Lager-like Blonde Ale

[Nadingo]

I want to use the Lutra Kveik yeast to nice lager-tasting ale for the summer. The recipe is below and I'm mainly looking for feedback on the hop selection/amount as well as the mash guidelines. I'm still fairly new to the homebrew process and 1.75 qt/lb seems a little dense, should I decrease the mash thickness to 1.25qt/lb?

Fermentables
6.15 lb Briess - Brewers Malt 2-Row 75%
2.05 lb Weyermann - Vienna Malt 25%
8.20 lbs

Hops
0.50 oz Yakima Chief Hops - Saaz Pellet 3.5 Boil at 212 °F 60 min 50%
0.50 oz Yakima Valley Hops - Hallertau (Mittelfruh) Pellet 3.6 Boil at 212 °F 15 min 50%
1 oz

Other Ingredients
Amount Name Cost Type Use Time
0.20 oz Orange Peel Flavor Boil 5 min.

Yeast
Omega Yeast Labs - Dried Lutra Kveik - OYL-071DRY

Mash Guidelines
Amount Description Type Start Temp Target Temp Time
3.6 gal Strike temp = 161°F | Target Temp = 154°F 60 min
Starting Mash Thickness: 1.75 qt/lb
Starting Grain Temp: 70 °F

Thanks in advance for any feedback!

 

[Zambi]

What is your ibu ending up as?
I like the hallertau/saaz combination.
Maybe bring the 60 minute addition forward to 30 minutes. I need to check my recipes to see what I've been doing.

The other much more knowledgable members will pitch in shortly

 

[The Brew Mentor]

Your mash ratio is fine but the 1.25 qts/lb. is most typical. BIAB brewers will use up to the full amount of water in their mash. The higher ratio you have will make your mash less dense, not more dense.
As far as hops go, what you picked are both noble hops and will go together well
I'd plug it into a calculator as at a quick glance it would seem to me that your IBUs for this style will be low.
Not sure why you picked the kveik yeast unless you have difficult to control high temperatures?
There are certainly cleaner strains.
Brew it up, I bet it'll be great!
Cheers,
Brian

 

[Nadingo]

Your mash ratio is fine but the 1.25 qts/lb. is most typical. BIAB brewers will use up to the full amount of water in their mash. The higher ratio you have will make your mash less dense, not more dense.
As far as hops go, what you picked are both noble hops and will go together well
I'd plug it into a calculator as at a quick glance it would seem to me that your IBUs for this style will be low.
Not sure why you picked the kveik yeast unless you have difficult to control high temperatures?
There are certainly cleaner strains.
Brew it up, I bet it'll be great!
Cheers,
Brian

I think I will have to go the BIAB route since I don't have an easy way to filter or sparge the grain out. For context I'm brewing in an old apartment with only a window unit for AC for my fermenting temp is always on the warmer side.
Thanks for the feedback!

 

[Zambi]

Nothing wrong with BIAB
What temperatures can you more or less maintain?
Just thinking that a saison might be a good way to go
Or, for Blonde, maybe M41 or M31?

 

[Craigerrr]

BIAB is a great way to make beer, and Kveik strains are perfect if you don't have temperature control. If anything they work better at higher Temps. I recently fermented VOSS at 33C, the result was great. @Zambezi Special actually suggested recently that 40C is also a good temperature!

 

[Nadingo]

What is your ibu ending up as?
I like the hallertau/saaz combination.
Maybe bring the 60 minute addition forward to 30 minutes. I need to check my recipes to see what I've been doing.

The other much more knowledgable members will pitch in shortly

I increased the Saaz to 0.7 oz and the IBU is coming up at 14.9

 

[Zambi]

A lot of my beers are like that, maybe just a little higher. (mainly between 15 to 25)
Should suit the style
Good luck

 

[miaamelia]

I want to use the Lutra Kveik yeast to nice lager-tasting ale for the summer. The recipe is below and I'm mainly looking for feedback on the hop selection/amount as well as the mash guidelines. I'm still fairly new to the homebrew process and 1.75 qt/lb seems a little dense, should I decrease the mash thickness to 1.25qt/lb?

Fermentables
6.15 lb Briess - Brewers Malt 2-Row 75%
2.05 lb Weyermann - Vienna Malt 25%
8.20 lbs

Hops
0.50 oz Yakima Chief Hops - Saaz Pellet 3.5 Boil at 212 °F 60 min 50%
0.50 oz Yakima Valley Hops - Hallertau (Mittelfruh) Pellet 3.6 Boil at 212 °F 15 min 50%
1 oz

Other Ingredients
Amount Name Cost Type Use Time
0.20 oz Orange Peel Flavor Boil 5 min.

Yeast
Omega Yeast Labs - Dried Lutra Kveik - OYL-071DRY
minecraft triforce banner
Mash Guidelines
Amount Description Type Start Temp Target Temp Time
3.6 gal Strike temp = 161°F | Target Temp = 154°F 60 min
Starting Mash Thickness: 1.75 qt/lb
Starting Grain Temp: 70 °F

Thanks in advance for any feedback!

I'm just starting off on the road to brewing my first beer. I'm not set up for lagering yet and I'm warned away from trying it as my first attempt. I'm told I must get used to brewing ales first and then I can work towards lagering with a fermenting fridge set up. Trouble is....I don't particularly like ale. I like lagers, I like pilsners.

So, can anyone recommend a kit for a lager-type ale or pseudo lager than I can brew without any kind of temperature control?

 

[The Brew Mentor]

You can brew a Lager, but it won't be as malty or clean.
34/70 works well at somewhat warmer temperatures so I'd work with that.
Also, have you looked into using a swamp cooler with frozen water bottles added to keep the water jacket cool? That's actually not to hard to achieve and the setup is cheap.
Good luck with whatever you choose to do.

 

[Donoroto]

I increased the Saaz to 0.7 oz and the IBU is coming up at 14.9

A pils is normally more bitter than that, but not by a whole lot. If you get hops by the ounce, put in the whole thing.

Lagers are not more effort, but their clean crisp character are mostly due to cold fermenting temperatures, like 55 F. Warmer will still make beer, but it will have some ale-like characteristics, such as a bit of haze and a 'murkier' mouth feel. Not bad, mind you, just not budweiser.

The other key to lagers, aside from ferm temperature, is time. Everything moves slower, so patience is needed. A week or so fermenting, and a month or two just 'sitting'. It does no harm to ferment for 2 or 3 weeks, or sitting for several months.

 

[Sandy Feet]

Specifically, what kind of temperatures? That will give you your yeast choices.
If you are going BIAB, make sure you have a big enough kettle. A 10-gallon kettle is too small for 5-gallon batches. Nothing wrong with that hop combination, but my personal taste would be in the upper 20s or possibly 30 for IBUs, but again, my taste, not yours.
Another simple idea: Pilsner or 2-Row malt, 1/2 lb Crystal 40, and 1/2 White Wheat (basic Pale Ale). You can pick hops based on what kind of character you want.
A lager is brewed with lager yeast. If you want something clean and an Ale and can keep temps in the upper 60s to right around 70, S-05 will ferment clean.
You can make your own kit with BIAB. Go to the brew store or order online. The brew store combines all the grain in one bag for me and keeps my yeast cold until I pick it up. Just make sure your grain gets milled.

 

[Nadingo]

A pils is normally more bitter than that, but not by a whole lot. If you get hops by the ounce, put in the whole thing.

Lagers are not more effort, but their clean crisp character are mostly due to cold fermenting temperatures, like 55 F. Warmer will still make beer, but it will have some ale-like characteristics, such as a bit of haze and a 'murkier' mouth feel. Not bad, mind you, just not budweiser.

The other key to lagers, aside from ferm temperature, is time. Everything moves slower, so patience is needed. A week or so fermenting, and a month or two just 'sitting'. It does no harm to ferment for 2 or 3 weeks, or sitting for several months.

I might do that just so I don't have extra hops lying around but I generally prefer my beers on the less bitter side. I'm definitely not an IPA person so for my tastes 15-20 IBUs is the sweet spot. I plan on cold conditioning and bottle conditioning for at least two months, the plan is to share the brews for a memorial day party. Cheers!

 

[Nadingo]

Specifically, what kind of temperatures? That will give you your yeast choices.
If you are going BIAB, make sure you have a big enough kettle. A 10-gallon kettle is too small for 5-gallon batches. Nothing wrong with that hop combination, but my personal taste would be in the upper 20s or possibly 30 for IBUs, but again, my taste, not yours.
Another simple idea: Pilsner or 2-Row malt, 1/2 lb Crystal 40, and 1/2 White Wheat (basic Pale Ale). You can pick hops based on what kind of character you want.
A lager is brewed with lager yeast. If you want something clean and an Ale and can keep temps in the upper 60s to right around 70, S-05 will ferment clean.
You can make your own kit with BIAB. Go to the brew store or order online. The brew store combines all the grain in one bag for me and keeps my yeast cold until I pick it up. Just make sure your grain gets milled.

Realistically I can only ferment in my bedroom closet but my bedroom doesn't have any climate control so if it's hot outside then my bedroom is also hot and vice versa. My local homebrew store recommended the lutra kveik and suggested to pitch it in the upper 70's or even 80's if possible. Supposedly an ale yeast that produces lager-like beer and I'm excited to try it out

 

[GFHomebrew]

Realistically I can only ferment in my bedroom closet but my bedroom doesn't have any climate control so if it's hot outside then my bedroom is also hot and vice versa. My local homebrew store recommended the lutra kveik and suggested to pitch it in the upper 70's or even 80's if possible. Supposedly an ale yeast that produces lager-like beer and I'm excited to try it out

Kviek yeast are very forgiving I'd go with Lutra.

 

[Sandy Feet]

Once you get your process down, Belgian yeasts and Hefe yeasts can also go warmer. If you ever get to that point, make sure you have a blow off tube for those yeasts.