Vienna Lager

[Techbrau]

Part of it is certainly my mash, because my attenuation limit is usually 80%. I ferment 13 liters at a time, usually pitching a 1.6 liter starter. I've aerated with both O2 and air, but never measured DO. I would like to get a meter.

There's just that characteristic fresh grain missing from the aroma and flavor. The one that makes you say "ahh!". It's like being in a field of grain. I don't get that from American beer, or my home brewed attempts at making German beer. I'm beginning to wonder if the compounds responsible for that are byproducts of fermentation, or possibly blocked, altered, or removed in some way via e.g. Binding to tannins or oxygen, being scrubbed away via co2, being compounds that form slowly as chemical compounds rearrange themselves during lagering, etc

Or possibly, is it a matter of ingredient freshness? Does the "fresh grain" flavor and aroma we are seeking only stay in the beer if you are brewing with very, very fresh malt? Fresher than we can get at home?

Another thought - if you don't need super fresh malt to get the fresh grain aroma and flavor, what causes it or removes it? I've been reading up on the first few chapters of Narziss' book to see if there's anything I can find that is common practice in German breweries that is done without thinking, that we don't do here. One thing that stuck out was degassing the mash water. Narziss says that all oxygen is removed from the water before mashing in. Assuming our mash water from the tap is fully saturated, heating it to mash temps brings it down to about 5ppm oxygen, which is still a lot. Narziss describes a few different oxidation reactions which can potentially take place in the mash in chapters 1 and 3, and I'm wondering if that contributes to the loss of the "fresh grain" flavor.

[Owenbräu]

I've made several batches with wlp860 using the Narziss cold fermentation profile with no issues. I do bump to 51F at a week and finish off with a 58F diacetyl rest.


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[Bryan R]