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Recipe: Elder Piper Rustic Amber Lager
An important piece of this old-fashioned lager’s puzzle is the Swiss-style lager yeast, which Elder Piper cofounder and brewer Trace Redmond says provides floral notes that accentuate the hops.
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From Elder Piper Beer & Cider in Petoskey, Michigan, here’s a recipe for an amber lager that they brewed in collaboration with their lager-centric friends at Silver Spruce Brewing in Traverse City.
“Even though this is a malty lager,” says Elder Piper cofounder and brewer Trace Redmond, “the bitterness, minerality, and yeast choice favor a floral hop aroma and crisp bitterness that nicely balance the malt.”
Also known as the Hürlimann strain, that yeast strain comes from Zurich’s Brauerei Hürlimann, original home of the Samichlaus strong lager (14 percent ABV). The strain is known among brewers for a couple of unusual traits: its ability to resist higher alcohol and its subtle floral-herbal notes. Yet its mysteries run deeper: White Labs reports that its version is STA1-positive—in other words, it’s a diastatic lager strain. Fermentis reports that its version—SafLager S-189—is not STA1-positive. (Notably, Hürlimann worked with multiple lager yeasts.)
ALL-GRAIN
Batch size: 5 gallons (19 liters)
Brewhouse efficiency: 72%
OG: 1.053 (13°P)
FG: 1.011 (2.9°P)
IBUs: 34
ABV: 5.4%
From Elder Piper Beer & Cider in Petoskey, Michigan, here’s a recipe for an amber lager that they brewed in collaboration with their lager-centric friends at Silver Spruce Brewing in Traverse City.
“Even though this is a malty lager,” says Elder Piper cofounder and brewer Trace Redmond, “the bitterness, minerality, and yeast choice favor a floral hop aroma and crisp bitterness that nicely balance the malt.”
Also known as the Hürlimann strain, that yeast strain comes from Zurich’s Brauerei Hürlimann, original home of the Samichlaus strong lager (14 percent ABV). The strain is known among brewers for a couple of unusual traits: its ability to resist higher alcohol and its subtle floral-herbal notes. Yet its mysteries run deeper: White Labs reports that its version is STA1-positive—in other words, it’s a diastatic lager strain. Fermentis reports that its version—SafLager S-189—is not STA1-positive. (Notably, Hürlimann worked with multiple lager yeasts.)
ALL-GRAIN
Batch size: 5 gallons (19 liters)
Brewhouse efficiency: 72%
OG: 1.053 (13°P)
FG: 1.011 (2.9°P)
IBUs: 34
ABV: 5.4%
[PAYWALL]
MALT/GRAIN BILL
3.9 lb (1.8 kg) Weyermann Pilsner
3.9 lb (1.8 kg) Weyermann Munich I
1.2 lb (544 g) Weyermann Caramunich I
12 oz (340 g) Great Lakes Malted Triticale
HOPS & ADDITIONS SCHEDULE
0.45 oz (13 g) Hallertauer Magnum at 60 minutes [21 IBUs]
0.7 oz (20 g) Spalt Spalter at 30 minutes [6.5 IBUs]
Yeast nutrient at 20 minutes
1 tablet Whirlfloc at 20 minutes
1.7 g (48 g) Spalt Spalter at whirlpool [6.5 IBUs]
YEAST
Fermentis SafLager S-189 or White Labs WLP885 Zurich Lager
DIRECTIONS
Mill the grains and mash at 148°F (64°C) for 30 minutes. 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 75 minutes, adding hops according to the schedule. After the boil, chill to about 50°F (10°C), aerate the wort, and pitch the yeast. Ferment at 50°F (10°C) until fermentation is about two-thirds complete—when the gravity is about 1.025 (6.3°P)—then raise the temperature to 57°F (14°C) for a diacetyl rest. Once the beer has passed a VDK test, crash and lager for 10–14 days. Package and carbonate to 2.6 volumes of CO2—or top up the carbonation, as needed, if you used a spunding valve. We serve our version unfiltered, like a kellerbier. Enjoy!
BREWER’S NOTES
Mash: That mash time will sound short to homebrewers, but our recirculation adds another 30 minutes. If you’re not sure, you can extend your mash time or do an iodine test for conversion.
Water and pH: Starting with reverse-osmosis (RO) water, we add calcium sulfate and calcium chloride, targeting a 2:1 sulfate-to-chloride ratio. We target a mash pH of 5.3, keeping the runnings below 5.8 pH, and adjust for 5.1–5.2 pH at the start of boil.
Yeast: We target 15 ppm oxygen in the wort, and we pitch 1.5 million cells/ml/°P. We prefer a bit of sulfur character in our lagers, to accentuate the hops and bitterness. We use low temperatures and reduced oxygen to stress the yeast into producing low levels of hydrogen sulfide. If your sulfur levels are too high, increase the fermentation temperature during the first few days of fermentation.
Spunding: If possible, add a spunding valve toward the end of fermentation, to naturally carbonate the beer. We do this around 1–2°P above target, or 1.015–1.019 (3.9–4.9°P).