Tasting Vienna Lager

John is quickly mastering the Vienna Lager style. His efforts have won him first place a couple times regionally in New England. This week, he received word that he won a second place award at the MCAB (Master Championship of Amateur Brewers). It’s a malty and robust brew to lead us out of the winter and into the spring.

Perfecting beer for competitions is about proactively reacting to score sheets. In previous competitions, John received comments that the malt seemed stale. He noted this issue in other beers too. To correct this problem, he was driven to getting a grain mill of his own. Previously, he had always ordered his grain online and asked for it to be pre-crushed. He also started buying his malt from retailers he felt had a higher turnover. That way, the malt would be fresher as well. Who knows if these two things really helped correct that issue, but a proactive approach in one area tends to amp up your approach in other areas.

This time around too, John pitched multiple vials of yeast due to time constraints for making a starter. I am convinced that this can work, but a little luck needs to be on your side. He likely had a couple really fresh vials which may have been delivered to the brew shop the day before. As always, YMMV with this technique, but getting to know how yeast is handled and delivered at your local homebrew shop is a critical path to success when choosing to go without a starter.

Interestingly, John turned this lager out to submit it to the competition in a two month time frame. Tasting the beer, it certainly will only improve with some bottle lagering but as is, it is great and the judges seemed to think so too.

Believe it or not, I have also made lagers in a two week time frame. They were very satisfying and clean quickly out of fermentation.

Did they get better with extending cold aging? Yes.

Tremendously so? No.

Again, this is an area that requires some care and effort on the part of the brewer. A good pitch of yeast and great temperature management throughout the ferment can push a lager process along even using standard lager fermentation and storage temps/processes. You don’t need to wait three months for your lager to be ready to drink. (On a side note, you could start brewing some lagers next month and be perfectly ready to drink them once the summer hits… if that’s your thing.)

Good lagers aren’t hard to achieve as long as you are careful, clean and pay attention to your yeast and fermentation.

Cheers
BREW ON!