Recipe: Cruz Blanca Fade Away Red Corn Lager

“The pigment of the beer will change from a deep ruby to a blush-peach color after fermentation,” Sembrano says. “This is why we call it Fade Away. … The flavor of red corn is unlike any malt I have ever tasted. It is spicy and has a black-pepper finish to it, and an aroma of stone-ground grits. It provides a rich, full body to this lager.”

ALL-GRAIN

Batch size: 5 gallons (19 liters)
Brewhouse efficiency: 72%
OG: 1.057
FG: 1.012
IBUs: 20
ABV: 5.9%
[PAYWALL]

MALT/GRAIN BILL
9.1 lb (4.1 kg) Sugar Creek Bloody Butcher Malted Red Corn
2.3 lb (1 kg) Sugar Creek Pilsner
1.5 lb (680 g) Sugar Creek Rye Malt
1 lb (454 g) rice hulls

HOPS & ADDITIONS SCHEDULE
Beta-glucanase at mash (see Brewer’s Notes)
0.75 oz (21 g) Hallertauer Hersbrucker at 60 minutes [10 IBUs]
1.3 oz (37 g) Hallertauer Hersbrucker at 10 minutes [6 IBUs]
1 tablet Whirlfloc at 10 minutes
1 tsp (5 ml) yeast nutrient at 10 minutes
1.5 oz (43 g) Hallertauer Hersbrucker at whirlpool [4 IBUs]
Keg finings (see Directions)

YEAST
Omega OYL-113 Mexican Lager

DIRECTIONS
Mill the grains—for the pilsner and rye, use your usual gap setting, but for the red corn go for a very coarse grind (see below)—and mix in the rice hulls. Mash in at 152°F (67°C) and add beta-glucanase, stirring to get an even distribution of all ingredients. Mash at 152°F (67°C) for 1 hour. 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), depending on your evaporation rate. Boil for 60 minutes, adding hops, finings, and yeast nutrient according to the schedule. After the boil, do a whirlpool step: Stir or recirculate to create a vortex, cooling to 180°F (82°C) if possible; add whirlpool hops and steep 20 minutes. Chill to about 52°F (11°C), aerate well, and pitch plenty of healthy yeast. Ferment at 54°F (12°C). When the gravity has dropped to about 1.020 (5°P), raise the temperature to 58°F (14°C) for a diacetyl rest and hold for 4 days or until fermentation is complete. Lager for 2 weeks at 34°F (1°C) and add Biofine or other keg finings on the lower end of recommended usage rate. Lager for 1 more week. Package and carbonate to about 2.6 volumes of CO₂.

BREWER’S NOTES
Red corn: Sugar Creek is one of the few maltsters to offer malted red corn. If the corn is unmalted, you’ll want to do a cereal mash (see “Cereal Mashup,” beerandbrewing.com)—though the beer will be completely different. The Bloody Butcher malt is available on Sugar Creek’s website, sugarcreekmalt.com.
Milling: This is a challenging beer to mash. Based on experience, I’ve calculated that the extract of the red corn is about 60 percent when using our mill’s largest gap setting, cracking the kernel into several small pieces, exposing the inside while not creating too much flour—hence the rather large amount of malt for a 5-gallon (19-liter) batch. Vorlauf and run off slowly.
Gravity: Don’t be discouraged if you don’t hit the OG target—using this much corn can lead to lower-than-anticipated gravities. If you get the beer between 5–6% ABV, that’s an accomplishment. Just be sure to adjust hopping rates for your OG, as needed.
Water profile: We use a Munich helles water profile.
Beta-glucanase: We add this enzyme to the mash to help with lautering all that corn; we use a product called Bioglucanase, but there are others available. Be sure to follow the manufacturer instructions on how much to use.