna. I was thinking along the same lines as IPL, especially since I've read that some folks have had good luck fermenting 34/70 at low ale temps
You could make a Steam Beer with what you've got. You could also pull a bock out of that. You could do a dark lager with just the 2-row and extra dark crystal. Plenty of options.
Thought of Steam Beer too, but figured someone would poo-poo it because he didn't have northern brewer hops. Now I get to be that guy. But it is all in a name. Essentially, this is what I was thinking when I suggested American lager ranging from pale to dark, with the German hops. In fact, the more I think about it, the more I would want to brew that beer, knowing there was only half a pound of Vienna to work with. Realistically, I think a half pound of Vienna is going to be lost in just about any beer style.
