So often in brewing I reach a point where I have a little bit of a variety of different ingredients. I had a bunch of munich and pilsner on hand but not enough to make anything for which I'd need a substantial amount of either of those. So I just threw a bunch of grains together: munich, dark munich, pilsner. And caramunich II and carafa iii for color.
I didn't intend to adhere to any specific style in brewing this beer, and in fact, I was deliberately avoiding a particular style. Nonetheless, it occurred to me later on that I had basically made another dunkel. This one is much lighter and less sweet, having a FG of 1.008.
It's a solid beer. Good color, good clarity and flavor.
This beer is the first one I've clarified with gelatin. I kegged it on July 11 and the next night I added 1/4 cup and about a teaspoon of gelatin to the keg. About 20 hours later -- obviously less than the recommended 24 hours -- I drew off a pint or two of yeasty clumpy beer and discarded it. From there on, the beer has cleared up quite well. I think I will use it on all pale or semi-pale lagers going forward. It seems to create clear beer much more quickly than my typical method, which is to let the keg sit in the fridge for awhile. But I can't resist drinking/sampling the beer, so the first half or 2/3 of the keg is cloudy and yeasty and not as good as the last 1/3, which is bright and delicious. But by then the beer is nearly gone.
I don't mind cloudy beer for pale ales and IPAs. The hops are so prominent that any protein or yeast in suspension is overridden. But I have found that lagers need to be clear in order to taste right. They need crispness that only comes from clear beer.
Flavor: caramel. Malt. Moderate sweetness. No hops. Lager tanginess and crispness.
Appearance: deep amber. Good clarity.
Overall: pretty solid beer for something that I just threw together. It's fairly dry, so it's quite drinkable on a hot day.
https://www.brewtoad.com/
On another note, I really wish there were more "craft" lagers available to purchase. Right now it seems mostly what you see is IPAs, stouts, and sours. I think lagers are quietly making a resurgence though. For example, Stone, of all breweries, just came out with a pilsner. More and more you'll see them on the shelves. They're really delicious beers and are quite underrated.
I think someone looking to get into commercial brewing could carve out a niche by specializing on lagers. Sure, there are some that already do that, but the vast majority focus on ales. Which leads to a lot of "sameness." After awhile, an IPA starts to taste the same everywhere you go. Make it pale and use popular fruit-forward hops. That's the current trend. You see that everywhere and they taste the same. But you just don't see lagers all that much. A nice helles somewhere? Rare. A Vienna lager? Nope. A dunkel? What? The world of lager is vast and overlooked; that needs to change.
Update: This beer looking (and tasting) really nice on a hot day: http://imgur.com/93tWVH7.
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