Radar Shadow - Amber Lager

After winning a silent auction for a year’s worth of Imperial yeast (only $60 for 12 packs) I was confronted with the dilemma of deciding which strains to use. Checking their list of available homebrew strains I saw they had a seasonal I wasn’t familiar with: Hygge. Hygge is a Danish word that reflects a lifestyle around coziness and comfort and unsurprisingly the strain is a Danish lager yeast (presumably from Carlsberg). The yeast’s description from Imperial is: “A northern European lager yeast famously used in Pilsner style beers that complement significant hop additions. Clean and crisp with a very light sulfur profile.” Having already made a number of pale lagers in the past year I didn’t really want to make another Pilsner but a significantly hopped lager with a little more malt character sounded nice.

This got me to thinking about my visit to the Carlsberg brewery and the red lager I had there: Tuborg Red. While I didn’t love the beer when I had it in May of 2016 the idea of a Danish red lager seemed intriguing and possible. Having a few pounds of characterful Vienna, Munich, and extra dark Munich on hand made me think that it might be nice to make a hoppy but also moderately malty red lager.

Trying to find information on Danish Red lagers as a starting reference point is almost impossible as every search seems to point to Figueroa Mountain’s Danish Red Lager, which is a Vienna Lager. Vienna Lager is probably in the realm of what I’m looking for but not exactly what I have in mind.

Looking for more examples of red/amber lagers to determine a good recipe led me to look at the BJCP defined “International Amber Lager” and “Czech Amber Lager” styles which are also in the ballpark of what I have in mind but flavored more with sweet/caramel tasting crystal malts instead of the toasty/malty Munich and Vienna character I’m desiring.

Searching further I discovered that in the 2021 version of the style guide kellerbier is listed as a historical style with new information I hadn’t previously seen or heard. This included that kellerbier originated from amber beers in Franconia, not the pale and hazy Helles and Pilsner versions I’m familiar with. Reading more about Franconian lagers I realized there are a wide range of styles and naming conventions in Franconia but that somewhere in this realm is probably close to the style I am looking for. I created a recipe for a red/amber that could sit somewhere between a Franconian Vollbier and Danish red lager (and maybe not that far off from a Vienna lager).

While picking up brewing supplies at Maryland Homebrew I discovered an expired pack of Jasper Yeast Franconian Lager and decided to pick it up to use for half the batch alongside the Hygge strain. While the planned brew day is more than a month after the yeast pack’s listed expiration date the high yeast count in Jasper Yeast packs, a large starter, and the fact that this is only being used for a small (~3 gallon) batch should mitigate any issues with underpitching.

Tasting Notes:

Aroma: Fairly strong aroma with malt dominating. Notes of bread crust and light chocolate cake, with subtle dark fruit and floral notes from the hops.

Appearance: Darker than intended, this one is probably a touch past deep amber and into lighter shades of brown. SRM is probably in the upper teens, quite a bit higher than the intended 14. It would probably look lighter if it was clearer but it has a noticeable, if fairly low, haze. Definitely could have used lagering after the re-fermentation. Head is small and off white but shows good retention and lacing.

Taste: Similar to the nose with moderate bready and sweet malt dominating. The floral and herbal hops are light but noticeable in the flavor and the finish is moderately bitter. Like the aroma there’s some subtle chocolate and dark fruit notes that show up more as it warms.

Mouthfeel: Medium bodied and with medium carbonation, this seems to be just right in both of these categories, allowing the malt to fill the mouth but also the hoppy bitterness to then wash away the sweetness.

Overall: I’ve thought a lot about this beer, both in designing and making it, cellaring and adjusting it, and tasting it over the past week. In the end the beer is much better than the diacetyl bomb it once was but I’m not sure it really works as an amber lager. I probably wanted this to be too many things, malty and sweet but also hoppy and refreshing, not too pale but not too dark in color, dry and quenchable but also full bodied. In some ways it does all of these but the end effect is somewhere between an overly sweet, dark, and malty Vienna lager and a slightly overhopped dunkel. While this fails to be the amber lager I hoped for, making a decently hoppy dunkel isn’t bad and I find myself happily drinking this beer, especially as an alternative to the other beers I have available. If I were to brew this again I would likely cut the amounts of dark Munich and midnight wheat by at least half, if not removing one or both entirely. I might also increase the hops, either with a late boil addition or a small dry hop. Doing these things should give more of an amber hue and give more of an even balance between the malt and hop flavors.

1/24/23: Created a 1.75 liter starter using 6 oz of dry malt extract. Added the Jasper Yeast Franconian lager pack and placed on stirplate.

1/26/23: Turned off the stirplate and put yeast starter in fridge to cold crash. It looks like I'm not the only one who thought of a red lager when hearing about Hygge as Basic Brewing released a podcast on developing amber lager recipes to use it in. This prompted me to do a little more searching for other recipes in this area and discovered that WLP850 Copenhagen Lager (seemingly White Labs version of this same strain) lists Amber Lager as a suggested style and Wyeast lists Amber Kellerbier as a recommendation for their Danish Lager strain. Maybe this is a good idea after all.

1/28/23: brewday

Mashed in with 3.5 gallons to hit 147F. After 25 minutes added 2 gallons nearly boiling water to reach 160F. After 35 minutes ran off first runnings and added .5 oz Perl’s hops. Added 3.5 more gallons of 180F sparge water to mash tun, then ran off second runnings and combined. Boiled for 75 minutes before adding immersion chiller, then another 5 before adding 1 oz Spalt Select and .5 oz Perle hops. 5 minutes later I added a tablet of Kick Carageenan then 5 minutes later cut the flame and started chilling. Chilled to just under 60F, transferred evenly to two separate 3 gallon carboys, pitched Imperial Hygge into one (“Dane”) and the decanted starter of Jasper Franconian into the other (“Frank”) and placed in chest freezer set to 50F. 

Both carboys looked very interesting with lots of what appeared to be protein, similar to a hot break or cold break. Hopefully this is just due to the carageenan tablet and the proteins settle out without any issues.

1/29/23: less than 24 hours after pitching both beers are showing signs of fermentation with decent sized krausens and airlock bubbling.

2/1/23: Fermentation seems to be slowing in both with the krausen starting to fall and very little airlock activity. I increased chest freezer temperature to 52F and plan to increase by a few more degrees over the next few days in order to cleanup any diacetyl.

2/2/23: Increased chest freezer temperature controller to 54F. Plan to leave at this temperature for at least a few days before doing a forced diacetyl test.

2/7/23: Increased temperature to 60F for a short diacetyl test, plan to decrease temperatures slowly after a few days. No diacetyl detected in sample but didn’t have time to do a forced diacetyl test and I need to get the chest freezer cold for serving beers on tap during the Super Bowl.

2/11/23: Lowered chest freezer temp 5F every 12 hours for the past few days to reach 45F for serving temp of kegerator.

2/12/23: Lowered to 30F for lagering. Planning on a quick lager before kegging if both are tasting ok.

2/17/23: Kegged each version separately. Dane version finished at 1.011 (77% attenuation) and is showing some diacetyl after kegging that I hadn’t noticed in a sample taken yesterday, will give it a little time to see if it’s enough of an issue for me to try to fix it or just enjoy it as is. Frank finished at 1.008 (83% attenuation) and doesn’t have any noticeable diacetyl at this point.

2/20/23: Both versions have strong diacetyl and were removed from the chest freezer to allow them to sit at room temperature for a second diacetyl rest. They will likely need extended time to clean up the diacetyl since there isn’t much yeast remaining in the kegs.

2/26/23: Still noticeable diacetyl in a sample, not terrible but not ideal. Added some of a mix of the two yeasts to both kegs along with a small sugar sample (~1 oz sugar to each keg). Hoping to kick the yeast back in to process the remaining diacetyl. Will probably rack remaining beer in both kegs into a single 5 gallon keg if the process works.

3/2/23: No noticeable diacetyl remaining in either, racked both into a single 5 gallon keg and set in chest freezer on pressure.

3/8/23: Tasting notes above. Discovered this useful information that might help explain why this beer looks darker than expected. https://www.brewingwithbriess.com/blog/predicting-beer-color-based-on-formulation/

4/16/23: this keg kicked. Pretty enjoyable beer and the flavors became more clean and cohesive and appearance had more clarity and slightly lighter color after the age. Would probably still reduce the hops or malts slightly if I rebrew but the most important thing seems to be patience.