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Cafe Vienna Lager
Author Scott Russell
Issue January 1997
Online Date Monday, 02 July 2001

(5 gallons, partial mash)

Ingredients:

  • 1 lb. Vienna malt
  • 0.5 lb. dark Munich malt, 10° to 12° Lovibond
  • 0.25 lb. malted wheat
  • 1 lb. lager malt
  • 4 lbs. unhopped amber malt extract syrup
  • 1 oz. Perle hop pellets, for 60 min.
  • 0.5 oz. Hallertauer hop pellets, for 20 min.
  • 0.5 oz. Spalt pellets, for 20 min.
  • 0.125 lb. coarsely cracked (not ground) light-roast coffee beans
  • 1 broken cinnamon stick
  • 14 g. dry lager yeast or liquid culture
  • 3/4 cup corn syrup

Step by Step:

Heat 1.5 gals. of water to 132° F, crack and mix in malts and malted wheat. The mash should settle at 121° F. Hold 30 minutes, then remove 3 qts. of liquid from the mash and boil it 15 minutes. Stir heated mash back into the mash tun. This should raise the whole mash to 137° F or so. Hold another 30 minutes, then remove 3 qts. again and bring to a boil. Boil this 15 minutes, add it back to the mash tun, raising the whole to about 152° F. Hold here for 60 minutes, then lauter and sparge with 2 gals. of 168° F water. To this runoff (about 3 gals.) add extract syrup and bring to a boil. Add Perle hop pellets, boil 40 minutes. Add Hallertauer and Spalt pellets, boil 20 minutes.

Remove from heat, set in ice water to cool, and add coffee beans and cinnamon stick. Steep at least 15 minutes, then chill and top off to 5.25 gals. with pre-boiled chilled water. At 75° F pitch dry lager yeast or a liquid culture (I've had great luck in this recipe with Wyeast 2308 Munich). Seal and ferment for two days at 65° to 70° F, then place in a cooler (50° to 55° F) for a week. Rack to secondary and, if possible, place in a cold place (40° F or below) for three to six more weeks. (Otherwise, maintain at 50° F for three or four weeks.) Prime with corn sugar and bottle. Age cold (40° to 50° F) six to eight weeks, space permitting.

Notes:

Experienced decoction mashers will probably laugh at this primitive partial-decoction-mash recipe. I know it is not quite a usual triple decoction, but it seems to work for this recipe. If you have a better all-grain Vienna recipe, go with it. If you are going to mash at all for this recipe, I strongly encourage you to try it as a decoction, if only for the lovely color you can produce by boiling the mash.

Extract brewers who can't even partial mash, don't worry; an additional pound of amber dry malt extract will give you enough body and fermentables to make this work. I would suggest steeping some cracked Munich (see mash recipe) in your brewing water before you add the extracts, for color and grain aroma.

Dark-roasted coffee should be avoided, because it will darken the beer. You want to give a hint of coffee and cinnamon, not make them the dominant flavors, so don't steep them in the cooling wort too long, but just long enough to give some brownish color and coffee-cinnamon aroma.

Send YOUR favorite recipe to: Recipe Exchange, 5053 Main Street, Suite A, Manchester Center, Vermont 05255 OR e-mail it to: edit@byo.com, Subject: Recipe Submissions. If we publish it, we'll send you a cool BYO gift.


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