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Recipe: Creature Comforts Classic City Lager
From the production team at Creature Comforts in Athens, Georgia, here’s a recipe for their clean, crisp, easy-drinking American lager that won gold at the 2022 Great American Beer Festival.
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For more on the process and thinking behind this recipe, see Ask the Pros: Brewing American Lager with Creature Comforts.
ALL-GRAIN
Batch size: 5 gallons (19 liters)
Brewhouse efficiency: 72%
OG: 1.040
FG: 1.009
IBUs: 21
ABV: 4.2%
[PAYWALL]
MALT/GRAIN BILL
7.1 lb (3.2 kg) Canada Malting Superior Pilsen
3 oz (85 g) soft red wheat flakes
3 oz (85 g) acidulated malt
HOPS SCHEDULE
2 oz (57 g) Saphir at whirlpool [14.5 IBUs]
0.3 oz (9 g) Hallertauer Blanc at whirlpool [6.5 IBUs]
YEAST
White Labs WLP833 German Bock Lager
DIRECTIONS
Mill the grains and mash at 156°F (69°C) for 60 minutes, then raise to 172°F (78°C) and mash out. Recirculate until the runnings are clear, then run off into the kettle. Sparge and top up as necessary to get about 6 gallons (23 liters) of wort, depending on your evaporation rate. Boil for 60 minutes. After the boil, do a whirlpool step: Stir or recirculate to create a vortex for 10 minutes, add the whirlpool hops, spin for 10 more minutes, then allow 30 minutes to steep. Chill to about 53°F (12°C), aerate the wort thoroughly, and pitch plenty of healthy yeast. Ferment at 53°F (12°C) for 24 hours, then raise to 55°F (13°C). Once the gravity has dropped to 1.024, raise the temperature 65°F (18°C) until fermentation is complete and gravity has stabilized (around Day 11). Crash, package, and carbonate to about 2.72 volumes of CO2.
BREWER’S NOTES
We have a neutral water profile, and we use salts to get about 150 ppm chloride, 50ppm gypsum. Use zinc for yeast nutrient. Our total hop load for this beer on our system is about 12 oz (340 g) per barrel (1.2 hl); this recipe includes a slight increase to account for homebrew-scale efficiencies.
